Great win for the Dawgs for now and for next year. They show they have some heart which many of us began to question.

It was nice to see Romar pull guys that weren't hustling enough. By pulling Overton after that leisurely defensive jog up the court it sent a good message to the players. Also, I don't know if anyone else noticed but after Joel Smith lost control of the ball and then didn't make any real effort to go after it he was pulled almost immediately and did not return the rest of the game.

one of msnbc's top stories
http://all-access.cstv.com/cstv/player/player.html?code=wash&sport=m-baskbl&category=Press%20Conference%20%28MediaType%29&media=59328

wrong link sorry
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23100487/site/21683474/

One game does not make a great team Bob. For goodness sakes, listen (or rather read in this case) to yourself. You sound like a child giddish about getting this first toy truck when you speak about the Huskies 'finding themselves and proving to everyone that they are an NCAA tournament contender". For goodness sakes, it takes more that ONE GAME to garnet this kind of recognition given that the Huskies are in NINTH PLACE in the PAC-10.

Bob...act professional for once and call a spade a space and a crappy team a crappy team when it's true!

Has anyone heard a defense of Tim Morris's decision to THROW the ball at the UCLA defender's FACE?

brie,

The link describing Morris' in bound pass off the face of Aboya made me smile. When I saw Morris do that I was reminded of the first time I ever saw a player do that.

Back the 80's, Dr. Tom Davis at Iowa always had Iowa pressure the ball inbounds using big players. Brad Lohaus was a big 7 footer who kept pressuring the in-bounds against Indiana one night causing problems for them. Bobby Knight got sick of it and ordered the Indiana players to throw it off his face, just like Morris did.

They did it twice in that game. There was and still is nothing in the rules against it.

Another innovation by Knight. LOL.

I dont think Morris intentionally threw the ball at his face. I haven't seen anything out of him before that has indicated to me that he is that type of player. He was probably trying to throw the ball off of his body and somehow it slipped.

RNF,
All Bob is trying to say is that Romar thinks the Huskies have the talent and capability to be an NCAA caliber team.

Bob never said they are going to the NCAA's. If you interpreted that, you are reading a lot more into what he said than was intended.

Chill out.

hey "Reality - Not Fantasy":


perhaps you should brush up on your remedial reading and notice that Bob didn't say that this team was an NCAA Tournament contender, he said that they proved Romar right when he said they had the CAPABILITY to be an NCAA tourney contender. What Romar meant was that this team has the ability, if they were to play as they are capable of doing, to be able to compete with NCAA tournament quality teams, which they showed by outplaying UCLA today.


You are correct that it takes more than one game to prove they have turned the corner, but the simple truth that you intentionally ignore is that while they may be in 9th place RIGHT NOW, there are still 7 games left in this season and they are only 2 games out of 3rd place. Is it likely they will end up in 3rd? No, not at all, but if they truly have started to find themselves then it is realistic given how tighly packed the middle (3rd-9th) of the Pac-10 is right now that they could end up somewhere closer to the 4-6 range. You may prove to be right in the end, but with 7 games left it's just a little early for the rest of us to put up with your blindly pessimistic outlook.

Morris' play was total bush league!!!! Slipped out of his hand? The thug cocked his arm and aimed for his face!!! Complete BUSH LEAGUE. Luckily they were playing a classy UCLA team.

Josh,

Ya right. Morris absolutely intended to do what he did. Aboya was jumping over the line and Morris let him have it.

It is called emotion. I am sure he isn't proud of it and it was said he apologized.

But again, no rule against it either. Maybe it will make other teams think twice about how they defend the in bounds pass.

And maybe it will be the start of a different attitude for the Huskies. We can only hope.

JUST A BRIGHT SPOT NOTE. BOB mentioned that this is the third time UCLA has been outrebounded... welll this is the third time they lost to.. so thur ya go. point made. ALL im saying is that im encouraged by that fact, cuz i know how critical rebounds are in a game like this--grinding style...

