Washington Huskies Weekly Update

Well the Washington Huskies basketball season is over after a 76-74 loss to the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday in Portland at the Rose Garden. UW came back from a 14 point deficit and almost won the game but ultimately came up short. A huge sequence took place with about a minute left in the game when the Huskies had the ball and had two shots blocked by JaJuan Johnson of Purdue. First Johnson blocked Isaiah Thomas then Quincy Pondexter.

The Huskies were led by Thomas (24 points), Pondexter (20 points and 10 rebounds) and of course Jon Brockman (20 points and 18 rebounds. 60th double-double of his career). Those 3 combined to score all but 10 of the Huskies points for the game. In my opinion the biggest key to the game was the virtual no shows of every other Husky besides Thomas, Pondexter and Brockman, with the exception of Venoy Overton who played great defense but didn't adjust to how closely the officials were calling the game.

Now that the season is over for the Dawgs most people think of what could of have been. I like to look into the future and think of how good this team will be next year. Granted the Huskies will be losing two major pieces to the team in Brockman and Justin Dentmon but they also gained a lot of experience and it was amazing to see how much better Quincy Pondexter played this year. UW will return 3 of the 5 starters as well as the top 4 guys off of the bench.

The recruiting class for 2009 is also going to be key as the Huskies have the #13 ranked class according to ESPN. They will bring in the #2 rated point guard, 6-3 Abdul Gaddy along with versatile power forward Clarence Trent, guard C.J. Wilcox and Junior College power forward Charles Garcia, Jr.

I'm disappointed the season ended for the Huskies but I am also amped for the possibility of what the Dawgs can do next year.

Washington Huskies Weekly Update

Pac-10 Champs!!!

56 years in the making the Washington Huskies are conference champions. Icing on the cake is that they clinched by beating their rival the Washington State Cougars to do it. The last time the Dawgs won an outright conference title was when the conference was known as the Pacific Coast Conference. In the game the Huskies won it how they have won all season by employing solid defense and getting scoring from multiple sources.

In this game the Huskies got 16 points from Quincy Pondexter, 7 points and 18 rebounds from Jon Brockman, 12 points from Justin Dentmon and most surprising of all 14 points and lock-down defense from Venoy Overton off of the bench. The 14 from Overton was especially surprising since he averaged only 5.9 points per game through the regular season.

Now the Huskies head into the Pac-10 tournament, which starts on Wednesday, March 11th, as the #1 seed. The Dawgs won't play their first game until Thursday the 12th against the winner of the Oregon State/Stanford game. To be successful in the Pac-10 tourney as well as the NCAA Tournament, Washington will need to continue with what got them to this point, namely the balanced scoring and solid defense.

Call me a homer but with this team I could definetely see them making an Elite 8 run or beyond.

Also of note the Huskies picked up a few honors today: Pac-10 Freshman of the Year for Isaiah Thomas, Pac-10 Most Improved Player for Justin Dentmon and Lorenzo Romar picked up his second Pac-10 Coach of the Year honor.

Washington Huskies Weekly Update

Go Beavers!!! No I'm not an Oregon State fan but this week I am, for if the Beavers can beat UCLA in Pauley Pavilion on Thursday then the Huskies will wrap up the Pac-10 regular season title. If not then the Huskies will have to wait until Saturday when they play the Washington State Cougars.

The Huskies are in control of their own destiny after handling things at home this past week. On Thursday the Dawgs beat Arizona State in a heart stopper 73-70 in overtime. Jon Brockman again came through big in this game scoring 21 points. Justin Dentmon came through big in overtime scoring 6 of the 16 points he scored on the night.

Saturday the Huskies beat the Arizona Wildcats 83-78 after being down by 10 in the second half. Brockman and Isaiah Thomas both scored 19 points in leading Washington to victory. Also aiding in the Huskies victory was solid free throw shooting down the stretch, the Dawgs converted 10 of 12 from the line. If not for the poor free throw shooting earlier in the game (9 for 23) the Huskies might have won even more convincingly.

This week the Huskies have their last two regular season games of the season, both at home, when they take on Seattle University on Tuesday and Washington State on Saturday.

In other UW news the softball team is now 17-0 and number 1 in the country after beating Portland State 8-2 on Sunday. The Washington Huskies were led again by Danielle Lawrie who is now 12-0 and is currently working on 66.1 consecutive scoreless innings pitched. Ashley Charters continued her stealing ways when swiped 3 more bases which leaves her 3 short of the career UW record for stolen bases in a career.

