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.