Tag Archives: Washington Huskies

by | December 31, 2010 · 12:19 pm

Montlake Jake

Jake Locker was a part of Husky football long before he enrolled at the University of Washington in 2006.  His legend, of a state champion quarterback with lightning feet and the size and toughness to be recruited as a safety by USC, had long since rolled south from Ferndale.  He was Montlake Jake before stepping on campus, destined to resurrect a football program suffering through its worst seasons in decades. 

The legend only grew when he turned down major league baseball, something that his almost predecessor Matt Tuiasosopo didn’t do several years earlier.  He spent 2006 redshirting, to some controversy.  The team could have used him, and many were concerned that Jake would be gone to the NFL as soon as he became eligible.  Regardless, it was no surprise when he easily won the starting job in 2007 and made his debut at Syracuse.

It was everything Husky fans had hoped for.  Jake ran up and down the field, showing the lightning speed and strong arm that had so long been rumored.  He wasn’t polished by any means, especially his passing, but that was to be expected from a freshman making his first start, and it wasn’t hard to imagine him leading the Huskies to a Rose Bowl win a few years later before becoming the first pick in the draft.  The talent was that obvious, that mind-blowing.

And then things didn’t quite go to plan.  2007 was respectable but disappointing, more from a team standpoint than individual.  Expectations were fairly high coming into 2008.  The Huskies started the year with losses, none more devastating than against BYU, where the now infamous celebration penalty against Jake cost the Huskies a possible win.  Still, Jake’s passing looked improved, and the poise he showed in leading that last minute drive against BYU would surely be put to better use down the road.  In the fourth game of the year, against Stanford, everything fell apart.  Jake broke his thumb while blocking, and stayed on the sidelines for the rest of the year.  The rest of the team spiraled lower than anyone thought possible.  Tyrone Willingham was fired but allowed to coach the rest of the season, and the team lost all will to fight.  They went winless, even falling to the equally hapless Cougars in the Apple Cup.  Some argue that the talent on that squad was better than most winless teams, but few teams have ever been as low emotionally as the 2008 team was to end the season.

2009 brought a new coach in Steve Sarkisian and a new attitude, along with Locker’s return.  The turn-around they made that season now seems nothing short of remarkable.  Central to the season was an astonishing upset against #3 USC, as Jake calmly led UW down the field for a last second field goal to win.  The season was up and down, ending in five wins, but the Huskies won their last two against WSU and Cal in dominating fashion, leading to huge expectations for 2010 and that potential #1 spot in the draft for Locker, if he wanted to leave early to take it. 

No one would have been a bit surprised if he had left, and the national media had pretty much written him off as a former Husky, when he walked into Sarkisian’s office with his new dog, Ten, and nonchalantly announced that he was coming back for one more year.  Fans started talking of the Heisman and winning eight or nine games, a juggernaut offense behind Jake, Chris Polk and Jermaine Kearse a seeming certainty.

The only problem was that the team just wasn’t that good yet.  The offensive line, along with the rest of the offense, struggled, and the defense was inconsistent.  The Huskies lost a winnable opener to BYU, beat Syracuse, and then got crushed by Nebraska.  They beat USC again and won a thriller at Husky Stadium against Oregon State, but Jake spent the second half of the season nursing broken ribs and the Huskies dropped three straight to a murderer’s row of Arizona, Stanford and Oregon to fall to 3-6.  Even with three winnable games remaining, hopes for a bowl game were nearly gone, and Jake’s reputation had taken a major hit during an inconsistent and lackluster season.

