Cougs to return to out-of-conference play against Northern Kentucky
After tough first foray into the Pac-12, Cougs look to regroup
WSU forward Mouhamed Gueye drives toward the hoop during an NCAA men’s basketball game against Utah, Dec. 4.
December 7, 2022
WSU men’s basketball will host the Northern Kentucky Norse on Wednesday after losing to Oregon and Utah.
The Cougs are heading back out of the conference with a 3-4 record on the season. While the Oregon loss was not close, the Utah loss was a heartbreaker in overtime that was made particularly sour by WSU’s 13.3% three-point shooting.
The Cougs have been crippled by injuries over the opening stretch of the season. After Jabe Mullins started shooting at one of the top clips in the country, he went down with an injury. As the Cougs prepared to play the biggest team in the country, Utah, 7-footer Adrame Diongue was sidelined with this year’s Pullman winter sickness that I can personally attest to the severity of.
The Northern Kentucky game will be no different, as Mullins and Andrej Jakimovski should still be out. The Cougs are down to eight scholarship players but Northern Kentucky is the level of opponent that WSU needs to be able to beat if they want to be a serious team, even when struck by injury.
Northern Kentucky is 5-4 in the Horizon League and has played no Power Six opponents so far in the season. While they have had a good showing on offense and defense, they are still the 251st offense and 186th defense in the country. For reference, WSU has the 96th offense and 61st defense and they have played much stronger competition.
After playing the Norse at home the Cougs will go back on the road for a long trip. Four away games over the course of two weeks, all out of conference, will give the Cougs time to retool before returning home on Dec. 30 against UCLA.
One of those out-of-conference games will be a matchup with the current No. 12 team Baylor. That game will be one of the biggest litmus tests of the season for how the Cougs will play tough opponents from outside the Pac, which will be a good preview of what a potential tournament run could look like for the Cougs.
Most importantly though, the Cougs must beat whoever is in front of them every game.
They will attempt to do that at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Beasley Coliseum. Fans can watch on Pac-12 Network.
