After suffering a blowout loss to Stanford, the WSU men’s basketball players look to bounce back tomorrow when they play California.

“Cal’s really good, that coach there does a good job, watching games over the years you think you know what he’s doing, but it’s been fun to watch them this year,” WSU men’s basketball Head Coach Ken Bone said in his Tuesday press conference.

Bone also said California (13-4, 4-0) has played a tough schedule this year, and he is impressed by the team’s success without two of their key players, freshman guard Jabari Bird and redshirt junior guard Ricky Kreklow.

For the Cougars (8-9, 1-4) to pull out the upset victory, four areas of play need to be addressed.

Avoiding fouls:

What hurt the Cougars in the Stanford loss was Bone being forced to sit three key players due to foul trouble.  Before the foul trouble occurred, the Cougars were in control of the game and held a 24-20 lead with seven minutes to play in the first half.

One of those players in foul trouble was redshirt freshman guard Que Johnson, who scored 15 points before picking up his second foul of the game and sat the bench. With three key players on the bench, the Cougars just managed to only score two points to close out the half. Without junior guard DaVonte Lacy, the Cougars cannot afford to have their key players like Johnson or redshirt junior guard Royce Woolridge sit the bench.

Big men production:

The last two games, the Cougar big men did not come to play. In the game against Stanford, both WSU redshirt senior forward D.J. Shelton and redshirt junior center Jordan Railey did not score a single point. Railey has not scored for the Cougars since the Jan. 2 loss to Arizona, when he tallied one point.

“We had a hard time scoring in the paint, we had a hard time scoring right around the basket,” Bone said after the loss to Stanford. “(Stanford) didn’t have too many blocked shots, two blocked shots, we just put it up there on the rim and it just did not go in. We are not scoring very efficiently near the basket.”

Against the Cardinal, the Cougars were outrebounded by 15 and outscored 12-34 in the paint. The Cougar big men must do a better job in order to beat the Golden Bears.

Get to the free throw line:

The Cougars attempted three total free throws in the Jan. 8 overtime defeat to Colorado. During the game against Utah, the Cougars made 17 of 28 free throws, which helped the Cougars edge out a win. In their most recent contest they manage five free throw attempts. The Cougars must be more aggressive and get to the free throw line, which will result in higher point totals and an established tempo, putting opposing players in foul trouble. If the Cougars shoot more than 20 free throws in the game against California, their chances of a victory will improve.

More players step up:

Two players have stepped up in the absence of Lacy. Johnson is averaging in double figures in scoring with Lacy out of the lineup, and Woolridge chipped in 13 points against Stanford. Aside from the two guards, no other players have assisted in the scoring department other than the 24-point outing from redshirt junior guard Dexter Kernich-Drew against Colorado. Five players on the California roster so far are averaging at least 10 points a game. It’ll be tough for the Cougars to pull off the upset if just two of their players are scoring 10 or more points.

The last time these two teams met in Berkeley the Cougars fell to the Golden Bears by a score of 67-54. In that contest Woolridge went 5-14 from the field and scored 12 points in 33 minutes of action.

Kernich-Drew played 15 minutes and scored 7 points.