Then UCLA came to town on a cold Thursday night.  It was close for the first half of the game before UCLA began to fall apart.  UW seemed to grow up that game, sensing the victory was theirs to take, and they finally took it.  By the end it was a laugher, with the Huskies pounding on a completely inept Bruin offense.  The Huskies next went to Berkley in a faceoff of two teams trying to keep their bowl hopes alive.  Cal’s offense was nearly as bad as UCLA’s, but UW had a difficult time against a stout Bear defense.  Trailing by three in the final minutes, Jake again took over.  Clearly still hampered by the rib injury.  He threw a long pass that Kearse made a great play on en route to moving the Huskies to the goal line in the final minute.  The Bear defense stopped them there, however, and it looked like the Huskies would settle for a field goal to tie it.  Sarkisian decided otherwise, and in a play that may have single-handedly restored Husky football  to its traditional state of toughness and excellence, Chris Polk plunged through the line untouched, and the Huskies were 5-6 going into the Apple Cup.

Jake again wasn’t perfect against the Cougars, throwing an interception just before halftime that made a close game out of what probably should have been a blowout.  Polk made the difference, though, running for 284 yards, and the Huskies found themselves in the now familiar spot of having the ball in the final minutes of a tie game.  Locker and Polk again marched down the field, and Jake threw a perfect pass to Kearse for a go-ahead touchdown. 

The Huskies would play in the Holiday Bowl.  Montlake Jake’s legend was cemented in Husky lore.

No one expected a win in the Holiday Bowl rematch against Nebraska, and now, of course, no one will ever forget it.  The team seemed to finally take on the full personality of Jake Locker, dominating with their toughness, playing loose and aggressive and fast.  They exerted their will and did whatever was necessary to win.  When Jake found no open receivers for nearly the entire game, he calmly threw the ball away or scrambled for first downs.  The offense came differently, with a pass from Jesse Callier to Locker, and then Polk and Locker ripped the heart out of the Cornhuskers as they ran over and through their vaunted defense.  Mason Foster, in many ways Locker’s twin on defense, led an effort that saw the Huskies dominate the line of scrimmage and limit the Huskers to under 150 yards of total offense before a late desperation drive brought the total to 189.  Before that last drive, the defense held Nebraska to an incredible -36 yards in the fourth quarter. 

The final score was 19-7, but the domination was greater than even the score would tell

Now, the legend of Montlake Jake is complete.  It didn’t end in a Rose Bowl win or national championship, there is no Heisman, and Jake won’t be the #1 pick overall.  And yet, I don’t know that The Jake Locker Era could have been any more satisfying if all that had come true.  It feels as though it took a complete collapse that sent this football team to the lowest place imaginable for Jake Locker to get a chance to show who he is and what he could do.  This team was remade in his image.  For all his physical gifts that fans will marvel about for decades, what will be most remembered is his calm eyes in the biggest moments, his toughness, his loyalty, and a level of character not often seen in college football.

College football is the ultimate fan sport, and only so often do players come along that connect with the fans on a special level.  The only such Husky I remember is Marques Tuiasosopo, whose charisma and late game heroics will be etched in my mind forever.  I wasn’t quite old enough to have those type of ties with the early ’90’s teams, although I’m sure there are plenty who do.  My dad seems to remember Sonny Sixkiller that way.  Brandon Roy and Nate Robinson were certainly that on the basketball court.  Reggie Williams and others had the onfield talent and production to be remembered, but for whatever reason, there was never quite the connection with the fans that moved them to that other level.

Jake Locker is that kind of player who will be remembered forever by anyone who watched him these past four years.  His physical talents were incredible, but it is our good fortune as football fans that the intangible gifts that separated him from others are what also allowed him to bring Husky football back from the dead. 

Jake Locker is everything we could ever want a football player to be.  There will never be another Montlake Jake, but his legend will live forever.

-Matthew

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by | December 30, 2010 · 4:19 pm

Myth Busting: Pac-10 Hoops Conference Road Records 2002-2010

Last night the Huskies defeated USC on the road in a tough, hard fought win. Afterwards, via news recaps, radio, other fans, I kept hearing how this was a great win because it’s a road win, and well, it’s assumed the Huskies don’t win on the road. As I listened to all of this, something was nagging at me: Aren’t the Huskies a decent road team? Aren’t they good enough? They win road games, and yet every time they do, people act as if they have NEVER won a road game, and now it just has become a mantra, “Romar can’t win on the road” and so forth. Because of this I decided to roll up my sleeves and get into the stats, because the stats don’t lie.