Hey bob, on his way to the tunnel after the game, i noticed that lorenzo stopped and pulled a couple of people from the stands to come into the locker room with him. i thought one of them might be conroy, but couldn't tell from my vantage point. maybe recruits? do you know who it was?

Didnt see any of the game as i was working all day and had no radio to even listen so was very surprised when I turned on my phone and texts came flooding in! Great DUB DAWGS!!!! lets keep it up now and make a run towards the pac tourney. Havent saw any highlights but am dying to see this in bound pass.....sounds like David popin Goliath in the nose to me! why are the coug fans happy for the loss?...isnt stanford in first now? and fougs in third?

This echoes other posts, but I thought today was bittersweet. Obviously, it was great to see a team effort, and to see QP and others come out with a rare aggression and play like we've been waiting for them to. But why didn't this happen until it's too late? To me, the fact that we're capable of doing this and haven't been doing it ends up being more of an indictment of the team than if we'd come out and lost by 20. Aaargh.

The good news is we've got more hope than we had 3 days ago - yes, Venoy can score off the drive against long players...yes, QP can be aggressive...yes, Loro can switch up the gameplan...maybe next year is more promising than i thought

matty-
It's UCLA 1st and Standford 2nd. After that, it's everyone else.

Stanford...SORRY!!

for all you dentmon haters, here's a blurb from the LA times...you gotta admit he had a nice (if imperfect) game:

'And late in the game Coach Ben Howland switched Collison, his best on-ball defender, off Justin Dentmon after Dentmon beat him off the dribble for two of his game-high 20 points. Forward Jon Brockman had 12 points and 17 rebounds as the Huskies out-rebounded UCLA, 44-36.

"Darren just had a bad game today," Howland said.

Love said he had never imagined his point guard could be so easily negated offensively and defensively. "I've never seen a person scoring on Darren like that or having him taken out like that by another person," Love said.

"I was bad," Collison said. "It was horrible. I wasn't aggressive at all like I was before. I have no words to explain it."

UCLA fan in Seattle;

Be honest, if a UCLA player did something similar is basketball or football or any other sport, you would be calling it smart, or heads-up. Get over it. It is within the rules, and you are just a sore loser. Have fun losing in the final four again. You'll get there, but blow it somehow.

Go Dawgs:
I have noticed that they have tightened the space on the students, it is just a shame. And when they give 5 or 6 rows to football recruits who probably don't even know what is going on....I would rather lose a recruit because they didn't see a game than have less students being supportive and loud for our Dawgs. I wish I knew some of the bigger donors at the school, so I could get them to put pressure on them to get more students in there. It shouldn't come at the student's expense that they built a small arena.

UCLA fan - actually the two teams have the same conference record and the only reason UCLA would be the 1 seed in the Pac-10 tourney is that they beat stanford in their only meeting so far this season. Since they have the same record they are effectively tied right now and that second game between them will be HUGE.


Regarding today's game, this was the biggest losing margin for UCLA this season...

I am done now with all the.....(bah bah)....well guess there is one more out there....be back later

UCLA fan in Seattle,

Bush league Huh? What do you have to say about your boy Shipp throwing Venoy into the camera men under the basket. Talk about bush league. You're just pissed cause your team got dominated by the NINTH PLACE TEAM in the Pac 10. How bout them Apples??!!! BOW DOWN!!

Dawg2004
You WILL never see a UCLA player do that because they are too fundamentally sound for that. I'm not a sore loser. UCLA deserved to lose today. You may be right about UCLA losing again in the final four, but guess what? Your Dawgs will be watching the tourney along with you. Ouch!!

I went to the Zag game this weekend. It was the first time I have been to one.

If you want a primer on how a student section should be, use the Zags as exhibit A.

The entire lower section of one side is a sea of reddish orange. I figured there were about 1200 students. The intimidatiion factor of that was 2-3 times what it is in Hec Ed.

I was impressed by it.

But their cheerleaders sucked compared to the Husky's. Of course, they really didn't need cheerleaders though.

bleedin' purple
Therefore UCLA is in first place...period.

Bow Down!
Apples and oranges my friend.

