Battle for Pac-10 title gets Northern exposure

It seems an unlikely place to decide the Pacific 10 Conference champion, in Pullman, at Washington State, the team picked to finish last in the league five months ago.

But the 13th-ranked Cougars (23-5, 12-4) are only two games behind the first-place and second-ranked Bruins (25-3, 14-2) with two conference games to play. UCLA Coach Ben Howland said Tuesday it was certainly not him who thought Washington State would be last in the league.

“I thought they’d be right there at the top,” he said. “If someone told me Washington State would be in the Final Four a month from now, that wouldn’t surprise me.”

Howland said that under first-year Coach Tony Bennett, who succeeded his father, Dick, the Cougars are “playing with a little more reckless abandon. They’re still a very patient team, a team that uses the shot clock and is very patient in half-court sets. But they are pushing the ball a little harder, running the floor.”

Washington State’s backcourt of juniors Kyle Weaver and Derrick Low is among the top 10 in the country, according to Howland.

Howland said that Bruins point guard Darren Collison was not at his best in last week’s victories over California and Stanford, at least scoring-wise. Collison was six of 18 from the field and, despite being the conference’s top three-point shooter, missed his only two three-point shots.

“He’s got to have a real solid week for us to have success on the road,” Howland said. “He did not have one of his better weekends. Part of it was, we just got back from Arizona and all of a sudden he’s hearing ‘You’re Allen Iverson.’ He just needs to stay levelheaded.”

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Center Lorenzo Mata said he was poked in the right eye Saturday against Stanford and that the injury was serious enough that he had a head X-ray Monday.

“But I’m fine,” Mata said. “Everything’s fine.”

Howland took exception to talk he said he has heard on radio and television about sophomore forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute’s supposed knee tendinitis.

“His knees have never been a problem,” Howland said. “I keep listening to that on replays. A lot of guys have tendinitis in their knees. Josh [Shipp] has tendinitis. Mike Roll’s knee. It’s from playing basketball every day.”

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If Washington State beats UCLA and USC this weekend and UCLA loses to the Cougars and Washington, Washington State would earn a share of the Pac-10 title, its first since 1941.

Washington State has sold out both games of a Pac-10 homestand for the first time in 25 years.

diane.pucin@latimes.com