The sample set is the years 2002-2003 through last season, 2009-2010. These are the 8 full years Romar has been at the UW. I am looking at only in conference road records. That’s 72 road games for each team, 9 games a year for 8 years.

Here is an Excel spreadsheet I cooked up with all the details. It’s in Google Docs, so feel free to open and look at it, my comments below make more sense if you are looking at the spreadsheet at the same time. Here are the results:

School – Win % – Win-Loss

Arizona – 56% – 40-32
UCLA – 56% – 40-32
Stanford – 46% – 33-39
California – 44% – 32-40
WASHINGTON – 43% – 31-41
Arizona St – 37% – 27-45
Wash St – 36% – 26-46
USC – 33% – 24-48
Oregon – 31% – 22-50
Oregon St – 18% – 13-59

As you can see, the Huskies are right in the middle, but in the upper half. Stanford, Cal and UW are essentially tied, with Arizona and UCLA by themselves at the top and the Oregon schools in the cellar. Here are some of my observations:

The Huskies overall record on the road is not .500, but it’s not terrible either. There are only two schools out of ten in the last eight years who have an above .500 record on the road in the league. That tells me it’s hard to win on the road. So hovering around .500 on the road isn’t a bad thing, it’s just normal. (as an aside, Arizona and UCLA had some insanely good seasons early/mid in the decade, including an undefeated season by Arizona in 2003, so those years do throw the sample off a bit, just keep that in mind, those seasons are anomalies).

The Huskies, right now, are more talented than the four teams in front of them on this list, so going forward I expect these numbers to change positively for the Dawgs (last night’s win helps).

The five teams behind the Dawgs on this list are, in a word, terrible on the road in conference (ASU is bucking the trend the past two seasons, but on the whole they aren’t that good, and I expect them to stink this year). Of the 40 combined seasons these teams have played, only 5 seasons have resulted in an above .500 record on the road. That’s bad. Those types of numbers deserve criticism. Oregon and Oregon St are historically bad, Wazzu had two great season under Tony Bennett, and USC is just, well, USC, I have no idea what to say about them (their fans don’t care, why should I?). The upshot? The UW isn’t as bad as the majority of the league on the road.

To focus more on the Huskies, in the 8 years Romar has been head coach, the Dawgs have made the Big Dance 5 times. In those 5 years, the Huskies were above .500 on the road in conference 4 times. The exception was last year at 44%, but that number doesn’t tell the whole story because they finished the year winning 3 straight on the road, and then 3 more on a neutral court in the conference tourney. So away from home, in conference, last year, they were 7-5. The other three years when they did not make the tourney? Terrible. 3-6 and two 1-8 records. But those teams were not very good overall. They were imbalanced, young and incomplete teams that struggled. The upshot? When the Huskies are good, and I mean NCAA Tourney good, they are good on the road, they do not struggle in conference. They win the games they need to win on the road, then take care of business at home. When they are bad? Well, they are bad on the road. It’s not a big surprise, so why do people act as if they are bad when in fact they are good?

Overall the above point supports the broader data set. Of all the teams with above .500 records on the road in league over the past 8 years, all but one made the NCAA’s. The one not to make it was last year’s ASU Sun Devil team that was snake bit by an historically bad Pac-10 season nationally. Of the teams with sub .500 records on the road in conference that made the NCAA’s, 4 had to win the Pac-10 tourney to get in, most likely they would not have made the NCAA’s without the automatic bid. There are some exceptions, but on the whole, if you are good enough to be above .500 on the road in conference, you are good enough to make the NCAA’s.

