Washington State not lacking in motivation with Arizona showdown looming, possible Pac-12 hoops title on line

The tatters of what is now a “Pac-2” banner is there for Kyle Smith to wave around proudly these days, but he isn’t taking it.

With a team that was picked to finish 10th in the Pac-12, Smith has coached Washington State to second place entering the final three weeks of the regular season, just a half-game behind Arizona in first place entering the teams’ showdown Thursday at McKale Center.

That might be sort of like how Oregon State’s women’s basketball team, also picked to finish 10th, is in a second-place tie in that race just two games behind powerhouse Stanford.

Or maybe sort of like how Oregon State’s football team was picked to finish fifth in football but challenged for the league championship and rose as high as 8-2 and No. 10 in the Associated Press Top 25 last season before losing its last two regular-season games.

For the karmically minded, it all makes perfect sense. Washington State and Oregon State, after all, were the only Pac-12 teams left out of the mass exodus last summer in which others defected to the Big 12, Big Ten and ACC.

But Smith won’t go there.

“Honestly, we haven’t mentioned it once,” Smith told the Star in a phone interview Tuesday. “If I thought it was going to help us and we needed it, I’d be pumping it but it’s like, ‘Hey, I’m not touching it. It’s around the campus, and I’m sure people are motivated, but it really hasn’t been that big a story for us.”

The Cougars appear to have plenty of their own individual motivation. Having lost four starters after last season — including second-round NBA Draft pick Mouhamed Gueye, who had 24 points and 14 rebounds at McKale Center last season — Smith rounded up a bunch of guys who, basically, had things to prove.

Point guard Myles Rice was an unproven redshirt freshman who battled cancer last season. Forward Isaac Jones had to log three seasons of juco ball and another at low-major Idaho before being offered the chance to make the 10-mile move to WSU and play on a high-major stage.

Forward Jaylen Wells and center Oscar Cluff were also coming off somewhat obscure junior college careers, Cluff having become a standout at Cochise College but still not getting recruited, basically, by Arizona or any other high majors.

The list goes on. But the Cougs won’t go there, either.

“They don’t approach it that way,” Smith said. “Washington State is a natural Little Engine That Could story, and that’s kind of what attracted Myles. This was his one high major option and he wanted to prove himself. They’ve all got that story.

“But we don’t bang on it too hard. They’re more even keeled and invested in that you can’t get too high or too low.”

Smith said he saw that after the Cougars lost the only game of their last 11, an 81-75 overtime loss at Cal on Jan. 20 after they led by seven points with two minutes to go.

“It was how they responded to that,” Smith said. “They didn’t get devastated.”

Smith said he had a feeling better things were ahead even before that. The Cougars entered Christmas break after beating Boise State 66-61 in Spokane in a game that Smith called a “big moment for sure.”

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Then, to open Pac-12 play on Dec. 29, WSU held a five-point lead with 15 minutes left at Utah but lost 80-58. WSU was assigned next to play at one of the conference’s toughest sites, Colorado.

“They blitzed us,” Smith said of the Utes. “I remember not sleeping the night before the Colorado game. I was terrified.”

But the Cougars played competitively against the Buffaloes, losing by just seven. Then they returned home to beat Oregon State and lost 89-84 to Oregon before winning 10 of their next 11.

“From what I saw in front of me it was like, `Our talent is fine.’ The experience was my concern,” Smith said of earlier moments this season. “You never know how it’s going to be put together. You don’t know how people are gonna react to adversity and there’s going to be tough situations coming. These guys seem to have improved every step of the way.”

They improved well enough that, in retrospect, their 73-70 win over Arizona on Jan 13 maybe wasn’t that huge a surprise.

The Cougars have been plowing through the Pac-12 in part by deploying a frequently switching defense that is keeping conference opponents to the lowest two-point percentage in conference play, just 46.7%. Offensively, they can pound the ball inside with a two-post offense that is similarly structured to how Arizona has been in some ways.

“They’ve got sneaky good size and strength and length, so they’re hard to score on around the basket,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said on his radio show Monday. “Offensively, if you really pay attention to it, it’s not too much different than what we’ve done, a little bit more in the past than this year. They have two bigs, they play through the high posts with them, they get side-ball screens and have some different spacing options.

“They may be a little bit more slower tempo in running it (than Arizona), but that doesn’t mean it’s less effective. They just do a really good job of controlling the ball and not getting in harm’s way.”

On Jan. 13, WSU held Arizona to just 34.7% shooting while outscoring the Wildcats in the paint, 34-32. Jones had 24 points and 13 rebounds while finding his way to the free-throw line 10 times. Cluff and backup center Rueben Chinyelu each had another six points, while Rice led the perimeter crew with 18 points, also getting to the line often and making 7 of 9 free throws.

The rematch is at McKale, where the Wildcats are undefeated at home this season.

But the Cougars handed UA one of its two losses at McKale Center last season, and their play so far this season suggests a repeat is possible.

They have a chance, maybe one last time, to lunge for the actual Pac-12 flag.

“We’ll see,” Smith said. “I mean, we’ve got a target now. Going down to Tucson will be quite a challenge.”