You don't understand, throwing someone to the ground wrestling style is the way we do things at UCLA. And for me.....just getting to the final four is enough because we all get a trophy then. I like my smaller participant trophy.

I also love just trying our hardest, we get all the pre-season hype just to end up falling short. Maybe our track team will get us a championship this year!

You don't understand, throwing someone to the ground wrestling style is the way we do things at UCLA. And for me.....just getting to the final four is enough because we all get a trophy then. I like my smaller participant trophy.

I also love just trying our hardest, we get all the pre-season hype just to end up falling short. Maybe our track team will get us a championship this year!
Pretty cute for a Dawg fan!!!

eaaaaaaaaaaasy ucla fan...If I had to put money on the final four its on ucla. but it all depends on the matchups....if the matchups are right i like ucla, NC, Kstate, usc. Never been a fan of taking all the no.1 seeds.....kansas would be 5th team out. Call me crazy!!!!!! this may all change for me....but that would be my picks in the bracket after today

hey ucla fan,

as morris was trying to inbounds the ball, every member of the bruin bench was screaming in his ears. the fact that tim POUNDED the ball off aboya's face was a statement about the dawgs' failure to be intimidated.

should have happened long ago..

Bob

was just reading on scout about siva visit to loiusville and he said this

“I still like Louisville, Arizona and Kansas,” Siva said. “I’ll probably make a decision after my high school season.”

is udub not in the mix anymore at the top? if not this is very bad news.....romar better get to work

One time a while back I was watching a game and two players were falling out of bounds and the one with posession threw it off of the the others head (on accident) in order to retain position. He was called for a foul and the refs were like, hey you can't do that.

So I was suprised when the refs told Howland there was no rule against it. If it happened a lot then I am sure there would be.

But, whatever, that is not why the bruins lost. My biggest complaint about the bruins is they play a physical game and then they complain when others are physical with them. Hey, you guys are the ones who made the game physical so quit crying when it doesn't go your way.

The dawgs should pat themselves on their back for that performance. Now do it again.. against anyone.

Another great performance in a very up and down year. Those of us who have followed the Huskies all year have seen that they are capable of this kind of play--inspired teamwork, high b-ball IQ play, good shots taken, aggressive ball handling and defense and above all, consistency. They didn't get rattled--no matter how few of their FT's were going in. This would have been a 20 point loss for the Bruins had the Huskies been able to shoot those. But if they could shoot FT's they would be contending for the Pac-10 championship. It was so great to see JD play the kind of game we've all known that he should be playing. He was sharp, smart and aggressive. His shots had confidence and it showed--most went in. He opened up play for others to do their thing--Brockman was Brockman, Wallace was astounding on defense, as was Holliday and MBA. QPon and Appleby played strong as well and were able to shine when they were called upon. It was a great team effort. Hell, even Romar showed he was thinking ahead in the game when he switched to the zone D at the end of the game when it was still close. Surprised the Bruins and caught them off guard.

Never mind all of the numbskulls on this board. This was a great win for the team.

Quincy's passion after the game, followed by him and Brockman hugging... that's very encouraging.. It makes me think this team believes in itself!

Man, do we need a sweep in Oregon!!

Just so you know, folks, I was nowhere near a computer yesterday. I did not post. So I find it even more interesting that a Husky has nothing better to do than post under anothers moniker and then mock them later. If the idiot knew my posting prowess at all he/she would no I don't post on the weekends. Interesting to say the least. Thanks for your support, however, Snohomish Rick!

Very nice win for the Huskies yesterday. Too bad for them they have not brought that game every week or I do believe they would be in the mix. They still have 5 7 games left to right the ship and prove yestereday was no fluke.

Congrats!

It's possible that Morris meant to throw it off his chest and he was jumping up at the time.

It's also possible that the ref didn't do a good enough job to making the defender give Morris enough space and he had to take matters into his own hands. Frankly, I'm surprised refs don't enforce the space enough since often guys are right up in the inbounders' face.

If I'm Tim Morris in the future or anyone else and it's a vital in-bounds, I'd warn the guy in the future that if he doesn't give enough space, he'll throw it off his face (whether he meant to do it the first time or not).

