Husky Men's Basketball Blog

The theme of the UCLA players afterward was that they just didn't have the intensity needed.

"We've got to play a lot harder than our opponents,'' said center Lorenzo Mata. "We didn't today.''

UW guard Justin Dentmon said that seemed evident long before the game.

"Even from the way they were warming up, I think they thought they were just going to come in and get another easy win,'' Dentmon said. "We weren't going to let that happen.''

Dentmon said the Bruins were "laughing and giggling and doing stuff you do when you aren't focused.''

Guard Darren Collison said the pre-game antics weren't the issue.

"That's how we always are, being loose as a team,'' he said. "But I felt like out intensity wasn't there from the jump.''

Why, no one seemed to know, though none of the Bruins wanted to say they didn't play hard because they already had the Pac-10 title wrapped up.

"I hope not,'' Collison said. "We shouldn't have.''

The game was physical throughout, which Hawes said indicated the Bruins were playing hard.

"There were a couple of no-calls and stuff that were questionable but it all worked out in the end,'' Hawes said.

Washington State's hard-fought win over USC finalized the seeding for the Pac-10 Tournament --- and defined the path the Huskies will have to travel.

UW will play Arizona State while Cal will face Oregon State in the first round Wednesday night.

The Cougars clinched the No. 2 seed with their win over USC, so if the Huskies beat ASU, they will face WSU in the second round Thursday.

Other Thursday games are Oregon and Arizona in a match of the four-five seeds, the Cal-OSU winner against UCLA (No.1) and USC (No. 3) vs. Stanford (No. 6).

The WSU-UW/ASU winner would then face the USC-Stanford winner in the semifinals Saturday.

Here are a few other notes on UW's win today.

---- The Huskies have won five of the last seven against UCLA dating to the 2004 Pac-10 Tournament.

--- Spencer Hawes set a career high with 15 rebounds.

"I was just more active on the glass, just going after more of them,'' said Hawes, who had 12 on two other occasions but otherwise hadn't hit double figures this year. "Before the game, that was one of the keys because that's one of our strengths and we had to exploit that and I said 'you know what? No more messing around. It's time to go out and grab some.'''

--- Dentmon had just two turnovers against the Bruins after having zero against USC Thursday. "He made progress this weekend,'' Romar said. "He just made a concerted effort to really try to run our team.''

--- Both Hawes and Jon Brockman had double-doubles. The only other time that happened this year was the win against LSU on Dec. 20.

--- UCLA had 20 points at halftime, a low for a Husky opponent this season

--- Arron Afflalo seemed to indicate he thought Darren Collison took a few too many shots afterward. "He has to do the best he can to not get caught in his own percentages and make sure everyone else has it going because that's the point guard's duty,'' he said.

--- UCLA reserve big man Alfred Aboya sat out with a knee injury suffered at WSU Thursday. His bench replacements, James Keefe and Ryan Wright, had no rebounds in 14 minutes.

Here's a link to our updated game story with some quotes from UW and UCLA players and coaches.

They may not be to full maturity yet, but the Huskies did an awful lot of growing up today.

This was the team everyone expected to see all season, finally showing the potential that had them ranked No. 8 early in the year.

Two dominating inside players, timely shooting, solid defense all the way around.

A lot of momentum to take into the Pac-10 Tournament, where the Huskies will be the scariest No. 7 seed in the history of that event.

For now, I'm sticking to the thought that the Huskies have to win that tournament to make it to the Big Dance, but today's win might open up a few possibilities down the road to explore at a later date.

Spencer Hawes had a career-high 15 rebounds along with 13 points while Brockman had 20 points and 13 rebounds.

Ryan Appleby and Justin Dentmon played the kind of perimeter defense missing too often this season, holding Collison and Afflalo to a combined 6-29 shooting.

And UW has now beaten two top 10 teams this season at home (Oregon, UCLA) and finishes the year 17-2 at Edmundson Pavilion.

This is a Sweet 16 team at home. Too bad UW had to play road games.

That was an 11-0 run by UCLA in about 1:40 to get right back in the game.

Suddenly, the Huskies have 15 turnovers for the game, losing four in the last four minutes to aid UCLA's comeback. UW's been in this spot a few other times (WSU, Pitt) and not held on. Can they today?

Arron Afflalo just hit two jumpers to keep UCLA in it a bit.

Still, he is 4-10 from the field while Darren Collison is 1-12, a combined 5-22.

UCLA appeared poised to go on a run to start the second half, hitting three of its first four shots.

But the Huskies steadied things as UCLA is now 13-46 shooting for the game ---- 5-15 in the second half, and 2-11 since making three of the first four.

Definitely the best half of defense for the Huskies this year as UW has held UCLA to 8-31 shooting. Lorenzo Mata is 3-5 inside and Russell Westbrook 2-3. The rest of the Bruins are 3-23.

That has helped the Huskies to a 31-20 lead and Hec Ed is rocking like it was, uh, last season.

Justin Dentmon is doing a great job keeping Darren Collison out of the middle, and the UCLA point guard has just one assist and no points, going 0-5 from the floor.

The Huskies are just 12-32 itself and have missed a few open shots that could come back to haunt them.

Also, UCLA is more used to being behind than you might think --- the Bruins are 7-3 in games in which it has trailed by 10 or more points this season.

UW coach Lorenzo Romar announced Friday that seniors Hans Gasser and Brandon Burmeister would get starts for their final home games.

He didn't tell us, however, who they would start in place of, and the assumption was it would be Quincy Pondexter and Ryan Appleby. Instead, word is that Appleby will start but Spencer Hawes will also sit at the start.

Again, this is a Senior Day only deal. Romar has historically given starts to his seniors for their final home game.

All of the Los Angeles papers are reporting today that UCLA backup forward/center Alfred Aboya may not play today after injuring his knee Thursday at Washington State.

Here's a story from the Daily Breeze on the injury and its possible ramifications, which mean mostly that Ryan Wright or James Keefe may have to play more than usual.

Also, went to the Franklin-Ferris game last night, a report on which is here. Looked like Venoy Overton was pressing a little bit, though the foul situation was obviously an issue, as well --- the game was way too closely called for my taste but maybe the officials felt they had to keep it tight to keep control. Peyton Siva is a great scorer, and if the Huskies have him and Isaiah Thomas in the same backcourt down the road, points will never be a problem.

Ferris was much better than I thought it would be and DeAngelo Casto has to be improving his stock, though I see on this Scout.com report that he's only receiving lukewarm interest from Gonzaga, WSU and Oregon State.

I'm interested in the thoughts of anyone else who was there.