Well, it was cold.

But UW's first practice of spring also was a pretty festive occasion. The fans who turned out seemed to have a good time. There was a bit of a buzz. Overall, it seemed clearly worth doing -- for the fans, for the media, for the team.

Every player I talked to liked the idea of performing in front of fans.

And certainly there is real value for the members of the media, who now get to report on what they see, not just what they are told.

For the fans? Well, about an hour and 15 minutes into Tuesday's practice, I heard one guy turn to his buddy and say, "You know, this is really pretty boring."

And I could understand his point. Music fans attend concerts, not rehearsals. And so on.

However, while I don't expect that many of the fans who showed up at Practice One also will show up at practices two through 15, I think most folks with an interest in UW football would enjoy dropping by now and again. For one thing, these things should get a little more entertaining next week as the team gets into full pads. But also, there's some fun in just being down on the floor of Husky Stadium -- so much closer to the players than the the normal view from the upper deck or end zone seats -- even Tyee seats, for that matter.

Since few casual fans will care enough to show up, these open practices probably also have some value as a place where the truest of the true believers can meet among themselves and share their hopes for better days.

Finally, it remains a nice gesture even for the fans who never take advantage of it. It's better to feel a part of part of the program you love, rather than feeling blocked away as just another distraction.

On that basis, it's nice that Steve Sarkisian has the welcome mat out again, even for those who never walk through this newly unlocked door.

The Huskies are off the practice field after their first spring work under new coach Steve Sarkisian.

Their primary impression afterward was that everything was speeded up. The word spoken most often was "tempo" -- everything happening at a quicker tempo.

Jake Locker looked healthy. Daniel Te'o-Nesheim is getting a lot of inside work along the defensive line. Senio Kelemete was not only on the offensive line, but apparently running with the No. 1 unit at guard -- for this season: He said the coaches expect him to grow into a tackle by next year.

It's obvious that this staff wants athleticism, not the lumbering Husky lines of recent seasons.

Former guard Ryan Tolar was at center. Kelemete at right guard. Former tackle Ben Ossai was at the left guard. Redshirt freshman Drew Schaefer ran with the ones at right tackle, opposite returning tackle Cody Habben.

“That’s a very athletic group up there that went with the ones for the most part,” Sarkisian said. “We had some guys sprinkled in, but we’re athletic, we’re quick; and hopefully when we get the pads on that will show up even more. … Ben is obviously a pretty athletic guy - he’s dropped quite a bit of weight. To bring him inside allows us to stay athletic on the edge and stay athletic on the inside.”

The defensive line also took on a new look as Daniel Te’o-Nesheim, who was second-team all-Pacific-10 Conference last season at defensive end, was moved to tackle.

“We’re starting him inside,” Sarkisian said. “He creates a lot of havoc when he’s internal because he is so quick. And our defense likes to move and slant so much that when he’s on big guys in there he can create a lot of problems, like he did for our (offense on Tuesday). He was in the backfield a few times right at the snap of the ball.”

Sarkisian also singled out linebacker Donald Butler and free safety Nate Williams on defense and tight end Chris Izbicki on offense.

Meanwhile, player after player said they liked practicing in front of their fans.

“I love this atmosphere,” senior linebacker E.J. Savannah said. “I want people to come out here and check us out.”

Fans and media didn’t have much to compare this practice to, since practices were closed under previous coach Tyrone Willingham. However, players remarked on the enthusiasm of the coaching staff – most notably the energy and booming voice of defensive coordinator Nick Holt -- and the quicker tempo of the work.

“I enjoyed it, and I think you guys saw it was up-tempo and it was fun,” quarterback Jake Locker said, adding that his thumb feels fine. “Everybody was moving and always doing something and always being coached. It was a good atmosphere. (This staff is) a little younger, a little more energy and stuff. It’s just a different style, something that is new to all of us I think. It’s exciting and we’re looking forward to it. The whole tempo of the practice was upbeat. I personally didn’t have a time when I was really standing around not doing a whole lot. And we’re always doing something, always being coached on something.”

The Huskies will return to the practice field at 4 p.m. Thursday, once again without pads. They will practice in shoulder pads for the first time Saturday and then in full pads on Monday.

The Huskies are on the field for their first practice of the Steve Sarkisian era.

And they've got about 350 fans watching.

Actually, it's hard to tell. I did a quick head count at straight-up 4 p.m. when the practice was scheduled to begin, and there were about 200. But a lot more folks had wandered in over the next half hour leading up to this blog post.

And speaking of blog posts, among the rules for these newly opened practices is no blogging from the pratice. So, I came back to the media room to file this much, but this will likely be it until after the practices and interviews are completed in early evening.

But while I'm here, a couple of quick notes, which I may or may not be officially authorized to disclose: Huskies are in shorts and no pads, Ryan Tolar is playing center, Senio Kelemente is working at guard, Nick Holt is loud and enthusiastic. But don't tell anyone where you heard any of that.

The Washington Huskies will open spring football practice at 4 p.m. today, and you’re invited.

Among the many ways first-year coach Steve Sarkisian differs from predecessor Tyrone Willingham is his attitude regarding public practices. Willingham wanted to protect his team from distractions, so most practices were closed to media and fans. Sarkisian figures there are plenty of distractions on game days, so his players might as well prepare in game-like conditions.

“I want our kids used to performing in front of people,” he explained Monday. “I want them used to having eyes on them. I want them used to feeling that people are watching them. Because the last thing I want is for us to be enclosed, and it’s quiet and we’re just out there with ourselves. And then we show up to play LSU and there’s 73,000 people here and our guys are looking in the stands like, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re here to watch me, they’re here to watch us.’ And now they’re worried about the stands and the people watching; and not what’s important, and that’s the game.”

Sarkisian said he also wants open practices so that fans and media can understand how hard his coaches and players are working. Finally, he believes “it’s a big deal that we continue to create the buzz for Husky football.” He said open practices allow fans who normally watch games from the upper deck to get a much closer look and better appreciation of the speed, skill and collisions of major college football.

“Those are experiences – especially with young kids – that you don’t get every day,” he said. “To get that opportunity, I think, is big; and I think people will enjoy it.”

The open practices come with a few rules. Admission is free, but normal on-campus parking fees apply. Weekday practices start at 4 p.m., Saturday practices at 1 p.m. Practices will be held today, Thursday and Saturday this week; then Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays through April 25. Stadium entry is through the northeast corner, near the softball stadium. No still or video photography is allowed, and fans are asked to turn off the cell phones.

With the news that Tony Bennett is leaving Washington State for Virginia, comes renewed appreciation for Lorenzo Romar's professed -- and apparently genuine -- desire to remain at Washington for the rest of his career.

I asked UW athletic director Scott Woodward today about the value of that.

"It's great," he said. "Lorenzo is a heck of a coach and we're lucky to have him. It's that time of the year. It will be interesting to watch with three or four really big jobs open right now: Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia and Arizona. Those are formidable jobs and I'm sure there are more to come.

About an hour or so later, the Virginia job was filled and the WSU job was open.

I asked Woodward if he plans to sweeten Romar's deal in light of the Huskies' return to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

"It's a good contract," he said. "He and I have not sat down yet after the season and had that discussion, but we will. We will do the right thing on that contract when we talk about it."

UW football coach Steve Sarkisian says the Huskies will open spring football practice tomorrow without a depth chart.

Everything is new under Sark, and he wants to send that message that that includes everyone's place on the team.

Those clean slates will begin taking on information at 4 p.m. Tuesday, when the Huskies open spring drills. Fans are welcome to attend. (Just be sure to pay whatever on-campus parking fees and enter Husky Stadium on the northeast side over by the softbal stadium.)

For now, a few other highlights from Sarkisian's meeting with the media today:

*He updated this injury list: CB Vonzel McDowell, limited; safety Jason Wells, absent; LB Kurt Mangum, limited; RB Brandon Yakabosk, out; SS Victor Aiyewa, limited; OL Terence Thamas, out; TE Marek Domansji, limited; TE Romeo Savant, limited.

*Former defensive lineman Senio Kelemente has been moved to the offensive line. Curtis Shaw will begin camp as a tailback, as will Chris Polk.

*The top goal of the staff is to get the Huskies to compete. To that end there will be scored practices, where offensive and defensive accomplishments are added up and winners announced. (I looked back at coach Tyrone Willingham's first pre-spring press conference. He said his top priority was attitude, second was intelligence.)

* Sarkisian says he plans three major scrimmages, the first coming April 11. But he isn't yet commiting to how game-like the spring game will be.

* He said he expects about 75 percent of his system to be installed in spring.

In yesterday's blog post below, we took a look at general expectations for how the UW football and basketball teams might do next season.

Given those baseline expectations, here today are some thoughts about how each team might exceed them, or fall short. Your thoughts once again are welcome. And then I'll mix both parts together for a story in the Monday paper:

2009 FOOTBALL
Underachieves if: It wasn’t the coaching. If the Huskies’ talent level was anywhere near as low as it appeared last season, then Steve Sarkisian and his new staff are going to have to recruit their way out of this hole. That would mean not only another long season, but – the last thing any UW fan wants to consider -- yet another rebuilding program starting at square one. Or Sarkisian proves to have been a fine assistant -- and a terrific Twitterer – but needs time to grow into a head job. This team still seems to have no chance of winning with anyone but Locker under center. The kicking questions aren’t adequately answered. And the problem with having a veteran offensive line in 2008 is that you have a reworked offensive line in 2009.

Overachieves if: The talent Willingham recruited blossoms in his absence, as it did in Charlie Weis’ first season at Notre Dame. Sarkisian’s offense translates effectively from the hyper-talented Trojans to the rebuilding Huskies. Nick Holt’s defense hits, hurts and forces turnover. Locker stays on the field and fulfills his potential as Tim Tebow Northwest. E.J. Savannah stays in Sarkisian’s good graces and therefore stays on the field. The potential of enough young tailbacks and receivers turns into production.

2009-10 BASKETBALL
Underachieves if: Brockman is even more irreplaceable than we currently understand. Perhaps the truest thought spoken into my digital recorder this season was Romar’s reminder than Brockman’s contributions were undervalued. Of course, everyone said they realized his value. But his full value – on and off the court -- may come fully clear only in his absence. And there could be as much trouble from the loss of his leadership as from the loss of those 15 points and 11 rebounds. The team also could take a step back if Isaiah Thomas doesn’t shift as cleanly from point guard to scoring guard as Justin Dentmon did. And more trouble could brew if the members of a potentially crowded backcourt – Thomas, Venoy Overton, Elston Tuner, Abdul Gaddy and others – don’t accept their bench time as productively as Overton did this season.

Overachieves if: Pondexter becomes a Pac-10 player of the year candidate and potential lottery pick. All that backcourt talent meshes. Overton and Darnell Gant add some offense while retaining their existing virtues. Matthew Bryan-Amaning learns to finish what his often-dazzling footwork starts. Juco transfer Charles Garcia proves Pac-10-ready on the court and in the classroom. Nearly forgotten guard Scott Suggs blossoms as a sophomore, and nearly forgotten forward Tyreese Breshers becomes a new Jamaal Williams.

Some of you may remember that about a year ago at this time I wrote a column for the paper and a blog post here asking which was more likely to make postseason play: the 2008 UW football team or the 2008-09 basketball team.

