UW Men’s Notebook: Thomas tries glove to protect injured hand

  • By Scott M. Johnson Herald Writer
  • Tuesday, March 16, 2010 11:00pm
  • SportsSports

SEATTLE — Gary Payton won’t be suiting up for the University of Washington men’s basketball team this week.

But the Huskies’ chances of making a run in the NCAA tournament may well come down to the glove.

Sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas, a left-hander, said Tuesday that he’ll go back to wearing a glove to protect his shooting hand. He wore a purple glove for the first half of the Pac-10 tournament title game but ditched it at halftime because it affected his shooting.

Thomas, who claims that a team doctor told him he might have a small fracture in a bone just below his left palm, is being fitted for a glove with less padding.

He first hurt the hand when he came crashing down on the floor in the Feb. 11 game at Cal. Thomas played without much pain before re-injuring the hand at practice earlier this month.

“When I fall, that’s when all the pain comes back,” he said. “Mostly, it’s all right. When I hit it against something, that’s when it hurts. But in the game, you have so much adrenaline going that you don’t really feel it.”

Head coach Lorenzo Romar said that he’s not worried about Thomas’ shooting hand this week.

“It’s not a concern to me at all,” he said Tuesday. “He’s been playing pretty good with that (glove).”

Thomas overcame a slow start in the Cal game to score 16 and help lead UW to the postseason title. Since the game in which he first hurt his hand, Thomas has averaged 16.1 points per game and shot nearly 43 percent from the field.

More bite, less bark

When the Huskies stopped talking the talk, they started walking the walk.

UW made a pledge earlier this season to be less braggadocious, and the Huskies’ play has done the talking for them. They’ve won seven games in a row and 11 of 13.

“We felt we were that good, even though we hadn’t shown anybody,” Thomas said. “It kind of humbled us up a little bit to lose games early. It made our season that much more better, that much more happy and fun once we won that Pac-10 championship.”

West side story

Thursday’s game against Marquette isn’t just an opportunity to advance in the NCAA tournament, it’s also a chance for the Huskies to prove some doubters wrong.

All season long, UW has heard talk about the Pac-10 being the worst major conference in the country and the Big East being unbeatable. An earlier opportunity for the Huskies to prove themselves fell short, as Georgetown beat UW on a neutral floor, but now they’re ready to make a statement.

“We’ve been in a lot of battles defending ourselves and the Pac-10,” senior Quincy Pondexter said. “It’s something we’re going to carry with us. I hope Cal does well (in the tournament) as well, and we’ll see what happens.

And as for the talk about teams from the East being tougher than those from the West?

“I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it,” Pondexter said. “… They said the same thing last year about Mississippi State, that they were going to beat us up (in a first-round NCAA tournament game). I think it was the other way around.”

Short jumpers

The Huskies were scheduled to arrive in San Jose last night and will practice at 5:55 p.m. today. UW and Marquette play at 4:20 p.m. Thursday. … Pondexter said he is still recovering from a cold, but added that it hasn’t slowed him down on the court.

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