After finishing the regular season with an 18-13 record, the WSU men’s basketball team has earned the sixth seed in the West Coast Conference and will now head to Las Vegas for their first WCC tournament.
The Cougs had initially been picked to finish fifth in the conference, so their sixth-place finish is not far from the preseason expectations. However, it was their journey to the sixth seed that was surprising.
The Cougars got off to their best start this century, going 13-3 to open the season and starting 3-0 in the conference. They then endured a 3-10 stretch, in which they fell into a tie for the eighth seed in the WCC. It took wins against San Diego and Pepperdine in their final two games, combined with a Loyola Marymount loss to Saint Mary’s, for the Cougs to claw back ahead of the Lions to grab the sixth seed and the coveted second-round bye that comes with it.
Now, the Cougs wait to find out who they will play. No. 7 LMU will take on the winner of No. 10 Pacific and No. 11 San Diego. The winner of that game would then play the Cougars. The odds would favor Loyola Marymount, who finished 8-10 in the conference. They beat San Diego twice and Pacific once, although in their second game against Pacific, they lost 83-58 in a rare home blowout.
The San Diego Toreros won their first game of the conference schedule against Pacific but proceeded to lose 16 straight games, including twice against WSU. However, the Toreros have been heating up. USD lost a pair of close games against Oregon State and Wazzu before winning their first game of the calendar year against Portland in the final game of the season.
San Diego will look to ride their wave of momentum, as well as their previous win over the Tigers, to pull off the upset over Pacific.
Pacific, despite holding the tenth seed, has the benefit of playing teams they have beaten. The Tigers have beaten San Diego, LMU and WSU this season.
WSU is rated higher in the NET rankings than all three teams they could face. WSU is ranked No. 113, LMU is ranked No. 161, Pacific is ranked No. 293 and San Diego is ranked No. 321.
While LMU is theoretically the harder matchup, the Cougars might prefer them over Pacific. WSU beat LMU in Spokane in December, with a convincing 73-59 win. Against the Toreros, the Cougs won narrowly, by scores of 65-61 and 93-86. Against Pacific, Wazzu lost twice, falling 95-94 and 70-68.
While this is WSU’s first WCC tournament, the team has plenty of experience in other conference tournaments. Head coach David Riley and seniors Dane Erikstrup and Ethan Price played in the Big Sky tournament as the No. 1 Seed in each of the past two seasons. They lost in the quarterfinals both years. This year at WSU, they will look to avoid a similar early exit.
“I think our mindset going in has been that we’re going to go attack this with kind of an underdog mentality,” Riley said. “The last couple years it feels like we’ve had injuries going down the stretch … I feel like we’re kind of peaking at the right time right now.”
He said the team is focusing on themselves and not worrying about who they will be playing against.
“For us, right now … there’s still a lot of things that we need to short up as a team,” Riley said. “The way we play, we can adjust pretty fast.”
Price said the team is taking things one game at a time and not trying to get ahead of themselves.
“I think the mindset is taking it one game at a time, don’t look ahead,” Price said. “Just focus on winning each day.”
Price has started every game for Riley throughout his four-year career as a Division 1 head coach. His presence will play a huge factor if the Cougars want to make a run. He said he thinks confidence will be key for the team in Vegas.
“You always got to stay confident. I know we had a down spell in February,” Price said. “I think these last two games … you can feel that energy within the team.”
The starting lineup will likely remain the same as it has since early December, with Price and Erikstrup playing the four and five, Nate Calmese at point guard and the duo of Isaiah Watts and LeJuan Watts at the shooting guard positions.
Riley said last week that he considered making a change to the starting lineup, but he ultimately opted to keep the starters the same for their final two games. It would be shocking to see him make a change now.
That will leave Tomas Thrastarson, Rihards Vavers, Parker Gerrits, ND Okafor and Kase Wynott on the bench. The bench played a major role in WSU’s regular-season finale win over Pepperdine, putting up 25 combined points. In the tournament, the depth of the bench could be the key to making a run to the semifinals.
Vavers could be an X-factor. The sophomore forward has shot 47.1% from behind the three-point line this year, and has provided some clutch points for the team. If Vavers gets hot from deep, he will play a major role off the bench for Wazzu.
The WCC tournament is held in Las Vegas, starting Thursday and wrapping up next Tuesday. WSU’s first game will be this Saturday. In order to win the tournament, the Cougs will need to win four games. A win on Saturday will send them to a game against San Francisco on Sunday. If they beat the Dons, they’d play Saint Mary’s on Monday. If they win that game, the Cougs play in the finals on Tuesday against either Gonzaga, Oregon State, Santa Clara, Pepperdine or Portland.
While Las Vegas is an exciting city, Erikstrup said he does not care much for the town and is just focused on basketball.
“I don’t like Vegas that much,” Erikstrup said. “It’s a place to lose a lot of money.”
He said the team would like to stick to their style of basketball and not try to make the “home run plays.” He said if the team continues to be themselves, they can find success.
