Husky Men's Basketball Blog

Lots of positives tonight other than the gnawing feeling of wondering why the Huskies haven't played like this all season.

But then maybe it's just that home-road thing --- UW is now 16-2 at home and 1-10 on the road.

Among the positives:

--- The play of Justin Dentmon as he made three early three-pointers and had no turnovers in 32 minutes. His only other no turnover game came in 24 minutes against Idaho Nov. 29.

"I think he had a real high level of concentration,'' UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. "Consequently, he did a great job of taking care of the ball.''

Dentmon said it will help his confidence heading into the UCLA game Saturday.

---- UW's three-point shooting, as the Huskies hit 10-18. It's the most since the Huskies made 13-26 against USC on Dec. 28.

"They worry so much about our inside that it gives us a longer look,'' said UW guard Ryan Appleby, who hit 5-7.

--- The Huskies did a nice job adjusting once USC made that run to cut the lead from 17 to five with under seven minutes left. At that point, UW got the ball inside a lot and Spencer Hawes scored eight of his 13 points in the final four minutes.

--- Romar said center Joe Wolfinger, sidelined all season with a foot stress fracture, may be able to avoid surgery, after all. Romar had said last week that Wolfinger may need surgery after he has tried to recover without it. But Romar said the foot has responded well in recent days and for now, surgery has been postponed.

--- UW clinched the No. 7 seed in the Pac-10 Tournament and will play Arizona State in the first round. The best thing about that is avoiding UCLA until the final, if UW were to get that far. UW would likely play WSU in the second round and either USC, Stanford or Arizona in the semifinals.

--- To answer a question asked, I still see no way UW gets to the NCAA Tournament without winning the Pac-10 Tournament. An 8-10 conference record just won't cut it.

Sorry to be late on posting --- deadlines kept me away.

A quick note to point out that UW's win and Cal's loss to Arizona means the Huskies have officially clinched the No. 7 seed for the Pac-10 Tournament. The Huskies will play Arizona State next Wednesday at 8:42 p.m.

If WSU beats USC Saturday, that means the Cougars would get the No. 2 seed, setting up a Husky-Cougar rematch in the second round of UW could get past Arizona State.

The officials seem compelled not to let this on get out of hand and have already called 14 fouls this half --- eight on UW --- with 11:50 to go.

That means there will likely be a lot of free throws shot the rest of the way.

The Huskies are clinging to a 62-54 lead as USC has gone on a 13-4 run.

The Huskies were just ahead 58-41 and looking like they might blow out the Trojans.

But USC scored six in a row to cut it to 58-47 though after the time out, Artem Wallace will shoot two free throws.

One ominous sign is two quick fouls by Brockman as he now has three and is on the bench. Brockman leads UW with 15 points on 6-8 shooting and also has seven rebounds.

UW leads 48-37 at the end of one of their highest-scoring first halves. UW hasn't scored this many points in a half since putting 51 on Oregon Jan. 25.

The key has been the three-point shooting. UW is 9-13 with Ryan Appleby making 4-6 and Justin Dentmon 3-3. Quincy Pondexter and Phil Nelson have also each hit one.

Nick Young kept USC close with 13 points, hitting three straight jumpers late in the half after Washington went up 44-30 on the four-point play that included the Tim Floyd technical.

UW has taken a 43-30 lead, and USC coach Tim Floyd is enraged, getting a technical after a strange play in which Ryan Appleby made a three and Quincy Pondexter was called for a foul away from the ball for pushing off on Lodrick Stewart.

Floyd has seemed peeved for a few minutes now, mostly as his team's defense, which has allowed UW to hit 9-13 three-pointers already. At a time out at the seven-minute mark, he laid into Stewart and Daniel Hackett.

Then he started baiting the refs and almost seemed to be trying to get a T by running onto the floor.

This is a big game for USC as any chance of finishing in second place could go out the window with a loss tonight.

UW has opened up a 31-23 lead here with 7:16 left in the first half, and three-pointers are a big part of it.

UW has hit 5-9 already --- as many as they've made in seven of the last nine games. Dentmon has three and Nelson and Appleby one each.

Overall, UW is 11-19 with Hawes also hitting two jumpers just inside the line. USC is also shooting 50 percent (10-20) but the Huskies have forced both a five-second and a shot clock violation as the pressure seems a little better tonight.

One big thing the Huskies could get out of the rest of the season is a little confidence heading into next year.

No player needs that more than Justin Dentmon, and maybe he got some back here in the opening minutes today.

UW leads 13-11 with 14:23 to go thanks in part to two three-pointers by Dentmon. He was just 6-26 in Pac-10 games coming into tonight.

