SEATTLE — The visit to Seattle by UCLA and USC this week will have some similarities to the last time the Bruins and Trojans played at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Both Los Angeles schools are talented teams that were picked before the start of the season to finish in the upper half of the Pacific-10 Conference, and each features one of the conference’s top freshmen.
There will be one big — figuratively speaking, anyway — difference when the Huskies host the Trojans tonight and UCLA on Saturday, however. This time, the Huskies have, in 5-foot-8 guard Isaiah Thomas, a talented freshman of their own. One that, to the surprise of many outside of this region, is outplaying USC’s DeMar DeRozan and UCLA’s Jrue Holiday so far this season.
While Thomas was a known commodity in the recruiting world, the Curtis High School standout, who later transferred to a prep school in Connecticut, was certainly never as big a name on the national radar as Holiday and DeRozan. Much like USC’s O.J. Mayo and UCLA’s Kevin Love a year ago, Holiday and DeRozan are considered future NBA lottery selections who had their pick of the country’s top programs.
DeRozan, a 6-7 forward from Compton, Calif., was a Parade and McDonald’s All-American who was ranked among the top-10 players in his class by numerous recruiting websites. Holiday, a 6-3 point guard whose older brother Justin is a sophomore forward for the UW, was also a Parade and McDonald’s All-American. He also was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year last year and, like DeRozan, was on everybody’s list of top-10 recruits in 2008.
Yet early in the Pac-10 season, Thomas is putting up better numbers than both.
Thomas has overtaken Jon Brockman as the Huskies leading scorer — barely — with 15.8 points per game, and is averaging 18.4 points per game in Pac-10 play, the fourth best total in the conference. He also leads conference freshman in assists (3.2) and assist to turnover ratio (1.2), and since conference play began, he’s shooting 92.9 percent from the free-throw line.
Holiday is averaging 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.6 steals while DeRozan is averaging 12.5 points and 5.1 rebounds. Though both, like Thomas, have been improving as the season goes on.
As tempting as it might be for Thomas to try to use this weekend as a chance to show that he’s the league’s top freshman, he says this week’s games aren’t about trying to outplay DeRozan or Holiday.
“I’m not going to try to outplay anybody,” he said. “I’m just going to play my game and do whatever I can to get a win.”
That doesn’t mean Thomas isn’t aware of his fellow freshmen or confident that he’s just as good if not better than the more highly touted L.A. duo.
“I knew who they were and they knew who I was, but once we get on the court, rankings don’t mean anything. It’s just us going at each other and trying to get wins,” said Thomas, who isn’t surprised to be putting up such good numbers this early in his UW career. “I have so much confidence in myself, I felt like I was going to bring what I do to the court, and that’s scoring, making winning plays and things like that.”
Last year, the Huskies got solid minutes out of freshmen Venoy Overton, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, and when he was healthy, Holiday, but none had the impact on the team that Thomas has had this year. And that’s a big reason, along with the experience of seniors Brockman and Justin Dentmon and junior Quincy Pondexter, why the Huskies look better than they have since the Huskies went to three straight NCAA tournaments from 2004 to 2006.
“We just have all the right pieces,” Brockman said. “We have a point guard who is doing a great job leading are team and is continuing to improve. He is a freshman, but he isn’t looked at as a freshman in our eyes. He handles things a lot more maturely than most people in his position would. … He deserves as much attention as anyone else is getting. That’s something that will come as soon as people see him and realize what he’s doing on the court.”
Honoring Roy: Brandon Roy, who helped the Huskies to three straight NCAA tournaments from 2004 to 2006, and was a first-team All-American and the Pac-10 Player of the Year as a senior, will have his No. 3 jersey retired prior to tonight’s 8 p.m. tipoff.
Roy, who has won the NBA Rookie of the Year award and been an All-Star with the Portland Trailblazers, will become the second Husky basketball player along with Bob Houbregs to have his jersey hang from the Hec Ed rafters.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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