SYRACUSE, N.Y. — With five NCAA tournament appearances and three trips to the Sweet 16 in the past seven seasons, the University of Washington men’s basketball team has proven to have the recipe for success.
If the 2010-11 Huskies are going to get back to the postseason — and win a couple games once they get there — they’ll have to rely on one important ingredient and might have to add another.
UW is coming off one of the most successful seasons in recent memory, having overcome a midseason swoon to win 26 games and advance to the Sweet 16. But after losing leading scorer Quincy Pondexter to graduation, the Huskies might need another underachieving junior to turn into a super senior.
And, almost as important, they may want to re-evaluate their non-conference schedule.
A relatively soft schedule that consisted mainly of home games almost cost UW a trip to the postseason in 2009-10. Had it not been for a run to the Pac-10 tournament championship, the Huskies might not have gotten a chance to taste the Sweetness of March.
UW’s non-conference schedules during the Lorenzo Romar era often have included too many Portlands and Idahos and not enough Syracuses and Floridas.
The team’s RPI, which is based in large part on the success of opponents, hovered in the 50s and 60s this season as fellow Pac-10 teams struggled to make a national impact. With just two nationally ranked opponents on the non-conference schedule — Georgetown and Texas A&M — the Huskies might not have had enough quality wins to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
The non-conference schedule also has been heavy on home dates, which may have been a factor in UW’s early road struggles in Pac-10 play. Over the past four seasons, UW has played 25 non-conference home games as compared to just 10 on the road. That may have played a part in a six-game road losing streak the Huskies endured before winning at Stanford in mid-February.
As far as UW’s personnel goes, the Huskies might need another big junior-to-senior jump if they want to get back on the national map. Justin Dentmon last year and Pondexter this season blossomed in their final seasons, following the footsteps of current NBA star Brandon Roy. Without the improved play of Dentmon and Pondexter, the past two UW teams probably would’ve been dead in the water.
Next year’s senior class of Venoy Overton, Justin Holiday and Matthew Bryan-Amaning has plenty of candidates.
Overton would appear to have the most room for improvement, especially after a turnover-filled game in UW’s Sweet 16 loss to West Virginia. His role as a defensive pest could stand to expand into one that includes running a team and becoming a consistent offensive threat.
Holiday made huge strides offensively this year and was one of the team’s top 3-point threats by season’s end. After being added to the starting lineup to help give the team defensive energy, Holiday steadily improved in all aspects of his game and could blossom into an Evan Turner or Darington Hobson type of do-it-all player as a senior.
And Bryan-Amaning showed flashes in February and early March that he might be ready to take the next step and become a potential NBA prospect.
Of course, all three players would have to make significant improvements if the Huskies are going to fill the void left by Pondexter. Sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas looks like the leading candidate to become the Huskies’ go-to scorer, while the team will look for bigger contributions from current freshman Abdul Gaddy, sophomores Darnell Gant and Elston Turner, and current redshirt C.J. Wilcox.
Add in another possible down year for the Pac-10, and there are enough ingredients to make Romar optimistic about the post-Pondexter era.
“For once in a long time, we’ll have three seniors and three juniors. We’ll be an older, more experienced team,” he said after Thursday’s loss to West Virginia. “The success we had on the road this year at the end of the year, hopefully we can carry that into next year.”
And after the way things have been going for the Huskies, Romar has reason to set high expectations.
Perhaps UW can even get past the Round of 16 for the first time in more than 50 years.
“Our program is growing,” Romar said Thursday night. “I think when you compare the last eight years with the history of our program, I think we’ve held our own. And (winning a Sweet 16 game is) just the next step.
“We have to get past this. And we’ll work hard to try to.”
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