It seemed a reasonable question at the time, although it looks pretty dumb now as the football team was worse than anyone could have expected (I recall no predictions of an 0-12 season) and the basketball team was better than anyone could have expected (I recall no predictions of a Pac-10 title).

So, fully aware of how wrong expections can be this far in advance, what are your expectations for the coming football and next basketball seasons?

I plan to write about that in the Monday paper -- in advance of football spring drills, which begin Tuesday. And since expectations are built on conventional wisdom, I'd really like to hear what you guys are thinking.

Here are my early thoughts:

FOOTBALL
The Huskies losing streak stretches to 15 games in the opener against LSU and then ends the next week against Idaho. A few more wins follow, although not likely enough for bowl eligibility. However, the team plays with more passion. The offense surprises occasionally. The defense hits hard always. Jake Locker improves more in one season than he did in the previous two. Younger players seem to develop. The team is playing better in November than it did in September. Husky fans finally see real light at the end of the tunnel. And when I ask about expectations again at this time next year, everyone says they expect a bowl bid -- and maybe a good one.

BASKETBALL
Jon Brockman and Justin Dentmon will be missed. But this team is far more prepared to shoulder their departures than the previous team was to endure the loss of Brandon Roy. Another Pac-10 title is unlikely, as California and USC return the heart of their NCAA-tournament rosters, and UCLA remains UCLA. But if Quincy Pondexter fulfills his promise as a star in the making, if the younger players progress, and if the freshman class lives up to its reputation, the Huskies shouldn't have to sweat out Selection Sunday, and they could make an even longer run in the tournament.

As the hours and minutes tick down to the Purdue-UConn tipoff at 4:07 p.m., it's hard not to think how easily that could have been a UW-UConn tipoff instead.

In retrospect, the UW regular season -- a first-ever Pac-10 title -- demands that the overall season be considered a success.

But that post-season: A loss to Mississippi State would have been greeted by most folks as a pure disappointment. A loss in the Sweet 16 against UConn would have been seen as the team going about as far as they could have been reasonably expected to go.

But that second-round loss to Purdue ... that's feels like the party got cut a little short.

That's no slam on Purdue, which is a good team and perhaps even underseeded as a No. 5. The issue is that UW didn't go out playing their best basketball -- not just on the day they were eliminated, but over the last two or three weeks of the season.

Despite playing some very good games down the stretch, I think the Huskies peaked a little earlier -- more like mid-February when the outside shots were dropping and the starting guards were still playing at the statistical tops of their games.

Teams that take long runs in the tournament are teams that peak at just the right time. And in that final losing locker room, coach Lorenzo Romar seemed to generally agree when I asked if this team maybe peaked a little too soon.

"I don’t think we ever got over the hump where we were totally clicking down the stretch," he said. "But I thought in terms of defending and competing and playing hard, I thought we were doing that as well at the end of the year as we had all year. We wouldn’t have won the Pac-10 if we would not have done that."

UW coach Lorenzo Romar has been selected to a USA Basketball committee that will determine coach and player selection for various national team competitions.

Romar will join Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, Illinois coach Bruce Weber, North Carolina coach Roy Williams and former Duke University All-America Jay Williams on USA Basketball's 2009-12 Men's Junior National Committee (formerly the Men's Collegiate Committee).

The complete release is available at GoHuskies.com.

I had heard that the Pac-10 might go with an unconventional selection in picking a new commissioner to replace Tom Hansen, and they did.

Tennis, anyone?

John McGrath takes an upbeat look in this morning's paper.

Here's the announcment:

The Pacific-10 Conference named Larry Scott,
Chairman and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), its new commissioner, effective July 1, 2009. Scott becomes the sixth commissioner of the Pac-10, succeeding Tom Hansen who is set to retire
after 26 years in the role.

Since joining the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in 2003, Scott has engineered the turnaround of women's professional tennis, increasing the popularity of the sport across the world. A former tennis All-American at Harvard, Scott is credited as the architect behind the largest-ever sponsorship in women's sports, a six-year, $88-million title
sponsorship agreement with Sony Ericsson. He also led the WTA in its development of the largest television agreements in women’s tennis history spanning viewership both in the U.S. and abroad.

“While it is difficult to replace a leader like Tom Hansen who has served the conference for more than 26 years, we are extremely pleased with the tremendous response we received to the national search,” said John Hennessy, president of Stanford University and head of the executive committee. “We considered a very impressive group of candidates, and Larry Scott was clearly the most qualified and
innovative leader for the Pac-10.”

The Pac-10 dates back to 1915 when four schools - the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Washington, the University
of Oregon, and Oregon State College – formed the conference. Now with 10 member institutions, the Pac-10 ranks first in NCAA Championships with 159 over the past 18 years and has finished with more NCAA titles than any other conference in 42 of the last 48 years, earning titles in more than 26 different men’s and women’s sports.

“I’m excited to pursue this very unique opportunity to be involved in a broad range of men’s and women’s sports at the college level and
balancing the priorities of student-athletes with the commercial needs of the conference,” said Scott, who will move from Florida to Northern
California. “It’s an exciting opportunity for me to apply my broad range of leadership skills in sports management, marketing, effective positioning of an organization to international and national audiences, and being an advocate on behalf of our sports.”

Since the NCAA began conducting women's championships 27 years ago, Pac-10 schools have claimed at least four national titles in a single
season on 19 separate occasions. Overall, the Pac-10 has captured 113 NCAA women's crowns, 30 more than any other conference. That said, Scott’s experience in women’s athletics will be especially relevant.

Scott is credited with being a vocal and effective advocate for women’s athletes, helping WTA members earn equal pay in major tennis tournaments around the world for the first time in 100 years.

“Our search committee was most impressed with Larry’s broad range of leadership experiences in both men’s and women’s sports, as well as his extensive success in representing the commercial interest of men’s and women’s tennis,” said Bob Bowlsby, athletic director of Stanford and head of the search committee. “He was the architect of a highly effective turnaround of women’s tennis over the last six years and created a compelling vision that has served the sport and its athletes extremely well. We are also very pleased to bring on such a great advocate for both men’s and women’s sports.”

Under Scott’s leadership, the WTA secured television partnerships with the major US networks and renewed its international television partnership with Eurosport, which broadcasts women's tennis to 54 countries and more than 104 million homes. Scott's career in tennis began as a professional tennis player on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) circuit, where he played for three years and won one tournament. Scott then spent a decade in leadership and senior management positions within the ATP, serving in the posts of Chief Operating Officer, President of ATP Properties and Executive Vice President of the International Group.

The University of Washington released this reaction from athletic director Scott Woodward:

“I think the future of the Pac-10 Conference is in good hands with the hiring of Larry Scott as its new commissioner. It is imperative that we continue to pursue ways to maximize the profile of the conference and keep the welfare of our student-athletes on the forefront of what we do. The Pac-10 maintains tremendously successful programs, develops some of the world’s top athletes and, as a group, maintains an exceptional academic profile. Larry understands that maximizing revenue is a critical factor in our ability to provide a first-class student-athlete experience. He certainly has a handful of challenges ahead of him, but I share President Emmert’s confidence that Larry is the right person to lead the Pac-10 forward.”

No Huskies -- but four Cougars -- made the All-Pac-10 academic men's basketball team announced today by the conference.

To be eligible for selection to the academic team, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.0 overall grade-point average and be either a starter or significant contributor.

Here's the list:

First Team
Name, School, Year, GPA, Major
Aron Baynes, WSU, Sr., 3.24, Movement Studies
Derek Glasser, ASU, Jr., 3.14, Communication
Daven Harmeling, WSU, RS-Sr., 3.54, Heath and Fitness
Nikola Koprivica, WSU, Jr., 3.39, International Business
Taylor Rochestie, WSU, RS-Sr., 3.37, Communication

Second team
Name, School, Year, GPA, Major
Nikola Knezevic, CAL, Jr., 3.03, Interdisciplinary Studies
Rihards, Kuksiks, ASU, So., 3.07, Business Communication
Roeland Schaftenaar, OSU, Jr., 3.17, Pre-Business
Drew Shiller, STAN, Jr., 3.08, Communication
Jordan Wilkes, CAL, Sr., 3.13, Social Welfare

With the end of the UW basketball season on Saturday, it's time to look ahead.

We started that process a bit in today's paper with a first look at the 2009-10 basketball Huskies ... which figure to be led by lone-returning-senior-to-be Quincy Pondexter.

We'll take another look or two at the basketball team this week before turning our attention to coach Steve Sarkisian's football team, which begins spring practice a week from Tuesday.

Purdue led wire to wire, but UW pulled to within two in the final minute.

However, the price for any loss -- even one this close -- is the end of their season.

Jon Brockman ended his career mgnificently: 20 points, 18 rebounds. But Justin Dentmon's troubles continued: five points.

Purdue goes on to the Sweet 16 where UConn awaits.

Other notes:

Venoy annoyed
UW defensive specialist Venoy Overton picked up four fouls in a quick flurry of the second half as the officiating crew began blowing whistles for the kind of defense other officiating crews have allowed.

“It was real tough,” Overton said. “All the last 10-12 games I’ve been up in people playing physical and I felt like the refs were blowing the whistle a little too much,” he said. “I felt like if it (the contact) didn’t affect the play, they shouldn’t have called it. … The ref was saying I was using too much body. … I kept trying to pressure up, but the refs just weren’t allowing it today.”

Romar tends not to criticize officials, but he did say he thought this crew had high tolorance for contact in the paint, but low tolerance for contact in the frontcourt.

Harder than high school
UW freshman Isaiah Thomas is used to the abrupt ending of seasons from his state tournament appearances at Curtis High School.

However, he said those eliminations didn’t hurt as much as this one.

“It’s more than high school,” he said. “It’s the NCAA tournament, you don’t want to lose like this. Especially with a team that you think can go even farther. But it is what it is. We’ve got to get back in the gym.”

Hec Ed South
The Huskies seemed amazed how many of their fans followed them down Interstate-5.

The cheering down the stretch made the Rose Garden sound very much like a UW home court.

“It was unbelievable the support we had,” Brockman said. “The fans came out in full force wearing their purple. It really felt like we were playing at home. For me, that means the world that people really wanted to come and support us and wanted us to get it done. I just feel terrible, the fact that we couldn’t get it done for them.”

7:46 left: The Huskies have stormed back to at least give themselves a chance down the stretch.

Halftime: Purdue, 39, UW 28.

Quincy Pondexter has 10 for UW and Isaiah Thomas has nine. No one else has more than four. Brockman leads everyone with eight rebounds.

For Purdue, forward JaJuan Johnson has 11.

The Boilermakers look like the better team in just about every phase right now. Their defense is tough -- tougher than Washington State, tougher than USC, thougher than ASU, tougher than anything the Huskies have seen this season. UW is hitting 35.5 percent, and that won't do.

Purdue's offense took a while to get going, but once they got some outside shots to drop they got the lead up to double digits and got the Huskies to their current position -- which is on the ropes.

This is the Huskies' second-largest halftime defecit of the season. The only one larger game last week in the Pac-10 tournament against Arizona State ... and obviously UW didn't overcome it.

1st/7:47: At the start, it feels a little like football, where every possession feels important. Defensively, Purdue is picking up ball full court with the other Boilermakers hanging back cutting off all roads to the basket. UW can't get inside yet, so it feels like they'll have to hit some outside shots, and aside from a Dentmon trey, they haven’t yet … are hardly trying them, in fact.

