WSU men’s basketball (12-5, 3-3 Pac-12) played one away and one at home over last week. They won both, putting them on the map in a way they had not been yet this season.

First up was USC (8-8, 2-4 Pac-12) in Los Angeles, which the Cougs took by a final score of 72-64

The Cougs used two previously-unseen starting lineups in these two games. The USC matchup saw Isaac Jones ride the bench and Jaylen Wells take his place.

Many have had this matchup circled on their calendars for a while for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, DJ Rodman. Rodman played four years as a Coug, graduating from WSU’s Murrow College of Communication and declaring his intention to stay and play a graduate year on senior night.

That did not happen, and Rodman instead entered the portal and is playing a graduate year at USC. While his return to Pullman will be the big story, it was still significant to play him and his new team in their stadium.

Secondly, Bronny James plays for USC. With the Lakers having the night off, his father LeBron James attended the game. While younger James is still working his way to being an impact player, he draws attention by name alone.

It was back and forth all game, with the Cougs holding only a one-point lead at halftime. The second half was much of the same, but that changed in crunch time. With 2:16 left in the game, USC’s Harrison Hornery hit a three to give the Trojans a 64-63 lead.

Down one with limited time left, a collapse would have been easy, perhaps even expected. The Cougs, however, met the challenge with their best scoring outburst of the game.

Immediately driving to the rim was Jones, who scored and drew the foul. He hit his free throw, and after rebounding a Rodman miss he scored another layup to make it five straight for both himself and the Cougs.

With a four-point lead, the Cougs were able to close the rest of the game out on free throws.

Jones finished with a game-leading 26 points and 11 rebounds. While he did not start, he was second on the team in minutes with 35.

First on the team in minutes was Wells, who earned himself 39 minutes by hitting three of six 3-pointers and 17 points overall. His defense has been improving, and he played essentially the entire game because he fits every lineup perfectly on both ends.

A capable shooter, cutter, rebounder, defender and passer, Wells gives head coach Kyle Smith very few reasons not to play him, and so he did.

After his performance against USC, Wells had earned the starting spot. However, so had Isaac Jones, and so Kymany Houinsou returned to the bench where he started the season.

Now, with Myles Rice and Andrej Jakimovski at the guard spots and Wells and Jones at the forward spots the Cougs seemed to have found their best starting four. That group, along with Oscar Cluff at center, tipped off against Arizona as massive underdogs.

From the very start, this game was not going as planned for the Wildcats.

A quick string of makes gave the Cougs a 12-9 lead as the clock passed 15:00. As the first half went on, the Cougs continued to keep pace. While neither team was shooting well, they were consistently responding when their opponents scored.

Made 3-pointers by Jakimovski and Wells had the Cougs ahead, but turnovers and offensive rebounds were keeping Arizona in the game.

Caleb Love scored as the first half expired, cutting the Cougar lead down to just 34-30.

Still, four points up on a team ranked where Arizona was is impressive, and there was an air of confidence in the arena. It would be one thing if there was no history between these teams, but the Cougar’s win last year made this one feel much more possible.

The second half was another cold start for Arizona, but a few runs in a row brought the Wildcats the lead with just over three minutes left.

Again, this would be a time for a team to crumble. The great teams of the world, the tournament and championship contenders, are different because they do not often crumble in these moments. The Cougs have struggled to hold a lead in the past, as recently as earlier this season.

That night in Beasley, though, was different.

Sitting on 11 points with just three minutes left was Rice.  With the game tied, he stole the ball. Cluff ended up with the ball at the top of the key, handing it off to Rice and setting a screen. From behind the Australian giant, he pulled up and made the 3-pointer.

On the other end, Love split a pair of free throws. Jones was ready, scoring quickly to get the lead back up to four.

A missed three by Arizona was followed by more free throws for the Cougs, split by Rice for a five-point lead.

It was not over yet, though, as Love drained a three to bring the lead down to two. A Jones make and four made free throws, two for each team, left the score at 69-65 with under a minute left.

A quick jumper by Love brought the score within two, but Rice was ready again. He made a midrange jumper of his own, leaving the Cougs with a four-point lead with under a shot clock remaining.

A banked three by Arizona made it scary for the Cougs, but when Rice ended up back on the line with a chance to ice the game, he responded and made them both.

The final score was 73-70 . Yet another miraculous upset over Arizona for the Cougs and the kind of statement win that launches a team into tournament conversations.

Leading the team in scoring from his reacquired starting spot was Jones with 24. It was another double-double for him, this time with 13 rebounds. He also grabbed a steal and a pair of blocks.

Next in scoring was Rice, who finished with 18 and scored seven of the most important points of the season. He also had a pair of steals and five assists.

The team managed eight blocks overall, showing that the gaudy block stats from the early season were not a fluke.

Just like last year, the Cougs won this game because they held Arizona to horrible shooting splits. While their percentages started to improve a bit at the end of the game, the Wildcats still shot under 30% from outside and under 35% from the field.

While they grabbed 15 more offensive rebounds than the Cougs did, they were not scoring off of them. Love had a game-leading 28 but shot only 40% from the field, missing 15 shots.

Last year’s win was one of the biggest upsets in program history. The only reason this game is not quite that big is because of that. The Cougs are serious now. They are in some very real conversations within the conference and have a chance moving forward to climb into national conversations.

The first step of that, though, is winning games, and the first games to win moving forward are against Stanford and Cal, the Bay Area schools.

Stanford is the only Pac-12 team besides Wazzu to have beat Arizona, and they did it in a very convincing fashion. They are 4-2 in the Pac-12 so far. That game will tip-off at 8 p.m. Thursday at Stanford and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.