The point I am trying to make here is the obvious fact that if a team has enough talent to make the NCAA’s, they will win on the road in conference. The years the Huskies had that talent, they won on the road. The years UCLA went to all those Final Fours? They won on the road. Arizona is always pretty good, so they obviously win on the road. But when a school has a bad team with sub par talent, wins on the road are by far the hardest to come by.

I think there is a notion among Dawg fans that even when Romar has a really good team, they can’t win on the road. That’s a myth that needs busting. You can make the same argument for any other school in the league, and probably nationally. UCLA can’t win on the road without Kevin Love. Arizona can’t win on the road without Lute Olson. Stanford can’t win on the road with Johnny Dawkins as head coach, and so on. This problem is not unique to the UW and I think it’s unfair to hang this stigma around Romar’s neck as if he’s the only coach/program with this problem. It’s a basic truth of sports: Superior talent = wins. Wins on the road are the hardest types of wins, so superior talent is needed to succeed away from home. Look at the top two teams on the list above, Arizona and UCLA. I don’t need to tell you how talented those two programs have been the past decade. Multiple Final Fours and loads of lottery picks. Of course they won on the road. The Huskies have had talented teams but nowhere near those two, so why expect the Huskies to be just as good? I think frankly the Dawgs have always played to their talent level on the road, just like everyone else.

I’m sure I am missing some trend in the data that helps clarify things, but you can look at my spreadsheet and decide for yourself. I am trying to bust a myth that I am honestly tired of hearing from people who should know better (some of them are getting paid to cover or follow the team). I know fans can and do believe things someone else repeats and they they just blindly repeat it not caring if it’s true or not. I know it can be frustrating, especially in the past, when the Dawgs would lose a road game they should have won. I understand that. But lets not let a handful of games cloud how we view this program as a whole, which in line with their talent, have been good on the road, relative to the rest of the conference. (I love high expectations, I want them to win every road game, I want this program to be on top of this list in a few years, so don’t accuse me of being a nancy fan with my nerd machine. The UW is my alma mater, I’m a Dawg for life, I’ll always be disappointed when they lose and glad when they win).

It’s worse elsewhere, you could be Oregon or Oregon St…

-Joe-

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by | November 1, 2010 · 2:16 pm

116-3

Atta boy Olindo!!!

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by | September 18, 2010 · 7:14 pm

Nebraska v. Washington postmortem

I am a glutton for punishment, so I am typing out my thoughts after witnessing my favorite school get absolutely destroyed by a vastly superior football team, the Nebraska Cornhuskers. There are a million different directions to go with this, but I’ll just touch on a few things that I am steamed about:

Demeanor – The Huskies came out flat and emotionless. I was shocked by this. How on earth can a team come out this way in front of their home crowd on national TV? They all looked like deer in the headlights. Inexcusable.

Special Teams – Simply put, the kickoff coverage was an embarrassment. Throughout the first half, Nebraska had tremendous field position. This put undue pressure on the defense. The outcome was short fields for Nebraska, leading to scores.

Wide Receivers – Terrible. I don’t care how good Nebraska’s secondary is. 4 receptions. FOUR. I have been hearing for a while now that Jake and Huskies offense has so many great weapons at WR. Well, not today, and that is too bad. Today was an opportunity to step up and play on a big stage and prove they are ready for the bigtime. Instead they flopped.

Playcalling – I really hate to even go here, because I have been a huge fan of Coach Sark’s playcalling, even if it has been erratic over the past season. Today though, I have major issues. It was painfully clear early on the Huskies could not get a passing game going. They could run the ball. On the Huskies 3rd possession, the Dawgs ran the ball down Nebraska’s throat, en-route to an 80 yard drive for a touchdown. I realize defenses make adjustments, so I am sure there is a reason the Huskies went away from the run, but over the next 3 Husky possessions, the Dawgs ran 11 plays for a net 9 yards. Very few runs. Mostly disastrous passing attempts. Momentum swung back to Nebraska during these possessions. Would have loved to see the Dawgs run more early in the game.