Tipoff: Huskies going with usual starting lineup: Brockman, Dentmon, Pondexter, Gant and Thomas.

The stakes: The Huskies head to Glendale, Ariz., to meet No. 1 seed UConn on Thursday ... or their season -- and the college careers of Jon Brockman and Justin Dentmon come to an end.

Game is on CBS and 950-AM. I'll be back with a halftime report and then postgame notes and quotes.

At the Rose Garden: On my way in, it appeared that a lot of Husky fans have come down I-5 because there were far more purple shirts talking with scalpers.

Now that I'm in the seating area, I look across the court and there is Lorenzo Romar watching the UConn-Texas A&M game on one of the press-row TV.

Now much early suspense there: UConn up, 29-13.

Morning: A cloudy, mild game morning has dawned in Portland. But things should be pretty heated over at the Rose Garden at 2:40 this afternoon when Washington and Purdue play for the right to move on to the Sweet 16 next week at Glendale, Ariz.

Here's our TNT preview package: a Dave Boling column on Venoy Overton, my game-preview story, and some notes topped by a look at this match of teams from the Pac-10 and Big Ten.

Here's a preview from the Post-Tribune in Indiana.

The UW-Purdue winner will go on to a Thursday date with the winner of today's UConn-Texas A&M game. Here's a look at that one from the News-Trimes of Danbury, Conn.

I'll report back with news from the Rose Garden in early afternoon.

A few folks -- including the writer of The Nose column in the TNT today -- only thought they knew what Isaiah Thomas was grabbing on Selection Sunday.

But the Nose's assumption is so last century. According to Thomas -- the UW star guard from Tacoma and Curtis High -- the explanation is much more current.

"I’m sitting there holding my phones like this," Thomas said, pointing his bottom of his warm-up jacket that hung, oh, just below waist level. "I had two phones right here – and an iPod, actually. I got up, I didn’t want it to go out my pocket."

And the assumption that he was grabbing something else?

"That was just funny to me how they (thought that)," Thomas said. "But my dad was really (angry)."

Thomas says the hand gesture was equally misinterpreted.

"It was a 'C,' for Curtis," he said.

A few other notes from today's interviews:

Home advantage
Unlike Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury, Purdue’s Matt Painter accepts that Washington will enjoy something of a home-court advantage today in the Rose Garden.

“They’ve earned that,” he said. “When you’re Pac-10 champs and you put yourself in the position they were in this year, you earn that home-court advantage if you have a site relatively close to you when it comes time on Selection Sunday.”

Looking good
The Huskies debuted their new warm-up outfits while meeting the media Friday at the Rose Garden.

The new sweat suits are mostly white with black sleeves and trim.

“I guess we got them for the tournament and for winning the Pac-10,” freshman Elston Turner said. “On front we have ‘NCAA tournament’ and on back ‘Pac-10 champions.’ We walked in the locker room and they were sitting in the lockers. We loved them.”

Loose locker room
The Huskies seemed loose Friday, giving interviews in their locker room that seemed much more upbeat than it had two days before.

Amid the chatter, freshman Scott Suggs took a broadcaster’s microphone and conducted mock “S-C-O-T-T Radio” interviews.

Looking on was freshman forward Tyreese Breshers, who said he’s enjoying the season despite redshirting while rehabbing after shin trouble.

“These guys make me feel like I’m part of the team even though I’m not playing,” Breshers said. “I can cheer for them. I’m just at a hard spot right now not being able to play, but I’m fine overall. This is what the team does: We laugh and we joke, so I’m not just out there sitting in the corner by myself not being a part of it.”

Breshers isn’t the only one recovering. Jon Brockman said he suffered the sixth broken nose of his career in the Pac-10 tournament last week. He said he’s fine and still won’t wear a mask because masks bother him more than the broken noses.

Rick Who?
Among fans of a certain age, the mention of Purdue basketball brings instant images of shooting guard Rick Mount, who led Purdue to the 1969 championship game.

However, Mount’s reputation has apparently faded a bit over the 40 years since he led the school to its only appearance in the finals.

“I’ve definitely heard stories and things of Rick Mount,” current Purdue guard E’Twaun Moore said Friday. “But we really don’t hear his name too much around now. I guess there was some in the past. We really haven’t heard a lot about him.”

The Huskies and Purdue will play the first Saturday game in Portland, which will tip at 2:40 p.m.

Here's a quick look at the Boilermakers:

PURDUE (26-9)

School location: West Lafayette, Ind.
Conference: Big Ten
Coach: Matt Painter (107-54 in fifth season).
How the Boilermakers got here: Purdue went 11-7 in the Big Ten regular season and then won an automatic NCAA tournament bid by winning their first Big Ten tournament with wins over Penn State, Illinois and Ohio State. They advanced to the NCAA second round with a 61-56 win over Northern Iowa on Thursday at the Rose Garden. (Here's a report from their local paper.)
Outlook: Washington coach Lorenzo Romar descibed the Boilermakers as a fundamentally sound team that will not beat themselves. Some Huskies compared them to Washington State. They rank 11th in the NCAA in field goal percentage defense, limiting opponents to a .389 shooting average. They allow an average of 59.1 points per game, 13th nationally. … In winning the Big Ten tournament, Purdue hit a tournament-record 27 3-pointers. They also set a tournament record with 44 rebounds in the championship game. … Painter is one of 10 finalists for the Henry Iba coach of the year award. … Sophomore forward Robbie Hummel was named most outstanding player in last week’s Big Ten tournament. He was named to the 2007-08 All-Big Ten first team. … Forward JaJuan Johnson was named to this season’s All-Big Ten Conference first team and to the all-tournament team. He led his leage in blocked shots, averaging 2.28 blocks during the regular season. … Guard Chris Kramer was named 2007-08 Big Ten defensive player of the year. … Guard Lewis Jackson was named to the conference all-freshman team and he was the conference freshman assists leader. … Guard E’Twaun Moore was named to the conference tournament team and has been named to the all-conference second team in back-to-back seasons. … This is Purdue’s 23rd trip to the NCAA tournament with a total of 30 wins and 22 losses. The Boilermakers are 3-1 all-time against Washington and 28-27 all-time against teams from the Pacific-10 Conference.

Huskies advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a convincing 71-58 win over Mississippi State, which looked every bit a No. 13 seed.

Quincy Pondexter led the way with 23 points -- his season high, but two short of his career high.

UW will meet No. 5-seed Purdue in the second round on Saturday -- gametime tba.

Some notes:

This was Washington’s third straight NCAA tournament opening-round win. The last two teams to do so also won their second game to advance to the Sweet 16. … Brockman recorded his 59th career double-double and his 19th of the season. It also was his 22nd game this season with 10 or more rebounds. And this was his 11th game this season with 14 or more. It also was the top rebounding performance by a Husky in any NCAA tournament games since Lorenzo Romar became coach. … This was the 18th time this season that Varnado blocked at least five shots. He has 394 blocked shots in his career, which is the MSU record. He is 18 behind Shaquille O’Neal’s Southeastern Conference career record. … The Bulldogs had a season-low five assists. … This was the third straight NCAA tournament that MSU had begun against a Pacific-10 Conference opponent. The Bulldogs had beaten the previous two: Stanford in 2005 and Oregon last season.

Halftime: UW, 38-27.

The big men -- Jon Brockman and MSU's Jarvis Varnado -- got their second fouls around the middle of the half, and both coaches brought them to the bench. That set up a very different half than most of us were expecting.

The Huskies are being carried by Quincy Pondexter, who has 15 points. Elston Turner also stepped up with seven points.

They're making up for a black hole of points from the guys who were UW's top scorers during the season: Brockman four, Thomas four, Dentmon zero.

On the other side, MSU just hasn't adjusted to UW's physical defense. They've been pushed out of their offense, and have contributed a bunch of unforced errors. No one has more than five for the Bulldogs. Varnado has two points, one rebound, one block.

Overall, MSU has two blocks, but at least in the early going UW seemed very aware of the potential of blocks. They fell into a more typical rhythm once Varnado got to the bench.

Tipoff: No surprises in the introductions. Huskies going with Brockman, Dentmon, Pondexter, Gant and Thomas.

Game is on Channel 7, and 950-AM.

I'll be back with news as it breaks through the game, then a halftime notebook, and finally postgame notes and quotes.

Pregame: The Huskies got notably louder applause when they took the court than did the Bulldogs. Not even close. Lots of boos for the Bulldogs, in fact.

Washington in white, State in maroon.

Winner of this game goes on to meet No. 5-seed Purdue on Saturday. Tip tba.

Seeding held in the first game at the Rose Garden today as No. 5 Purdue held off No. 12 Northern Iowa, 61-56.

That means the Boilermakers will meet the winner of the Washington-Mississippi State game coming up next. (Around 2 p.m., Channel 7.)

I was able to a bit of the game, and Purdue really impressed me early when they got a quick 10-point lead and looked like they were going to blow out the Panthers. However, they never really put UNI away. (And to their credit, the Panthers' play was exactly what makes this one of the great days in sports.)

Their most impressive player was 6-10 center JaJuan Johnson, who is athletic and long and then. He had the hops for dunks and blocks, runs the floor, and was able to step outside for a medium-range jumper.

I also liked the look of senior forward Chris Reid, who also jumps and was active defensively.

The leading Purdue scorer was sophomore guard E'Twaun Moore, who had 17 points, including the final two free throws that sealed it.

Junior guard Chris Kramer his a couple of clutch free throws in the final seconds.

Purdue now stands at 26-9, went 11-7 in the Big Ten, and got here by winning the Big Ten tournament.

Early upset? Long run? All the excitement of the NCAA tournament begins today, and somewhere in that 1:45-2 p.m. time frame for the Huskies.

Here's my game preview from today, focusing mostly on Venoy Overton. Some notes, topping with the question of whether Portland will be a home-court advantage for the Huskies. And a typically readable column by John McGrath, reaching back to a chapter of Mississippi State history.

Finally, a quick scout box:

No. 13 seed MISSISSIPPI STATE (23-12)
Vs. No. 4 seed WASHINGTON (25-8)

NCAA tournament, first round
When: Approximately 1:45 p.m., Rose Garden, Portland.
TV: Channel 7. Radio: 950-AM.
Region: West Region, Glendale, Ariz.
Series: UW leads 1-0, winning 82-80 in the 1967 Gator Bowl Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla.
Scouting report: MSU uses four guards around center Jarvis Varnado. Varnado is the national leader in blocked shots. He was named to the All-Southeastern Conference first team and was voted the league’s defensive player of the year. Point guard Dee Bost was voted to the All-SEC freshman team. … As a team, MSU is second nationally in blocked shots behind Connecticut. The Bulldogs allow an average of 68.8 points per game and allow a 39.2 shooting percentage. … Offensively, MSU likes to run and shoot 3-pointers. Over their last 16 games, the Bulldogs have hit 149 3-pointers, including a school record 16 against Arkansas. … The Bulldogs have won six straight games, the Huskies six of their last seven. … Mississippi State is 5-9 all-time against Pac-10 schools. Washington is 5-6 all-time against SEC schools.
News Tribune pick: UW 82, MSU 73. The Bulldogs are scary because they are from a major conference, won their conference tournament, and don't have any directions in their name. Seeing them here in Portland, they look pretty impressive too: lots of athletes. So, Mississippi State could be a pretty good team. But so is UW. They won the regular season title in a better conference -- which is a more revealing test. And they've got enough versatility to counter MSU's strengths in a few ways. I'd be surprised if it was easy, but I think UW is simply better.

