THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: A stretch for the Cougs to prove themselves

Could Washington State truly be ready to join that small group of elite hoops programs in the Pac-12?

Really?

It’s true, the Cougs have won five straight, and they’re now 7-3 in conference play after a road sweep of Stanford and Cal — something WSU hadn’t managed since 1993.

Excitement is seeping in among the Wazzu faithful, what with several ranking and analytic systems tagging the young and improving Cougs as an NCAA tournament team.

I mean, who might throw cold water on all this now?

Um, well ...

Coach Kyle Smith is a candidate.

“We’re not there yet,” Smith said in reference to the Cougs’ hopes of joining all the national debates about the best teams from region to region.

The fact that Smith declined to give his club too much hype at this point may have something to do with the schedule.

WSU (14-7 overall) hosts No. 4 Arizona (20-2, 10-1 in the Pac-12) on Thursday night at Beasley Coliseum.

Smith had a succinct description of former Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats.

“A juggernaut,” he said.

HEY, IT’S pretty cool that Wazzu, which has spent some long, dark stretches in the basketball wilderness, is legitimately eyeing a spot in the March Madness party.

Great stuff.

Arizona, though, is gunning seriously for the Final Four — perhaps even to cut down the nets in a sea of confetti, perhaps celebrating what would be the Cats’ second national championship, after a quarter-century wait since that first one in 1997.

“They’re huge and talented inside (Christian Koloko, Azuolas Tubelis and Gonzaga transfer Oumar Ballo),” Smith said, “and they have wings like (Dalen) Terry and (Bennedict) Mathurin who are just great players … elite athletes.”

Lloyd has this gifted group playing fast and loose — averaging 85.1 points per game — and with distinct unselfishness (20 assists per game).

The Cats are having fun, which is pretty much what you’d expect from Lloyd, who spent two decades as Mark Few’s top assistant in Spokane.

Smith made a particular point that Arizona has a real swagger, and suggested a lot of it comes from feisty Estonian point guard Kerr Kriisa.

“He reminds me of a guy we had at San Francisco, Frankie Ferrari,” Smith said, laughing about how both are lightning-rod performers who become VERY unpopular in opposing arenas.

The comparison to Ferrari also was meant as a compliment in terms of bona fide production — since Ferrari has played professionally in Europe and currently is averaging eight assists per game for Santa Cruz in the NBA’s G-League.

Smith, who has a great self-deprecating sense of humor, said he tried to recruit Kriisa, adding: “We were in on him, or at least I thought we were. But maybe he didn’t think the same thing.”

That recruiting struggle was always going to be uphill for WSU, however, since Kriisa was actually named for Arizona legend and current Golden State coach Steve Kerr.

HOWEVER things go this week against Arizona’s “juggernaut,” by the way, there’s no denying that Smith already has presided over a pretty remarkable turnaround.

Smith said in his regular Tuesday media session that last week’s grind-it-out wins over Stanford (who previously had won in Pullman) and Cal felt like the kind of games the Cougars were throwing away early in the year — against the likes of Eastern Washington, South Dakota State and New Mexico State.

Remarkably, Wazzu has led at halftime in 19 of its 21 games, which (simple math here) tells you that five games got away.

Really winnable games, too.

On top of that, one of the Cougs’ three Pac-12 losses was against 21st–ranked USC, a 63-61 heartbreaker in which sharpshooter Noah Williams had a super chance to win it with an open 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer.

WHETHER or not Washington State can turn its fairly dramatic mid-season improvement into an NCAA bid will unfold in a blur of critical games.

With two COVID-postponed contests now back on the schedule, the Cougs will play 10 times in 24 days — including home-and away dates with Washington, Oregon and Oregon State; a gee-what-fun vacation trip to southern California for bouts with USC and 12th-ranked UCLA; and of course, Thursday’s challenge against Arizona.

Smith has reason to feel Wazzu is up for the fight.

Not only is his club exceptionally young — 6-11 freshman center Mouhamed Gueye should still be a senior in high school — but key players (Efe Abogidi, Tyrell Roberts) have suffered from time off with injuries or illness, and leading scorer Michael Flowers is a transfer (South Alabama) who took time adjusting to his new environment.

It’s taken work and patience, not to mention a few doses of frustration, but the Cougs have begun winning those gut-check games that were slipping away early in the year.

How far can this growth take them now?

It’ll be fun to find out.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published weekly during the season.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”