Husky Hoopsters Are Three Wins From History
Amazing but true fact: the last time the University of Washington men's basketball team finished first in their league, they did it wearing satin shorts.
Not that the Huskies were fashion misfits--all basketball teams wore satin shorts back then. Point is, it's been a while, and the current Dawgs are agonizingly close to becoming the first Washington team to claim a regular-season league title since that bygone, shinier era.
Holding first place with three games to play, the Husky hoopsters "control their own destiny," as we like to say in the sports world. That is, if they win those three games, they'll be Pac-10 champs.
The first of said games is the biggest--Thursday night here in Seattle against 11th-ranked Arizona State.
The Sun Devils are just a half game behind the Huskies in the Pac-10 standings, so whoever wins tomorrow will claim first place. The game is so sold out, when we were writing this Tuesday afternoon, even ticket brokers didn't have any seats.
The overweening local interest can be traced to the Dawgs' title drought. Sure, Washington tied for the Pac-10 lead twice in the 1980s. But, as we also like to say in the sports world, "a tie is like kissing your sister."
If you want to find the Husky hoopsters all alone at the top of a league, fire up your pdf viewer and scroll back till you find the 1952-53 Pacific Coast Conference standings. There, finally, you'll find the Dawgs in first place.
That 1952-53 season was, not at all coincidentally, the last and only time the Huskies made the Final Four. If the 2008-09 Dawgs matched the league-winning achievement of their satin-clad predecessors, it would be a lovely harbinger of March Madness success.
Should you decide to watch Thursday's game--it's at 8pm, and will be televised on FSN--you might keep an eye on a couple of things:
1) How the Huskies defend ASU shooting guard James Harden. Harden, the league's leading scorer at 21.2 points per game and a probable top-five pick in June's NBA draft, played poorly when he faced the Dawgs last month; in a brilliant stroke of unorthodoxy, Husky coach Lorenzo Romar had 6-8 Darnell Gant--nominally the Huskies' center--defend the 6-5 Harden. Harden made just one shot in the first half as the Huskies built a 12-point lead.
2) Whether the Dawgs' Venoy Overton forces turnovers from ASU point guard Derek Glasser. Overton is quickly becoming Romar's version of a shock troop battalion--sent in to confuse and frighten the enemy. Overton does it by applying heavy back court pressure to the opposing point guard. In each of the past two games, he's picked an opposing guard clean as said guard advanced up the court--flicking the ball away, grabbing it, and laying it in, the way your older brother would. Glasser, who has stellar court vision but lacks speed, has trouble advancing the ball against most Pac-10 guards; often the only way he can do it is to back toward the basket ass first, shielding the ball with his body, the way you would against your older brother. (Glasser will also often flare his elbow at his defender's chin as he runs up court, a maneuver that would get you slapped by your older brother.) Overton's quickness will be a tremendous challenge, and ASU will probably have to run screens in the backcourt to relieve the pressure on Glasser.
The importance of the game has not escaped UW players. "This is probably the biggest game I have had since I have been a Husky," four-year starter Jon Brockman told reporters yesterday. Coach Romar says it's the biggest game for the Huskies since their last NCAA tournament appearance, three seasons ago.
Should be a good one. As we like to say in the sports world: "Go Dawgs!"
You can buy that late 1920's-early 1930's era Husky pin for $49.50 on Gasoline Alley Antiques' Husky basketball collectibles page.
