Having Tyreese Breshers or Isaiah Thomas come in and produce as freshmen would go along way in validating Romar's recruiting abilities. Washington will wtill get quality play out of big man Jon Brockman, but someone else on the roster needs to show they are a star player. If Washington fails to put together a quality season soon, then recruiting will be the least of the Huskies' problems.
Washington St. [07-08: T-3rd, 26-9 (11-7)]
Key Returners: Taylor Rochestie (56.8 eFG%, 3.2 RPG, 4.7 APG), Aron Baynes (60.0 eFG%, 6.0 RPG, .3 APG), Daven Harmeling (55.0 eFG%, 2.2 RPG, .8 APG).
Key Losses: Kyle Weaver (50.3 eFG%, 5.3 RPG, 4.3 APG), Derrick Low (55.2 eFG%, 1.8 RPG, 1.6 APG), Robbie Cowgill (54.1 eFG%, 5.1 RPG, .7 APG).
Key Additions: Michael Harthun (Rivals: 3/5, #29 SG, #115 Overall)
Washington St. is a bizarre team to say the least. Somehow they developed into a top-ten team without a single heralded recruit or even a particularly well known coach. No offense to Dick Bennett, he did lead 8 seed Wisconsin to the final four in 2000 after all, but nobody could have expected what has happened in WSU Basketball over the last two years.
But can this trend possibly continue? Current coach Tony Bennett returns a solid core of starters; Taylor Rochestie is a deceptively athletic guard who can shoot from the perimeter and create his own shot. In addition, Aron Baynes uses his body to create space in the post better than just about every other center in college basketball. Rounding out the veteran trio is sharpshooting forward Daven Harmeling. Still, coach Bennett faces the sizeable challenge of replacing the lost offensive production from Weaver, Low, and Cowgill in a system that emphasizes defense and slow tempo. There is no real telling who will replace these players, but then again, there was no real telling that the Cougars were going to be this good in the first place.
Next year will be a pivotal year for Washington St. If Bennett can continue to win with under-recruited talent he will certainly go down as one of the best at developing players in the NCAA despite his young age. Additionally Bennett could establish WSU as a long-term Pac-10 power. However, if they return to mediocrity then the past two seasons will likely be viewed as a statistical anomaly, and Bennett will not have the the number of high quality coaching job offers available. Here's to hoping that he doesn't become a victim of his own success.
Pre-Declaration Pre-Season Pre-dictions (Get it?):
| 1.) | UCLA | 6.) | Oregon |
| 2.) | Arizona St. | 7.) | Washington |
| 3.) | USC | 8.) | California |
| 4.) | Arizona | 9.) | Stanford |
| 5.) | Washington St. | 10.) | Oregon St. |
Final Thoughts***
- Simply put, the Pac-10 will not be as good top to bottom next season as they were last season
- The Pac-10 will send no more than five teams to next year's NCAA tournament
- No team will finish conference play undefeated, no team will finish without a win in conference
* No attempt at predicting who may or may not enter the draft were made. All players who have declared, whether they signed with an agent or not, are assumed to be gone from school.
** All statistics taken from kenpom.com and sportsillustrated.cnn.com
*** I will do a short update after the NBA draft declaration deadline
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