Last season, Washington State’s men’s basketball team beat an Idaho State squad built to move at a walking pace.

That will not be the case Friday night, as the Cougars (1-0) will host a renovated Bengals (2-0) team hoping to win a track meet.

Idaho State Head Coach Bill Evans has switched his coaching philosophy this season to a significantly higher tempo for the game, WSU Head Coach Ernie Kent said.

“They’re a fast team now,” the second-year Cougar head coach added. “We need to play faster and then we need to defend ourselves because we’re going to play a team that’s very similar to us in their style of play.”

Besides a new game plan, Idaho State also features eight new faces to its roster this season. The Bengals return 24 percent of their offensive production from last season, highlighted by redshirt senior guard Ben Wilson – the top returning scorer on the team. He averaged 6.9 points last season. However, through two games this season, Wilson is seventh on the team in scoring.

The top-three scorers for Idaho State so far this year are first-year players Ali Faruq-Bey, Ethan Telfair and Gary Chivichyan. All three guards are averaging double figures in scoring. Faruq-Bey and Telfair are each averaging 18.5 points per game this season, the highest mark on the team.

The Bengals will also get a look at the seven new players on the 2015-16 Cougar team. WSU redshirt junior center Valentine Izundu was present in Beasley Coliseum last season when the two teams squared off, but he was a spectator rather than a player. Since Izundu chose to transfer to WSU from Houston in 2014, he was forced to sit out last season due to the NCAA’s transfer policy.

Izundu admitted he’s had adjust to the speed and flow of real game atmosphere. However, as the season develops, so does his confidence.

“I just kept getting better every game,” Izundu added. “Every game I’ve played I’ve seemed to get more comfortable.”

Last week against Northern Arizona, Izundu showcased his confidence by blocking four shots and scoring seven points. Regardless of numbers he tallies Friday, Izundu will have a big impact on defense for the Cougars.

“Not only is he a great shot blocker and really changes the game defensively, he changes so many shots that he doesn’t block,” Kent said. “If you knock two or three out of there, if people are looking at him on highlights and teams are coming in to play and know you have that guy, right off the bat mentally they’re thinking about second guessing themselves to go in there and score.”

WSU junior guard Renard Suggs will also face Idaho State for the first time. Through the Cougars’ first three games this season – including the two exhibition games – Suggs already looks like a player Kent can rely on to knock down big shots. In the past two games, Suggs has shot a combined 55 percent from the field and made eight 3-pointers.

“It’s just my teammates finding me and giving me the open looks,” Suggs said. “Whenever I’m out there I just feel comfortable at all times and that’s who I am.”

Suggs added that if the Cougars are to knock off Idaho State on Friday, they must be mentally prepared.

“For us it’s just mental things like boxing out your man and knowing where to be at all times,” he said.

Tipoff between the Cougars and Bengals is set for 8 p.m. Friday in Beasley Coliseum. The Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the game.