SEATTLE — Ryan Appleby rose from the bench for the first time this season, strode to the scorers table and before the horn could sound, the standing ovation already was underway.
Four weeks and seven games without the senior from Stanwood had shown Washington basketball fans just how much the Huskies need Appleby this year. So, when he checked into the game against Pittsburgh on Dec. 8, his teammates and fans welcomed him back accordingly.
Appleby rewarded the warm ovation moments later by making his first 3-point attempt of the season. Then he hit another, and another, and another still, and by halftime, Appleby had made four of five 3-point attempts.
Just a shooter making up for lost time.
Appleby ended up with 18 points on six 3-pointers that day, and has hardly slowed down since. In his six games since coming back from a fractured thumb on his shooting hand, Appleby has made 22 of 41 3-point attempts, including a school-record tying seven against Portland State. More importantly, the Huskies are 5-1 since his return.
When Washington begins league play Saturday against fourth-ranked Washington State, Appleby will play a big role in whatever success the Huskies have this year in a brutally tough Pacific-10 Conference.
“He’s a difference-maker for their team,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said after his team escaped with a one-point road victory against the Huskies. “Add him to the mix and they become a different team.”
Appleby, a fifth-year senior playing his third and final season at Washington after transferring from Florida, is shooting more frequently and more accurately than ever, which is something the Huskies will need if they hope to get back to the postseason this year after staying home last March.
“I knew he could shoot the ball, but I didn’t know he’d become this great of a shooter,” Lorenzo Romar said. “I don’t know if there are two better shooters in the country than Ryan Appleby. I just didn’t know he would get to that level. He’s comfortable. I know at Florida he averaged one point a game. And when he talked to us about transferring I thought, ‘He’s not a one-point-per-game guy. He can do more than that.’ And he’s just gotten better and better.”
After averaging one point per game as a freshman, Appleby returned to his home state to play for Romar and the Huskies. He was honored as the Pac-10 newcomer of the year in 2005-2006 when he came off the bench to average 7.9 points. Last season, he raised that total to 10.5 points while sinking a school-record 84 3-pointers.
This season, Appleby is playing the best basketball of his college career, averaging 13 points per game despite not scoring against Cal State Northridge thanks to a box-and-one defense and back spasms that limited him to one shot in 14 minutes. His 22 3-pointers already lead the team by six, and he has 10 assists and just three turnovers.
In years past, Appleby has always been a scoring threat, but with guys like Brandon Roy and Spencer Hawes around, he never had to be a consistent scorer. That changes this year.
“My role has been the spot-up guy to take pressure off of other guys, whether it was B-Roy or Spencer, so teams couldn’t help and double them,” he said. “I think now I’ve got a little bit more of a chance to show what I can do from a scoring standpoint. I saw the personnel we had and knew I would have to help more this year in that area of scoring points. It’s my last year and I’ve got nothing to lose.”
This season, along with Jon Brockman, Appleby is being looked to for leadership and production. During Appleby’s absence, teams were able to constantly double-team Brockman as few Huskies aside from Joel Smith provided the UW with a legitimate long-range threat. With Appleby back on the court, teams have to pick their poison. Opponents can continue to throw bodies at Brockman and risk an Appleby 3-point barrage, or they can employ a strategy similar to Northridge and risk a big night for Brockman and Washington’s other shooters.
Either role, scorer or decoy, is just fine with Appleby. He says he’s happy either way, so long as the Huskies are winning. Twenty-one points on seven 3s in a win? Sure, he loves that. But zero points and one shot attempt? That’s fine too if it’s creating opportunities for his teammates that lead to wins for the Huskies.
“As we play more teams in our conference, they’re going to be on him,” Romar said. “Hopefully what that will do is open it up for someone else. It’s difficult to take Ryan completely out of the game, though, because he has such a quick release, and he has such unlimited range. It’s not natural to have to guard someone the way you have to guard him. You’ve got to be right there everywhere, no matter where it is.”
Romar says that Appleby not only has a green light to shoot at will, but a “huge, florescent green light” to do so.
While some fans were no doubt surprised by Appleby’s fast start — he averaged 19 points in his first three games back — Romar knew coming into the season that Appleby could be ready for a breakout year.
“We watched him this year when we started practice, and we commented amongst us coaches and said ‘Wow, this is crazy how well he can shoot the basketball,’” he said. “So his accuracy is not something that surprised me when he came back.”
If only he had broken his thumb sooner.
OK, so maybe that’s a stretch, but Appleby did say that the injury has helped him in a way.
“Breaking my thumb and it being my fifth year just made me a little bit mentally tougher,” said Appleby, who is still playing with a wrap on his thumb and hand. “You know you’re going to have some bad things happen and you’ve got to be able to fight through those bad things. It’s helped me on the court now when I’m out there.”
The only negative about being one of the nation’s best 3-point shooters, if there is one, is that it tends to overshadow some of your other positive attributes. As much as the Huskies missed Appleby’s scoring presence, there are plenty of other aspects of his game that have made the Huskies better since his return.
“I think what gets overlooked is his understanding of the game,” Romar said. “His experience and understanding of what’s going on is extremely helpful. It’s like having a coach on the floor.”
That extra coach has been especially helpful as Romar and his staff have focused on defense throughout non-conference play.
“I think everyone knows what he can do on offense, just shoot it from anywhere on the court,” Brockman said. “But his defense is behind the scenes to most people watching. He’s one of those guys who rarely makes mistakes, especially in transition. If you watch him, he’s the safety, he has to get back, and he’s pointing and helping other people get to where they need to be, and that’s just a huge, huge thing.”
Now that the shooter/leader/defender from Stanwood is back on the court after an injury, his impact is being noticed by fans and teammates more than ever.
“It’s my fifth year in college and this is my last crack at it and I’m just trying to make the best of it,” he said.
Appleby knows this season is his last shot at college basketball.
Don’t bet on him missing.
Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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