This road trip is a smart play, and we should be paying closer attention to it. Taking the whole hoops program north to Coeur d'Alene for a few days isn't just a change of scenery, it's a deliberate move to build something before the season gets real. The team needs time together away from campus, and this is exactly how you get it.
Look, Pullman in late summer is quiet. The students aren't back in full force, and the practice gym can start to feel like the same four walls you've been staring at since June. Getting the roster into Idaho, running sessions in a different gym, and sleeping in hotel rooms forces a kind of focus you don't get when guys can wander back to their apartments. This is the same kind of trip that helped the squad find its rhythm earlier this year, when they Cougs sit pretty heading into Coeur d'Alene's third round and looked like a team that knew what it was doing. That wasn't an accident. That was reps and chemistry on the road.
And it's not just about the men's side. The women's program has also used this setup to sharpen its edge, particularly when Boenning's final round pushes Cougs to seventh in Coeur d'Alene during a tournament that tested the whole roster. That result showed depth and grit in a pressure setting, which is exactly what you want to see before the conference schedule starts chewing teams up. The current trip is a chance for this year's group to find that same kind of identity.
Here's the takeaway you can text a friend: this trip is about finding your five before the lights get bright. Coeur d'Alene is close enough to feel like home but far enough to kill distractions. If the Cougs come back with a tighter rotation and a clearer pecking order, those hours on the road will have been worth more than another week of scrimmaging in the same old gym. Watch how the lineups shake out when they return. That's the real story. Go Cougs.