Men's Basketball | Cougs' seeding at stake

Washington State begins a weekend trip important to its NCAA-tournament future tonight at California, possibly without one of its biggest perimeter threats.

Junior reserve forward Daven Harmeling sprained an ankle Tuesday in practice. He flew south with WSU on Wednesday, and his status will be determined at game time.

At 21-6 and in third place at 9-6 in the Pac-10, WSU appears to have a steady bead on a second straight NCAA-tournament appearance. But seeding is a key issue.

In Joe Lunardi's "bracketology" on ESPN.com, WSU rates a No. 7 seed this week. Many believe the Cougars might be as high as a 6 today, but if they don't get a split against teams that swept them in Pullman four weeks ago, they would figure to fall to the 8-9 range.

That's especially dangerous in the NCAA tournament, not only for surviving an opener, but for the likely prospect of having to face a No. 1 seed in the second round, probably a team like Texas, Memphis, North Carolina or Tennessee.

"Obviously, there's a lot on the line for Cal, and for us," said WSU coach Tony Bennett.

The Bears are 15-10 overall, 6-8 in the league and with a skinny chance of making the NCAA tournament.

Cal has the Pac-10's leading scorer in 6-foot-10 forward Ryan Anderson, who averages 21.8 points and 10.2 rebounds.

Part of Cal's struggles mirror those of big man Devon Hardin, who missed the Washington trip with a virus. His numbers in league games are a modest 9.6 points a game and 5.3 rebounds.

"He had big numbers earlier in the season," said Cal coach Ben Braun. "He's got to go back to the things he did earlier — rebounding, staying out of foul trouble, and defense."

This is a matchup of teams that have had problems winning at home. Cal is 2-5 in Berkeley in league games; WSU is 4-4 in Pullman, a trend that began with a loss to the Bears on Jan. 31.

Still, Bennett said, in comparison to the 26-8 team of last season, "In some ways, I think we might be a little better."

Student exodus?

A 4:30 p.m. start to the Washington game March 8 has raised the specter of a decreased student turnout because of the start of spring break.

"Given that it's Washington, I think the demand is still going to be strong enough," said WSU ticket manager Dan Meyer, who added there is no mechanism in place for students with sports passes to pick up tickets and thus create a potential allotment for the general public.