Husky Men's Basketball Blog

I talked for a while this week with Stanford center Brook Lopez, one-half of the Lopez twins tandem that figures to make life difficult for the Huskies in Palo Alto Thursday night.

One of my questions to him concerned his older brother, Alex.

In case you've forgotten, Alex Lopez played for the Huskies in the 1994-95 season and into January of the 1995-96 season before transferring due to a lack of playing time. He finished his career at Santa Clara. Here's an old story from the Times written when Lopez transferred.

What I hadn't known was that the entire Lopez family moved to Seattle when Alex first became a Husky, including little brothers Brook and Robin.

"We moved up to Washington for his first year,'' Brook Lopez said.

Brook said the family had decided to move back to California the next year before Alex made the decision to transfer to live in Fresno near grandparents. Still, it's worth wondering what might have happened had Alex had a good career at UW and the family decided to stay in Seattle. Imagine a frontcourt of Spencer Hawes, Jon Brockman and the Lopez twins.

Brook was obviously young when Alex played at UW and he said he had no real thoughts on what happened with Alex or whether that affected how his family felt about Washington.

The family's mother, Deborah Ledford, was a swimmer at Stanford and had wanted Alex to become a Cardinal, and the twins say they never seriously considered any other school.

Alex Lopez is now the head basketball coach at El Camino Real High in Woodland Hills, Calif.

The main focus of our conversation was the fact that the Lopez twins played on the same high school team as UW forward Quincy Pondexter at San Joaquin Memorial in Fresno. Much of that will be included in a story in Thursday's paper.

But I also asked Brook Lopez about the one time he faced off with Hawes. Hawes recalled earlier this week that the only time they played each other was the final AAU game of Hawes' career. He said he had 35 points and 15 rebounds but that the team the Lopez twins were on won.

Said Brook Lopez: "He has so many post moves he can use against you. He's a great player. He has so much variety. He has his hook shots, he uses the glass well, a lot of bank shots, he can get you up and go around you. He shoots the ball really well.''

Brook Lopez had a back injury earlier in the year but said he's now about 75 percent. He got his first start Sunday when Stanford beat Virginia and figures to start again against UW alongside his brother.

Good morning.

I'll refer you first today to a couple of stories in our paper.

First, here's our Pac-10 notebook, with an emphasis on the continuing show of strength by the conference. It's now realistic to think the conference could get six teams in the NCAA tournament --- and that's potentially good news for the Huskies, who might need all the help they can get come March.

Also in the notebook is an item on C.J. Giles and the fact that he did look into coming to UW, but the Huskies --- already full on scholarships --- weren't interested. Also included is a note that UW and WSU have never before been ranked at the same time, and only once (1949-50) have been ranked in the same season.

Next is our Husky notebook, with a lead item on Tim Morris and his possible contribution to Thursday's game at Stanford even though he won't be playing. Morris is sitting out this season as a transfer from The Farm, and will have one year of eligibility next year. He said it's particularly frustrating sitting out this year because he feels he is much-improved and would like to be able to show it on the court. It's easy to overlook when anticipating next season the impact Morris could make.

And in some alumni news, here's a story on Will Conroy being named the Player of the Week in the NBA Developmental League.

If you happen to get NBATV, pay attention for the NBADL Game of the Week. I was flipping through the channels Sunday and saw part of a Tulsa-Arkansas game featuring Conroy.