The author picks UW as the No. 38 team in the nation and predicts an NCAA tournament berth for the Huskies.

The web site says that the top prospect is ASU's James Harden, followed by USC's Demar Derozan, UCLA's Jrue Holiday, Arizona's Chase Budinger and UCLA's Darren Collison.

UW's Jon Brockman and Quincy Pondexter are each on a list of six others who also received consideration, though there is no analysis of any of them.

Derozan is a big reason a lot of people aren't expecting a dropoff in USC despite the loss of O.J. Mayo. Same with Holiday. For UW fans, such lists may bring some feelings of what-might-have-been in realizing how heavily the Huskies recruited both Harden and Holiday. Holiday's older brother, Justin, will be a sophomore for the Huskies this year.

Here's a post from the Sacramento Bee's Kings blog assessing the situation.

Not if Dentmon's off-season has anything to do with it.

In his informal meeting with reporters Tuesday, UW coach Lorenzo Romar echoed previous comments in praising the way Dentmon has prepared for this season.

"He's in the best shape he has been in since his freshman year,'' Romar said.

That's the season Dentmon emerged as the starting point guard on a UW team that advanced to the Sweet 16.

Romar also pointed to that season in noting that Dentmon "is our most experienced guard'' and has gained wisdom that he can pass along to the younger players. "That can do nothing but help the rest of his teammates,'' Romar said.

It's easy to conclude that Dentmon has been motivated by the addition of Thomas, Elston Turner and Scott Suggs, who will make UW potentially as deep in the backcourt as as any time since Roy was a junior and played alongside Nate Robinson, Will Conroy and Tre Simmons.

But Dentmon says his motivation is more personal --- he wants to get back to the NCAA Tournament one more time.

"We've got a lot of goals,'' he said Tuesday. "Win the first tournament we are in, win 20 games, win the Pac-10. Making the tournament is our long-term goal.''

So with his last chance to do any of those things, Dentmon says he is leaving nothing to chance.

He said he weighs 186-188 depending on the day, down from the 195 when he memorably ballooned up during his subpar sophomore season. "I"m glad I jumped out of that body,'' he said with a laugh.

Having never really done squad lifts before he got to UW, now he says he can handle about 350 pounds.

"I feel fast, light on my feet,'' he said.

He's also happily embracing what may be a different role.

With Thomas and Overton likely to share a lot of the point guard duties, Dentmon is probably headed to becoming more of a shooting guard, possibly doing so in a sixth-man role.

Dentmon agreed Tuesday that is likely to be his job this year and said "I'm fine with anything they want me to do.'' He said not coming back to bring the ball up the court "will be an adjustment I have to make, a habit I have to break. ... but it's fine with me.''

He's been preparing for it all off-season. Dentmon said he did shooting drills three times a day at least five times a week, saying the total number of shots "was probably 1,000 a day.''

He said a regular routine was shooting in the morning with teammate Joe Wolfinger, in afternoons with Justin Holiday and former Husky Bobby Jones, "and at night by myself.'' He said he worked on all kinds of different situations, coming off screens and spot shooting.

Word is the work has paid off. Observers of the informal runs have often said Dentmon looks like one of the most productive players on the court.

As for the freshmen, Dentmon has nothing but kind words.

"As a group, they are a little faster than usual,'' he said. "They are doing a good job.''

--- In case you missed it, Portland played Sacramento last night, a game that involved three former Huskies --- Brandon Roy, Spencer Hawes and Bobby Jones, who was recently signed by the Kings as a free agent. Here's the box score, showing a big night for Roy, an okay night for Hawes, and not a whole lot of time for Jones.

--- Nate Robinson is off to a nice start with new Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni.

--- The newest issue of Sports Northwest magazine includes a little story by yours truly on Roy.

--- Here's an Associated Press writeup of Lorenzo Romar's meeting with the media yesterday

--- Here's a preview of Maccabi Electra, the team in Israel that now includes Tre Simmons.

All for now.

"This team, for whatever reason, we are together all the time, hanging out and all that kind of stuff,'' senior forward Jon Brockman said today. "It's pretty cool to see.''

Added Romar: "There's a certain closeness with our team that hasn't been there at this level the last few years.''

Romar intimated that the biggest difference in that is the incoming freshmen, whom he said all have attitudes of wanting to do what is best for the team. No one will necessarily say so directly, but the general feeling is that some of the more recent freshmen classes came to town with a little more feeling of entitlement. And that maybe everyone figured that NCAA tournament appearances were now a birth right of becoming a Husky.