The Huskies are off the court from their open practice at the Rose Garden.

As usual, the work ended with a dunk session for the fans. Frankly, there weren't many fans in here in this mid-afternoon on a Wednesday. But those who were here seemed entertained.

I thought the best dunk was a nice, under-one-leg-and-in effort by Venoy Overton.

Isaiah Thomas gets credit for using Joe Wolfinger as a prop -- leaping over him and dunking. However, Wolfinger was considerable bent at the waist, so I had to subtract points for that.

Another nice one was the combo of Overton bouncing the ball off the backboard with Quincy Pondexter swooping in to slam it home. Scott Suggs and Justin Holiday tried a cool variation of that -- with Suggs bouncing the ball off the side of the backboard -- but Holiday couldn't finish.

A Holiday dunk probably got the biggest reaction, as his sliced between Jon Brockman and Artem Wallace, and they each boosted him as he leapt, reaching quite a height and slamming it home.

Well, the battle for the hearts of Oregon fans is in full flower. After MSU coach Rick Stanbury made his remorseless pitch for Husky-hating Oregon fans to cheer for his team, the Huskies countered.

During their just-completed press conference coach Lorenzo Romar and Jon Brockman said they fully assume that Northwest and Pac-10 pride will cause fans in the Rose Garden to cheer for them.

We’ll see.

“We’re fired and excited to get this opportunity,” Romar said in his opening statement. “We have not been in the tourney for a couple of years, and now that we are back, we have a lot of new faces.”

I also spoke to one of those new guys in the UW locker room. Former Curtis star Isaiah Thomas says hello to Tacoma. He’s clearly one of the guys that the Mississippi and Oregon media want to talk to, and he seemed to be having a good time, conducting his interviews while sitting in his locker area.

Then the Huskies left for practice in the Rose Garden main arena, which is about to begin.

The Huskies went through their serious practice this morning at Portland State, with Ken Bone and Phil Nelson paying their respects before leaving for their own NCAA assignment.

The Rose Garden practice is mostly to entertain the fans … enough so where the worry is making sure no one gets hurt on the show-offy dunks.

Mississippi State players and coaches have just taken their turns at the microphone.

Four themes:

1.) MSU coach Rick Stansbury wants all the Oregon fans to funnel their Husky-hate into adopting his team tomorrow.

2.) He also says its a misconecption that there was some notable turning point in his team's season, just because they've won six games in a row. He says that was more a function of the schedule and a few close losses in the middle of the season that didn't really reflect a team playing poorly. However, he does admit that some of his freshmen are playing less like freshmen now.

3.) Speaking of freshmen: Which team has a true freshman starting point guard who played last season at a prep school? Answer: Both. And MSU coach Stansbury seems to think Dee Bost's matchup with UW's Isaiah Thomas could be one of the keys to the game. Stansbury particularly stresses Bost's ability to keep opposing guards from getting into the paint. Hmm.

4.) However, it seems that the shot-blocking abilities of MSU forward Jarvis Varnado going to be the focus of most pregame stories. Stansbury says Varnado blocks his 4.7 shots per game and influences a lot more than that. He also said that Varnado doesn't just block shots into the stands, but instead has a knack for either blocking them to himself or teammates, so the majority result in the Bulldogs taking possession.

When I saw the headline about the Sporting News projecting five first-round upsets I figured there was a pretty fair chance the Huskies might be among them.

But no.

Here's the list.

I've arrived at Portland's Rose Garden for today's Media Day. UW and Mississippi State take their turns at practice and interviews in the early afternoon. Here's the interview schedule for the three teams of primary interested to UW fans:

12:05 p.m. Mississippi State student-athletes
12:20 p.m. Mississipi State coach
12:50 p.m. Purdue student-athletes
1:05 p.m. Purdue coach
1:35 p.m. Washington student-athletes
1:50 p.m. Washington coach

Each team also practices in the Rose Garden today, and to my taste it's one of the fun days in sports as the arena is thrown open and fans are invited to come watch for free. Free! Imagine. Something in sports free in 2009.

Mississippi State goes at 12:45, the Huskies go from 2:15 to 2:55.

I'll be back after each with highlights as our coverage counts down to the Huskies NCAA tournament opener at around 1:45-2 p.m. Thursday from the Rose Garden.

Meanwhile, here's my story from today, comparing the last UW tournament team led by Brandon Roy with this UW tournament team led by Jon Brockman.

Yes, in one way, the Seattle P-I was a News Tribune competitor. But as newspapers and a journalists, we also felt like members of the same family.

So, yes, it's depressing to wake up today and realize there is no print version of the P-I hitting doorsteps all across the region. I believe the region is less well-served because of it.

On a personal level, I liked and respected P-I Huskies football writer Molly Yanity and Huskies basketball writer Dan Raley. I miss them already and wish them -- all the former P-I employees -- all the best.

Lakes High School tight end Darius Waters has given his commitment to the University of Washington, according to Realdawg.com and Dawgman.com.

Waters is listed as 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds.

"Darius Waters gave a verbal commit to Washington this afternoon", Lakes coach Dave Miller told Realdawg. "Darius has been very excited about Washington since the day he was offered and just needed to take a little time to make certain he gave his word."

Here's an earlier News Tribune story on Waters, who also plays on the Lancers' basketball team.

UW freshman guard Isaiah Thomas knew that the Huskies' Selection Sunday gathering at the Don James Center would be on national TV, so he decided to make a little nod to his hometown by wearing a Tacoma Rainiers cap.

"It was going to be on TV," he explained. "So, I’ve got to rep where I’m from."

Then he adapted a line he has used last week. Before playing in Staples Center for the first time he said he would "get his Kobe on" -- that is try to play like Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

Now that he's about to play in the Rose Garden, there was this -- "I’ll get my B-Roy on, now" -- a reference to former Husky/current Trail Blazer Brandon Roy.

A few other Thomas thoughts:

On what he knows about first-round opponent Mississippi State: "I really don’t know anything about them. They’re a good team, they made the NCAA tournament. I heard they got a shot-blocker in the middle."

On that big shot-blocker, 6-foot-9 center/forward Jarvis Varnado, whose 165 blocks this season broke the SEC record he previously shared with Shaquille O’Neal, formerly of LSU: "I’m never scared, so I’m gonna still do what I do."

On playing in Portland: "It’s kind of like home court advantage. That’s like an advantage on our side. We’ve just got to bring it and just play hard and play our game."

MISSISSIPPI STATE (23-12)

Men's basketbal website: Click here.
School location: Starkville, Miss.
Conference: Southeastern
Coach: Rick Stansbury. He is 225-127 in 11 seasons at MSU, making him the winningest basketball coach in school history. This is his sixth NCAA tournament team, and he has taken three others to the NIT. His teams have averaged 22 wins over the last six seasons. They won the outright SEC title in 2004, the SEC West in 2004 and 2008 and the SEC tournament in 2002 and 2009.
How the Bulldogs got here: After finishing third in the SEC West with a 9-7 record, they earned an automatic bid by winning the SEC tournament, capped with a 64-61 win over Tennessee in the championship game on Sunday.
Outlook: MSU has won six straight games. The Bulldogs are led by 6-foot-9 center/forward Jarvis Varnado who averages 13.1 points, 9 rebounds and 4.7 blocks per game. His 165 blocks this season broke the SEC record he previously shared with Shaquille O’Neal, formerly of LSU. Overall, MSU is second in the nation in blocked shots, averaging 7.6 per game. … UW won the only previous meeting, 82-80, decision in the 1968 Gator Bowl Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla. … This is MSU’s 11th NCAA tournament, with the Bulldogs holding an 11-9 all-time record. Last season, they defeated Oregon in the first round before being ousted in the second round by eventual national runner-up Memphis.

The gametimes for the Portland first-round games have been set:

11:30 a.m. Northern Iowa vs. Purdue
25 min. after finish Mississippi State vs. UW

4:25 p.m. Akron vs. Gonzaga
30 min. after finish W. Kentucky vs. Illinois

Figuring two hours per game, the Huskies will probably tipoff between 1:45 and 2 p.m. Thursday.

Washington caught no break with its opening opponent. But, after two seasons on the outside looking in, they seemed fully happy to take what they have been given.

The Huskies got the expected No. 4 seed, but they will open against No. 12 seed Mississippi State (23-12) at approximately 1:45 p.m. Thursday at the Rose Garden in Portland.

"We were hoping we could stay here close to home," coach Lorenzo Romar said. "We got that wish: We're going to Portland. We're going to play against a very good Mississippi State team -- they won their conference tournament in the SEC. We're looking forward to getting a chance to play in the NCAA tournament again. (Seniors Jon Brockman and Justin Dentmon) haven't gotten that opportunity for two years; they did as freshmen, and I know that they're just dying to get back. We're looking forward to going out and competing."

The Bulldogs just won the Southeastern Conference tournament title with an overtime win over Tennessee. MSU got to the SEC title game by beating LSU, South Carolina and Georgia.

The winner of that game will go on to play the winner of No. 5 Purdue (25-9) and No. 13 Northern Iowa (23-10) on Saturday in Portland.

All of that is in the West region, so the advancing team goes on to the Sweet 16 at University of Phoenix Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Ariz.

Here's a quick take from the Mississippi State website:

STARKVILLE, Miss. - After claiming the 2009 Southeastern Conference Men's Basketball Tournament crown with a nailbiting 64-61 win over Tennessee Sunday afternoon, Mississippi State's men's basketball team learned soon after its opening-round plans for the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

The SEC Tourney champion Bulldogs (23-12), a No. 13 seed, will be headed to Portland, Oregon, and will meet Pac-10 champion and No. 4 seed Washington (25-8) there in the Rose Garden this Thursday, March 19. Game times for the tournament will be announced later this week.

MSU and UW have met on only one previous occasion in men's basketball, a 1968 matchup in the Gator Bowl Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla. The Huskies took a close 82-80 decision from State in that affair.

State will be making its 11th all-time appearance in the NCAA Championship, holding an 11-9 record in its previous 10 trips to the big dance. MSU's last trip was just last season, downing Oregon in the first round before falling to Memphis in the second in Little Rock, Ark.

The crowd at Don James Center cheered the UW selection, but didn't sound too happy when the opponent was announced.

The crowd also booed a bit when Arizona was named to its 25th straight tournament. And they booed again when Gonzaga got a fourth-seed assigned to Portland meeting Arkon in the South (Memphis) region.

In all, six Pac-10 teams made the tournament: UW, ASU, Arizona, UCLA, USC and Cal. WSU made the NIT. And Oregon State is already announced in the CBI.

I'm at the Don James center with a lot of purple-wearing Huskies fans, waiting for the Selection Sunday show on CBS.

The Huskies just walked in to a nice round of applause.

Isaiah Thomas is showing his Tacoma pride, wearing a Tacoma Rainiers cap.

Lorenzo Romar just addressed the gathering, asking for -- and getting nice another round of applause for his team. And he got his team up to take a bow.