Tackling – Beyond bad. Atrocious. There’s not much to say here. Anyone who watched the game knows what I am talking about. Whiffs. Ole’s. Bad angles. You name it, the Dawgs botched it.

Of course Jake Locker had a bad game, and he is taking most of the heat for the loss, but he’s low on my list. It’s easy to take pot-shots at the high profile QB, and there are plenty of Locker haters out there having a fun time. The loss today was a team effort. Every aspect of the game was terrible. Everyone is responsible, top down. I think Coach Sark should take the most heat, he is getting paid, he is the face of the program, this is on he and the coaches. This is not a bad thing, I want my head coach to take the heat rather than the players. I still have a lot of hope in Sark and the coaches to rebuild this program. Yes, they are still rebuilding, games like today prove they are far from being an elite program again.

Right now, unfortunately, 6-6 is the best they will do. The Pac-10 is a grinder, and they have brutal road games waiting for them, starting in two weeks at USC. The next two weeks better be spent on the basics and self reflection. I think too many people around the program have been reading their own press clippings rather than playing with an earn everything mentality. Despite all of this, I am still hopeful this team can make a run in the unpredictable Pac-10. Anything can happen any week. The road ahead is a very difficult one, here’s hoping this group of Dawgs find themselves and play real, true Husky football.

-Joe

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by | September 8, 2010 · 8:23 pm

What I Want To See On Saturday

The Huskies loss to BYU was disappointing in so many ways.  It was the type of game, a road test against a beatable team, that the Huskies couldn’t win last year.  Beating BYU was a chance to start the season by answering questions.  A win would have set the team on a course to improve upon last year’s five wins and show that the team is moving rapidly toward sustained success.

The loss only brought more questions, and it failed to answer any that existed previously.  Are the Huskies improved from last year?  It didn’t appear so, but they didn’t look worse either.  Was all the offseason talk of improved strength and explosiveness just talk?  Can an experienced offensive line be consistently effective?  Will the defense build on a dominating end to the 2009 season?  All questions without clear answers, now one game deep in the season.

One game is still only one game, and this team wasn’t going to contend for the national championship no matter what, so the loss isn’t terribly damaging from a season or conference race standpoint.  Most teams start the season a little rusty, which is why teams play Toledo and UC-Davis and Sacramento State to start.  BYU vs. UW was one of the few games last weekend to combine two good teams, so the Huskies deserve at least a bit of a break.  They get their winnable game this weekend against Syracuse.

The problem with playing Syracuse is that it still won’t answer a lot of the questions.  Syracuse should be a lot easier to handle than BYU, which obviously is good.  This team needs wins anyway they can get them.  But even a win won’t necessarily say much about these Huskies.  Until they pull out a win on the road, it’s hard to judge this team to be anything different than it was last season.

All that said, there are certainly things to watch for this Saturday.  This game could go two ways.  Syracuse could be as bad as Dawg fans hope, and UW could be on the winning end of a blowout.  Syracuse could also be better than expected, or the Huskies worse, and Husky Stadium could see a tight game.  There are actually positives and negatives to each scenario.  A look at them after the jump. Continue reading →

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by | March 18, 2010 · 9:37 pm

