Men's Basketball | Committee rewards Cougars' consistency with solid seeding

So, you ask, what's up with the NCAA basketball committee and Washington State? Does somebody at WSU have pictures of the good men and women on the committee?

Last year, it was a No. 3 seed, maybe a level better than forecast. This year, a No. 4, when most projections had the Cougars figured for a 5 or 6.

The answer can be found in the numbers, and beyond the numbers, in the style, and in the Cougars' very modus operandi. And therein, you can find a hint of what to expect when WSU meets Winthrop (and Notre Dame or George Mason?) this weekend in Denver.

First, think about this: In the two-year Tony Bennett regime, spanning 66 games, the Cougars have lost to exactly one team that finished with a computer ranking of worse than 100 — Utah, last year, at 137. This year, their worst loss was at home to California, with a 92 RPI.

That's a phenomenally consistent performance, and if there's anything the committee likes, it's consistency — road, home, neutral, or in a gym in Botswana.

"Yeah, at this point, we have an idea what to expect from this group," said WSU assistant coach Ron Sanchez.

No doubt that's partly a function of being a veteran team, of having three seniors who start, two of them guards who frequently have the ball in their hands.

With that asset, the Cougars matched their 2007 feat of winning six Pac-10 games on the road. By contrast, they were beaten at home by four Pac-10 teams. Not that WSU doesn't appreciate the home fans, but that's a perfectly reflective statistic for a team that seems completely unflappable.

"They don't get too excited when we play well, and they don't get too down when we don't play as well," said assistant coach Matt Woodley. "I don't want to call it laid-back. They compete very, very hard. But they're consistent. You know what you're going to get every time out."

Here's what those coaches have gotten: Last year, in what they agree was the worst performance of the season — possibly in Tony Bennett's time as head coach — WSU lost by 14 points at Utah. Then it was never beaten in double-digits again. Its final seven losses were by an average of five points.

This season, WSU was beaten in double-digits twice, each time by Arizona. Meanwhile, Oregon lost a game at Oakland, Stanford lost at Siena, Arizona lost at home to the 10th-place ACC team, Virginia, and the Wildcats trailed at UCLA by 32 points.

In nine games this year, WSU trailed by double digits, and came back to win four — Baylor, Boise State, Oregon, Arizona State. It's almost as though this team has one of those high-tech steering/braking mechanisms that correct for driving errors.

Aside from the veteran makeup, Sanchez and Woodley believe the consistency comes from Bennett and his comportment. Nobody around WSU says it directly, but one of the paths Bennett seems to have diverged from his father Dick is in developing a calmer sideline demeanor.

"If you reflect back to his [Tony's] days as a player, it's maybe something he appreciated from coaches when they behaved that way on the sidelines," Sanchez said. "For him, it's more of a pat on the butt: 'Come on, I know we can do better than that.'

"Because of that, I think they maintain a comfortable level of play. Derrick's [Low] missed a couple of shots, and it's, 'Hey, we're going to run something for you; be ready to shoot it.' He shows he believes in them, and they, in turn, kind of play through it."

Somehow, Bennett came to this approach through associations with a lot of mentors: His father, who coached him; Bo Ryan, for whom he was an assistant at Wisconsin; Gene Keady, who coached the 1991 Pan-Am team Bennett played on; Allan Bristow, the Charlotte Hornets coach when Bennett played there from 1992 to 1995; and others.

Apply this steady-as-she-goes accelerator, WSU finished two games lower in the Pac-10 standings than in 2007. But Woodley said: "To me, it's more remarkable than last year, with the pressure to keep this program going. I think the league is much better, and we got everybody's best shot."

What's it all mean? There are no guarantees in late March, but if form holds, WSU would beat Winthrop and play a close game against Notre Dame (if it advances), just as WSU did last year in the second round against Vanderbilt.

From the fact WSU couldn't beat either UCLA or Stanford this year in five tries, you could conclude that both the Cougars' ceiling and floor are a little more compressed than everybody else's. WSU faithful wouldn't mind seeing that theory tested in a week or so.

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