Losses don't keep Cougs down

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- The balls stopped bouncing here at Gill Coliseum, and Washington State players dropped to do stretching. In the stillness, they looked above to see large banners of Ralph Miller, A.C. Green and Gary Payton, local heroes of yesteryear.

Those days are long gone now, and it's WSU's time. But as coach Tony Bennett chatted later with reporters in the bleachers, there was a bit of a sense of "what's wrong?" to the interrogation.

Mea culpa.

What's wrong is that the Cougars lost their first game in February on Thursday night to Oregon. They lost to the 23rd-ranked team in the country in a bristling home-court environment. They lost in the fashion of every one of their other losses this year, except the one 84 days ago at Utah -- by a scant play or two down the stretch.

Washington State has suddenly set the bar so high, breaking to a 22-5 record, that even a moment or two's lapse in focus, a failed defensive closeout, a poorly run offensive set, becomes cause for consternation.

The Cougars, after all, are playing with house money now, playing for "where," not "if" in the NCAA tournament. It's just that they had elevated the stakes so impossibly high by winning 11 of their first 14 Pac-10 games, there were visions of them placing a maraschino cherry atop their season.

They're now closer to third place than first. But after practice, guard Derrick Low said, "Anything can happen from now until the end of the Pac-10 season."

For Bennett's part, it's strictly steady-as-she-goes. Entering today's game with Oregon State (11-18), there's no "I-have-a-dream" message. No Blutarsky-like "It's-not-over-till-we-say-it's-over" shtick.

This is how dramatic he got after checking out video of the 64-59 loss to the Ducks:

"We watched where we broke down," he said. "We just said, for us to have a chance to be successful, this team has to be as tough and as smart as possible."

To that end, the Cougars worked Friday on stuff like setting their feet before shots and defensive "slides." It's what they do, after all.

"It's not about fluff," Bennett said. "It comes down to: Can you be as good as you can be at what you do best, your meat and potatoes? For us, that's our man-to-man defense and our patience and soundness and balance in scoring."

Bennett bemoaned some lapses in offense near the end against Oregon, and indeed, if there's any sign of slippage in this team, it might be in its valuing of the ball.

Washington State entered the week with a 1.61 team assist-turnover ratio in league games, far better nationally than any major-conference team. But in the past five games, that number is just 1.05.

Similarly, the Cougars were anything but smart on their final possession of the first half at Oregon, when, leading by eight, Low burped up an early three and the Ducks came back to trail by just five at halftime.

"We started the play a little early," Low explained. "We didn't hear Coach Tony say, 'One shot.' But it's something we should know anyway."

Interesting, though, that even as Bennett focuses on fundamentals to file away the rough edges, he's got one eye on March, well into March. His insertion of guard Mac Hopson for 16 minutes against the Ducks -- he hadn't even played since the Washington blowout Jan. 20 -- suggests that Bennett knows there will be a need down the road for another element off the bench.

"When pressure and athleticism comes against you," Bennett said, "a lot of times you've got to have three ball-handlers on the floor."

If he's willing to think big-picture, then WSU faithful are, too. If they can't chase down UCLA, the next-available goal is maintaining a top-four NCAA seed and a friendly site in Sacramento. The Cougars might clinch that with two wins in their final three games, or certainly with two more, plus a victory in the Pac-10 tournament.

They've responded famously to defeat so far. After Utah came the Gonzaga breakthrough; after a tight loss at UCLA came a clutch win at USC. The Stanford overtime loss preceded the easy win over Washington. After the first defeat to Oregon came a win at Arizona.

In other words, 3 ½ months into the season, the Cougars haven't lost two in a row. Hardly anything says perspective like that.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com