"We were just riding on the backs of the other guys when we were freshmen,'' Brockman said.

But a couple of years away, he said, has everyone hungry to do what it takes to make a return.

"I've got to get back to that thing,'' said Brockman, who is said to be in the best shape of his life, weighing just over 250 pounds. "That little taste I got as a freshman wasn't enough.''

Romar said that Brockman "is on a mission'' this season to become an even better player than he has been the last three years.

Of course, it will take more than just liking each other better to get back to the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies had some significant personnel issues the last few years --- an inability to play defense the way they had in the Brandon Roy-Nate Robinson era, for instance, and not as many playmakers.

Coaches think both of those issues may be solved this season by the influx of new players, and the maturity of the old ones.

Romar said today he thinks this team will most approximate the Roy-Robinson era teams of any one since then, saying "this is the quickest and fastest team we've had since Brandon Roy was here.''

Romar talked of what a difference that makes in all areas --- being able to defend all over the court, get to loose balls and rebounds just a second faster, rotate just a bit quicker, get to the hoop just a little earlier.

And of the newcomers, the one of whom the most is expected is guard Isaiah Thomas. Thomas arrived with a reputation as a big scorer but has impressed his teammates more with his playmaking ability. "Our guys keep talking about how he passes,'' Romar said.

Thomas has also impressed observer with his maturity, his ease with media responsibilities and the way he fits in with the rest of the team.

Thomas downplayed his apparent new-found passing ability, saying a lot of it is simply a function of having a lot of other good players around him and not needing to score all the time, as was his role on previous teams. He also talked of his enjoyment playing with Brockman and how well the two will work together. "It's going to make it so much easier for me having a big guy like that down low,'' he said.

On several occasions, Thomas told reporters that "you guys are going to like it.'' He said coaches have told him to become a leader of the team, and that it's a challenge he is embracing.

"I want to get this program back on its feet,'' he said. "They said to lead this team, that we haven't had anything like you since Nate left. I bring a different attitude to it like he did, that no one is going to mess with us.''

Seattle U. is moving up to Division-I beginning this year and has Oregon State on the schedule this winter, among others.

Romar said he would like the Huskies and Seattle U. to again have the kind of rivalry evident in the '70s when the game was annually one of the highlights of each team's schedule, played often at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

Romar wouldn't say where UW and Seattle will play each other, saying "we'll talk about it later.''

The two teams haven't played since the 1979-80 season, when Romar was a senior at UW.

Seattle U. dropped out of D-I in 1980. Here's a story from last year detailing Seattle University's plans.

So a few of us talked with coach Lorenzo Romar and a couple of the players today and I'll try to parse out some of that over the next day or so.

Of most note today might have been Jon Brockman detailing his free throw regimen this season.

The Huskies, as was well noted, were a horrible free throw shooting team last season, something that probably cost them 3-4 games, and maybe an NCAA Tournament berth.

And Brockman, for all of his greatness in other areas, was among the biggest offenders, shooting 51.9 percent for the season and under 50 percent in Pac-10 play.

But in typical Brockman fashion, it's not something he's trying to run from. Instead, he met it head on this summer, saying he set out three nights a week over the summer to shoot free throws, not leaving until he had made 500. He often went to a sports club in Lake Stevens, enlisting a couple of fifth-graders --- one fittingly named Spencer --- to help him rebound.

He said it usually took him 90 minutes or so to complete the 500 --- he said his average attempts was about 570, meaning he made about 86 percent.

For the summer, he estimated he made 11,400 free throws.

He often did the workouts under the tutelage of a coach from his Snohomish AAU days, Gary Doty, who he said helped "clean up my mechanics so it got to where I shoot it the same way every time.''

Brockman says he's confident the work will pay off.

"It will be better this year,'' he vowed.

The team also tried to address the issue in its daily scrimmages. To win, a team has to score seven points. But this year, the team decided that to win, a team had to score seven, and then the player who scored it had to make two free throws. If he missed one, the team went back to six.

"It's something we realize as a group we need to do a lot better,'' Brockman said. "It cost us some games last year and if we can make those we can do a lot better this year.''

Here's the story.

Kemp, from Canton, Ga., said he chose Alabama because "they've wanted me for a long time now and I wanted to stay close to home. With them it's not too far and not too close and it's a great situation. That has really helped me make my decision.''

Kemp, the son of former Sonic Shawn Kemp, had said he was intrigued by the thought of playing in the same city where his father made his professional name.