Go Dawgs!!!

Washington Huskies Weekly Update: KryptoNate!

Welcome back to the AP top 25 Dawgs. After being left out of last weeks top 25 the Huskies make a return this week at number 22. This after beating the Oregon schools at home (Oregon State Beavers 79-60 on Thursday, Oregon Ducks 103-84 on Saturday), both by 19 points. UW is in first place in the Pac-10 by a full game over the Arizona State Sun Devils.

Justin Dentmon continued his great play of late by scoring a total of 49 points and handing out 9 assists in the two games. Also in the Oregon game 4 of the 5 starters scored at least 20 points (Quincy Pondexter 20, Jon Brockman 21, Isaiah Thomas 24 and Dentmon 21).

Ex-Huskies also did pretty well over the NBA's All Star weekend with Nate Robinson winning the dunk contest in his all green suit of kryptonite over Superman Dwight Howard. Brandon Roy went for 14 points (on 7 of 8 shooting), 5 rebounds and 5 assists in Sundays All-Star game.

This week the Huskies face UCLA and USC both on the road. If they can pull off victories in both of those games that will put them in great position to win the Pac-10. After this weeks road games the Dawgs have the remaining 4 regular season games at home.

Washington Huskies Weekly Update

No Sweet 16 for Stanford. The Huskies finally broke through and beat the Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto for the first time since 1993 on Sunday. The Cardinal scored 12 straight points midway through the first half to go up 25-15, but the Huskies closed the first half strong and went into the break up 35-34. UW kept up the pressure in the second half and ended up defeating the Cardinal 75-68. Quincy Pondexter lead the Dawgs with 20 points, Isaiah Thomas added 17 for his 17th consecutive game in double figures and Jon Brockman added his 11th double-double of the season.

Unfortunately the Huskies lost the first game of this Californication on Thursday night when they were soundly beaten by the California Golden Bears. UW held a 43-34 lead early in the second half but imploded after that and went on to lose 86-71.

The Huskies currently ranked 22nd in the nation are now a half game back of the UCLA Bruins for 1st place in the Pac-10 at 8-3.

This week the Huskies head back home to battle the Oregon State Beavers on Thursday and the Oregon Ducks on Valentines Day. Fitting because the Huskies Ducks have a real love/hate relationship, mostly hate. The Huskies are 13-1 this season at home, and with the Oregon schools being two of the worst in the Pac-10 the Dawgs should prevail in both of these games.

By the way, isn't it a shame that Oregon State and South Carolina don't play every year?

Washington Huskies Weekly Update: Tucson, Tempe Split

The Washington Huskies salvaged a split on the first half of there 4 game Pac-10 road trip. On Thursday night the Dawgs were in Tucson taking on the Arizona Wildcats and were ahead 38-37 at halftime. The second half turned out to be a free throw bonanza for the Wildcats as they went 34 of 40 from the charity stripe and beat the Huskies 106-97. With the loss Washington falls to 6-2 in the Pac-10 and back into a tie with the UCLA Bruins. The Huskies will surely be looking for revenge when they host the Wildcats on February 28th.

On Saturday the Huskies went into the home of the Arizona State Sun Devils and left with an 84-71 victory. They held the Pac-10's leading scorer James Harden to 15 points which is about 7 points below his average (22.2) and scored 41 in the first half which is the most points the Sun Devils had given up in the first half all season. With UCLA winning also, the Huskies remain in a tie with the Bruins for first in the Pac-10.

The biggest story of this game (other than locking down Harden) was the continued great scoring output by Justin Dentmon. Love him or hate him it is hard to argue his offensive production over the last 7 games. Dentmon has averaged 21.4 points per games over his last 7 games, up from the 12.5 points a game he averaged over the teams first 14 games.

Couple Dentmon with the solid play of Jon Brockman (15.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game) and Isaiah Thomas (16.7 points per game) and the Huskies are looking like a tough tournament team. A welcome ray of sunshine in this gloomy and dark Seattle sports (and weather) world.

No time for the Dawgs to bask in glow of the victory on Saturday as they head to Berkeley for a date with the California Golden Bears on Thursday (2/5) and then to Palo Alto to tangle with the Stanford Cardinal on Sunday (2/8).

Additionally on the docket this week for the Huskies football team is National Signing Day, which is right up there with the opening Thursday and Friday games of the NCAA Tournament in March as my favorite days of the year. Look for a breakdown of UW's incoming recruiting class on Wednesday the 4th once the recruits start sending in there letters of intent.