SEATTLE – People love to look back at a particular win that helped define a season and propel a team to a strong finish.
In the case of the Washington men’s basketball team, it will be a loss, rather than a victory, that will be viewed as the turning point should the Huskies finish this season strong.
When Washington walked off the Hec Edmundson Pavilion court two weeks ago following its loss to Washington State, the players knew they could go one of two directions: Either the Huskies would fall apart and spiral to a lost season, or they would wake up and begin to play with consistent effort.
Consider the alarm clock activated. Washington responded to the loss with wins at USC and UCLA and again appear to be a team capable of making a solid playoff run.
Washington senior forward Bobby Jones said losing to WSU may have been the best thing for the Huskies.
“We knew our backs would be against the wall,” Jones said of the trip to Los Angeles. “We knew if we lost those two games, all the criticism was going to start being on our backs and we were going to feel so much more pressure. We didn’t want to put ourselves in that situation. It opened our eyes.”
Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said the loss forced his team to play with a greater sense of urgency.
“If we’re playing with a sense of urgency for 40 minutes, then we feel we can be competitive with anybody,” Romar said. “If we don’t play with a sense of urgency, if we don’t lay it on the line, then we’ll be very inconsistent from her on out.”
Now that Washington has shown it can rebound from a tough loss and win on the road, it finds itself in an unusual position: Having to prove it is still a tough team to beat at home. After stringing together a national-best 32-game winning streak at Hec Ed, the Huskies have now lost back-to-back Pacific-10 home games, to WSU and Arizona.
No. 10 Washington (3-2 Pac-10, 14-2 overall) will try to end that streak at 7 p.m. today when it plays host to Oregon State (2-3, 9-7).
Jones and co-captain Brandon Roy say they know that opponents now believe they can come into Seattle and win a game. Several Oregon State players sent text messages to Husky players letting them know they are ready to come to Hec Ed and steal a victory.
“I thought, ‘I can understand that if we were playing at your guy’s gym, but we’re playing at the Bank,’ ” Roy said. “Then I thought about and, and Washington State just beat us here and Arizona just beat us here. That does make us focus more. They do have a chance to beat us here. It’s no longer a 32-game win streak, we’re on a two-game losing streak.”
“It’s very difficult to handle success,” Romar said. “You get 30-plus games in a row at home, you feel like you can just walk out there and get a trophy. It’s definitely not the case.”
Oregon State is 1-5 on the road but will not be an easy opponent. The Beavers defeated Arizona last week, and Romar said OSU has traditionally presented one of the toughest challenges for the Huskies. Last year’s matchups with Oregon State were the most unusual of the year for UW. The Huskies beat the Beavers 108-68 at Hec Ed, then lost 90-73 in Corvallis. Washington has won three of the last four against OSU.
“Home court isn’t a given anymore,” Roy said. “We’ve got to go out and earn it. We’ve got to step up for Oregon State and Oregon. We’ve got to take them seriously. They beat Arizona. We’re not good enough to overlook anybody.”
And if they forget those lessons, all they have to do is think back to how they felt walking off the court after the Washington State game.
“When we played Wazzu, that was our eye-opener,” Jones said. “I don’t need any more eye-opener games. …I had my head down after Wazzu walking off the court, because I was just so ashamed and embarrassed. I shouldn’t have to feel like that at home.”
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