This Dawg learns to sit

SEATTLE – Life has been good at the University for Ryan Appleby.

In one quarter, he’s fit in fine with his teammates. School’s fine.

Now comes the hard part.

Sitting on the bench in street clothes.

Appleby, the former Stanwood High School star who transferred to Washington from Florida, is redshirting the season under NCAA transfer rules. As such, he can practice, but not play in games for the Huskies until next season.

And for a basketball junkie such as Appleby, who’s among the first at practice and among the last to leave, it stinks.

“I’ve thought about it and I have to get it out my mind, because I know it’s going to be tough,” said Appleby, a 6-foot-2, 160-pound sophomore. “But I think about it and take it day by day, practice by practice, because I know that, when the season comes around, it’s going to be tough sitting there – especially when the Pac-10 season rolls around.”

His brief collegiate career already has been tough enough. A lifelong Florida basketball fan, Appleby accepted a scholarship from coach Billy Donovan before his senior year at Stanwood. After starting the Gators’ first two games, Appleby found himself on the bench too much of the time.

He didn’t play at all in three of the first nine games, then didn’t get off the pine in five straight mid-season games. He played very little in the last 12 games of the Gators’ season, including just five minutes in Florida’s loss to Manhattan in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

“I just didn’t feel there was going to be a lot of opportunity to play,” Appleby said. “It was hard. I didn’t want to leave a situation like I was quitting. But when I thought about it for a while, it wasn’t that I was quitting. I still wanted to play basketball. I just wanted to go someplace else.”

Knowing UW coach Lorenzo Romar from the time Romar tried to recruit him to Washington, Appleby gave Romar a phone call to ask whether he had room on his team for him.

Romar wanted Appleby to come.

“We really liked Ryan out of high school,” Romar said. “Ryan is a good fit for what we want to do: Get up and down the floor. He can really push the ball up the floor, he can shoot with range, he sees the floor well and can really pass the ball. He’s a phenomenal worker. He really understands the point-guard position.”

The up side is that Appleby will compete for a starting spot next season, after Will Conroy graduates. The down side is that he’ll watch games all season.

But at least Appleby will have the chance to work on his game against Conroy and Nate Robinson.

And that can’t be bad.

“It will be a win-win situation for him because he’ll be on the scout team every day,” Romar said. “He’ll go up against Will and Nate every day. Those guys are going to have to play every day, because Ryan is a good basketball player. It’s a great opportunity for Ryan and a big plus for our program for a number of reasons next year.”

To look at Appleby is to remember him in leading Stanwood in career scoring (1,709 points) and assists (763). He still is the flashy ball-handler, much in the mold of his idol, Pete Maravich.

Yet, it is a more refined Appleby these days. Although he still has much of the flash he always has, he’s toned it down and is a much more efficient player than he was.

“I’m trying to become a better floor leader and I’ve tried to tone my game down a bit, to where I’m not trying to make a crazy play all the time,” he said. “I’ve kind of strayed away a little bit from the behind-the-back passes and trying to make a great play all the time. I’m trying to keep it simple. It’s helped.”

Not all of the Maravichian tactics, however, are dead.

“That won’t ever leave,” he said. “That’s the reason I started playing, the creativity. I just know that there’s a certain time and place for it now. If it’s a blowout and you’re up by a bunch, it’s fine to do, but if it’s a close game, you kind of have to put that stuff away.”

So the refinement of Ryan Appleby continues.

Unfortunately, it’ll be a year before he can show us.