By martin renzhofer

| The Salt Lake Tribune

Ogden • Weber State’s players learned a valuable lesson last season, one that has helped this year.

WSU discovered that not only could it compete without its best player, it could also be successful.

At a glance

—

Weber State’s Big Sky schedule

Date Opponent Time

Thursday Idaho State 7 p.m.

Saturday Sacramento State 2 p.m.

Jan. 5 at Eastern Washington 8 p.m.

Jan. 7 at Portland State 8 p.m.

Jan. 12 Montana State 7 p.m.

Jan. 14 Montana 7 p.m.

Jan. 19 Northern Arizona 7 p.m.

Jan 26 at Sacramento State 8 p.m.

Jan 28 at Idaho State 7 p.m.

Feb. 2 Portland State 7 p.m.

Feb. 4 Northern Colorado 5 p.m.

Feb. 9 at Northern Arizona 6:30 p.m.

Feb. 11 Eastern Washington 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 15 at Montana State TBA

Feb. 18 Sears Bracketbusters TBA

Feb. 23 at Northern Colorado 7 p.m.

Feb. 28 at Montana 7 p.m.

—

Idaho State at Weber State

At Dee Events Center, Ogden

Tipoff » Thursday, 7 p.m.

TV » None

Radio » 1280 AM

Records » WSU 8-3, ISU 2-9

Series record » WSU 70-40

Last meeting » WSU 63-39 (Feb. 22, 2011)

About the Wildcats » WSU is one win away from the 900th in school history (899-523). …The ’Cats have made 192 of 242 free throws and their 79.3 percentage ranks as the third-best in the country.

About the Bengals » Deane Martin takes over as the interim coach for the rest of the season after Joe O’Brien resigned on Dec. 19 after nearly six seasons as head coach. …The Bengals have lost four straight games.

	Join the Discussion
	Post a Comment

This season, despite the temporary loss of two starters, the Wildcats, heavy preseason conference favorites, have enjoyed their best preseason schedule in 12 years and are sailing into their Big Sky Conference opener 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Dee Events Center against struggling 2-9 Idaho State.

"It feels like right where we want to be," said high-scoring junior guard Damian Lillard, who was lost to a broken foot last year after nine games. "Maybe we’re a little ahead than we expected with [Frank Otis] and [Kyle Bullinger] being out. Going into conference, I feel like we’re rolling."

Instead of causing panic, the loss of Bulllinger to a dislocated right elbow on Dec. 3 against San Jose State and Otis to a knee injury Dec. 7 at BYU actually worked in Weber State’s favor.

"Anytime you can be one more player deep, it helps your team," said Lillard, tied for the national lead in scoring with an average of 25.4 points per game.

WSU coach Randy Rahe adjusted on the fly with a three-guard offense, moving sophomore guard Scott Bamforth to the wing. Two freshmen — guard Gelaun Wheelwright and post James Hajek — have also stepped right in, as has sophomore guard Jordan Richardson.

"We were a little ugly early," Rahe said. "We had a five-day stretch there in practice where it was, ‘Who’s on first?’ We’ve been smoothing out."

It was during the second half at California, when the ’Cats sliced the Bears’ advantage to single digits, that Rahe could see his team "get it."

Weber State’s 8-3 nonconference record is its best winning percentage entering Big Sky play in 12 years. The Wildcats are 6-0 in the Dee Events Center, including an 80-51 beatdown of Utah, which is their best home start to a season since 2002-03, when they finished 13-0 at home.

Of WSU’s three losses, including at St. Mary’s, its blowout defeat at BYU was the only game this season in which the Wildcats weren’t competitive, thanks to injury, illness and the improving Cougars.

"I’ll be honest," Rahe said, "I like where we’re at. I like the fact that we’ve had to make adjustments with injuries and our guys have done nothing but put their nose to the grindstone and try to figure out how to get better.

"We’re a lot closer than I imagined we’d be with these injuries."

martyr@sltrib.com

Twitter: @Tribmarty