But Kemp visited Alabama over the weekend and said he liked the fact that the school is about a three-hour drive from his house. And according to Rivals.com, Kemp's interest in UW may not have been that strong at the end --- the web site lists 12 schools on Kemp's list of college choices, none of them the Huskies.

Interestingly, Alabama is coached by Mark Gottfried, who UW coach Lorenzo Romar considers one of his best friends in the business since the days when they worked together as assistants at UCLA.

Here's the official release from the school.

And here's the schedule. The most attractive non-conference game is the Dec. 4 visit from Oklahoma State.

TSN is unveiling the previews of each of its top 40 teams one day at a time, and Washington's is now available here.

UPDATE --- The linked story mentioned Joel Smith as being still with UW. That is obviously an error, meaning this is probably a story written a while ago, as are many season previews. Smith is playing this year at Chaminade in Hawaii, a D-II school. Here is Smith's bio on the Chaminade web page.

Also, UCLA picked up a commitment today from center Anthony Stover, who also had an offer from UW.

Unfortunately, you need to be an ESPN Insider to read the article, but I will link it here for those who have such access.

Bilas writes of Brockman that: "Brockman won't win on Dancing with the Stars (which I'll add is a nice cross-promotion by Bilas for another ABC-owned show) but he is a beast on the boards. He finished third in the nation in rebounding last year (11.6) --- behind only Michael Beasley and Jason Thompson --- both first-round NBA draft selections. He averaged 4.4 offensive rebounds per game last season and has a relentless nature. As the top returning rebounder in the nation, Brockman will likely lead the nation in rebounding in 2009.''

For the final time, he had to pass the team's pre-season mile conditioning run at Dempsey Indoor.

"I got 'er done,'' Brockman said with a smile after the workout today. "It's tough to get 255 pounds around that track that many times. It's the last one I'll ever do.''

Brockman ran a 5:21, bettering the necessary time of 5:35 for the team's big men (guards have to run it in 5:30).

UW coach Lorenzo Romar said later that this was one of the team's best group efforts ever in the mile run.

True freshman Scott Suggs had the best time of 5:06, the best for any player during the Romar era, one second better than the previous record set by Artem Wallace. The old record was also tied today by Quincy Pondexter.

"The guys did a good job,'' Romar said.

Three players didn't take part in the run --- Tyreese Breshers, still recovering from recent shin surgery; Joe Wolfinger, whom coaches decided didn't need the pounding on his feet; and Darnell Gant, recovering from sports hernia surgery about two weeks ago.

Romar said Breshers and Wallace should be ready to go when practice begins Oct. 17, which is particularly noteworthy for Wallace, who tore his ACL in the season finale last March against Valaparaiso. Romar said Wallace may be limited slightly for conditioning reasons, but that the knee has recovered to the point that he will be able to participate in every drill.

Wallace showed the lengths of his recovery today by finishing the mile run in 5:22. "Which is pretty good on half an ACL,'' Brockman said with a laugh.

Gant will be limited a bit when practice begins but should be ready within a few weeks, possibly 100 percent by the start of the regular season Nov. 15 at Portland. The injury apparently began bothering Gant last season and it took a while to be diagnosed, leading eventually to the surgery.

Brockman said the overall times were the best of his years at UW, which he said "was just a real testament to how guys have worked this summer and this fall, doing our morning conditioning stuff to get in the best shape we can.''

And for Brockman, it's the latest sign that this season may turn out a lot better than the previous two.

He said he continues to be impressed by the way the four freshmen are integrating themselves into the team.

"Moreso than the last two groups we've had in here, they understand what they can do on the court and what they can do to help the team,'' he said. "And they know what not to do, as well, and sometimes it's better to know what not to do because you can take what you do really well in open gym and then suddenly roles are determined and guys know what to do instead of 10 guys playing one-on-one.

"They really understand how to play basketball and that's something you can't teach. You have to have a feel for it and our freshmen have shown that.''

Here's the home page for Patterson, as well as a look at the school's coaching staff
and some of Patterson's former players (maybe most notable is Arizona's Jordan Hill).

Here's a statement from Findlay Prep coach Todd Simon on Trent's decision:

"It is true. He's going to withdraw and enroll at Patterson to finish his senior year. It was an amicable split. He's still a friend of our program and Washington is getting a really nice kid. I believe he'll do well at Patterson and Coach Chaney does a good job of putting kids in position to reach their goals. We look forward to seeing him at the University of Washington.''