Bennett's Cougars Are on the Up-and-Up

During those early years, Washington State could not beat out one school from a power conference for talent, so the Bennetts targeted an collection of unsung players, self-described underdogs. As he had done before, Dick Bennett aimed to assemble a core group with strong character that would endure adversity but eventually blossom into a cohesive unit as upperclassmen.

The biggest coup was point guard Derrick Low, a Honolulu native who chose the Cougars over Utah and Gonzaga. Weaver's most significant interest came from Winona State, a Division II school in Minnesota. Forward Daven Harmeling mulled over an opportunity to walk on at Colorado State for his first season. Harmeling said a Colorado State coach pulled up the Washington State Web site, recited its recent string of losing seasons and asked, "Do you really think they can turn it around and make the NCAA tournament?"

"Yes," Harmeling replied. "Don't you know Dick Bennett?"

Then there was guard Taylor Rochestie, whose career hit a road block two years ago when, as a player at Tulane, he was without a campus in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. After transferring, Rochestie has decided to give his scholarship next year to a recruit to help the program in the future.

"They recruit kids who are so selfless, and that is foreign in today's game -- foreign," said Brad Soderberg, who played for Dick Bennett and is a longtime friend and mentor of Tony Bennett. "I don't know if they will beat O.J. Mayo one on one, but they are good when they are among others that believe the same thing -- so good that they are doing things that seem unbelievable."

Players have no illusions that they possess a talent surplus. Harmeling, a redshirt junior, views every player he covers in a game as more talented than he is. Low, who sports long, flowing hair, said he is often dismissed because "apparently I don't pass the visual test, which is very true."

"The funniest thing for me is, when I watch a [former] high school all-American that used to be flashy on TV, and I see him having to guard Derrick for one game and get hit with 198 screens," Rochestie said. "Then after the game he can't breathe because he is so tired and we're making the game look easy because our team is just flowing."

After their first winning season since 1996, Cougars players acknowledge their margin for error is razor-thin. While other teams can rely on talent to win games, Harmeling said, Washington State must give maximum effort just to have a chance to win any game.

Even with his team's top 10 ranking, Tony Bennett plays up the fighter mentality so much he has a large picture of Rocky Balboa behind his desk, a visualization of the philosophy developed by his father, the program's original architect. "If you ever stop selling that at a school like Washington State, you'd be doomed," Dick Bennett said. "You're not going to strut around like you're better than UCLA. That mentality is necessary and you have to feed on it. Play it to the hilt."