Men's Basketball | Arizona matchup dooms Cougars

PULLMAN — Here's the good news for fans of Washington State basketball: The Cougars are 21-6 and by most accounts, headed for the NCAA tournament.

And the bad: Before they get there, they might have to play Arizona again.

That became an increasingly distasteful prospect for 10,288 here Saturday night at Friel Court, where the Wildcats hung a 65-55 defeat on the Cougars.

Arizona also reminded WSU fans of a reality both sobering and uplifting: For all the Cougars' multiple assets — defense, selflessness, good guard play, etc. — this is not an extravagantly talented team.

At least not in the Arizona sense. The Wildcats have two probable NBA lottery picks in guard Jerryd Bayless and forward Chase Budinger and a third guy who looks like he can play in a higher league as well: center Jordan Hill.

And when a couple of them are by turns going off, the Wildcats are awfully difficult to beat — at least for the Cougars.

WSU got thrashed by Arizona in Tucson, 76-64, in as thorough a 40-minute whipping as the Cougars have had administered in the two-season Tony Bennett tenure. This latest loss means WSU has been beaten twice this year in double digits, both against the Wildcats.

"With a team like Arizona, they're so athletic and gifted, as soon as you try to shut one thing down, they've got another thing going," said WSU guard Taylor Rochestie.

Since the Cougars are third in the league at 9-6 and Arizona is tied for fifth at 7-7, and it's the Nos. 3 and 6 teams meeting in the Pac-10 quarterfinals, WSU could be facing, for a third time, a team it can't seem to handle.

In the Pac-10, it's all about matchups. Washington State can't seem to crack the code against UCLA, but Washington does it routinely. And the Huskies have lost six in a row to WSU.

The Cougars have romped on USC twice, but when they meet a similarly athletic team in Arizona, they play like they're facing a college all-star team from Tennessee.

First it was Budinger dropping threes on Kyle Weaver and the Cougars at the outset, hitting his first five shots, while Bayless, the richly gifted freshman, was enduring the first scoreless half of his career against Derrick Low and Weaver.

Then Arizona coach Kevin O'Neill told Bayless to get aggressive, and he did in the second half, mostly against Low. Bayless had 20 points and just couldn't be bridled.

"When you're on a guy of that ability, you can't lose track of him," Bennett said. "Derrick lost vision on him. He got to a spot and kind of shot rhythm shots."

Bad development for the Cougars, in combination with an off shooting night. They hit only 34 percent — with seven assists, matching a Pac-10 low they had against Washington — so they weren't operating well at either end.

"It puts a lot of pressure on you when you can't score some buckets," Bennett said. "The defense didn't hold us in there well enough to withstand a poor shooting night."

The combined 42 points of Bayless and Budinger were complemented by Hill, who steamrolled Aron Baynes inside for 13 points and nine rebounds.

This might have been Baynes' most ineffective night in 15 Pac-10 games. Playing 16 minutes, he fumbled passes in the post, made three turnovers and downed one shot in five attempts, a dunk.

"I thought Aron pressed a couple of times," Bennett said. "I think he wanted to get it all back in one possession. He wasn't his typical self tonight."

The Cougars hustled for 12 offensive rebounds — not that it did them a lot of good. They had only two second-chance points.

Still, they led 35-32 inside the 13-minute mark when the game turned. A loose ball at Arizona's end, initially in WSU hands, instead was dug out by Bayless, who converted a three-point play for the tie. That ignited an 18-6 run, 14 by Bayless and Budinger.

So: Sputtering offense. Spotty defense. A hustle play that went begging.

For Washington State, a bad combination. Or maybe just a bad matchup.

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