SEATTLE – Washington men’s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar calls this weekend’s trip to the Bay Area one of the toughest his team makes.
There’s no doubting that.
The Huskies have not had a sweep in the Bay Area since 1985 and have been swept 12 times in that span. California is 7-1 at home and Washington has lost 12 in a row at Stanford.
Washington is 2-0 on the road in Pacific-10 Conference play this year, but it has not won its first four conference road games since 1953.
So, yeah, it could be a difficult road trip.
“The Bay Area is one of, if not the most difficult road trips for us,” Romar said. “As a player here, as an assistant at UCLA and now as a head coach, I never remember having very much success at Stanford and not at Cal. Not only are they tough to play, but they put out some good basketball teams.”
The trip for the No. 10 Huskies (5-2 Pac-10, 16-2 overall) begins at 7:30 p.m. today at Cal (4-3, 10-6).
The trip will pose an especially big test for Washington’s frontcourt. California features the inside tandem of 6-foot-8 Leon Powe and 6-11 DeVon Hardin, and Stanford is led by senior center Matt Haryasz.
“I was talking to a friend from Washington State the other day,” said freshman forward Jon Brockman, who could get the assignments of defending Powe and Haryasz. “I was saying, ‘Man, I’ve got my work cut out for me this weekend.’ It’s going to be a rough one. Two guys of that caliber, with that experience, it’s going to be tough, but it’s going to be fun. …I’ll definitely learn a lot from it.”
Powe will pose the first challenge of the weekend. Washington was able to avoid the Cal star last season as he missed the entire year after knee surgery. In his freshman season, the 240-pounder had 34 points and 27 rebounds in two games against the Huskies. He’s come back from his injury even better, leading the Pac-10 in rebounding (10.2) and tying for the lead in scoring (19.8).
“He’s real tough on the boards and good around the basket,” UW forward Mike Jensen said. “When he was playing for them (two years ago), they formed their offense around him. He was able to do a lot of good things for them. This year, I haven’t seen him being their main focus. They have two or three big men that are capable of doing some good stuff.”
Indeed, Powe will team with Hardin, who averages 9.4 points on a conference-best 55.2 percent shooting as well as 7.3 rebounds and 1.75 blocks. But most of the offensive touches will go to Powe.
“He’s relentless on the boards,” Romar said. “He was very tough to deal with on the block. But now he’s moved out on the perimeter more and become not just a good block player but somewhat of a slasher at times.”
“He’s a beast,” Brockman added. “He’s a really good player with a lot of experience. I kind of have to do everything right against him.”
What makes Cal all the more difficult to defend, though, is the development of the Golden Bears’ backcourt. The biggest improvement has been by 6-4 junior Ayinde Ubaka. Ubaka was one of the nation’s top guard recruits out of high school and had a solid freshman season, but broke his foot last year and missed 11 games. He came into the season with a career-high game of 13 points and had only reached double figures in eight games in two seasons. This year, Ubaka is averaging 15.3 points, making nearly 40 percent of his 3-pointers. In fact, the Golden Bears lead the Pac-10 in 3-point shooting (38.8 percent) as Omar Wilkes is shooting 50 percent and Richard Midgley is making 43.7 percent.
“Everyone in this league understood what Cal was capable of doing,” Romar said. “Not only is Powe back, but other guys are healthy this year. People might mention, ‘Well, Ayinde, he’s really improved,’ and he has. But he was one of the top point guards in the country coming out of high school. I also felt like Omar Wilkes, who isn’t necessarily a leading scorer, is a great team guy.”
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