Huskies live to fight another day, Quincy leads the way

CLIFF DESPEAUX / THE SEATTLE TIMES

With 13:58 left in the second half, Marquette held a 15 point lead. Needless to say, the game looked over. The Huskies defense was lacking, getting beat to the hole, getting beat on the boards, running off screens in odd directions leaving Marquette’s shooters wide open for three’s. Romar called a TO. Then, slowly, patiently, and with aggressive in your face no holds barred defense, the Huskies fought back. Five minutes later the Dawgs had whittled the lead down to five, thanks in large part to Elston Turner and Quincy Pondexter. Elston was lights out from long range, while Quincy went to work on the boards. Overall, the team’s energy increased ten-fold, almost as if they had Marquette right where they wanted them. A tease, just like this team has been all year. Any true Husky fan who has followed this team all year like we have knows the tremendous talent Romar has put together, but until the last few weeks, it wasn’t working together in a cohesive unit. Well, now it is, and it’s clicking right along. Isaiah has found his stroke from outside, Quincy is being Quincy, working is butt of on the boards and getting shots, MBA is aggressive offensively and has become a defensive force down low, and finally Elston Turner is maturing right before our eyes on both ends of the court. His three point shooting is dagger-in-the-heart good, while his defense has improved so much Romar keeps him in the game at the end rather than swapping him for offense/defense. All of the sudden now the Huskies have four legit offensive weapons. That is tough to guard. Marquette constantly lost track of Turner on the perimeter, same with Isaiah. MBA almost always had one-on-one on the block. When the Huskies can be this potent on offense it makes them tremendously hard to guard. The key is defensive intensity. The focus and discipline the Huskies showed in the final 13 minutes of that game today was impressive, the mark of a great, maturing team.

In the end though, it all came down to Lorenzo Romar handing the ball to his closer, the senior, Quincy Pondexter. By not calling a timeout after Isaiah’s miss, he was telling Quincy “this is your time, your moment, win it, grasp it”, and Quincy did just that. Patiently dribbling the ball up high, he spread the court, confidentially telling his fellow teammates to stay put, I got this. As the seconds tick down, Q was in complete control, slowing moving forward like a lion ready to pounce on his prey. Dribble drive left, grinding against his defender, determined to will the ball in, and he did just that, banking in a shot that literally required all of his energy to complete.

At the end of the game, Quincy leads his Huskies off the court in victory, living to fight another day, living for this time, this moment. Grasp it, Carpe Diem. Quincy Pondexter, Mr. Clutch.

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by | March 12, 2010 · 11:55 pm

UW defeats Stanford, instant reaction

I want YOU to win the Pac-10 Tourney

First of all, the posterizing, straddle the fence dunk by MBA had me on the floor. What a savage jam.

Secondly, if the Huskies even have a modicum of offensive touch in the first ten minutes of that game, it’s a twenty point game right off the bat. Stanford hung around no thanks to themselves. Stanford’s defense was porous at best. The Huskies were solidly in brick city, an offensive fog. What saved them was there tenacious defense. The pressure they put on Stanford was like a leaky faucet, at some point the nagging dripping makes you insane, and Stanford finally lost their collective minds with about ten minutes to go in the second half. Then a playground style dunk-fest ensued, followed by silly bench hi-jinx. Good times for sure.

Thirdly, if the Huskies want to beat Cal, they must be more efficient on offense. Missing point blank layups will not cut it. The Huskies defense is there, Cal cannot touch them in that department. Offensively? Cal is very balanced, inside and outside they can kill you. That said, there is a vast athletic difference between UCLA and Washington. Cal won’t simply be able to spot up and shoot. Overton and Thomas will be all over Randle, Holiday on Christopher, and MBA’s defense has improved leaps and bounds over the past few weeks. I expect a very close game, right down to the wire, with the Dawgs winning of course, I am a homer, what do you expect?

M. B. A.

Fourthly, the tourney question. Joe Lunardi, as of right now, has the Huskies in the tourney. What is unknown is whether they make it if they lose to Cal. That answer depends on what other bubble teams do, like Minnesota and Mississippi State. If those teams somehow win their respective conference tournaments, it puts pressure on Washington to win to get that auto-bid. If those other bubble teams lose, I really like the Huskies chances in the event of a loss. Losing to Cal on a neutral court is not a bad loss, and I believe the Huskies have done enough over the past few weeks, i.e. winning on the road, to make it in. It will be close for sure, but I think at the end of the day, despite what the pundits tell us, the tournament committee will put two Pac-10 teams in, with Arizona State on the outside looking in (no tears there…).

Fifthly, the Oregon Ducks football program is an embarrassment to humanity, and I could not be more pleased. Good times.

