Since their first meeting of the season, Washington and USC have gone opposite directions.
After an 0-5 start in Pacific-10 Conference play, a mark that included an 88-80 loss to the Trojans, the Huskies have won four straight, while USC has won just two of its last six.
The teams face each other Thursday night in Los Angeles.
Trojans coach Henry Bibby said he has been impressed with Washington’s resurgence.
“We know they’re an extremely good basketball team that has started to play well,” Bibby said. “It shows that the team hasn’t given up. Coach (Lorenzo) Romar has done a fantastic job. You go 0-5 and pick up four wins, there aren’t many teams in the conference that can do that. They have a lot of talent up there.”
In the first meeting, the Trojans went on an 18-2 run en route to a 40-26 halftime lead. The scourge for Washington was turnovers: 17 in the first half, 29 for the game.
The turnaround has been remarkable. In the past four games, the Huskies have averaged 12.5 turnovers and 91 points a game.
“I think it actually started before we won some games,” Romar said. “Then we saw the end result with a victory. Once we broke the ice, we felt a lot better.”
The catalyst has been guard Nate Robinson.
Now allowed to roam the floor as a shooting guard, the 5-foot-8 Robinson has found his shooting range and erupted for a career-high 31 points against Arizona.
More than that, players have bought into specific roles. Will Conroy has established himself as the point guard. Mike Jensen is improving as an inside presence. Ditto Hakeem Rollins. Anthony Washington is getting healthy.
“Different guys have taken ownership of certain roles on the team,” Romar said. “That’s made a big difference.”
Bibby, on the other hand, has experimented with different lineups. Nine Trojans have started at least one game.
“I have a 10-man rotation,” Bibby said. “I haven’t had too many guys step up and demand playing time and become starters. We have, basically, two starting teams.”
Stanford’s path tough: Stanford is 18-0 with nine regular-season games remaining and all Cardinal coach Mike Montgomery is hearing is whether his team is capable of remaining undefeated.
The talk has only accelerated after Saturday’s 83-80 victory at Oregon, in which Stanford fought back from an 18-point deficit.
“You can’t avoid it; it’s just ridiculous,” Montgomery said. “When we’re in the locker room, we just talk about Arizona State, as our next opponent. What everybody else talks about is just incredible. It’s just a lack of understanding of the game of basketball, from my perspective.”
Arizona coach Lute Olson, who knows something about the trials of undefeated teams, said none of his teams ever mentioned unbeaten streaks.
“You’ve got to be very good at what you do, but you also have to be fairly lucky as well,” Olson said. “You have to dodge some bullets and still have stuff to deal with.”
Olson said among the toughest tests the Cardinal will face will be a pair of games with the Washington schools.
Sun Devils to make changes: After getting swept by the Washington schools last week, Arizona State coach Rob Evans says he likely will make changes in the starting lineup.
“Our problem is that we start off games behind,” Evans said. “Case in point was the Washington game, where we got down 12-0 and then we fought back. This is too young a basketball team to have to continually fight back from deficits. We haven’t started well all year long.”
Evans says he likely will sit junior point guard Jason Braxton in favor of either Tron Smith or Stevie Moore.
“We’re still searching, but it’s late to be searching,” Evans said.
Bennett in for Bennett: Washington State coach Dick Bennett missed Saturday’s 61-57 loss to Arizona because he was in the hospital with an illness that was never completely diagnosed.
Left in charge to coach against Lute Olson: Bennett’s son, Tony.
“Truth be known, I wanted to see how my son would do against a Hall of Famer,” Dick Bennett said.
The head coach spent Saturday night in the hospital with flu-like symptoms and blood-pressure issues. Unable to watch the game, Bennett’s wife, told him the halftime score and the final score. Later, Tony came to the hospital to fill in the details.
“I just let him vent a little bit,” Bennett said. “I didn’t say much. I just listened … He blamed himself a little. He said that, had it been me, we probably would have gotten a little more respect from the officials.”
Tip-ins: Arizona, which plays in the Bay Area this week, has swept Cal and Stanford on the road the last four years … With 206 career 3-pointers, Oregon senior guard James Davis has passed Luke Ridnour for third in the school’s all-time list … Oregon State forward David Lucas, who is the son of former Portland Trailblazer Maurice Lucas, has scored 20 or more points in five of the last seven Pac-10 games. He averages 19.7 points a game in his last seven games. He also has hit on 29 of his last 33 free-throw attempts … Stanford forward Justin Davis tore his medial collateral ligament in his left knee against Oregon State and will be out three to four weeks. It is the same injury he had last season, which caused him to miss five games.
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