Husky Men's Basketball Blog

The Huskies were understandably down after the close loss to Pitt, that could have instead been the best win of the season.

Players said they thought Justin Dentmon's shot had gotten off in time but were also resigned to the ruling by officials.

"From where I was sitting, if I was the ref, I would have called it good,'' said UW guard Ryan Appleby. I'll have more on the last shot and the reaction to that in my main story.

Aside from the ending, UW coach Lorenzo Romar said he saw a lot of posititves saying he thought "we scrapped a little harder'' in the second half.

"I thought there were more possessions in this gamee where we did a decent job of guarding,'' he said. "We also only turned the ball over eight times. And 18 assists on 29 field goals is a pretty good job.''

Indeed, the eight TOs was the fewest of the year and a real bright spot.

You also saw just how big a difference Appleby can make, not only with his shooting (18 points) but helping steady the offense.

"Add him to the mix and they become a different team,'' said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon.

Also saw a breakout for Artem Wallace, who had six points in 16 minutes after playing just 18 in the first seven games, as well as a nice last three minutes from Quincy Pondexter, who really struggled early (he had four of the team's turnovers) but hit two three-pointers late and also a highlight-reel block to keep UW in it.

Romar said the revamped starting lineup --- Joe Wolfinger, Joel Smith and Tim Morris started for Pondexter, Dentmon and Matthew Bryan-Amaning --- was based on defense in practice.

"We went with those who had shown the biggest commitment to defense,'' he said. "Nothing else. Stats, nothing else mattered. The ones who made the biggest commitment are the ones we went with.''

Jon Brockman got hit in the jaw early but returned to the game and said later he's fine.