College basketball rankings: No. 16 Washington State faces pivotal test as Cougars remain in Pac-12 title hunt

Kelvin Sampson and Tony Bennett are both former Washington State coaches who will likely someday be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame after combining to spend 10 seasons with the Cougars. And yet, great as they were and are, neither managed to win a regular-season title while in the Pac-12 — and that’s among the reasons Washington State hasn’t actually won a conference title since 1941.

It’s been a minute.

Which is why what’s happening late Thursday is such a big deal. Because, what’s happening late Thursday is that Washington State is playing at Arizona, and if the Cougars win, they’ll go to bed alone atop the Pac-12 standings with just four regular-season games remaining. Obviously, winning at Arizona won’t be easy considering the Wildcats are 13-0 inside the McKale Center, coming off of a 105-60 victory over Arizona State and favored by 13.5 points. But to focus too much on that is to miss the point entirely — the point being that fifth-year coach Kyle Smith has this historically struggling program that was picked 10th in the Pac-12 in the preseason in position in late February to maybe win a conference championship for the first time in more than eight decades. Wow. Not to suggest anybody is into moral victories or anything of the sort, but this moment — this day Washington State fans are getting to enjoy looking forward to a massive event that could determine a league championship — is worth celebrating regardless of how things go in this showdown between the Pac-12’s top two teams.

“We’ve got a target now,” Smith told Tucson.com’s Bruce Pascoe, the implication being that a ranked Washington State team on a seven-game winning streak won’t be sneaking up on the Wildcats. “Going down to Tucson will be quite a challenge.”

Washington State is No. 16 in Thursday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Arizona is No. 4. Tip is scheduled for a little after 11 p.m. ET on FS1.

In: Texas TechOut: Kentucky