BMA is going to be a good one. Love his long wing-span and also love how Dentmon and Q. Pon took it to the rack with no fear. They need to keep it up.

wayupwaydown, I enjoyed your blog about Knight and the two off the face inbound plays. Before reading that, the play in the UW game had reminded me of Elgin Baylor in SU's last win in their tourney run. The year was about 1958. SU had a small lead with little time left. I think there was no shot clock then. Baylor at 6' 53/4", 240 pulled out of the post and started jab-stepping and faking his much bigger opponent who almost fell down trying to guard on the perimeter. Then Baylor calmly bounced the ball off his head and got the return bounce. Next Baylor easily drove past him to the shoulder of the line, lifted and banked the ball high off the backboard. As other players headed in to get the rebound, Baylor collected the rebound on the other side of the free throw line and continued to dribble out the clock. In his prime if you could clone five Elgins, they could beat five Wilts or Oscars or five ------ fill in the blanks. He was Great!
.
Back to reality. Did the Huskies really beat UCLA? Go Huskies, sweep Oregon.

UCLA fan, you say, "Morris' play was total bush league!!!! Slipped out of his hand? The thug cocked his arm and aimed for his face!!! Complete BUSH LEAGUE. Luckily they were playing a classy UCLA team."

Yur right, except the bush league part. He did aim for his face and his aim was good. UCLA was classy about it later. It got the job done and I believe Morris was being crowded by some less than classy UCLA bench sitters. The next best thing would be a hard shot to the nards which we have all seen done. Trouble with the nards shot is the ball may not rebound out of bounds and the opposition gets a T O.
Yea Morris, Yea Huskies!

There was no malicious intent on Morris' part. I thought it was the funniest thing in the world...everytime I watch it I laugh harder.

Thank you whoever already put it on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZXPAl4-8f8

"No malicious intent", my ass. It is clear from MT Husky's link that Morris cocked his arm back and threw it like a baseball, straight into Aboya's face. However, no rules against it, and it's not like it's the first time this has ever happened. I agree it was good for the Huskies to show that they wouldn't be intimidated.

Congratulations on the win, that shocked us all! I'd like to think that the Cougs softened 'em up a bit but in reality UW just came to play. I think this league is all about matchups, and UW sure took Love and Collison out of the game.

MT: This is probably the one time I totally disagree with you. I really believe that if the roles were reversed you would not find it funny. Throwing it off his legs or his torso would have been a good play. Morris looked at him and intentionally threw it in his face. I am not saying it's illegal, I just think he could have made the play in a more sportsman-like way.

It is unfortunate some of yesterday's posts. I realize there are some outrageous Cougar fans out there just like there are outrageous Hukies fans. Why don't you just ignore them instead of sinking to their level.

The dumbest Husky post is by Bomberboy:

He spews fact about the Huskies record against the top tier teams in the PX versus the Cougs record. Your point? Why, after losing seven straight games to a team would you point out a ridiculous stat like that? It makes no sense. I have a feeling that Bomberboy is Mallory or related to him!

Some other really mature posts include "the red headed step child"--really? 3 of the last 4 in FB and 7 straight in BB! Hmmmmmmm! Ok, now go way back in history and pull out the records to prove your point! I'll take recent history over the rest anytime.

Someone posted last week that the blog was getting better because people were talking BB instead of trashing other schools and teams. Looks like one win brings out the idiots again!

It was funny regardless of which team did it. Yes, he cocked back his hand and hurled it, not out of maliciousness but out of panic. They had no timeouts, it was critical they don't turn the ball over, Morris is a class act...I absolutely believe I would have laughed just as hard if the situation were reversed.

C'mon, it was an instinctive panic reaction...and it was stinkin' hilarious!

If Morris did this again would I deem it 'cool'? Absolutely not. If I believed it were malicious would I think it 'cool'? No way. But when I watch it I absolutely think it was a panic reaction and I still think it is one of the funniest incidents I've ever seen on a b-ball court (regardless that it were a Husky at a Bruin...honest).

cougfan,

Agree about the idiot posters. It is hard for me to understand why a poster would assume other's identities and then post slams against them. Pretty cowardly. If someone has a disagreement, they should address it openly.

