WSU men’s basketball (16-6, 7-4 Pac-12) plays Oregon State (11-11, 3-8 Pac-12) and Oregon (15-7, 7-4 Pac-12) this week. It will be the second matchup with both of those teams, giving the Cougs a chance to sweep the Beavers and split the series with the Ducks.
First up is Oregon State. The Beavers are having a tough season, and have managed only 3 wins in Pac-12 play. The first of those wins came against USC, the only team below them in the conference standings. The second win came against Arizona, and the third came against Arizona State.
Arizona State is in a similar position to the Beavers, so that win is not a surprise, but Arizona is at the top of the Pac-12. While the Wildcats are unquestionably having a disappointing season, they are still one of the top teams in the country.
Oregon State beat Arizona by three points a few weeks ago, winning on a last-second buzzer-beating 3-pointer that gave Jordan Pope a career-high 31 points.
For the Cougs, Pope is exactly where the focus lies. He is one of the best scorers in the conference, fifth in points per game at 17.5. He ranks highly in other stats as well, sitting top-10 in the conference in both assists and 3-pointers made with 3.5 and 2.3 respectively.
Pope did well last time against the Cougs, making half of his shots en route to a 20-point performance. The Beavers even managed to have the lead at halftime, but Oscar Cluff poured in 20 of his own on 72.7% shooting to get the Cougs the 65-58 lead they finished with.
This time out, the Cougs will need to step up offensively. 65 is the lowest total the Cougs have reached in conference play, and they cannot expect to do that again and win. Holding a team to 58 is not out of the question for WSU’s strong defense, but it also is not a safe thing to expect.
Following the game against Oregon State, the Cougs will head to Eugene to face the Ducks.
Oregon is having a similar season to the Cougs, sitting just behind them in the conference standings but tied in the conference at 7-7. While standings are not hugely important in college basketball compared to a team’s overall resume, it is still good to be above as many teams as possible.
The Ducks hold the tiebreaker right now due to their win in Pullman, but if the Cougs win this time they will be tied at 1-1 for the season. Tiebreakers are complicated, but as of now the Cougar win over Arizona and the Oregon loss to the same mean that the Cougs would finish above Oregon in the event of a split series and a win-loss tie.
Right now, though, none of that matters. All that does matter is beating the Ducks on their court. The last time they played, the Ducks shot the Cougs out of the building. Blistering 3-point shooting kept multiple Cougar comebacks from reaching fruition, with the Ducks getting numerous open shots while also making several well-contested looks.
This time around, the Cougs will likely benefit from at least some regression. Their defense is not as bad as the first Oregon game made it look, and their offense is clicking on a level it was not even close to back in early January.
These two games are both vital on the Cougar’s path to the tournament. Momentum is building, and the Cougs are being consistently named in bracketology conversations by some of the biggest names in the business.
This could be a turning point. If they lose one or both games, they could fall back out of the path to the dance. Winning both could push them past Oregon, Utah and Colorado to be talked about as the second team in the conference that they already are by record.
The game against Oregon State will tip-off at 7 p.m. Thursday in Corvallis. Following that, the game against Oregon will tip-off at 2 p.m. Saturday in Eugene. Both games will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