Romar said he thinks there's an opportunity for the team to go to Boise or Portland, and the crowd indicated its preference for the Rose City. He added that although they would rather stay close to home, "If they send us to Alaska, we're going to be ready to go."

I'll be back with a post as soon as the pick is made.

We have lots of Selection Sunday preview coverage in today's paper.

Meanwhile, there have been some last-minute bracketology tweaks regarding the Huskies, although they still seem destined for a No. 4 seed in Portland.

ESPN's Joe Lunardi still has the Huskies as a No. 4 seed, starting in Portland against North Dakota State. However, they are now projected for a second-round match with the Florida State-Temple winner for the right to go on to the West regional in Glendale, Ariz.

However, Sports Illustrated's Andy Glockner now has the Huskies as a No. 4 seed starting in Portland against Akron, with the winner going on to meet the Clemson-Creighton winner to advance to the South regional in Memphis.

The speculation will end sometime after 3 p.m. when the official bracket is revealed on the NCAA selection show on CBS.

And if you like, you can join the Huskies, who will be watching at the Don James Center. Doors open at 2:30, Romar will address the crowd on 2:45. (You also can watch the watch party live online at GoHuskies.com.)

And naturally, I'll be blogging with the news and the reactions once the bracket is set.

Last week, coach Lorenzo Romar speculated that his team would probably be a three or a four seed in the NCAA tournament.

And today, I happened to be on the same plane back from LA as the Huskies were, and while walking off the plane, Jon Brockman said they still have hopes for a three.

However, bracketologists seem to be leaning toward a four.

As of late Saturday, ESPN's Joe Lunardi has the Huskies as a No. 4 seed, starting in Portland against North Dakota State with the winner meeting the Xavier-St. Mary's winner for the right to go on to Glendale, Ariz.

Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated's Andy Glocknen also has the Huskies as a No. 4 seed starting in Portland. But he has the opening opponent as Buffalo, with the winner going on to meet the Clemson-Cleveland State winner for the right to go on to Boston.

We'll find out sometime after 3 p.m. Sunday on the NCAA selection show on CBS.

And if you like, you can join the Huskies, who will be watching at the Don James Center. Doors open at 2:30, Romar will address the crowd on 2:45, and then we'll find out all the details.

Washington's Venoy Overton and Arizona State's James Harden may have disagreed on the court (outlined in the post below). But they certainly had their stories straight after the game.

HARDEN: "This was a great competitive game. Washington’s a great team. We’re competitive as well. So it was a great game; guys were just playing hard. I don’t know what happened, but guys were just playing hard."

OVERTON: "Just two competitive teams going at each other, basically. A little pushing and shoving. Both teams were just trying to let each other know that they weren’t backing down from each other."

However, Overton was willing to give a little more information on how the incident developed: "He came and bumped me, I’m falling down and I grabbed to try to keep myself up and that’s when Glasser kind of came over the top of me, and the teammates that I got, they’re not gonna just let one player be pushed around and they all came to my help. That’s how it is when you’re a team."

And afterward, Overton said, there were no hard feelings: "They just said way to fight, good game. Whatever happens on the court stays on the court most of the time."

Final: ASU wins the wildest game of UW's season, 75-65. (Here's my story.) The Huskies may have been drained by their long fight back, because with about five minutes left ASU went on an 11-0 run that settled it.

"I thought they stepped up and hit big shots," coach Lorenzo Romar said. "Derek Glasser hit big shots. Pendergraph hit some big shots. They came through when they needed to."

As to what he told his team after that terrible first half in which the hole was dug: "I think we talked more about our lack of aggressiveness. I thought we were the more tentative team of the two in the first half. That’s some of the things primarily that we tried to address. Coming out in the second half with a little more fight. We talked about our shot selection, which at times bites us in the butt."

"When we get impatient at times, our offense kind of goes downhill. And against Arizona State, you’re just not going to have any quick open looks. At times we tried to generate those quick looks when they weren’t there."

The Sun Devils will play for the Pac-10 tournament championship at 3 tomorrow against the winner of the USC-UCLA game to follow.

The loss sends the Huskies home to await their NCAA tournament fate on Selection Sunday.

7:11 left: The Huskies came all the way back to take a one-point lead. But ASU just scored and has a 56-55 lead as we head down the stretch.

9:59 left: The Huskies have cut it to 52-48. During a time out, the Huskies are confident. Venoy Overton looked into the crowd and yelled, "This is why we're No. 1." Then he went from teammate to teammate: "Four points," he said. "It's just four point." "We're gonna win this," Isaiah Thomas replied.

13:35 left: THings are getting heated as a series of technical fouls have been called after ASU's James Harden sort of walked through Venoy Overton, Overton grabbed Harden's jersey as he fell, and then ASU's Derek Glasser walked over the fallen Overton. UW coaches rushed the court, with Romar hauling Overton away.

Technicals were called on the three players involved.

Halftime: ASU, 38-21.

Ugly score ... and that's including a four-point play in the final two seconds by Justin Dentmon.

Washington took an early 11-5 lead ... and then the roof caved in. This is the Huskies fewest halftime points of the season, one less than in the loss to Kansas back in the College Basketball Experience tournament. It's the fewest at halftime since a loss to Washington State last year.

UW has hit seven of 30 shots (23.3 percent). ASU has hit 15 of 31 (48.4 percent). Sometimes there are simply cold shooting nights. But ASU has 24 rebounds and Washington 15, and that of course also speaks to desire.

We're sitting right behind the UW bench, and the coaches were very unhappy with shot selection. They thought the Huskies were just firing away, while the coaches wanted patience and attack.

Moment that indicates how things are going: An Isaiah Thomas airball on a free throw.

Tipoff: Huskies going with their typical lineup: Brockman, Dentmon, Pondexter, Gant and Thomas.

The winner goes on to the tournament final tomorrow.

Thomas wins freshman honors: UW freshman guard Isaiah Thomas of Tacoma has been named to a couple of national all-freshmen teams. Here's the release from UW.

Tournament stats: Even though some times -- like Washington -- have only one game behind them, we have been given a copy of tournament statistics so far. Washington leads in scoring (85 ppg), scoring margin (plus 12), 3-point field goal percentage, steals and defensive rebounds.

ASU is tied with UW in scoring margin and leads in assists and 3-point field goals made.

Pregame: The teams are out on the court at Staples Center for warmups. About a half our before tip there is only a tiny crowd.

However, that will certainly grow as the night goes on with local teams USC and UCLA meeting in the late game. Staples Center is making a $10 ticket available to students from both schools, so I'd be amazed if this place isn't jammed for the nightcap.

Meanwhile, the UW-ASU game is scheduled to tip at 6 p.m. And it will be on FSN.

Usual blogging plan here: News as it happens, in-game updates, and then postgame notes and quotes.

Chris Young, a 6-1, 215-pound linebacker from Auburn High School has decided to join the University of Washington football program, Dawgman.com reports.

According to Dawgman, Young made 62 tackles and recorded two interceptions while playing safety for a team that went 11-1.

He drew the interest of Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State and Cal.

Before his first appearance at Staples Center, UW freshman Isaiah Thomas said he wanted to "get his Kobe on" -- that is, play like Lakers star Kobe Bryant. Instead, he played like former Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal.

For the first time, the 5-foot-8 Thomas led UW in rebounding: a career-high nine.

"They came up long, so I was out there and they popped to me," he said. "It’s not like I was Jon (Brockman) just running after them. They came to me, so I just took it."

Clearly, playing at Staples meant something to Thomas, who admits that the games he played at Madison Square Garden hadn't meant as much to him.

"It was weird," he said. "Just thinking Kobe plays here, Shaq played here, and I was looking up before the game all the championship (banners). It was weird playing in a place like this."

He'll be back tomorrow. And there's every chance that he'll be back at another NBA arena a week from today, perhaps getting his B-Roy on at the Rose Garden in Portland.

USC beat Cal, 79-75, in a thrilling third game of today's four in the Pac-10 tournament at Staples Center in LA, and UCLA beat WSU 64-53 in the nightcap.

The results of the day leave the Huskies with a 5-1 record against the remaining tournament field: 2-0 against Arizona State (who they play at 6 p.m. Friday), 2-0 against USC and 1-1 against UCLA (who meet at 8:30 Friday).

Both of the semifinals will be on FSN. The two winners will advance to the championship game, 3 p.m. Saturday on CBS.

Final: UW, 85-73. Here's my game story.

The Huskies will meet Arizona State at 6 p.m. Friday for the right to go on to the Pac-10 tournament championship game Saturday afternoon.

"Going into this game – because we knew how tough Stanford had played us in our previous games – (we knew) they are dangeous offensively," coach Lorenzo Romar said. "But we came out and did a good job to get a vicotry. We probably turned the ball over far too many times, a little bit sloppy, but we did a good job in the second having of sharing the basketball and converting, and some guys stepped up and did really well. We’re just excited that we’re able to advance and play again."

Jon Brockman led UW with 20 points.

Isaiah Thomas (!) led UW with nine rebounds -- an indication of all the long shots Stanford launched, which led to long rebounds when they missed (which was about 65 percent of the time).

"I was out there and they popped to me," Thomas said. "It’s not like I was Jon just running after them. They came to me, so I just took it."

Some other UW reaction:
LORENZO ROMAR
On ASU: Another tough opponent. Arizona State just plays us to the wire and they make us really really work. We’re really going to have to do a great job of turning the page and getting ready for a tough Arizona State team, because they’re really difficult to play against.

ELSTON TURNER
On his three 3-pointers: I"’ve been waiting for it for a while. I havne’t had a game like that since we played Arizona there. It definitely felt nice and it kind of carried me into the second half and I was playing with a lot more confidence. I felt like I could make something happen other than just shooting threes."

JUSTIN DENTMON
ON playing as a No. 1 seed: "It just feels good to win the first game in the tournament. I haven’t done that in three years. … We feel that everybody is after us in a way. Some teams in this conference need a win to get into the tournament."

Halftime: UW, 38-35. Elston Turner hit three 3-pointers late, but Stanford hit a buzzer-beater off the glass to take some momentum into the locker room.

Stanford spent most of the first half firing away from long range and are shooting a not-surprising 38.2 percent. Washington, on the other hand, has been getting into the paint regularly, so they're 35.1 shooting percentage represents a lot of wasted points. In any case, that they'll have a chance to straighten that out because we're sitting right behind the bench and it's obvious the UW coaches don't believe Stanford has anyone to contend with the Huskies' inside game.

Landry Fields has 13 points for Stanford. TUrner and Brockman have nine each for UW and Justin Dentmon has eight.

Washington leads on the boards, 26-21. UW has 11 turnovers, Stanford 10. First team to straighten that out may advance.

Tipoff: UW and Stanford are underway in the Pac-10 tournament quarterfinal. The Huskies went with their usual starting lineup: Brockman, Dentmon, Pondexter, Gant and Thomas.

Game 1: Arizona State just beat Arizona, 68-56, in the first of today's four Pac-10 tournament games at Staples Center.

That punches the Sun Devils' ticket to the semifinals at 6 p.m. Friday, meeting the winner of the Washington-Stanford game. It also just might have ended Arizona's amazing 24-season run in the NCAA tournament ... we'll see about that Sunday.

