With four returning starters, expect a tournament run

Daven Harmeling and Derrick Low are two of four returning Washington State starters this season. AP

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PULLMAN, Wash. -- My dinner companion and I strolled into the Fireside Grill on Bishop Boulevard on Sunday evening and were pleased to learn it would only be a few minutes before we could be seated. "What's the name?" the hostess asked. "Tony," my companion replied.

The 2007 National Coach of the Year looked at me and grinned sheepishly. "You can see I have a lot of pull around here," he said.

When it comes to hoops hysteria, nobody would ever confuse Pullman with Lexington or Chapel Hill or Lawrence. That, however, is starting to change, and my dinner mate, Washington State coach Tony Bennett, is a big reason why. The Cougars were the biggest surprise in college basketball last year. After being picked to finish dead last in the Pac-10 at the league's preseason media day, they plodded their way to a second-place finish in the conference and won 26 games before losing in double-overtime to Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAA tournament. That christened the 38-year-old Bennett as the golden boy of his profession, earning him a multitude of national coach of the year honors in his first season as head coach.

With four starters returning from that squad, the Cougars won't be sneaking up on anyone this season. (They're ranked 10th in the first AP poll.) Another great run, and maybe Bennett might actually get recognized by restaurant hostesses in his own hometown.

In some ways, Bennett is as surprised as anyone at the way Washington State has broken through. He came here four years ago to work as an assistant under his father, Dick, who had taken Wisconsin to the 2000 Final Four. Dick encouraged his son to remain as an assistant at Wisconsin, but Tony, who played for Dick at Wisconsin-Green Bay, wanted to be with his dad for the final few years of his career. It wasn't until after they arrived that they realized just how daunting the task was.

"I remember at the first exhibition game, we had like two hundred people in the stands," Tony told me during dinner. "When I went home, my wife, who's the most positive person I know, said, 'What have we done?'"

Dick, however, had built programs from the ground-up before, and he had a vision. Instead of going for the quick fix with junior college players and Division I transfers, Dick decided to recruit high school kids and develop them into good players. The idea was they might take some lumps at first, but by the time those players became upperclassmen, they'd be ready to compete. True to form, Dick went 36-49 in his first three years while building a foundation, then bequeathed the program to his son at just the right time.

Still, it's pretty amazing that Washington State has come so far with players that were basically unwanted elsewhere. Last year's leading scorer, 6-foot-2 senior guard Derrick Low, was the most sought-after of all the Cougars. The Hawaiian native turned down Gonzaga, Hawaii and Utah to come to Washington State, even though he had never visited the campus. The second-leading scorer, 6-6 guard Kyle Weaver, had no other Division I offers. Junior forward Daven Harmeling chose Washington State over Denver and Eastern Washington. (Colorado State invited him to walk on.) To sign the fourth returning starter, 6-10 senior Robbie Cowgill, Bennett had to beat out that noted national power, Texas-Arlington.

Things are starting to change; 6-5 guard Klay Thompson, son of former NBA player Mychal Thompson, heads a solid, if unspectacular, recruiting class for next year. But given the program's lack of tradition and Pullman's lack of size (it has a population of just over 25,000), it's hard to believe Washington State will ever be a destination of choice for McDonald's All-Americans. Bennett's recruiting targets are so far off the beaten path that he told me has never even seen O.J. Mayo play.

"It takes a special kind of kid to come here," he said. "You have to have that underdog mentality. One really good piece of advice I've gotten from coaches is to be sure we don't compromise on the character of the kids we recruit. We want good players, but they have to be our kind of kids."

As I watched Washington State throttle Lewis-Clark State in an exhibition game by 38 points Sunday afternoon, it occurred to me this team does not have a single sure-fire NBA player on the roster. Yet, perhaps no team in America does a better job playing to its strengths. The Cougars work the ball around selflessly, rarely turn it over, consistently find their shooters and lock down teams with their half-court defense. Their strength is their perimeter trio of Low, Weaver and 6-1 junior Taylor Rochestie, but they have several big guys, most notably Harmeling, who can knock down deep jump shots.

Though the national perception is that they are allergic to the fast break, the Cougars actually did a fair bit of running last season. They will probably have to dial that back now that their most athletic player, 6-6 forward Ivory Clark, is gone and is being replaced in the starting lineup by the bigger but less mobile Aron Baynes, a 6-10 native of Australia.

Washington State's profile is indeed on the rise, but unfortunately Bennett has not upgraded the schedule to match it. The Cougars are playing at Gonzaga, with whom they have an annual series, and will travel to Baylor on Nov. 30 as part of the new Pac-10/Big 12 Series. Aside from that, there are a few decent opponents (Montana, Air Force) but no sexy inter-regional games that are made for television. Nor is there a marquee tournament like the Maui Invitational or early-season NIT on the slate. I'm sure it's frustrating for Bennett that no big-name teams will come to Pullman, but if he wants to take this program to greater heights, he's going to have to hit the road and get his boys on national TV.

Still, Washington State will get its share of notoriety if it can stay in the thick of the Pac-10 race. That might land Bennett an even bigger job (he flirted with openings at Michigan and Minnesota before re-upping with Washington State last spring), but he knows as well as anyone how far this program as come, and he's intent on enjoying the ride. "I know I have a ton to learn as a head coach," he said. "But you don't come down this road too often, and I want to be sure I don't leave any stone unturned."

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