The stakes are getting higher for the Washington State men’s basketball team.

After playing in two home exhibition games, the Cougars will play their first regular season game this Friday at 5:30 p.m. against Northern Arizona in Beasley Coliseum.

“Everybody gets excited about opening weekend in college basketball,” WSU Head Coach Ernie Kent said. “We’re really looking forward to play. I can just tell from yesterday as we did some things, had a light workout, (the players) are antsy, that’s a really good sign.”

The Cougars are coming off of a 27-point win in their second exhibition game against Pacific-Oregon last weekend.

In that game, first year players Renard Suggs, Robert Franks and Viont’e Daniels all scored in double digits. The WSU bench combined for 64 of the 97 total points the Cougars scored.

The large contribution from the bench raises the question as to whether Kent will mess around with the starting rotation. However, Kent said the only starting position that is still currently up for grabs is the “three spot” on the wing, which is contested by redshirt junior guard Que Johnson, junior guard Renard Suggs and sophomore guard Derrien King.

“I just feel like we have enough depth of talent on this team that we don’t necessarily need a set lineup per say; there might be four guys that are set,” Kent said. “You might see in the second half where it could be a completely different lineup coming out depending upon who played well in the first half.”

Through these first two games of the 2015 season, WSU sophomore guard Ny Redding said he’s learned this team is competitive but at times inconsistent.

“We might go on a run and go up by 25 or 30, and then the next couple minutes the team is right back in it,” Redding said. “Once we get them down and blowing them out, we got to keep them there and can’t let them get back in the game.”

The Cougars’ focus in the last game was to speed up the pace, which tallied 14 fast break points and 33 points off of turnovers. Junior guard Ike Iroegbu has noticed a change in speed on offense compared to last year.

“We understand what reads to make, so I feel like that’s making us a lot more fast,” Iroegbu said. “To score in this offense all you go to do is run hard, spread the ball, make the extra pass and everyone eats in this offense, which is really good.”

Kent said the focus this week heading into Friday’s match-up against Northern Arizona is on rebounding and showing more toughness by the basket.

The WSU men’s basketball team will have to be more physical on the boards tonight than it its two exhibition games, as Northern Arizona features a bigger lineup.

NAU returns two of its top-five scorers from last season in junior guard Kris Yanku, who averaged 13.8 points, and junior center Ako Kaluna, who averaged 8.6 points last season.

For those unable to attend the game, the Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the match-up.