The Huskies swept ASU during the regular season, winning 84-71 in Tempe on Jan. 31 and 73-70 in overtime at Hec Ed on Feb. 26.

Here's what ASU coach Herb Sendek had to say about tipping off again in about 28 hours: "I think the biggest challenge for us is just going to be recovery. We just play such a limited roster we just don’t have a lot of latitude with substitutions. For us, our guys gave a lot today physically, mentally, emotionally, (and will have) to recharge with such a short turnaround. Some teams are better engineered for an event like this when you’re going to play consecutive games. I think for our basketball team, we’re going to have to really focus on recoveryand make sure that somehow we plug outselves in and are able to come out with energy."

The Huskies will open Pac-10 tournament action at 2:30 this afternoon, meeting ninth-seeded Stanford at Staples Center.

Staples, by the way, will be the first time UW freshman Isaiah Thomas of Tacoma appears on an NBA court, and he admitted that adds a little something for him.

"I’ll get my Kobe on -- try to be like (Lakers star Kobe Bryant) down there," he said. "This will be my first time playing down there and it’s going to be fun."

Someone speculated that it may not be his last NBA arena.

"Not my last one," Thomas agreed.

The 2009 Pac-10 tournament has its first final: No. 9 Stanford 62, No. 8 Oregon State 54.

The Cardinal took the lead with a big run at the start of the second half, and they held it the rest of the way, although the Beavers hung around.

And Anthony Goods 3-pointer in the final two minutes may have been the dagger that did the most damage.

The Cardinal and Huskies will play at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. The game will be on FSN.

In the regular season, UW beat Stanford 84-83 at home Jan. 8, and 75-68 on the road Feb. 8.

“(The Huskies) are the conference champions,” Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. “We have to go out there and play a very very good 40 minutes. It’s going to be a physical game, it’s going to be hotly contested, and we have to be prepared for it.”

Since the Pac-10 revived the conference tournament in 2002, the top-seed has lost its opening game twice.

Oregon State is halfway to advancing to be Washington's quarterfinal opponent tomorrow. The Beavers moved ahead early and held a single-digit lead through most of the half.

Not surprisingly, the Huskies wouldn't publicly state of rooting interest in this one. And from that first half, it's hard to imagine either beating a focused UW.

In the regular season, the Huskies beat OSU 85-59 on the road Jan. 17 and 79-60 at home Feb. 12 while beating Stanford 84-83 at home Jan. 8 and 75-68 on the road Feb. 8.

Stanford and Oregon State are preparing for their 6 p.m. tipoff here at Staples Center.

However, the Washington Huskies won't be in the stands watching (even though there are some empty seats.)

The Huskies are off at some small-college gym in the area, running through practice. Once finished, they'll head to their hotel -- not the arena -- to see whether they'll be playing against the Beavers or Cardinal at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

One of the treats of opening day of the Pac-10 Tournament is the coinciding story from Jeff Faraudo of the Oakland Tribune, which reveals the results of an annual poll he takes of writers covering Pac-10 teams.

I always enjoy taking the poll and then seeing where the other writers agreed or didn't.

This season, the poll is pretty much limited to basketball matters -- which isn't always the case. However, the Huskies didn't dominate this poll they way the did the Pac-10 awards that were voted on by coaches and announced Monday. (Blog post below.) At least to the extent that they picked Oregon State's Craig Robinson as coach of the year, split on whether Isaiah Thomas is the league's most exciting player, and think UCLA will go further in the NCAA tournament.

The writers also predict that Ernie Kent will survive a while at Oregon and that Gonzaga's Mark Few will take over at Arizona.

Anyway, here's the story. And here a little online extra, with more of what the writers wrote.

The Huskies will be especially interested observers in the the Pac-10 tournament-opening game between Oregon State and Stanford at 6 p.m. Wednesday -- because they winner of that game will become UW's opening opponent at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

On Monday, I asked coach Lorenzo Romar how they would go about preparing for either of such different potential opponents.

"Stanford and Oregon State are completely opposite to prepare for," he said. "Stanford doesn’t play as much zone, Oregon State plays all zone. Stanford tires to be a little more up-tempo, Oregon State takes the air out of the ball. What we’ll do in practice this week is not prepare for Oregon State or Stanford but try to build on our foundation in a couple of days of practice, just try to cut the fat, so to speak, and just get better at what we do."

One thing the Beavers and Cardinal have in common is that UW swept both regular season games against each. However, Romar wasn't buying my suggestion that the Huskies had caught a break with their bracket.

"If you break it down, we’ve been able to beat Oregon State twice, but I think the final score was not a true indication of how we struggled in both of those games," he said. "We had a tough time early in both of those games; we were able to pull away at the end. Stanford had us beat here at home, and we were able to win the game but it was a one-point game. In this Pac-10 it’s just too difficult to say if we caught a break or didn’t catch a break. The two that I didn’t think we match up as well against (Cal and USC), yeah they’re on the other side. But that’s not to say the ones we’re playing on our side are any easier games. We swept SC, Cal swept us, both are bad matchups for us."

I'm traveling today -- as are the Huskies -- but I should be at Staples Center in time for that opening game. I'll report in here.

If you're heading down to LA for the Pac-10 tournament, the Tyee Club is inviting all fellow Huskies to gather at the ESPN Zone in Los Angeles prior to this Thursday’s game.

The ESPN Zone is at 1011 S. Figueroa Street: just a short walk from Staples Center. The gathering will begin about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, and the game tips at 2:30 p.m.

And actually, while I always enjoy covering the tournament, I'm expecially excited about this season's touranment because of the L.A. Live entertainment complex that should be largely completed just across the street from Staples Center. That area used to be just a parking lot, which tended to make Staples something of an island not really convenient to much of anything on a fringe of downtown. This season, there should be many more options for meeting and fun before, between and after games.

The Pac-10-champion Washington Huskies climbed to No. 10 in today's ESPN/USA Today coaches poll and No. 13 in the Associated Press media poll.

Both are season-high rankings, and they just add to what is shaping up as a very good day for the Huskies ... along with the Pac-10 honors mentioned in the post below.

Here's my story from the Tuesday paper.

Lorenzo Romar was selected Pac-10 coach of the year today, Justin Dentmon was picked most-improved, and Isaiah Thomas was named freshman of the year.

James Harden of Arizona State was named player of the year, but Jon Brockman and Dentmon made the 10-member all-league first team.

Here's the full release from the Pac-10.

Overall, it seems to be a good day for the Huskies. Brockman not getting player of the year is a disappointment, but not a surprise. The only realy outrage seems to be Overton not making the defensive first-team ... he probably just came on too late.

Here is the full list of honors:

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: James Harden, Arizona State
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Isaiah Thomas, Washington
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Taj Gibson, USC
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Justin Dentmon, Washington
COACH OF THE YEAR: Lorenzo Romar, Washington

Name, School, Pos, Yr, Ht, Wt, Hometown (Last School)
Jon Brockman, WASH, F, Sr., 6-7, 255, Snohomish, Wash. (Snohomish HS)
Chase Budinger, ARIZ, F, Jr., 6-7, 218, Encinitas, Calif. (LaCosta Canyon HS)
Patrick Christopher, CAL, G, Jr., 6-5, 215, Compton, Calif. (Dominguez HS)
Darren Collison, UCLA, G, Sr., 6-0, 160, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. (Etiwanda HS)
Justin Dentmon, WASH, G, Sr., 5-11, 185, Carbondale, Ill. (The Winchendon School, Mass.)
James Harden, ASU, G, So., 6-5, 218, Los Angeles, Calif. (Artesia HS)
Jordan Hill, ARIZ, F, Jr., 6-10, 235, Atlanta, Ga. (The Patterson School, N.C.)
Jeff Pendergraph, ASU, F, Sr., 6-9, 240, Etiwanda, Calif. (Etiwanda HS)
Jerome Randle, CAL, G, Jr., 5-10, 160, Chicago, Ill. (Hales Franciscan HS)
Taylor Rochestie, WSU, G, Sr., 6-1, 186, Santa Barbara, Calif. (Tulane)

SECOND TEAM
Name, School, Pos, Yr, Ht, Wt, Hometown (Last School)
Taj Gibson, USC, F, Jr., 6-9, 225, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Stoneridge Prep)
Daniel Hackett, USC, G, Jr., 6-5, 215, Pesaro, Italy (St. John Bosco HS)
Josh Shipp, UCLA, G/F, Sr., 6-5, 220, Los Angeles, Calif. (Fairfax HS)
Isaiah Thomas, WASH, G, Fr., 5-8, 180, Tacoma, Wash. (South Kent School, Conn.)
Nic Wise, ARIZ, G, Jr., 5-10, 177, Houston, Texas (Kingwood HS)

Honorable Mention (receiving at least three votes): Alfred Aboya (UCLA, Sr., C/F), Anthony Goods (STAN, Sr., G), Calvin Haynes (OSU, So., G), Lawrence Hill (STAN, Sr., F), Roeland Schaftenaar (OSU, Jr., F/C).

PAC-10 ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Name, School, Pos, Ht, Wt, Hometown (Last School)
DeAngelo Casto, WSU, F, 6-8, 229, Spokane, Wash. (Ferris HS)
DeMar DeRozan, USC, F, 6-7, 220, Compton, Calif. (Compton HS)
Jeremy Green, STAN, G, 6-4, 190, Austin, Texas (Bowie HS)
Jrue Holiday, UCLA, G, 6-3, 180, North Hollywood, Calif. (Campbell Hall HS)
Isaiah Thomas, WASH, G, 5-8, 180, Tacoma, Wash. (South Kent School, Conn.)
Klay Thompson, WSU, G, 6-6, 187, Ladera Ranch, Calif. (Santa Margarita HS)

Honorable Mention (receiving at least three votes): Kyle Fogg (ARIZ, G).

PAC-10 ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Name School Pos Yr. Ht Wt Hometown (Last School)
Alfred Aboya, UCLA, C/F, Sr., 6-9, 245, Yaounde, Cameroon (Tilton (N.H.) Prep Academy)
Darren Collison, UCLA, G, Sr., 6-0, 160, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. (Etiwanda HS)
Taj Gibson, USC, F, Jr., 6-9, 225, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Stoneridge Prep)
Daniel Hackett, USC, G, Jr., 6-5, 215, Pesaro, Italy (St. John Bosco HS)
Jordan Hill, ARIZ, F, Jr., 6-10, 235, Atlanta, Ga. (The Patterson School, N.C.)

Honorable Mention (receiving at least three votes): Venoy Overton (WASH, So., G), Jeff Pendergraph (ASU, Sr., F), Seth Tarver (OSU, Jr., G/F).

I'll be back with reaction this afternoon after we talk to the Huskies.

By "open path," I mean playing a pair of teams they went a combined 4-0 against in the regular season.

By "open path," I mean avoiding the bracket with match-up problem Cal.

By "open path" I mean avoiding those brutal 8:30 p.m. starts that often turn into brutal 8:45 p.m. starts.

Here's the link to the Pac-10 tournament page.

As you can see, the Huskies begin at 2:30 Thursday against the winner of the Wednesday game between Oregon State and Stanford. And the Huskies swept both the Beavers and Cardinal during the regular season.

