Led by arguably the greatest freshman in program history, WSU men’s basketball (18-6, 9-4 Pac-12) is on a five-game winning streak. Their last loss? An 81-75 overtime heartbreaker to the California Golden Bears. Now, it is time for a rematch.
First up for the Cougs during this home week is a chance to get revenge on Cal (6-7, 10-14 Pac-12) Thursday. Following that game, the Cougs will see Stanford (7-6, 12-11 Pac-12) with a chance to sweep the season series.
The Cal loss has been the darkest stain on WSU’s otherwise fantastic record. The Cougs got handily outplayed in that game, managing to take it to overtime on a miraculous last-second 3-pointer by Myles Rice. That was the last good moment of the game, as overtime saw the Cougs’ production nearly doubled by the Bears.
Now, the Cougs have a chance to show that game to be a fluke. Cal was one of two teams ranked behind WSU in the preseason media poll, coming in at 11th ahead of only OSU. While they have exceeded those expectations, they are still not a great team. The Cougs, who are 11-1 at home, should be able to handle them with ease.
That, however, is what people thought last time. Cal was guided to a win in that game by Jaylon Tyson who had 30 points. He is averaging north of 20 points per game, putting him second in the conference in scoring. When the Bears went on their 10-0 run to tie the last matchup against the Cougs, Tyson accounted for half of those points.
Tyson is a big guard, and he has the ability to put points up on anybody. Fortunately for the Cougs, breakout star Jaylen Wells has been getting more and more poised on defense all season. He will likely see his minutes matched with Tyson’s, and if the Cougs are lucky that should help to prevent the types of runs that beat them last time.
Following that game comes Stanford. The Cougs beat the Cardinal easily earlier in the season, taking the game by a score of 89-75. It was Rice’s best game of his career, a 35-point beauty that also saw him dish out eight assists.
Stanford has lost three of their last five games, one of which was a loss to Cal. After a hot start to Pac-12 play, they have cooled down. Despite that, their leading scorer Maxime Raynaud is heating up.
The towering Raynaud is averaging 18.4 points over his last nine and 24.6 over his last three. Now averaging 15.4 points per game on the season, Raynaud is also second in the conference in rebounds with 10.
He scored 22 last time he played the Cougs, hitting a pair of threes and grabbing ten rebounds in the loss. Despite that production, he was not the Cardinal star in that game. That title belongs to Kanaan Carlyle.
Carlyle is averaging a solid 13.1 points per game this season, but against the Cougs he exploded for more than double that. His 31 points in that game marked a career-high. The Cougs will need to guard both him and Raynaud well to win the game. Fortunately, they have the personnel to do it.
Both of these games should be among the easier ones this season, but that just makes them all that much more dangerous to lose. With the tournament on the horizon, the Cougs need to lock in and win out, or at least come close to it.
Individually, Rice only needs one more Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award to tie for the all-time conference record. Playing against a Stanford team he put 35 on and a Cal team with the worst defensive rating in the conference, Rice has a chance to make history with a couple of good performances this week.
The upper level of Beasley will be open, hopefully prepared for the arrival of more fans than have been seen all season. This is the best Cougar team in more than a decade, and if fans show up accordingly this should be the loudest week of Cougar basketball in a while.
The first chance to get loud is against Cal and will tip-off at 7 p.m. Thursday. Following that, the game against Stanford will tip off at 3 p.m. Saturday. Both games will be in Beasley Coliseum and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
