SEATTLE – Three weeks ago, the Washington men’s basketball team was 5-5 in the Pacific-10 Conference, struggling in sixth place and worrying more about getting into the NCAA Tournament than winning a conference title.
But as pretty much everything good that could happen for the Huskies did happen over the past two weeks, they are now thinking that just maybe they could win the Pac-10 title.
Thanks to a four-game winning streak, Washington is now 9-5 in the Pac-10 and just a game behind UCLA and Cal, who are tied for first. The Bruins, who the Huskies have defeated twice, have lost two in a row, including an upset loss to USC on Sunday. Cal was upset at home last weekend by last-place Arizona State.
Because of that, Washington now seems not only virtually assured of a NCAA berth, but also in position to claim the conference championship that eluded it last season.
“That was well-scripted, in terms of the Huskies,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. “It’s certainly given us new life in terms of giving us a chance to finish at the top of the conference. But we’ve got zero margin for error as far as that’s concerned.”
Still, just having a shot at the championship is exciting for the team. But the players said even when they were at .500 in the league, they still thought they could get back into the race.
“We figured anything could happen the way teams were playing,” Mike Jensen said. “Not just us, but other teams were struggling as well. We figured if we could take care of ourselves, maybe we could get back into the race.”
“We knew we still played Cal, UCLA, teams that were ahead of us,” Brandon Roy said. “And they still play each other too. Somebody has to lose. We felt like we had Cal and UCLA at our place the second time around. We were only two or three games behind UCLA. We knew if they slipped up a couple times, we would have a chance to win the Pac-10.”
Who’s more helpful?: Brandon Roy and Justin Dentmon are engaged in a friendly competition to see who will lead the team in assists. Dentmon had been leading for most of the season before Roy passed him this past weekend. Roy now has 102 assists to Dentmon’s 99.
Dentmon said he thinks that Roy will win the matchup.
“I think he’s going to get me,” Dentmon said. “All the Pac-10 teams are keying on him. He can just kick it out to somebody else and get the assist.”
When Dentmon reaches the 100-assist mark, it will be the 28th 100-assist season in the program’s history. Roy and Dentmon would become the sixth pair of UW teammates to reach 100 assists in a season.
What about freezing Roy out of the offense to make sure Dentmon wins the assist title?
“I can’t do that,” Dentmon said with a smile. “That can’t happen.”
The freshman record for assists by a Husky is 103, set by Eldridge Recasner.
Still unsure on Perry: Romar said freshman Harvey Perry is cleared to practice without limitations this week, but has not yet been cleared to play. Romar has still not made a decision about if Perry, who has missed the entire season with a back injury, will play this season. Romar said he would know for sure next week, but that the more time passes, the more likely it is that Perry will be redshirted.
On-bus entertainment: The Huskies watched a tape of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest on their bus ride back from Corvallis on Saturday. Former UW star and New York Knicks rookie Nate Robinson won the contest in a controversial – for a dunk contest – decision over Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala.
“We were pretty proud on the bus,” senior Mike Jensen said.
“When he jumped over Spud (Webb), everybody erupted,” Romar said.
Blowout means PT: Romar took advantage of the 33-point win at Oregon State to get playing time for little used Artem Wallace and Zane Potter. Both players took advantage of it.
Potter, a senior walk-on and the last player off the Husky bench, played for the first time in six games and made a 3-pointer in three minutes of action.
“It felt good,” said Potter, a Boring, Ore., native who played in front of several friends and family. “I’m usually hesitant to shoot. But beforehand, coach said ‘Zane, go ahead, shoot it, shoot the ball.’ So I shot it. I was fortunate enough that it went in.”
Wallace, a 6-foot-8 freshman, had also not played in the previous six games but showed his potential with four rebounds and a blocked shot in six minutes.
“You have guys who play 30 minutes and not get four rebounds,” Romar said. “We’ve never doubted his talent.”
Joel sees the floor: Sophomore Joel Smith, who’s seen his playing time diminish recently, played well on the Oregon trip. Smith, who did not play against Washington State and UCLA, had three rebounds against Oregon and scored seven points in 12 minutes against Oregon State.
“Joel had a tremendous week of practice,” Romar said. “He came into that Oregon game concentrating on playing hard-nosed basketball and just being a part of what’s going on. I didn’t think he tried to force anything.”
Women healthy: Washington women’s basketball coach June Daugherty said that her team is healthy after its weekend bout with stomach flu that caused leading scorer Cameo Hicks to miss the Oregon State game and left other players feeling ill.
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