If the Huskies advance to the semis on Friday, they would be paired against the Arizona-Arizona State winner. Again, in terms of matchups, I think the Huskies should be rooting for the Sun Devils -- who they swept -- over the Wildcats -- with whom they split. And the odds are that's the way it will work out, because ASU swept its two regular season games against UA -- four straight overall, in fact.

If UW gets to the title game, they would most likely face either UCLA or Cal -- teams they went a combined 1-3 against. But there's really no easy path to a Pac-10 championship, and if you get to the title game you just roll up your sleeves and go to work.

In any case, the Huskies say they want to do it -- that it won't be hard to put the regular season title behind them and shoot for the tournament title, too.

"Oh, it’s going to be easy," Quincy Pondexter said. "I think our team, we really feel our backs against the wall because people don’t respect us as much as they should. I think coming into next week, we’re going to be really focused for practice and our next goal is to win the Pac-10 tournament championship."

And an interesting question becomes just how high the Huskies might climb if they do that. They would be regular-season and tournament champions of the best conference in the West. They would have a 27-7 overall record and 17-4 in league play. They would have won nine of their last 10 games.

I can't imagine that wouldn't be worth a No. 2 seed.

The Washington Huskies say they hope to cut down nets on consecutive Saturdays.

After winning the Pacific-10 Conference regular season championship with a 67-60 win over Washington State on Saturday, the Huskies said they are now serious about winning the Pac-10 tournament, which runs Wednesday through Saturday at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The tournament opens at 6 p.m. Wednesday with No. 8 Oregon State meeting No. 9 Stanford. That game will be followed at 8:30 p.m. by No. 7 Washington State against No. 10 Oregon.

On Thursday, No. 4 Arizona State meets No. 5 Arizona at noon; No. 1 Washington meets the Oregon State-Stanford winner at 2:30 p.m.; No. 3 California meets No. 6 USC at 6 p.m., and No. 2 UCLA meets the WSU-Oregon winner at 8:30.

The semifinals are at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Friday. (If the Huskies advance, they would meet the Arizona State-Arizona winner in the early game.)

The championship game is at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Washington hopes to be there.

“We’re going to enjoy (the regular season title) and then get right back down to business and try to attack the Pac-10 tournament one game at a time,” coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Whoever we’re going to be playing – the eighth or the ninth seed — we’ve got to bring it. We’re not content with what just happened. We’re excited, we’re elated; but we’re not content.”

All tournament games will be broadcast on FSN, except the championship, which is on CBS.

The Huskies clinch the outright Pac-10 championship. They will open the Pac-10 tournament at 2:30 p.m. Thursday against the winner of Wednesday's game between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds ... to be determined, but potentially WSU again. The loss certainly dumped the Cougars into the Wednesday double-header.

The Huskies got a while to celebrate on their own before the students swarmed the court and lifted Isaiah Thomas onto their shoulders. It was a great moment, and I'm sure the film and picture will be all over the media soon enough.

Then the Pac-10 championship trophy was presented from athletic director Scott Woodward to coach Lorenzo Romar.

Then the Huskies took turns cutting down the net, led by seniors Justin Dentmon, Artem Wallace and Jon Brockman ... who must be having a very nice Senior Day.

"We worked really hard," Romar told the crowd. "We had great leadership. We had a commitment from 13 guys to be a team no matter what. Part of that team includes you all: Dawg Pack and everyone else – great job this year. This is a great great day for us, our program. I can’t tell you how happy I am for all of you to share it with us. For these guys to share a Pac-10 championship is something that’s very special. This is a great day. We are going to really really enjoy this, but we still have some work to do."

Then the seniors addressed the crowd, all thanking the UW fans. "It started out with a bang -- the Sweet 16," Brockman said of his freshman season. "And I have a feeling this group has a chance to do something a little more special than that."

Quincy Pondexter led UW with 16 points, although Venoy Overton once again was the fire and perhaps the difference-maker. Dentmon had 12 points in his final Hec Ed appearance, and Brockman seven points and a game-high 18 rebounds.

Taylor Rochestie led WSU with 23 points.

I'll be back with notes and quotes.

Halftime: UW, 30-25. Defense ruling the day, as the Huskies hav hit 36.7 percent of their shots, and the Cougs 29.6 percent of theirs.

Quincy Pondexter leads UW with 10 points, Aron Baynes leads WSU with 11.

Venoy Overton and Taylor Rochestie have gone at each other hard with lots of chirping.

And the crowd is into it too, with lots of UW fans in the upper parts of the east end.

Tipoff: There is one change in today's starting lineup: the expected one with senior Artem Wallace replacing sophomore Darnell Gant.

Senior Day is always a special one, but today's was even beyond the norm, with Jon Brockman and Justin Dentmon going out with Wallace.

Unfortunately, the pregame events also included a moment of silence for former Husky football player Marquis Cooper, believed lost at sea last week.

Pregame: The clock is ticking down to the 2:30 p.m. tipoff for today's UW-WSU game.

Both teams are on the court warming up: Huskies in white, Cougars in crimson.

The Dawg Pack has brough several posters honoring UW seniors Jon Brockman, Justin Dentmon and Artem Wallace, who are playing their final Hed Ed games today.

After a slow start, UCLA has a seven-point halftime lead over Oregon, meaning the expected: UW has to win today to get the outright Pac-10 title and the top seed in the Pac-10 tournament. (Arizona State's win over Cal today doesn't affect UW's seeding.)

Normal blogging planned today -- plus a little. We'll jump in with pregame news, in-game updates and postgame notes and quotes. And then as the later games finish, we'll also try to straighten out all of the pairings for the Pac-10 tournament, which begins Wednesday (Thursday for UW) at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

If you want any indication that things have changed in the UW football program, one indication is in this information just released:

First-year UW football coach Steve Sarkisian will open up his first spring practice season with the Dawgs on Tuesday, March 31. Fans are welcomed and encouraged to join the team for any of its 14 practice sessions at Husky Stadium. Of course, the spring season concludes with the Spring Game, April 25 at 1:00 p.m.

Following is a schedule of the spring practice season. Weekday practices begin at approximately 4:00 p.m. (start time could vary based on pre-practice meetings, etc.). Saturday practices get underway at 1:00 p.m.

Fans should enter through the northeast corner of Husky Stadium, near the Husky Softball Stadium. The Husky coaching staff asks that fans turn off their cell phones while attending practice. Additionally, no photography (still photos or video), other than by credentialed press, is allowed at any time during practice. Fans are welcomed onto the playing field only AFTER the team's post-practice meeting has concluded.

Here's a schedule of Husky Football spring practice:

Tuesday, March 31
Thursday, April 2
Saturday, April 4
Monday, April 6
Wednesday, April 8
Friday, April 10
Saturday, April 11
Monday, April 13
Wednesday, April 15
Friday, April 17
Saturday, April 18
Monday, April 20
Wednesday, April 22
Friday, April 24
Saturday, April 25 (Spring Game)

The tie-breaking procedure for the Pac-10 tournament can get pretty complicated, but the bottom lines for the Huskies and Cougars are pretty clear: the only scoreboard they need to worry about Saturday is the one at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

If the Huskies win, they'll be the outright Pac-10 champions. However, a UW loss (also assuming a UCLA win over Oregon) not only makes the Huskies co-champs, but tie-breakers also drop them to the No. 2 seed in the Pac-10 tournament next week at Staples Center in Los Angeles. That not only gives the Huskies a potentially tougher opening-game opponent but it dooms them -- and the media covering them -- to the late-game portion of the bracket.

Meanwhile a WSU win clinches either a fifth- or sixth-place finish, which guarantees a first-day bye in the Pac-10 tournament. While a WSU loss means a seventh- or eighth-place finish and a tournament-opening game Wednesday.

Just about every rooting interested the Huskies may have had across the Pac-10 turned out badly for them Thursday night: UCLA romping over Oregon State, Cal coming from behind at Arizona, Arizona State's surprising tumble against Stanford.

They still could get some help before the take the court against Washington State at 2:30 Saturday. But most likely, if they want that outright Pac-10 title, they'll have to take it on their own with a win over the Cougs.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) has recogized Washington seniors Jon Brockman and Justin Dentmon as members of its Division I All-District teams, recognizing the nation's best men's collegiate basketball student-athletes.

Brockman is a first-team selection, while Dentmon was named to the second-team for District 20, which is made up of Pac-10 players.

Other first=team members are Arizona State's James Harden, Arizona's Jordan Hill, California's Jerome Randle and UCLA's Darren Collison.

Other second-team members are Arizona's Chase Budinger, Arizona State's Jeff Pendergraph, California's Patrick Christopher and USC's Taj Gibson.

The complete release is available at GoHuskies.com.

The Washington Huskies could clinch the outright Pac-10 title tonight from the comfort of their couches.

The Huskies are Cougars are off tonight, but the other eight teams are in action across the league.

The one that will draw the most attention is Oregon State at UCLA, where an upset by the Beavers -- who have had their share of upsets this season -- would seal the deal for the Huskies.

Another game of interest is California at Arizona (7:30 p.m., FSN), where a win by the Wildcats would benefit the Huskies in terms of Pac-10 seeding -- if UW and UCLA wind up tied at the top. That game may also be crucial to Arizona's hopes of a 25th consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament.

UW also should have some passing interest in Stanford's game at Arizona State, again rooting for the Sun Devils to beat out the Golden Bears for third place.

Saturday's game against Washington State marks the final home game for seniors Jon Brockman, Justin Dentmon and Artem Wallace.

In keeping with his tradition, coach Lorenzo Romar says he will start all three -- although in this case that is simply a matter of putting Wallace in in place of Darnell Gant, because Brockman and Dentmon, of course, already are starters.

"It hasn’t really sunk in yet that I’m a senior and this is my last game," Wallace said yesterday. "It’s going to be loud in here I’m guessing. It’s Wazzu, senior night. It’s going to be weird realizing this is my last home game and after this I’m never going to step on this court as a player in a game again. It hasn’t sunk in yet, but I’m sure it will sink in once it’s over."

The game will tip at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and will be carried on FSN.

Washington State guard Taylor Rochestie -- the Cougars' leader in points, assists and minutes played -- hurt a finger in practice today. Witnesses said Rochestie left the gym in pain, however, X-rays came back negative.

We'll have a full story in the Thursday paper, but the bottom line is that Rochestie is expected to be ready to play at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, when the Cougars visit UW.

Meanwhile, some Cougar game notes:

WSU CONCLUDES PAC-10 SEASON AT WASHINGTON: The Washington State University men’s basketball team (16-13, 8-9) will conclude its Pacific-10 Conference regular season as it heads to Seattle take on cross-state rival Washington (23-7, 13-4), Saturday, March 7 at 2:30 p.m. The game can be seen live on FSN.

