Despite losing seven out of the first eight games of conference play, WSU men’s basketball Head Coach Ken Bone believes his team still has great chemistry and will continue to battle it out this Saturday when WSU (8-12, 1-7) hosts the Washington Huskies (13-8, 5-3).  

            Bone said in his weekly press conference that his players are familiar with this situation due to the fact that most of them were on last year’s team which also had a winning drought for a period of time.

            “I thought our guys handled (last year’s struggles) extremely well,” Bone said. “Now there’s different ways to handle it, you can handle it like ‘oh well big deal we lost,’ and from the outside looking in, ‘it looks like they’re handling this thing well,’ and then there’s another side, (that says) ‘No we’re ticked off and we need to pull together and win. I think that’s where our guys are like last year and they continue to stay together and work hard.”

            Attributing to the team struggles during conference play is the absence of WSU junior guard DaVonte Lacy, the team’s leading scorer and co-captain. Lacy has missed the last six games due to a rib injury.

            “It’s been difficult,” Bone said. “I didn’t think it would be this quite difficult and I’m not saying ‘hey if we had him out there, shoot we’d be five and two or six and one or four and three or anything.’ I think we would be better there’s no doubt in my mind.”

            Bone said there was a chance the 6-foot-4, 215 pound guard could suit up and play on Saturday against the Huskies. If Lacy plays Saturday he’ll be returning almost exactly four weeks after the diagnosis of his injury.

            Lacy participated in passing drills and shooting drills yesterday and Bone said he’s unsure if he’ll practice with the team on Wednesday.

            “It’s a step in the right direction,” Bone said.

            Another WSU player who was hurt for a period time during the season was WSU redshirt junior guard Royce Woolridge who injured his wrist at the beginning of the season. However Bone said he thinks Woolridge is fully healthy.

            “He doesn’t complain about it, his follow through looks good, he doesn’t tape it,” Bone said. “I don’t see any signs where it’s really bothering him except the fact that his shot has not gone in like it’s gone in in the past.”