Sports - Local Colleges - Washington

POSTED: Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009

COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Pac-10 leading Huskies face Arizona

The previous time the Washington Huskies stood alone atop the Pacific-10 Conference men’s basketball standings, they didn’t finish the job.

In that 2004-05 season, the Huskies moved to the top by winning their first three league games. But they missed the Pac-10 regular season title that season, finishing one game behind Arizona. And that margin could be traced to their late January loss on the Wildcats’ home floor.

Now, Washington is not only back on top in the league race, but also back in Tucson, Ariz., for another date with the Wildcats.

“I’m excited,” UW freshman guard Isaiah Thomas said. “Even though they aren’t having a great season, they are a scary team. … We’re coming in like it’s UCLA or one of the top teams in the conference.”

For most of the past quarter century, Arizona has been one of the top teams in the conference. From 1984 through 2007, the Wildcats finished in the top half of the conference, including 11 first-place finishes. That streak ended last season as the Wildcats tumbled to seventh with an 8-10 league mark, but their 19-15 overall record was just good enough for a 24th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.

However, the program was thrown into chaos late in the offseason when coach Lute Olson unexpectedly resigned due to health reasons. The Wildcats are in an unaccustomed ninth place in the Pac-10 with a 2-5 start. And interim coach Russ Pennell did not seem interested in making much of a case that his team’s record is deceiving.

“I think the season has gone about like I thought,” he said this week. “We obviously could have won one of two more games that we kind of let slip us by. We knew coming in this wasn’t a typical Arizona team. Our depth wasn’t quite as good, and it’s been chronicled that we’ve had some turmoil around here the last couple of years.”

Among the games Arizona let slip by were one-point losses to USC, Alabama-Birmingham and Texas A&M.

And those close losses have combined with wins over Gonzaga and Kansas to impress Washington coach Lorenzo Romar seemingly far more than Pennell.

“Jordan Hill is one of the best big men in America – he could be a lottery pick,” Romar said. “Chase Budinger could have gone to the NBA Draft last year and would have been a first-round pick. And Nic Wise is a point guard with a terrific winner’s mentality. … You break out the film of them against Gonzaga and Kansas, and that’s something they couldn’t have faked. … They are capable of beating anyone when they play like that.”

In Pac-10 play, Arizona has won only its home games against the Oregon schools. The Wildcats lost by double digits at Stanford and California and by 23 to UCLA, who the Huskies beat Saturday to take the league lead.

That win also launched Washington into the national rankings (No. 23 in The Associated Press poll) for the first time in more than two years.

Despite that success and the increased attention that has accompanied it, the Huskies say they will stay focused in their effort to remain atop the conference this time.

“We’re still going to try to play how we’ve been playing,” senior guard Justin Dentmon said. “We’re going to try to blur (the distractions) out as much as we can. … We’re just going to try to keep getting better and better, and you never know: We might be No. 1 for the whole season if we keep playing.”