LAST TIME OUT FOR THE COUGS:
• WSU upset No. 14/11 Arizona State, 51-49 in overtime, Saturday, Feb. 28 at Friel Court on ‘Senior Day.’
• Taylor Rochestie hit the game-winning 3-pointer with three seconds to go in overtime with WSU trailing 49-48.
• Klay Thompson led the Cougars with 17 points and seven rebounds.
• Aron Baynes added 11 points and five rebounds, while Rochestie finished with nine points, six boards and five assists.
• WSU’s first five baskets were scored by five different players (Forrest, Rochestie, Baynes, Thompson, Casto).
• WSU has won its last three games over ranked opponent (No. 14 Arizona State, No. 20/15 UCLA, No. 14/11 Arizona State).
• The Cougars got their first win over a ranked opponent at home since defeating No. 23 USC, 88-86 in double overtime, also on senior day, March 3, 2007.
• With his three 3-pointers Saturday, Klay Thompson took sole possession of the WSU freshman 3-point record…he now has 65.
• The Cougars held the Pac-10’s leading scorer, James Harden to 13 points…he was averaging 21.1 points per game.
• Klay Thompson led the Cougars in scoring with 17 points, for the 11th time this season.
• For the third-straight year, the Cougars played an overtime game on ‘Senior Day.’
• WSU played just its second overtime game of the season…won previous game 61-57 at Oregon State, Jan. 15.
• Thompson missed his first free throw of his college career (24-for-25).
• The 10,712 crowd marks the second-largest attendance for a WSU home game this season.
• Arizona State did not score any second-chance points and had just one offensive rebound.

A BRIEF LOOK AT THE LAST MEETING:
• The Cougars fell to Washington, 68-48, Sat. Jan. 3 at Friel Court in the teams’ Pac-10 opener.
• Taylor Rochestie led the Cougars with 12 points and Aron Baynes added 11 points.
• The loss was the Cougars’ first to the Huskies in eight games…had won seven-straight dating back to the 2005-06 season.
• WSU trails the all-time series to the UW, 90-168….61-70 at Pullman.
• The Cougars fell to 11-20 all-time in Pacific-10 Conference openers and 4-5 against the Huskies in openers…3-2 when opening the season with UW at home.
• Aron Baynes was perfect from the floor in the first half, 3-for-3 from the field and 2-for-2 from the free throw line.
• WSU had a season-low 20 rebounds.
• The Cougars tied a then season low with two 3-pointers.

WSU FRESHMEN AMONG TOPS IN PAC-10:
• DeAngelo Casto leads all Pac-10 freshmen in blocks per game with 1.3 and is third overall in the category.
• Klay Thompson is ranked in five different categories in the Pac-10. Below is a look at where he ranks among freshmen and overall in the league.

The University of Washington is inviting fans to to join Huskies players and coaches on Selection Sunday watching the NCAA Selection Show in the Don James Center. The doors will open at 2:30 p.m. March 15. The event and parking are free.

UW forward Quincy Pondexter -- the team's No. 2 rebounder and No. 4 scorer -- admits he woke up sore all over today after taking a nasty fall in last night's win over Seattle U.

However, Pondexter said he would be able to play if there was a game today and that he's sure he'll be ready to play Saturday when the Huskies end their regular season against Washington State, perhaps with an outright Pac-10 title on the line.

"I woke up pretty rough this morning, it wasn’t the best feeling waking up and moving around," he said. "I was really sore and the whole area was tender, but I’ll be fine. It’s just a matter of time, and thank God we’ve got a couple of days before we play again."

Final: UW, 87-60. Leading the way was Jon Brockman, who had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Aaron Broussard of Federal Way led Seattle U. with 13 points. Michael Wright of Lakewood had four points and four rebounds.

The Huskies avoided the disaster of a loss and apparently also the disaster of a serious injury to Quincy Pondexter. After the game Pondexter said he was scared when he hit the ground that he might be seriously hurt, but he played six minutes in the second half and thinks he'll be OK ... although everyone is curious about how he'll feel in the morning.

Romar overview: "Well, we made it through, and now we’re going to senior day. It was fun to get that series kick started a year early. We’ll continue to do that.

"Now we’ve got to shift gears. I was pleased with how our guys were able to shift gears tonight a step outside of conference play. I thought in the first half we did an excellent job of coming out and being focused. That was the biggest concern that I had in this game. I thought we answered the bell in that regard."

SU coach Joe Callero overview: "They are so aggressive on the ball that they speed up all parts of the game. They just have the ability to hit the elbow and the wrist and the physicalness. It's not dirty. It's very smart basketball. It's momentum changing. It takes you out of your regular comfort zone. They just do a great job of pushing your buttons to make you play faster, shoot faster, dribble faster, and put you out of position, and that really gets their transition going.

"Give them all the credit in the world. It's a team that could be exciting in Seattle. It realistically could be a Final Four team."

Late second half: Jon Brockman is out, Artem Wallace is in -- just scored, in fact -- and the issue is settled.

Start of second half: Quincy Pondexter is back and will start the second half. He suffered bruised ribs in that scary fall, but obviously it's not that serious a deal.

Halftime: UW, 42-19. Brockman has 10 and Thomas eight for the Huskies.

Late first half: This game got out of hand early, with UW leading 33-13. In the loose atmosphere, UW's Venoy Overton launched an unnecessary ally-oop pass to Quincy Pondexter, who scored but flipped over Seattle U defender Chris Gweth. Pondexter fell hard and awkwardly. He stayed on the ground for a couple of minutes and now has been helped to the locker room.

Pondexter is UW's No 4 scorer, and No. 2 rebounder, averaging 11.5 points and 5.9 boards.

I'll check back when we get word. (Or if any of you watching on TV get word first, please post.)

Early going: 4-4 four minutes in.

However, I have to take back part of the post below. There's a good and loud representation of SU fans here. It's just that oddly few of them are wearing red.

Tipoff: The Huskies are going with their usual lineup: Brockman, Dentmon, Pondexter, Gant and Thomas.

Among the starters for SeattleU is forward Michael Wright of Lakewood/Pierce College/Steilacoom HS.

Late-arriving crowd. And as of now, not notably more SeattleU red in the house than supporters for any other visiting team.

Championship T: The Huskies say their care about making this an outright Pac-10 championship, but apparently the folks in charge of merchandising aren't quite as picky. I just passed by the Hec Ed team shop, where I noticed this Pac-10 regular-season championship T-shirt.

Gameplan from SU: Here are some leftover quotes from Seattle U. coach Joe Callero that didn't make today's paper, talking about the Redhawks approach to this game ... and how they can win:

"The lower the score the better the opportunity for us and the more likely we have a chance to get hot from the perimeter. But I think the real key will be for us to take care of the ball on offense and rebound the ball on defense.

"We wouldn’t be an athlete, a coach, a competitor if you didn’t put together a scenario in your brain of what we have to do – what’s our game plan, what series of things do we have to do. And the first part of a game plan is believing you can win the game. If you do anything in your life, if you don’t believe you can have success then you might as well back it up because you won’t, you won’t have success.

"Clearly we believe that if we play to our potential for 40 minutes and the University of Washington does not play to their potential for 40 minutes, anything is possible. That’s why the game should be exciting. It’s clearly a Goliath opportunity for us, but that happens in sports on an annual basis. There’s a great upset story that goes on out there. We all believe we can be in position to pull that great upset."

At Hec Ed: I just pulled into the Hec Ed parking lot -- after having survived end-of-the-world storm clouds in the South Sound -- and was greeted by signs saying tonight's game between Seattle U and UW is sold out.

It should make for a fun atmosphere as the teams renew the rivalry that ended in January 1980.

Here's my game preview from this morning.

Tipoff is at 8 p.m. The game will be shown on FSN.

Now, more than two hours from tip, only Elston Turner is out on the court, practicing free throws while wearing the Huskies' gold uniform -- and headphones.

Normal gameday blogging is planned: Pregame news as it happens, in-game updates, and postgame notes and quotes.

The Arizona Wildcats report that star forward Jordan Hill is day-to-day in preparations for the game Thursday against California.

Hill suffered what he considers one of the worst ankle sprains of his life Saturday, in the Cats loss at Washington.

However, now Washington has a rooting interest in UA beating Cal, because if UCLA catches UW in the Pac-10 standings, the tie-breaker for seeding in the conference tournament favors UW if Arizona State gets past Cal in the battle for third place. (The tie-breaking procedure is listed in a post below.)

After two seasons of NCAA tournament uncertainty, the University of Washington is once again pondering some sort of Selection Sunday get-together with fans.

The televisied broadcast of the selection of this season's NCAA basketball tournament field will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 15. The latest ESPN Bracketology has the Huskies as a No. 3 seed starting in Porland against Weber State in the West Region (Glendale, Ariz.)

One logistical problem is that the UW gymnastics team is scheduled to host a competition in Hec Ed that afternoon. However, there certainly are other public places where the university could hold the Selection Sunday celebration.

Details should be coming soon.

Melvin Davis, as 6-foot-2, 220-pound running back from Harbor City, Calif., and Nathaniel Narbonne High School has given an oral commitment to join the UW freshman class of 2010, accorting to RealDawg.com and Dawgman.com.

"I can confirm that Melvin has committed to the University of Washington," Narbonne coach Byron Moore Sr. told Dawgman on Monday. "He actually just did it while he was talking to the Washington coaches on the phone.

"I'm not sure if they are looking at him on defense, but I know they want to give him a look at runnning back as a big back. He's a guy who doesn't go down easy."

The first-place Washington Huskies have finally landed as player as Pac-10 Player of the week: senior forward Jon Brockman.

Here's part of the relase:

Brockman led the Huskies to wins over Arizona State (73-70 OT) and Arizona (83-78) to secure at least a share of the Pac-10 Championship for Washington for the first time since 1985. The Snohomish, Wash., native leads the nation in career double-doubles among active Division I players. He posted two more on the weekend, pushing his career total to 57.

Against No. 14 Arizona State, Brockman poured in 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while shooting 66.7 percent from the field (8-12). He followed up with 19 points and 11 boards against the Wildcats. Brockman currently leads the Pac-10 in rebounding (11.3 rpg), is 10th in field goal percent (.527) and tied for 10th in scoring (15.0 ppg).

This is Brockman's fifth weekly honor of his career and the 33rd overall for Washington.

Meanwhile, UW coach Lorenzo Romar has been named among 10 finalists for the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award. Details here from GoHuskies.com.

The Washington Huskies's weekend sweep of the Arizona schools moved them to No. 16 in the AP media poll and No. 13 in the coaches ESPN/USA Today poll -- both season highs.

Also for the first time this season, UW is the highest-ranked Pac-10 team in both polls, ahead of UCLA and Arizona State respectively.

ESPN's bracketology also moves UW up to a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. Joe Lunardi's projection would have the Huskies opening in Portland against Weber State, with the winner advancing to meet the winner of the Gonzaga (!-- see post below--!)-Utah State game for the right to go on to the Sweet Sixteen in the Western (Glendale, Ariz.) Regional.

Most UW fans are rightly focused on the coming final week of the Pac-10 regular season and then the Pac-10 tournament and then the NCAA tournament. However, some of the next two season's schedules is drifting into place.

Basketball Travelers Inc. has announced that Washington will host the Athletes in Action Basketball Classic early next season, Nov. 13-15 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Belmont, Portland State and Wright State fill out the field, with each team playing the others in a round-robin bracket.

Meanwhile, indications from UW officials are that it is unlikely that the series with Gonzaga will be renewed in either of the next two seasons.

They cite Washington jumping from one to two Big 12 opponents in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood series next season and then being part of a national-class field in the 2010 Maui Invitational, which also includes Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Virginia, Wichita State and host Chaminade of Honolulu.

Ever since UW ended the series in the 2007-08 season, school officials have said they generally favor resuming the UW-Gonzaga rivalry at some point. But as of now, anything before 2011 seems unlikely.