Husky Men's Basketball Blog

Okay, back to UW hoops.

In reviewing the stats from the UCLA game, one of the most impressive things about it is that the Huskies won despite shooting just 40.3 percent, making 22-54 shots.

I figured going in UW's best chance of winning was to have an abnormal shooting night, making a bunch of three-pointers, that sort of thing.

Instead, the Huskies simply gutted it out.

UW made just 3-8 three-pointers, and the overall shooting percentage I referenced above is the sixth-worst of the season for the Huskies. The only games they won shooting a lower percentage were Idaho (38.7) and Stanford (38.1).

UW beat UCLA because it outrebounded the Bruins 44-29 and turned in its best defensive game of the year --- as noted on an earlier post, UCLA's 31.3 percent shooting was the lowest this season against the Huskies, and the lowest since the Lehigh game (29.3 percent) on Dec. 23, 2005.

The previous low against UW this year was the second Arizona State game (34.0) --- ASU also shot just 34.7 percent in the first game between the two in Seattle.

And the best omen for UW is that poor shooting by opponents is starting to become a trend --- five of the last eight foes have shot 45.7 percent or lower.

I see a lot of, uh, interest on here in the Gonzaga game coming up.

As I like to think we can sometimes discuss college basketball in general on here, as well, I'll pass along this from Ken Pomeory --- his odds on the West Coast Conference tournament. He says Gonzaga has a 63.6 percent chance of winning it with Santa Clara next at 24.3.

We'll see what he has to say about the Pac-10 later this week.

I'm headed off for a day of skiing, but thought I would post a few things on my way out.

First, here's a quite encouraging column for Husky fans by Steve Kelley on the rumblings that Spencer Hawes is suddenly leaning toward staying for at least one more year. As quoted in the column, Hawes won't say much publicly one way or the other. But some close to him, including his closest teammate, Jon Brockman, hint that he's thinking more about it now than ever.

Brockman told me much the same the other day when he said that "this team is becoming more and more important to him.''

Here, also, is our game story, focusing on the Huskies finally appearing to grow up; as well as our notebook, which leads off with Ryan Appleby's defensive effort on Arron Afflalo and that of Justin Dentmon on Darren Collison. Continuing to play defense like that is the key to making a long Pac-10 tournament run.

Here are a few views from the other side: here's theLA Times, centering on the uninspired Bruins angle; and the LA Daily News on Collison's bad day.

Also of interest in the Daily News is this story on Campbell Hall winning the CIF-SS Division III championship led by Jrue and Justin Holiday. Justin has already signed with UW and Jrue, a junior, is seriously considering the Huskies.

Here, also, are the updated RPI numbers for the Pac-10 with the Huskies up to 74.
They were in the 90's before the weekend, evidence of how much impact a few quality wins can make.

Not sure RPI matters much, however. I talked with a few people around the program and some colleagues Saturday to determine whether UW has any shot other than winning the Pac-10 title and the general consensus was no --- remember, no conference team has ever gotten an at-large bid with a conference record worse than 10-8 (UW is 8-10) and no more than six teams have ever been invited (Washington is seventh). But if UW were to win at least three in LA, it could get a little interesting.