Someone on here gets their jollies from it. It is quite sad that they think it is funny, cute, or whatever. To me, it only makes me agree with their victims more.

AS far as Morris goes, well I think emotions got the best of him. But like someone said, the UCLA bench was harrassing the heck out of him, and UCLA is the team that brought physical play to the Pac Ten. I don't like what he did, but I hope in a way is inspires the team to be tougher.

I just watched it again trying to be unbiased and two things stand out to me:

1) I still think it is outrageously funny. Forget the teams and players...it is just a funny incident! Where are your senses of humor???

2) If it were that malicious don't you think Oboya would have reacted differently? And the Bruin bench? Morris was right in front of the bench. You don't think SOMEONE from the team would have retaliated?

They saw it for what it was (and I really do give Oboya and the Bruins credit for that).

Mt,

I think the Bruin's bench were too stunned to react. I don't think they believed what they saw.

As far as Aboya kind of hard to react when you get pounded in the face like that without warning. The ref got between them and talked them down too before he threw it in again.

When I saw it happen twice against Lohaus at Iowa in one game, I wasn't too happy about it either. But to your point, I also thought it funny in a perverse sort of way. That was a little different as Knight ordered his players to do it.

well... not much can be said besides the good stuff...

great win, great win, followed by a .... great win!

well not that many in a row but it sure feels like it.

Ref report. Absolute garbage like usual. BUT at least it wasn't lop sided. All their rediculus calls were pretty balanced. a one and one and they didn't let rebound. talk about bush league and we got the ball cause "[we] were closer"? what kind of call is that?!

How can you not like Morris' play... if it's not illegal then how can you hate it. That's like hating Broncos for "icing" the kicker... until it's proven illegal, you cannot hate... they are geniuses... I personally don't condone that rule and I don't like it, but you cannot argue with success and playing by the rules!

for once this season I saw the dawgs play with determination, aggressiveness, and hunger for the win... if we can see this more often then we will all be happy blogers...

Man I'm hung over...

Okay, my final comments on this:

I am really surprised it is this big of deal to a lot of people. I have coached and played b-ball my entire life and am a strong believer in respecting your opponent. I do not ever condone actions that are 'bush-league'. If Morris and the rest of the Huskies did acts like this often (ever!) it would not be funny at all...ESPECIALLY if it were instructed by a coach.

I had never seen anything like this happen before and to me it appears 100% as a panic reaction and I am not exaggerating when I say I fell off the couch laughing when I saw the instant-replay.

If it comes out that Morris brags that he did it to give Oboya a lesson or something of that nature I will back off all of my comments.

To me though I just saw it as a young man panicking, knowing he had no timeouts and could not afford a TO so he instinctively made his best effort to get a fresh 5 seconds.

If others think I'm classless for finding humor in it than all I can do is apologize and promise that for those who know me that is not my nature at all.

Now I find it kind of funny it is such a big deal...I just thought it was a great laugh.

Whew...I think I'm going to watch the clip again and get back to work! I've got a few molehills I need to make into mountains today!

Morris apologized to Aboya shortly after hitting his face. Does that count for anything? It doesn't mean it was unintentional, but perhaps he decided that if Aboya was going to crowd him against the bench like that he was going to make every effort to throw the ball out and if he got in the way, that is the hazard of the game. Morris doesn't strike me as the kind of player who would go out of his way to do this.

Would the cougs (and nike ducks) who come here please just post on coug (or duck) blogs? Honestly. You just come across like losers trolling around another team's blog.
Also, I see cougs saying this UW win over UCLA "helps them". Huh? As in the cougs honestly think they stand a snowball's chance in hell of catching the bruins (or cardinal)? Sorry to disappoint cougs, but UW's win doesn't do anything for the cougars. Nice season though, you got all the way up to #4 in the nation before you coug'd it!