Sitting at 3-3 on the young season, the WSU men’s basketball team welcomes a red-hot Utah Valley University (UVU) squad to the Palouse on Wednesday night in need of a rebound victory.

San Jose State University (2-3) dominated WSU (3-3) 88-76 in its most recent game on Sunday.

“We came into the game ready to play,” senior forward Josh Hawkinson said. “But as you can see in the beginning, we just had a slow start and it just went downhill from there.”

Hawkinson also said the team has struggled with slow starts in games since last year and recognizes that it needs to improve its play in the opening minutes. Hawkinson said that a committed effort defensively to open ballgames will lead to a more consistent offensive performance.

“It starts with us in the locker room, then it hits the floor,” said senior guard Charles Callison. “Once we find that sense of urgency, we simply go from there.”

Callison added that if the team continues to fail to play with a purpose beginning against UVU (4-1) and going forward, and that it will be a long season once Pac-12 play gets underway.

However, Head Coach Ernie Kent said the Cougars are not in any position to make excuses about Sunday’s performance as a date with an upstart Wolverines team approaches. Kent said the court on Sunday was “really flat” but that does not justify their poor performance against an opponent WSU was expected to beat.

“This team needs to get back to that same energy level we played with in Italy,” Kent said. “We got to get back to playing our kind of basketball and we are not there right now.”

UVU rides a four-game winning streak into Pullman on the headwind of a 114-101 upset win over Brigham Young University (BYU). The Wolverines carry four wins against one loss heading into Wednesday’s game.

UVU Head Coach Mark Pope said the win over BYU was great, but the team has more work to do. He added that the team has the potential to be even better and win a lot of games this season.

“This means a lot to me and this means a lot to our team,” UVU redshirt junior forward Isaac Neilson said after the win over BYU. “I’m very proud of our guys, for the coaching staff and all that we did. We just hope to continue that for the rest of the season.”

Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. on Wednesday and the game will air on the Pac-12 Network.