CHARLOTTE - Choose your own adjective for Washington State's style of basketball -- efficient, patient, sound, effective.

Go ahead and use the "b-word" if you'd like. The Cougars are used to that one, senior guard Derrick Low said Wednesday as Washington State prepared for its matchup tonight with North Carolina in the round of 16.

"People say it's boring," Low said, "but we have to apologize for getting back on defense and playing good defense? That's what we have to do to win. We have to apologize for taking good shots? That's how we play, whether you like it or not, it's not for you, it's for us."

And for the Cougars, a Pac-10 team as far removed from UNC as possible -- in terms of geography, style of play and program history -- their style works.

Coach Tony Bennett has won 26 games in each of his first two seasons in Pullman, Wash., located in the southeastern corner of the state near the Idaho border, about 2,730 miles northwest of Chapel Hill.

Bennett, who served as an assistant to his father, Dick, for three seasons before taking over in 2006, understands the boring label. His father heard the same criticism at Wisconsin. The father-son coaching combination was responsible for Wisconsin's infamous 19-17 halftime lead over Michigan State in the 2000 Final Four.

"The system we run, there's a perception -- and I'm used to it -- that it's boring; it's slow and it's not fun," Tony Bennett said. "I think we play good basketball."

How does Bennett, a 37-year-old former NBA player, prefer to describe it?

"In a nutshell I'd say, [we] make the other team work to get contested shots and [we] work to get good shots," said Bennett, who added the phrase "good Midwest basketball."

For the record, the elder Bennett -- who UNC coach Roy Williams described as an "old school, coach's coach" -- used the terms "blocker-mover" for the offense, and "Pack" or "Pack line" defense.

Whatever it's called, deliberate, defense-first, halfcourt basketball has the Cougars in the round of 16 for the first time in the program's history (compared to 22 times for UNC). The Cougars are better known for producing NFL quarterbacks than NBA players.

Even Washington State's best-known NBA player, Craig Ehlo, will be remembered as the Cleveland Cavaliers defender beaten when Michael Jordan hit "The Shot," an epic buzzer-beater in the 1989 playoffs.

The program's history-- this is its fifth tournament appearance -- hasn't stopped Bennett from building a winner. Unlike UNC's roster, with five McDonald's All Americans and five more players rated among the top 100 nationally in their high school recruiting class, the Cougars don't have many players who were coveted coming out of high school. For Kyle Weaver, their second-leading scorer, scholarship offers came from Washington State and one Division II program.

"We can't always recruit with the upper echelon teams in our league or the country," Bennett said. "We have a system that when we play together gives us a chance to be competitive."

While UNC was scoring 221 points in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, Washington State allowed Winthrop just 40 points and locked down Notre Dame, and Big East player of the year Luke Harangody, for 41 points.

Unlike Duke's brand of defense, the Cougars don't extend their perimeter pressure or overplay the passing lanes. They average 6.2 steals, which ranks 205th out of 336 teams.

Bennett's tenet is keep the ball out of the lane, prevent dribble penetration and make the opponent work for every shot, preferably a low-percentage one.

The Cougars rank second in the country in scoring defense, giving up 56.1 points per game.

"They guard you," Williams said. "You don't get an easy shot. Each time, Washington State is prepared to guard you for [the full] 35 seconds [of the shot clock]."

The Cougars' work on Harangody, who shot 3-of-17 and scored 10 points, impressed the Heels.

"They're a very smart team," UNC junior Danny Green said. "They play good defense. If you make any mistakes, they're going to capitalize on it."

Add smart to the list of adjectives. Low can think of one more.

"It works," he said. "So I don't have any complaints."