Washington State Cougars
Like UCF, Washington State is one of those teams that hasn’t necessarily done damage to its resume but also hasn’t moved the needle in a positive direction. A win over Boise State is countered by a loss to Santa Clara, with average metrics at best.
But after starting 1-3 in league play, including road losses to Utah and Colorado, the Cougars had a breakthrough past week. The first came on the road at USC, benefitting from an Isaiah Collier injury to win 72-64, led by 26 points and 11 rebounds from Isaac Jones. With a NET ranking around 100, that’s a solid Quad 2 win for Wazzu.
The big win came this weekend, taking out Arizona at home. In a close game that went the Cougars’ way at the end, they got the massive 73-70 upset win, thanks to another 24 points and 13 rebounds from Jones, along with 18 from freshman Myles Rice. It’s both a Quad 1 and true signature resume win from the one team in the Pac-12 where that kind of victory matters in March.
Washington State did what it needed to do to get on the bubble but they have to start stringing wins along. The next two games are on the road, taking on Stanford and Cal. These will be Quad 3 battles so a loss would hurt the Cougars so they need to find a way to get a sweep.