PULLMAN Mark Hendrickson is back. Is he ever. So, alas, are the Washington State Cougars.
Further back, in fact, in the Pacific-10 Conference standings than ever before following Cal's 87-79 victory Thursday night at Friel Court.
This is not quite the equal-and-opposite-reaction stuff we had drilled into us back in eighth-grade science, now is it? It was always too simplistic to assume that Hendrickson's return to the Cougars' lineup would chase the hangover of their recent slide like a couple of ibuprofin.
But let's be honest: The urgency of WSU's condition all but demands a quick-and-simple cure. Naturally, given the Cougars' karma this season, it was the Pac-10's most gifted team in California currently under-ranked at 25th nationally which drifted in with the snow to slow the recovery.
Match these teams 10 times at full strength and the Bears who didn't have point guard Jelani Gardner for this one win eight, maybe more.
"UCLA has four future pros," noted WSU coach Kevin Eastman. "One through 12, this is the most talented team and I'm not sure anyone's close."
Well, the Cougars were close on the scoreboard off and on within one possession of a tie or taking the lead on five separate occasions in the last two minutes. But when they lost Hendrickson to a broken hand at the end of the San Jose State game last month, the Cougars lost something else as well.
Eastman calls it their "attack" mentality, and he thinks his team took a giant step toward regaining it. Not bad, but not enough. The Cougars are even more desperate for a finish mentality. There was a stretch, about five minutes from game's end, when the Bears were willing to sign victory over to the Cougars.
Ten points ahead, Cal went more than three minutes with but a free throw and a layup and committed five turnovers. And in that span, the Cougars missed five free throws and two dunks. They kept the heat on, but the opportunity had slipped away.
"It's a little bit mental," said Hendrickson. "We've been in a lot of close games this year and we haven't made the key plays when we needed to, and that's something we have to overcome." But this was just one game. Four others slipped away in a different fashion while Hendrickson healed, and Thursday was a chance to remember just why he means more to the Cougars than any other Pac- 10 player means to his team.
The 27 points and 14 rebounds he amassed were just a way to prove it on paper. The anticipation built in the crowd of 6,500 or so just watching Hendrickson warming up, a pad on his left hand swathed in an Ace bandage. His introduction strategically saved for last brought them to their feet, and when he buried a 3-pointer six minutes into the game, the return was official.
But what surprised one and all Eastman included was that Hendrickson was able to go 35 minutes, wrestling Cal hulks Tony Gonzalez and Michael Stewart and the amazing Shareef Abdur-Rahim as if he'd never missed a start.
"We hadn't been playing well," said Hendrickson, who in addition to his hand wrap showed up after the game with ice packs on his left shoulder and left ankle, "and I was ready to do whatever it took to help this team win."
But the Cougars didn't; and if they don't soon, panic is bound to set in.
"The good thing is, the next game is just a couple days away," Hendrickson said, eyeing today's meeting with Stanford. "You don't have to wait around a week and have questions go through everybody's mind. It's important to just put this behind us and just try to get a win Saturday.
"Then we can try to let that snowball into something positive. When you're on a losing streak and not playing well enough to win games, it's difficult to get one. Once you do, you start believing that you can win."