In midst of late-season slide, Washington State eyes enthusiasm-boosting sweep of rival Washington
PULLMAN – Washington State has a chance to restore enthusiasm, if nothing else.
The Cougars are in the midst of a demoralizing late-season slide, and their hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament have deflated.
But if all goes well this week, they’ll raise the spirits in Pullman markedly.
There isn’t much the Cougars enjoy more than beating the Washington Huskies. Twice in one week? That’d be something to celebrate.
WSU (14-12, 7-8 Pac-12) hosts its in-state rivals at 8 p.m. Wednesday before paying a visit to Hec Edmundson Pavilion in Seattle for a 3 p.m. tipoff Saturday.
“I’m still an optimist in the sense … yeah, we’re running out of games, but there are still opportunities here,” coach Kyle Smith said Tuesday during his weekly news conference.
WSU’s losing streak stretched to five games Sunday, when it suffered a buzzer-beating defeat at No. 17 USC. The Huskies (13-12, 8-7) have dropped four of their past five, all by double digits. The Evergreen State foes both have slipped recently in the conference standings. UW sits at sixth and WSU occupies eighth. Topping the Huskies wouldn’t do much for the Cougs’ postseason resume.
For the most part, Smith was pleased with his team’s performance against the Trojans.
“We outplayed them for 30 minutes,” he said. “That’s a harder thing to do than to execute down the stretch and get that thing home, if that makes sense.
“A lot of times, you’ll see a (young) team that never gets the lead in the second half, never has that opportunity. We’ve had it and we’ve gotta find a way to break through.”
WSU has its most talented and competitive team in about a decade, and the Cougars have shown flashes of their potential and a high level of play that at times rivals the top teams’ in the Pac-12. But they don’t often sustain it, resulting in six one-possession losses and vanishing postseason aspirations.
“It hurts, but you’ve got to remind them there’s a lot that goes into putting yourself in that situation,” the third-year coach added. “We’re better at a lot of things. We haven’t been good at winning close games. I think it’s part of the process.”
The Cougars shook off a blowout loss to UCLA – in which they shot a season-worst 28.3% from the floor – and drained a season-high 15 of their 31 attempts from downtown against USC. They played tight defense throughout the night and outworked the Trojans on the glass. But WSU couldn’t buy a bucket inside the arc, shooting 17% , and its momentum waned down the stretch.
“It was a really good effort, physically,” Smith said. “Mentally, we had some breakdowns late. It would’ve been a really nice win. Didn’t happen, but it was a better effort than we had against UCLA. Now we’re back home, got our rival coming in and hopefully we can build on it. We gotta get a win.”
WSU is 3-1 against UW in the Smith era, the lone loss coming last February in Pullman on a last-second floater. According to ESPN’s matchup predictor, the Cougars are healthy favorites versus the Huskies this year. WSU entered the week at 48th in the NCAA NET rankings, while UW came in at 135th.
The first leg of the Apple Cup series had been originally slated for Dec. 29 at Beasley Coliseum but was pushed back due to COVID-19 issues in WSU’s program.
“It’s a little weird, puts a little pressure on us,” Smith said when asked about the challenge of playing back-to-back rivalry games. “Win or lose, you’ve got to turn around and play that team again. It’s like in tennis – we’ve got first serve.”
The Huskies got off to a discouraging start this season, absorbing upset losses in nonconference play to Northern Illinois, Nevada, Winthrop and Utah Valley. Powered by super-scoring grad transfer guard Terrell Brown Jr., they rallied and climbed back into the postseason conversation, tallying seven wins in their first 10 Pac-12 contests.
Brown – a first-year Husky who previously played for Arizona, Seattle U and Shoreline Community College – is the conference’s top scorer at 21.8 points per game. Known for penetration plays, Brown has made only 10 3-pointers this season.
“He transferred twice and we tried to get him twice,” Smith said. “He’s such an efficient player. … We gotta have a lot of different looks for him. He’s too smart of a player. If he’s not an NBA player, boy, he’s really close.”
The supporting cast has been the issue for UW’s offense, which ranks 11th in efficiency rating among Pac-12 outfits. The Huskies are seventh in per-game scoring in the conference (69.9 ppg) but bottom three in almost every other offensive stat category.
WSU’s offense is slightly more efficient but significantly more balanced, featuring three double-digit scorers. The Cougars pace the conference in offensive rebounds (12.6 per game) and 3s made (236 of 703) on 33.6% from deep – good for sixth in the Pac-12.
The Huskies and Cougars are the Pac 12’s top two turnover-forcing teams, but sit at opposite sides of the conference standings in multiple other defensive columns. WSU boasts the conference’s top scoring defense, while UW ranks 11th.
Williams rising; Abogidi slumping
WSU junior guard Noah Williams, a Seattle native out of O’Dea High, is providing crucial points lately.
The timing couldn’t have been better.
Williams registered a combined 38 points on 13-of-36 shooting over his past three games.
He relishes facing the Huskies and always shows up in the rivalry series. Williams has produced 58 points (15 of 41), 25 rebounds, 14 assists and seven steals over four games against his hometown school. He spearheaded a couple of WSU’s victories.
“Noah’s maturing (offensively),” Smith said. “He’s always going to be juiced and we expect nothing less. He’ll lay his heart out there and he’ll compete to win. … Going back home, he’s an excitable guy and plays with his heart on his sleeve.” He’ll certainly be juiced. We’ll try to temper it, but I think he pulls some guys with him, gets them pretty excited.”
Williams will presumably be tasked with covering Brown.
TJ Bamba, the Cougars’ most effective perimeter defender, has missed the past two games with a knee injury. Smith said the sophomore is questionable to play Wednesday and will “most likely” suit up Saturday.
“(Bamba) is a guy who can match up strength-wise and quickness-wise (with Brown),” Smith said. “If we had him for a little bit, that’d help. Noah isn’t as strong, but he has good size and quickness. He can do a good job there.”
Efe Abogidi, the sophomore big man from Nigeria, has been held scoreless in three of WSU’s past four games. In that stretch, he is 2 of 17 from the field. Smith said Abogidi’s downswing in production might be attributed to a lingering knee injury, which limited him in the preseason, but the coach isn’t certain.
“I can’t put my finger on it to be honest,” he said. “Efe’s had the same approach … but he’s the kind of guy who, that knee could be bothering him, but he’s not going to make a fuss out of it.”
Fellow starting post Mouhamed Gueye, a 6-11 rookie out of Senegal, played just eight minutes and didn’t score against USC. Smith could sense some fatigue in Gueye, so he stuck with big-bodied center Dishon Jackson to combat the Trojans’ size and leaned on hard-nosed forwards Andrej Jakimovski and DJ Rodman to compete on the glass.
Jackson had three blocks and made USC toil inside for every basket during his return after missing 10 games with an eye injury. Jackson will help take on UW post Nate Roberts (6-11, 265 pounds).