Looking forward

Published 11:11 pm Sunday, June 24, 2007

SEATTLE-The evening sun spills through the windows of Hec Edmundson Pavilion, lighting up rectangular spots on the arena’s west bleachers and court as Ryan Appleby hoists up shot after shot.

He’s the only player on the University of Washington home court, methodically working on the jump shot that has made him one of the most feared shooters in the Pac-10.

As the Stanwood High School graduate prepares for his final season of college basketball, which is still months away, his only thoughts are of the future.

Tempting as it may be, there’s no looking back. No what ifs.

Appleby left Stanwood as one of the nation’s top prospects and took his talents to the University of Florida. After one year, he was back in his home state after transferring to Washington, where new coach Lorenzo Romar had the Huskies playing an up-tempo game.

“I just didn’t feel like I fit in at Florida the way they were starting to play,” Appleby explained. “I knew how they were playing here and I knew my style of play would be better suited to play here than over there.”

The school he left behind, of course, has won two straight NCAA championships, but Appleby said there are no regrets.

“I don’t really think about that,” he said. “You’ve got to make decisions in life, and you’ve got easy decisions and tough decisions to make. Once you make your decision you’ve got to stand by it. That’s done and I don’t look back. It’s worked out really well for me here and I think it was a good decision.”

There are still reminders of his past. Appleby occasionally talks on the phone to Gators guard Lee Humphrey, his roommate at Florida. At a pickup game last week former O’Dea high school star Doug Wrenn, who played at Connecticut and Washington, calls Appleby a Gator-Dog (Wrenn also calls Tim Morris, a transfer from Stanford, a Tree-Dog).

But Appleby refuses to second guess his decision. He is happy being back home.

“I’m happy here,” he said. “I’m glad everything turned out the way it did and I’m just excited for my senior season.”

So when the 6-foot-3 sharp shooter watched last season’s championship game between Florida and Ohio State, when he saw Joakim Noah walk into the crowd to hug family members, Appleby didn’t feel any different than he would have had Ohio State won.

“When I watched the game I wasn’t really rooting for either team,” he said. “I was just watching the game just to watch it and not really rooting for everybody. Both those teams are teams we could have played last year if we had made the tournament. I’m just focusing on helping this team get better so we can be in that position this season.”

Then it’s back to shooting, casting up one jumper after another. No regrets. Just looking ahead to his final season as a Husky.