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

The Dawgs are dancing! While it was disappointing the Huskies lost to the Sun Devils in the Pac-10 tournament semifinals, they still managed to get a 4 seed in the dance. After all as they say the 3rd time is the charm and Arizona State was finally able to beat UW.

What I thought was great is that the Huskies played with the heart of a champion when they fought back from a 21 point deficit and at one point took a 2 point lead. What really ignited the Huskies was the dust up that started after James Harden and Washington's Venoy Overton collided. The large comeback eventually went for not as the Dawgs finally were put away by the Sun Devils 75-65.

Washington will now focus on their opening round opponent in the NCAA Tournament Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are in the tournament because they went on a tear in the SEC tournament winning all four games they played and eventually knocking off Tennessee in the title game.

In other Dawg news former UW golfer Alex Prugh had two eagles in the final round of the New Zealand Open which is a Nationwide Tour event (think the minor league of golf). By winning the event Prugh made a cool $108,000 as well as getting to hang in New Zealand. Not bad I'd say.

Washington Huskies Weekly Update

A little help from your enemies. That's what the Washington Huskies got this week when the Washington State Cougars beat the UCLA Bruins on Saturday. The Huskies now have a 1 1/2 game lead over the Bruins in the Pac-10. Arizona State is right behind the Huskies, only a 1/2 game back, they will have a chance to add to that lead when the Sun Devils visit B of A this Thursday. Should the Huskies prevail on Thursday that will give them at least a 1 1/2 game lead over the second place team in the Pac-10 with just 2 conference games remaining, both at home.

Unfortunately the Huskies were unable to beat UCLA last Thursday losing 85-76, but did manage to beat the USC Trojans on their home court on Saturday by the final of 60-51. The loss was only the second the Trojans have suffered all season. The heroes in this game against the Trojans were Quincy Pondexter who scored a season-high 22 points, and Venoy Overton who applied heavy pressure to USC's point guard Daniel Hackett. Overton entered the game with 6:20 remaining and helped shut down the Trojans, who led by 4 with 5:52 to play but scored only 1 point the rest of the way.

This week the Huskies entertain the Sun Devils on Thursday the 26th and the Arizona Wildcats Saturday the 28th, both at home.