Looking ahead to today’s men’s/women’s games

Published 9:58 am Sunday, February 8, 2009

Both UW hoops teams are hoping to bounce back against Stanford today in back-to-back games on FSN. The women tip off at 12:30 in Seattle, and the men start right after that at 2:30 at Maples Pavilion. The men are looking to stay in the Pac-10 title hunt, while the women are just trying to salvage a respectable finish to the season and end a program-worst losing streak. Against seventh-ranked Stanford, however, ending that streak won’t be easy.

I’m not exactly sure why, but my advance on the men’s game doesn’t seem to be showing up on our website, so here’s the unedited story story for today:

By John Boyle

Herald Writer

In a building where history has been anything but kind to Washington, the Huskies hope their recent history can help them when they face Stanford this afternoon.

Fifteen seasons worth of history favors the Cardinal, as Washington has not won at Maples Pavilion since 1993. But the Huskies hope that a more recent trend—their ability to bounce back from tough defeats—is the relevant one today.

After beating Washington State and Stanford to open Pac-10 play, the Huskies dropped a triple-overtime heartbreaker to Cal. But rather than let that loss linger, the Huskies instead won four in a row, capped by a win over UCLA that put the Huskies in first place in the conference. Then last week, the Huskies opened a road trip with a loss to Arizona, only to bounce back with a road win over a ranked Arizona State.

Now, coming off a 15-point loss at Cal, the Huskies think they can show their resilience once more.

“That really does help us,” said junior forward Quincy Pondexter, who led the Huskies with 21 points on Thursday. “We have had some tough losses, but our team’s been pretty resilient at bouncing back. Our coaches have done a good job guiding us after those losses, and I think we’re really prepared for this game.”

And even though the Huskies led by nine early in the second half against Cal only to falter down the stretch, no one in purple is panicking after a second loss in three games.

“We’re fine,” said Washington assistant coach Cameron Dollar. “We’re on the road, we got beat. There aren’t a whole lot of trends to be found in it. We just got beat by a good team on the road, simple as that.”

And while earning a road sweep is rare in conference play, teams that hope to compete for conference titles also can’t afford to be swept on the road.

“The Pac-10 is a really tough conference and every game is a must win,” said Pondexter. “So for us to lose two games in the last two weeks, it’s kind of a downer because of how well we’ve been playing… Yeah, there’s definitely more pressure to get the next one. We had our backs against the wall the last week against Arizona State and we responded pretty well.”

As for that losing streak at Maples, players say they don’t read much into it, but that doesn’t mean they’re not eager to get that first win at Stanford. The Huskies have been close in each of the past three seasons, losing in overtime in 2006, by one point two seasons ago, and by three points last year.

“We’ve had our chances,” said Dollar. “The last three years it’s gone to overtime or down to the last minute. We’re probably due. We’re probably due to get one.”

Notable

Moving up the charts: With 15 rebounds on Thursday, Jon Brockman now has 1,124 in his career. That moves Brockman, who is already the UW career leader, past two more players and into fourth place on the Pac-10 list. Brockman started the season ranked 30th in Pac-10 history for career rebounds, but has now passed all but three players.

It is likely that Brockman will climb any higher on the list, however, as the top three—Oregon State’s Mel Count’s (1,375), UCLA’s Bill Walton (1,370), and UCLA’s Lew Alcindor (1,367)—all have totals that are seemingly out of reach.

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog