Since beating Arizona for the second time of the 2023–24 season, this time on the road, WSU men’s basketball (24-9) has gone 3-3, including winning just one game in the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament.
They lost by 12 to Arizona State, lost to Washington at home by six and bowed out in the semi-finals of the Tournament to Colorado by six again.
Against the Buffaloes, who just punched their own ticket to the NCAA Tournament, they shot 42.3% from the field and just 21.1% from three. More worrisome than those numbers, they missed three of their seven free throw attempts.
Unfortunately, part of the problem has been Myles Rice. The record-breaking freshman has been on an ice cold streak from deep. It’s been over an entire month since his last three-pointer, and he is currently 0-for-24 over his cold stretch.
Even when they beat Arizona, Rice had just five points. He had eight points against Washington and shot 22.2% from the field. In the Tournament loss to Colorado, he scored 10, but shot 30.8% from the field. His playmaking has also taken a hit, having 23 turnovers in the last seven games, including five against Colorado.
That’s not to say his confidence has not wavered, a good sign that he can get things clicking again at any moment. Against the Buffaloes, in an advantageous fastbreak, he tried to go behind the back to dish out an assist, but the ball ended up in the defender’s hand.
Momentum had started going over to the Cougs side, with a spectacular play electrifying the crowd even more. That did not happen and the fall continued, with an eventual loss booting them out of the Tournament.
Now, just before the first round of the NCAA Tournament, he still has complete confidence in himself, his shot and the team.
“I just got to trust the work I put in. If you’re making shots, you got to trust your craft. And if you’re missing shots, you got to trust your craft,” Rice said. “My teammates believe in me. My coaches believe in me. Washington State fans believe in me. It’s only going to be a matter of time before one drops and I believe the first one I hit is going to be a big one.”
That trust is something that won’t change. Smith said Rice is the spark for the team. Even when he is not performing at his peak statistically, he is still tough to take out of the game.
“It’s hard to take him out, but he probably has some fatigue as a first-year player, playing both sides of the ball. I think he’ll break through, but we’ve been pretty good even though he hasn’t,” head coach Kyle Smith said.
Rice said he believes that the second his first three hits the bottom of the nylon, it will get him going again and he will be primed to go off.
“Once I see go in, it’s over with,” he said.
From as much as a projected No-5 seed in the NCAA Tournament playing in Spokane to a No-7 team playing in Omaha, Nebraska, the team is getting cold at the worst time. However, the team is still glad to be in the position they are, given that it has been 16 years since their last Tournament appearance.
“Really excited to be here. It’s been a wonderful season. Got a really good group that has really propelled this program over the last three years,” Smith said.
They now face a Drake (28-6) team that is a short drive away from the site of their game. It will be a glorified away game, with the Cougs boasting a 6-4 record on the road this season. While the Bulldogs have certainly not faced a team as good as WSU, they have beaten some good teams.
Led by Tucker DeVries, a 21.8-point-per-game scorer, Drake averages over 80 points per game. Smith said they have a Dallas Mavericks-esque playstyle with DeVries mirroring Luka Dončić. Surrounded by a lot of players that perfectly fit their role, Smith praised their system ahead of the matchup.
“They’re a pretty complete team,” Smith said. “It will be a tough game. There are not a lot of holes, and this time of year, that’s what you expect.”
The Cougs are in the dreaded No. 7 vs No. 10 seed matchup, where neither team will be exceptionally favored against the other. While they have all the tools to make a run in the Tournament and could very well be the Cinderella team remembered for years to come, they have an equal chance of dropping out of their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 16 years in just one game.