–Joe

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by | March 2, 2010 · 4:52 pm

Huskies vs. Ducks – Round 2

Thursday evening in Eugene, the Huskies will face their BFF’s, the Oregon Ducks. Everyone knows the two schools adore each other, should be a fun game. It’s the last time the Huskies will play at McArthur Court. Next season they’ll play at the Ducks’ new playground, Matthew Knight Arena (very popular among the folks in Oregon…).

Anyway, on to the game. In January I witnessed the Ducks defeat the Huskies 90-79 in what was clearly the Ducks best game of the year (after the win, they proceeded to lose ten of their next twelve, sealing Ernie Kent’s fate as a lame-duck coach (pun intended…)…) and probably the worst game the Huskies have played at home in at least two years. Malcolm Armstead and Michael Dunigan absolutely killed the Huskies with dribble drive penetration and toughness on the boards. Dunigan had 14 boards. Might-mouse Tajuan Porter was quiet in the first half, but came alive in the second from downtown. Oregon shot a sizzling 53% from the floor for the game, probably well over 60% in the second half. I came away thinking there was really no way Oregon was going to lose that game. Their whole team was in the zone. I give more credit to the Ducks for winning that game than for the Huskies losing.

On the UW side, it was clearly Matthew Bryan-Amaning’s worst game of the year. 21 minutes, 1point. Dunigan completely owned him all game physically. This game put MBA in Romar’s doghouse (again, pun intended), which I think has lead to MBA’s emergence over the past two month (more on that in a minute). The big three of Thomas (25pts, 11-12 FT), Pondexter (16pts, 6Rbs) and Overton (14pts) played well, I really have no complaints on the offensive end. Defensively, the Huskies were horrible. Armstead consistently drove past Overton and Thomas and had clean layups. None of the Huskies bigs got in his way and put him on his butt. Overall it was a sad defensive display by the Dawgs. Couple that with lights-out shooting by the Ducks, and you have the result.

No longer a black hole?

My how things have changed. Since that game, as I mentioned, the Ducks have fallen apart. There is no question in my mind Ernie Kent is gone. With a new arena coming next year, UO will look to make a splash with a new coach (Mark Few?). Because of this, the team has quit listening to Coach Kent. Granted they beat the LA schools this past weekend in LA, but they also swept them in Eugene earlier in the year. Can you say “favorable match-ups”? Therefore I don’t put too much into those wins. Against everyone else they have been lousy. At the same time, the Huskies have began to right the ship on the road, and MBA has emerged as a real threat on both ends of the floor. In fact I venture to guess he is the best offensive big man in the conference right now. No joke. He played extremely well against DeAngelo Casto, who leads the league in blocks, and has been consistently under control the past eight games or so. I haven’t been as hard on MBA as most people have been. I have always thought he has tremendous talent, he just needs to be coached up. In fact after the win at Wazzu Saturday, MBA credited none other then Jamaal “Junkyard Dawg” Williams for his post play improvements. I find it ironic and humorous that one offensive black hole is giving tips to another. (man, I loved Williams. Guy never saw a shot he didn’t like. He was a beast against UConn. Did I just mention the UConn game? DOH!!!).

Prediction? I see the Dawgs winning this one. They have confidence they can win on the road, they have the revenge factor working for them, and frankly they have more to play for. I expect MBA to play well, and look for Pondexter to bounce back after his first real down game of the year at Wazzu. This game, I feel, will come down to how MBA and Pondexter play on the block. Oregon’s guards are quick enough to keep up with Thomas and Overton. Maybe the trio of Suggs/Turner/Holiday will deliver some much needed offense, and bring it on defense. Frankly this game will come down to hustle, who wants it more on defense, and that’s where the Huskies will beat the Ducks. The only way Oregon wins this game is if they shoot lights out once again, and they have not proven in subsequent Pac-10 play they can replicate what they did in Seattle two months ago. The game will be in the 60’s, Huskies win a close one by 5.

-Joe

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