WSU men’s basketball currently sits near the bottom of the Pac-12 standings and is riding a three-game losing streak that University of Washington punctuated with an 18-point loss   Sunday.

WSU Head Coach Ernie Kent said his team’s performance against UW was disappointing.

“This team completely, I thought at one point, just kind of collapsed,” Kent said. “Everybody tried to do it by themselves.”

Kent said the Cougars (9-11, 1-7) had moments where they played at a high level against the Huskies, but were never able to find their stride.

“I think for the first time in a long time, we completely knocked ourselves out of rhythm,” Kent said. “I thought the first half we were in a nice rhythm and we were sharing the ball. We had great looks.”

It won’t get any easier for the Cougars with No. 9 University of Arizona coming to Pullman on Wednesday. The Wildcats (18-4, 8-1) are atop the conference standings and are led by the top-two scorers in the Pac-12, freshman forward Deandre Ayton and junior guard Allonzo Trier.

Ayton averages a double-double and Trier leads the Pac-12 in scoring with 19.7 points per game.

Arizona also has seven-foot senior center Dusan Ristic who is coming off of a career night, scoring 23 points in the Wildcats one point victory over University of Utah on Saturday.

WSU is going to need their offense firing on all cylinders to beat the Wildcats. Arizona scores about seven more points per game than the Cougars and is on a six game winning streak.

WSU will look toward junior forward Robert Franks, who is averaging 17.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, to step up and help the Cougs upset the Wildcats.

Earlier this season, Kent said his team has the capability to compete with programs like Arizona who are at the top of the Pac-12 standings.

“We can play with any team in this conference if we’re focused in for 40 minutes,” Kent said. “And that’s the biggest thing for me right now with this group to go positive with and not worry about what’s happened in the past.”

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Beasley Coliseum. The game will also be aired live on Pac-12 Networks.