SEATTLE – It’ll be a matchup of two young and struggling basketball teams when the University of Washington men host Arizona State today.
Both the Huskies (10-4) and the Sun Devils (6-8), who meet at 5 p.m. at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, are off to 0-3 Pacific-10 Conference starts behind a group of primarily sophomores and freshmen. Washington is coming off of a home loss to Arizona on Thursday, and ASU fell by 20 at Washington State the same night.
For Washington, this is the first time it has been 0-3 in the conference since 2004, when it lost its first five Pac-10 games before winning 14 of its final 16, a streak that started the current rise of Husky basketball.
Both Washington and Arizona State play four true freshmen significant minutes. In fact, the leading scorer on each team – UW’s Spencer Hawes (16.5 points per game) and ASU’s Christian Polk (14.3) are freshmen.
This will be a different looking Arizona State team than the one the Huskies defeated the past seven times in a row. The Sun Devils now are coached by Herb Sendek, who led North Carolina State to the past five NCAA Tournaments. Under Sendek, ASU is showing some toughness, out-rebounding foes in 12 of its 14 games, including the past six. But the Sun Devils are struggling to score, averaging a conference-low 63.9 points, and they are worst in the league when it comes to opponent’s field goal percentage.
Arizona State’s front line could give the Huskies a bit of a challenge. Washington has out-rebounded every opponent this year, but in 6-foot-9 sophomore Jeff Pendergraph (12.3 points, 9.4 rebounds) and 6-7 senior Serge Angounou (9.4 points, 8.0 rebounds), the UW faces a pair of athletic and versatile forwards. Pendergraph, who put on about 35 pounds in the offseason, averages a conference-best 4.57 offensive rebounds.
Scoring and rebounding haven’t been an issue for the Huskies. Washington ranks sixth in the nation in scoring at 86.3 points a game with four players, including forwards Quincy Pondexter (14.7) and Jon Brockman (12.4), averaging in double figures. It’s on the defensive end that the Huskies are struggling. UCLA shot 60 percent in its victory over Washington, and Arizona shot 65 percent. Washington is 0-3 when opponents shoot better than 50 percent.
Washington coach Lorenzo Romar wasn’t sure what starting lineup he would go with against ASU. Against Arizona, Ryan Appleby and Phil Nelson started in place of Justin Dentmon and Pondexter, and Pondexter responded with 25 points. Pondexter said he stopped thinking so much and just played, and said he believes the Huskies will be fine despite their current losing streak.
“We played against some really tough teams,” Pondexter said. “USC’s a tough team, UCLA was a tough team and Arizona was really tough. We can just build and learn off these games. I think we’ll do really well.”
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