Michelle Smith: Washington State women's basketball creating a winning tradition

NCAA.com named Washington State its National Team of the Week after the Cougars cemented their status as road warriors with the program’s first sweep in Arizona since 2012-13.

WSU’s wins over Arizona State and then-No. 19 Arizona improved their road record this season to 8-1 and pushed their Pac-12 record to 5-5, keeping them in a strong NCAA Tournament position with a NET ranking of 39.

Now comes the biggest test of the season on their home floor, a matchup against second-ranked Stanford on Friday night. The Cougars are 0-71 all-time against the Cardinal.

“I don’t want our kids to claim what happened before they got here,” said Cougars coach Kamie Ethridge. “Historically, it shows how bad we’ve been and how good they’ve been and that’s the thing we are trying to change. We are trying to create a winning tradition like that.”

A third straight appearance in the NCAA bracket is a good start. Beating ranked opponents is as well.

The 70-59 win over Arizona in Tucson Sunday was a bit of a surprise in the sense that junior guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, the league’s leading scorer for much of the season so far, went 0-for-13 from the floor, and the Cougars still pulled out a double-digit win thanks to 18 points from Bella Murekatete and the second-straight double-double by Tara Wallack.

Having Leger-Walker on the floor, whether she is in a groove or not, is obviously key to the Cougars’ success. When she was gone over two separate weekends, dealing with a family issue in New Zealand, Washington State was 0-4.

Ethridge said that Leger-Walker is back for good for the rest of the season.

“She’s here and ready to go and to help us achieve some goals,” Ethridge said, who said she thought Leger-Walker just lost some of her shooting touch from being away from the floor while traveling. Even with the tough offensive outing, she is still averaging 19.2 points a game.”

“The rest of her game, it doesn’t matter, her floor game, her leadership, her defensive presence, she’s just magical,” she added. “But shooting is something you have to hone in on. It’s just going to take a little extra time to get up some extra shots.”

Ethridge said the word she has used more than any other this season is consistency.

“We have had wild swings of playing really well and not playing well, but I think we’ve balanced ourselves defensively,” Ethridge said. “On the offensive side, we have the building blocks, but we need more weapons, more talent and more depth. It felt for a while like there’s something missing, like the mortal between the bricks. But I think we know what we are isn’t what we’ve been in the past and I’m excited about that. We haven’t hit our ceiling.”

Washington State has eight games left, including a pair of tough road trips to Utah and Colorado and close the regular season at the Los Angeles schools. Opportunities and challenges, Ethridge said.

“I have a healthy fear of the teams in this league,” she said with a chuckle.

But first, the Cardinal.

The Cougars are preparing for a Stanford squad that is “different” than it was a year ago, Ethridge said.  While they may not have the ability to stretch the floor with 3-point shooters, their size, their experience, their depth inside and their length is still a huge challenge.

“We’ve got to be good, because they won’t beat themselves,” Ethridge said. “They have transitioned, which happens when you lose good players. But they replaced them with unbelievable talent. They are not counting on one or two people, they have a boatload and hopefully by now, we are also well-advanced and versatile in what we do.”

Wildcats, Bruins looking for a rebound

Arizona has a very big weekend coming up, a set of games against No. 14 UCLA and USC that offer the opportunity to get back on track after three losses in the last five games, including last week’s home loss to Washington State.

“I’m really excited to see how we react after a tough weekend last week. Even though we won against Washington, we didn’t play our best basketball, and I think we played really poorly against Washington State,” said Arizona coach Adia Barnes. “In the past we’ve had some really good reactions and bounce-back games after losses, so it’s real. It’s go-time.”

The Washington State loss caused Arizona to drop to No. 22 in the national rankings.

With eight games to go, Barnes said her team realizes it needs to “win some games.”

UCLA, for its part, is coming off a difficult weekend of its own, getting swept in its road trip against No. 9 Utah and then-No. 25 Colorado. It was UCLA’s first consecutive losses of the season.

“Our last three games have been one-possession games in the final minute. Welcome to the Pac-12,” Cori Close said. “We have had some hard film sessions (this week). It’s good learning, but it’s really painful and we know we have a lot of things to learn. We are still growing.”

Close called this part of the season “the grind.”

“I watched the Washington State-Arizona game and I know they are pissed and we are pissed," she said. "It’s going to come down to which team plays to their identity and uses the pain of the past weekend to create change. For me, it’s more than getting in the win column. It’s about responding.”