High-scoring Cougar DaVonte Lacy gears up for one last shot

SAN FRANCISCO – DaVonte Lacy’s Farewell Tour began in front of rows of reporters at Pac-12 Network Studios, who gave the Pac-12’s best scorer a laugh when he compared his nascent post game to Shaq’s and then retired to the rooftop for tri-tip sandwiches and Brie.

The upcoming season will be about new beginnings for the Cougars but last chances for their senior star, who is running out on time for lofty goals that would typically be mundane expectations for a player of his caliber.

“More than anything, I just want to win,’ Lacy said while downing a sports drink that was part of his table’s aesthetic arrangement and meant to be seen, not sipped during the Pac-12’s always extravagant media day for men’s basketball. “It’s my last year and I really want to experience the tournament. I really want to experience these things that come along with winning.

“If that means taking a back seat to someone like (teammate) Que (Johnson) and letting him be the man, then I will, but will it benefit the team? I’m always about benefiting the team.”

It’s highly unlikely that Lacy taking a back seat to anyone will help the team. He averaged 19.4 points last season on the conference’s least-effective offensive team, playing through injury and illness the second half of the season.

Lacy’s appendix burst shortly before Pac-12 play last season and broke a rib in his first game back. As a sophomore he missed six games with separate knee injuries, and all that missed time only adds to the senior’s sense of urgency to accomplish something real this year.

He said he feels great now, in part because new strength and condition coach Scott Thom has made a point of strengthening the muscles around Lacy’s injuries. Also, new head coach Ernie Kent has allowed Lacy to press a reset button on a career in which his team has taken a step back each season.

“The love for the game is back, because it’s tough to lose so much,” Lacy said.

Kent knows he’s lucky to have a player that he believes will play in the NBA despite taking over a team that won just 10 games last season. Kent’s most successful years as the WSU head coach are likely down the road, but he feels a responsibility to send Lacy out on a good note.

“Not just because of the basketball side, but just because in this day and age with young people and their entitlement issues they tend to want to transfer and leave and go other places,” Kent said. “Here’s somebody who, in the thick of all this adversity, stayed to not only weather the adversity, but he’s been a leader. That’s why you want him to have success this season.”

Even without bracket-busting wins and shining moments, Lacy has had some spectacular moments in college. This last summer he played in China with the Pac-12 All-Stars and was the most heavily featured player in the Pac-12’s documentary about the trip, “Ambassadors of the Game,” which premiered on the Pac-12 Networks Thursday night and will re-air throughout the season.

But so far the fancy food and frills at the annual gathering of the conference’s coaches and players is the closest one of college basketball’s hidden gems has been to the uncapped pageantry of truly meaningful postseason basketball. He has one more chance to change that.