About 30 minutes until game time and not much atmosphere for a game that doesn't have much apparent meaning for UW with the Huskies out of the NCAA tournament at-large race.

But this game does have some meaning in terms of seeding for the Pac-10 tournament. If the Huskies win at least one game this weekend and end up tied with Cal, UW will have the tiebreaker on the Bears and finish with the No. 7 seed. That means a first-round game with Arizona State and a likely second-rounder with WSU, an easier road, probably, than having to face Oregon State-UCLA in the first two rounds.

With no live TV for this game, we'll try to keep the updates going throughout the game.

The Pac-10 will announce most of its major post-season awards Monday.

I wrote this overview of what I think might happen yesterday. In it, I made the case --- which I know will be unpopular on this board --- that Aaron Brooks ought to be the Pac-10 Player of the Year.

As I state in the article, I simply think he's done more for his team this year than any other player in the Pac-10. Good arguments can be made for Arron Afflalo and Darren Collison, as well, and it won't surprise me if either of them wins it, especially if UCLA sweeps this weekend to win the Pac-10 title going away.

But most of Brooks' numbers are even better in conference play than in non-conference, and the big shots he has made to win crucial games for Oregon puts him over the top in my book.

Remember, the coaches vote on the official awards, and it's always hard to know their exact criteria --- is it simply the player who had the best year statistically, or the player who means the most to his team? Often, to be sure, that is one in the same.

The coaches also pick the 10-man All-Conference team, which is selected regardless of position.

I think these players are locks --- Brooks, Afflalo, Collison, Nick Young, Kyle Weaver and probably Jon Brockman and Marcus Williams. Brockman's leading in rebounds, is top 10 in scoring, and among the top five in shooting, and the coaches love the manner in which he plays.

Williams statistically is a no-brainer. But too often, he's played as if he has no brains --- ala, the foul on the three-pointer last week against ASU --- and a few coaches might wonder about that. But I'd think he'll make it.

Mustafa Shakur seems likely to make it, as well, but like the rest of his Arizona teammates, has slumped of late. Still, he is averaging almost one-and-a-half more assists per game than any other conference player, so he probably gets on.

That's eight, with the final two probably coming from a pool of Ryan Anderson, Jeff Pendergraph, Derrick Low and Lawrence Hill.

Hill may be the most underrated player in the conference (sixth in scoring, 11th in rebounding); Pendergraph is a very good player whose numbers are held down by playing for Arizona State and is second in rebounding; Low was a no-brainer until his numbers started to drop off a few weeks ago due to illness and injury (he no longer ranks among the top 20 scorers when considering only Pac-10 games, for instance); Anderson's been the most consistent freshman.

I address the freshmen team in the story, as well, positing that Anderson will likely be named the Freshman of the Year. Hard to argue considering his numbers (top five in both scoring and rebounding). But the five-man All-Frosh team is a more difficult proposition with seven good candiates --- Anderson, Spencer Hawes, Brook and Robin Lopez, Tajuan Porter, Taj Gibson and Chase Budinger. Easiest way may be to leave off Robin Lopez (Brook's numbers are a lot better) and go with six.

Coach of the Year will undoubtedly be Tony Bennett.

WSU is also likely to win the Newcomer of the Year award, which goes to the transfer that made the biggest impact. There were few that did much this year, so I'd figure the award will go to Cougar guard Taylor Rochestie, who transferred from Tulane.

Could this really be the last big-time game in Seattle for one of the famed Stewart twins?

Might be, as Lodrick Stewart comes to town with USC tonight to play the Huskies. With Rodrick at Kansas and no guarantee of an NBA future for either, it's just possible this could be the last time one of the Stewart twins falls into the Seattle spotlight.

So I wrote about Lodrick Stewart's sometimes tumultuous but ultimately fulfilling career at USC today. He freely admits he spent most of his first two years there wondering why he hadn't stayed home to attend UW --- early in the process, there was ample chance that could have happened, though once the Huskies took Tre Simmons, there was no longer room for both, which turned out to be the deal breaker.

And how different might history have developed if that had happened?

To address a couple of other issues:

--- One reader asked why UW no longer plays as much pressure defense. That is simply a function of the team's personnel. The coaches have adjusted this year since the Huskies don't have the players to run the same kind of defense. But next year, with Venoy Overton coming in and Tim Morris and Joel Smith back in the mix, I'd expect the pressure defense to return.

--- There is no live TV tonight of any kind. The only way to see the game is in person, or to watch the delayed telecast on FSN following the WSU-UCLA game.