SEATTLE – The Washington men’s basketball team’s tentative 2006-07 schedule features a Final Four team as well as the return of former UW assistant Ken Bone.
Headlining the schedule is a Dec. 20 meeting at Hec Edmundson Pavilion with Louisiana State University – a Final Four qualifier last season – as well as a Dec. 9 game at Gonzaga. Washington also is trying to finalize a home-and-home series to begin this season against another team from a power conference.
As a whole, the schedule appears to be more difficult than last year’s, when the Huskies went undefeated against their non-conference opponents, by far the toughest of which was Gonzaga.
As it did last year, Washington opens the season by playing host to a tournament, in this case the Basketball Travelers Classic from Nov. 12-14 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. The four-team, round-robin tournament features Pepperdine, Nicholls State and Northern Iowa. UW head coach Lorenzo Romar coached Pepperdine, which was 7-20 last season, from 1996-99. Northern Iowa should present the biggest challenge after going 23-10 last season and reaching the first round of the NCAA tournament. Nicholls State went 9-18 last year.
The Huskies follow that with four straight home games against Sacramento State (15-15), Eastern Washington (15-15), Idaho (4-25) and Southern Utah (10-20). Eastern Washington features scoring star Rodney Stuckey and former Husky Grant Leep is an assistant coach.
The Huskies then meet Gonzaga in Spokane. Like Washington, the Zags reached the Sweet 16 last season but need to replace All-American Adam Morrison.
Following the Gonzaga game, Washington plays host to Portland State on Dec. 16. The Vikings are coached by Bone, an assistant to Romar for three seasons before leading PSU to a 12-16 record in his first season last year. Portland State also features former Snohomish standout Ryan Sommer.
Washington then meets LSU, which went 27-9 and reached the Final Four last season. The teams last met in 1985 and the Tigers have won the past two meetings between the teams. LSU is led by massive junior center Glen “Big Baby” Davis, who averaged 18.6 points and 9.7 rebounds last year.
The non-conference schedule concludes with a home game against Weber State (10-17) before Washington opens Pacific-10 Conference play on the road Dec. 28 and 30 at USC and UCLA, respectively. The first Pac-10 home game is Jan. 4 against Arizona.
Washington returns two starters – guard Justin Dentmon and forward Jon Brockman – off of last year’s 26-7 team that finished second in the Pac-10 and took Connecticut to overtime in the Sweet 16. The Huskies must replace Pac-10 Player of the Year Brandon Roy, NBA draft pick Bobby Jones as well as Jamaal Williams and Mike Jensen. But the incoming recruiting class – led by 7-foot McDonald’s All-American Spencer Hawes of Seattle Prep – is ranked among the top five in the nation.
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