PULLMAN, Wash. — The era of stability that propelled Washington State’s basketball team to unprecedented heights is over.

Tony Bennett left after last season to become coach at Virginia. Taylor Rochestie, Aron Baynes, Caleb Forrest and Daven Harmeling – the remaining players from the corps that revitalized the program – graduated.

New coach Ken Bone was hired away from Portland State, and inherits a team filled mostly with sophomores and freshmen.

“We are rebuilding in the sense that when WSU had the most success in the history of the program, it was living off upperclassmen,” Bone said. “We have one senior and no juniors. We are real young.”

But there is plenty of talent. Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto, both picked for last year’s Pac-10 all-freshman team, are back. So is Nik Koprivica, the only senior, and Marcus Capers, who got plenty of minutes at the end of last season.

Bennett in three seasons took the Cougars to consecutive NCAA tournaments and last year to the NIT, the first such postseason run in the program’s history. Before that he was an assistant for three years as his father, Dick, rebuilt the moribund program on a foundation of modest talent and stout defense.

Their efforts converted sleepy Friel Court into a packed and noisy home field, with attendance quadrupling.

But can the success survive the departure of the Bennetts?

Last year, the Cougars finished 17-16, and seventh in the Pac-10 with an 8-10 league record. They lost to St. Mary’s in the first round of the NIT.

They have a legitimate star in Thompson, a 6-foot-6 sophomore who is the son of former NBA standout Mychal Thompson. Klay started all 33 games as a freshman, averaging 12.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. He made 41 percent of his 3-pointers and 90 percent of his free throws.

“He’s the one guy in the program who can really shoot from the perimeter,” Bone said.

Casto, a 6-foot-8 forward from Spokane, is still recovering from knee surgery and was only recently cleared to play.

“We need to keep a close eye on him and manage his minutes,” Bone said of the player who averaged 4.4 points and 4 rebounds in 16 minutes last season, and blocked 39 shots.

Thompson and Casto both played on the U.S. U-19 World Championship team that won gold last summer.

Koprivica, the lone senior, averaged 3.1 points and dished 52 assists in starting 18 games last season. Capers started nine games. No one else on the roster played more than 6 minutes per game.

The top newcomer may be Reggie Moore, a 6-foot-2 guard from Seattle who played last year at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. He is a cousin of former Oregon star Aaron Brooks.

Charlie Enquist and newcomer Xavier Thames, from Elk Grove, Calif., are also expected to contribute.

Bone said the Cougars will play a little faster than they did during the Bennett era.

“The biggest difference people will see is WSU pushing and advancing the ball quicker in transition,” Bone said. That should mean more shots, taken earlier in the clock.

“Doing that means higher scores,” Bone said. “But there will be high scores on the other end, too.”

The Cougars have an odd non-conference schedule. They open with three straight home games against lightly regarded Mississippi Valley State, Eastern Washington and Indiana-Fort Wayne. But their only other non-conference home game is against Idaho on Dec. 9. They play at Gonzaga and in Spokane against Air Force. They play Louisiana State in their annual home game in Seattle, and Portland State in Kennewick.

“I wish we had a lot more home games,” Bone said.

Bone spent the past four years at Portland State, leading the Big Sky Conference team to back-to-back NCAA tournaments. Prior to that he was an assistant to Lorenzo Romar at the University of Washington, helping rebuild that program. The Seattle native also coached for 12 years at Seattle Pacific.

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER