No. 25 WSU men’s basketball (24-9, 14-6 Pac-12) is finally in the dance, and across the dancefloor from them for the first round will be Drake (28-6, 16-4 MVC). Drake won their conference championship and are in the tournament for the second year in a row.

WSU, on the other hand, is in the tournament for the first time since 2008. Led by the Pac-12 coach of the year Kyle Smith in his fifth season at the helm, WSU is reaching heights not seen in Pullman in a long time.

The Bulldogs are led by dynamic scoring guard Tucker DeVries. The junior from Iowa averages 21.8 points per game, sixth in the nation and first among Cougar opponents this season. He recently scored a career-high 39 points in a Missouri Valley Conference tournament game.

He stands at 6 feet 7 inches, three inches taller than the average Drake player this season. They start two players that are around the six-foot mark, a stark contrast to the Cougs who start only one player under 6 feet 8 inches.

Size is not everything, but it is likely to shape this game. The Bulldogs will be relying on Darnell Brodie, the 6 foot 11 inch forward who has been using his 275-pound frame to anchor the Drake defense for three years now. He is as tall as the Cougs’ tallest player and 20 pounds heavier, but he will be standing alone against WSU’s hydra frontcourt of Isaac Jones, Rueben Chinyelu and Oscar Cluff.

Jones in particular needs to get going for the team to have tournament success. He was named to the Pac-12 First Team at the end of the season and should have a great opportunity against a team with only one opponent who should stand a chance against him in the paint.

Utilizing size to their advantage is going to be a necessity, as the Cougs have not shot well enough on 3-pointers to rely on those shots to win. WSU is a team that wants to slow the pace down at every opportunity, and when you do that you must score consistently in your limited possessions. 

If they can find a way to get easy shots inside, the pace should work in their favor. On the other end, it will be important to stop Drake from outside. Those two short starts are both 40% shooters, while DeVries shoots 37%. Carlos Rosario, a former Coug who transferred to Drake last offseason, is leading the Bulldogs by shooting 44% off the bench. 

With the pace being low, a few 3-pointers can go a very long way. Drake will be seeking them, and if the Cougs can keep them to a below-average percentage on those shots they should be able to stay alive.

Outside of the bigs, there are three major players to watch for the Cougs.

Myles Rice is in the worst stretch of his young career, missing more than 20 straight 3-pointers and being a major reason for the stagnant WSU offensive performance against Colorado. He is a great player, as he showed all season. He was so good this year that even right in the middle of this cold streak he was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.

If Rice can get back to All-League form, the Cougar offense should thrive. He is not being guarded from outside anymore, and at the pace WSU wants to play a few makes from that range could go a long way.

Despite being snubbed from an All-Pac-12 team at the end of the year, Jaylen Wells has an argument to be the most important Coug. He is an elite shooter, a good defender and a great rebounder. Wells has already hit a few massive clutch shots this year, and if the game is close at the end there is no doubt that the ball will end up in his hands. He is only a year removed from DII basketball, but all signs point to him being prepared for the brightest lights in college basketball.

Andrej Jakimovski has been hurt for a few weeks now and it is making his shooting inconsistent. As a volume shooter who will undoubtedly play most of the game, Jakimovski’s health will be a key issue for the Cougar offense. He had a good game against Stanford, but it was sandwiched between frigid performances against UW and Colorado. With more time to heal, there is hope he can be better. If he is not, he will need to shoot less than usual or risk wasting possessions for the Cougs.

March Madness is all about upsets. Unfortunately for the Cougs, their spot as a 7 seed facing a 10 seed is a prime position to be picked against, and that is exactly what is happening.

The Cougs opened as 1.5-point favorites, but since Selection Sunday those odds have flipped exactly to see Drake as 1.5-point favorites instead. This is due to a few factors. For one, the aforementioned seed position is a classic upset spot as the numbers are not that far apart.

Secondly, Drake is in Iowa. While the Cougs boarded a plane and flew there, the stadium is a 22-hour drive away. Drake, on the other hand, is a two-hour drive away. They will in all likelihood have more fans in attendance and more rest, which will serve them favorably.

Finally, WSU is in a slump. They have lost two of their last four, and have not looked great in very many of their recent wins. While their early season performances kept them ranked through the end of the season, they have not played like a ranked team for a month.

All of those things factor into the Cougs losing their favorability in the eyes of many. For much of the season, they were America’s team, and now it is time to reclaim that mantle with a tournament win.

The Cougs will take the stage for the first time in 16 years 7:05 p.m. Thursday in Omaha, Nebraska. The game will be broadcast on truTV.