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.