‘Maybe we have something going here’: Seventh-seeded Washington State opens Pac-12 Tournament with momentum
LAS VEGAS – Last season, a team from the middle of the pack caught fire at the right time and made a surprise run through the Pac-12 Tournament.
Ahead of this year’s conference tourney, Washington State has been heating up.
The seventh-seeded Cougars (18-13) open postseason play at 6 p.m. Wednesday against No. 10 seed Cal at T-Mobile Arena.
“Watching it last year, we talked about it a lot: how thin the margins are,” WSU coach Kyle Smith said of the 2021 conference tournament, which ended with fifth-seeded Oregon State as the unexpected champion.
“We could have been (competitive) in it last year. We were a little off that, but maybe we have something going here.”
WSU enters the postseason toting momentum after sweeping OSU last week and capping its regular season with a complete performance in a rout of Oregon on Saturday in Pullman. The Cougars secured their best conference record in 14 years with their win over the Ducks.
“I feel like we’re playing better,” Smith said. “Especially coming off the Oregon game, I’ll be excited to see how we do.”
The Cougars went 2-0 versus the Golden Bears (12-19) this season, pulling away for a 65-57 decision at home Jan. 15 and closing out a 68-64 victory in the clutch on Feb. 5 in Berkeley.
In both those meetings, WSU played without 6-foot-10 center Dishon Jackson, who was sidelined with an eye injury. The bruising sophomore returned to the court late last month and has supplied the Cougars a formidable presence in the paint over the past six games.
“They’re a strong, physical team,” Smith said of Cal, “so having Dishon – with his size, length, weight, width – will help us. You just gotta keep (7-1 Cal center Lars Thiemann) off the glass, because he’s relentless.
“We gotta be really tough. … They’re good defensively, have strong bigs. We better bring a good effort.”
Apparently, one of WSU’s big men won’t be at full strength. Standout freshman Mouhamed Gueye was pictured walking with crutches on a Snapchat story uploaded Monday by Jackson. Smith didn’t provide a definitive answer when asked about Gueye’s status for Wednesday.
“I think he’s ready to go,” the coach said. “I don’t know. I don’t really have an update. … He just rolled (his ankle) a little bit. He’ll be fine.”
Gueye sustained an ankle injury in WSU’s loss to Arizona on Feb. 10 but didn’t miss any games and performed admirably down the stretch this year.
The native of Senegal earned a Pac-12 All-Freshman team nod Tuesday. He’d made a strong case for the freshman of the year award, but Stanford’s Harrison Ingram edged him out.
“I think that was a coin flip,” Smith said. “If there was a case for Mouhamed, I just think he’s an elite defender. Not to say Harrison’s not a good defender, but I just think Mo’s pretty elite there with his size, length and understanding. … I think co-freshman of the year would have been probably the right answer, but it doesn’t work that way.”
Grad transfer point guard Michael Flowers earned second-team all-conference recognition. The Cougars captain, tabbed by Smith as the heart of the team, led WSU in scoring (14.2 ppg) and assists (3.4) in his first and only season in crimson and gray.
“To be considered one of the top-15 players in the league in one year is amazing – and deserved, just statistically and with what he’s meant for our program,” Smith said. “I was looking at it, thought he was going to get first team, but it was close. There’s good players in the league.”
Sophomore post Efe Abogidi took home an honorable mention all-defensive team accolade after finishing second in the Pac-12 with 53 blocks.
The Arizona Wildcats, ranked No. 2 in the latest AP Top 25 poll and widely favored to claim the Pac-12 title, raked in the postseason honors. Head coach Tommy Lloyd, the former longtime Gonzaga assistant, claimed coach of the year after guiding Arizona to a 28-3 record. Guard Bennedict Mathurin was named player of the year and post Christian Koloko collected defensive player of the year and most improved player.
WSU and Arizona are on opposite sides of the bracket. Should the Cougars top Cal, they’ll meet No. 13 UCLA on Thursday.
“You just know there are going to be good teams and you just want to advance at this time of the year,” Smith said. “It’s just a quick turnaround.”
If WSU prevails Wednesday, it’ll mark the program’s second conference tournament win since 2009. The Cougars thumped Colorado in the 2020 tourney under Smith, then in his first year at the helm. A day later, the tournament was canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ninth-seeded WSU lost a tight game against Arizona State in the first round last season, then watched as underdog OSU, a .500 team in conference play, pulled off a surprising tournament championship and joined two other Pac-12 teams in the Elite Eight.
WSU’s hoping to fashion a magical run of its own. But if the Cougars fall, they’ll be glad to accept a bid to the NIT. According to multiple college hoops publications, WSU has firmly locked up a berth to the second-most prominent NCAA postseason event.
“I’d be tickled if we didn’t win this tournament, that we’d be in there (the NIT),” Smith said. “Hopefully, we do.”
Smith on tourney seeds, NET rankings
The Cougars finished the season in a three-way tie for fifth in the Pac-12 along with Washington and Oregon, but got the lowest seed because of a convoluted tiebreaker system. UO is the No. 5 seed by virtue of two wins over the Bruins and UW is sixth because of its winning percentage versus Arizona State – the Huskies went 1-0 against the Sun Devils while the Cougars were 1-1.
“Why are there NET rankings if we’re not going to use them?” Smith said. WSU is 58th in the NET, ahead of both Oregon (74th) and Washington (118th). “If you have these kinds of tiebreakers – we didn’t play the same team the same number of times and they played them at home – that seems like a (poor) way to sort it out. … (The NCAA) emphasized strength of schedule and getting a good NET ranking. Well, if we’re going to do that, let’s utilize it.”