UW Basketball Would Like to Leave Road Monkey in Berkeley
With just seven games left in the regular season, the UW men’s basketball team still hasn't won on the road. Tonight at Cal, they’ll try once again to shake the monkey that’s climbed onto their backs every time they step outside Hec-Ed.
We think the road monkey came from Lubbock, TX, where the Huskies first lost on December 3. Ever since, it’s lived somewhere in the trees along the Burke-Gilman foraging for berries, judging bikers who ride sans helmet, and eyeing undergrads en route to the IMA.
But when it sees the UW men board the team bus for a road trip, it scampers out and latches itself to the chassis like Robert De Niro in “Cape Fear”.
Once on the road, it tosses a UCLA buzzer beater at them like a handful of poop, or ties all their shoelaces together like in the 26-point drubbing at USC two nights later. It has never failed in six away games.
Does the road monkey really exist? Well, the couple in “Paranormal Activity” couldn’t see that demon thing and it sure beat the shit out of them.
Yeah, you could argue the Huskies need to do more of this, play harder doing that, move faster here. But superstition is endemic in sports, and head coach Lorenzo Romar even quipped earlier this week that maybe his wife should stay home from this road trip to shake off the bad travel juju.
Regardless of the cause, the Huskies (16-7, 6-5 Pac-10) need to win tonight, not only to prove to themselves they can do so outside city limits, but because Cal (15-8, 7-4) holds first place in the Pac-10. A UW victory pulls them into a tie atop the standings; a loss drops them into the murky middle of a conference that may send two teams to the NCAA tournament if it’s lucky. Consider that the final three games on the Husky schedule are on the road, and the monkey becomes a full-on gorilla with a loss tonight.
The monkey would have a nice home in Berkeley. It could join a food coop and live among the drum circles. It would be happy. Leave it there.
UW vs. Cal - Berkeley, CA, 6 p.m., ESPN2
Other notes:
-The Huskies aren’t the only ones seeking conference supremacy tonight. The Gonzaga Bulldogs play St. Mary’s tonight. The 16th-ranked Zags are currently second in the WCC standings, and the first-place Gaels threaten to end Gonzaga’s nine-year streak of regular season championships.
Gonzaga vs. St. Mary’s - Spokane, WA, 8 p.m. ESPN2
-Sounders FC fans, meet your new play-by-play announcer, Arlo White from the BBC. Kevin Calabro provided a comfortable soundtrack for the inaugural season and is still a badass. But the club is maturing into the premiere football club in the United States, and beyond KC’s soccer capabilities. Calabro only had a one-year contract, and a baritone mouthful of other commitments this year. So the Sounders have lured White from across the pond, bringing to SoDo his experience calling the English Premiere League, and most importantly a British accent.
