Stellar Matchup Highlights Cal At UW Game

University of Washington fans are in for a treat Saturday when their Huskies entertain California in what should be one of the most entertaining games of the Pacific-10 Conference season.

Cal is tied with UCLA for the league lead at 5-1 and UW is just 1-1/2 games behind at 3-2. But the most intriguing aspect of the game is the expected one-on-one matchup between UW’s Mark Sanford and the Golden Bears’ Tremaine Fowlkes, two of the country’s most talented sophomore forwards.

Sanford, it seems has a bit of revenge on his mind after being edged out by Fowlkes for the Pac-10 freshman-of-the-year award last season.

“I felt like I didn’t get the respect that I should have got,” Sanford said last week before going off for 27 points in an 85-71 rout of Washington State. “Tremaine got freshman of the year, but we had the same team record (5-13 in the Pac-10), we split the two games we played and if you look at the individual matchups, I won them both.

“At the time, I felt like I should have got freshman of the year, but I guess the voters didn’t, so I took the decision and lived with it. It was something I thought I should have had, but my opinion doesn’t really count for anything.”

Fowlkes, who is coming off a 14-game suspension for his involvement with an alleged agent, will make his season debut Thursday night at WSU.

For the record, he was outscored by Sanford 31-19 in their two head-to-head encounters last season.

Hendrickson update

WSU’s Mark Hendrickson, who has missed the Cougars’ last six games with a broken left hand, has been cleared by the team’s physician to begin participating in team drills during practice.

The 6-foot-9 senior, who has been limited so far to individual conditioning, shooting and dribbling drills, is still listed as doubtful, however, for Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. home matchup against Cal.

“And he will remain so until he can get a couple of practices under his belt,” coach Kevin Eastman said. “We’re not going to put him on the floor unless he’s had a chance to test that hand in full-contact, five-on-five drills.”

California coach Todd Bozeman said he is preparing for the Cougars as if Hendrickson will play.

“When I hear ‘doubtful,’ that means ‘We’re going to play him, we’re just not sure when or how much,’ ” Bozeman explained.

Eastman said he is not surprised by the length of time it is taking for Hendrickson’s hand to heal.

“Just because he’s a real big guy who is strong and tall and weighs a lot, that has no bearing on how bones heal in that body,” Eastman said.

Secret injury

Eastman also revealed one of the best-kept secrets in college basketball Tuesday morning when he announced Isaac Fontaine, his team’s leading scorer, has been pronounced 100 percent healthy for the first time this season.

According to Eastman, the junior guard has been playing with a stress fracture in his foot since the preseason and has been limited to practicing only an hour a day in order to be ready for games.

Fontaine has started all 13 games for the Cougars this season and is averaging 19.5 points and 6.4 rebounds.

Eastman said he withheld word of the injury at Fontaine’s request.

Changing of the guards

Contrary to what was reported in Los Angeles, the decision to swap the roles of guards Cameron Murray and Stais Boseman was made by Southern California coach Charlie Parker - not Boseman.

Boseman, a 6-4 junior, apparently told reporters he had gone to Parker and suggested he be moved to the point in place of Murray, a 6-1 sophomore.

But Parker, who made the switch prior to Saturday’s 80-67 win over Arizona State, claimed it was his call.

“I asked (Boseman) to come to my (motel) room to talk about it,” Parker explained. “This is something I had thought about all along and it was on Stais’ mind, also. We discussed it and we decided to do it.”

It is little wonder that both want credit for the idea.

Boseman riddled the Sun Devils for a game-high 27 points and Murray added 20.

Parker said Boseman is more aggressive with the basketball at the point and added that he felt Murray, a pure shooter, could benefit from not having to shoulder the responsibility of bringing the ball up court and getting the Trojans into their half-court offense.

America’s most wanted?

All of the recent criticism about sleaze on television talk shows has apparently not hit home with Arizona State coach Bill Frieder.

Frieder, who hosts his own weekly TV show, said he is trying to line up an interview with the man who broke into his motel room in Eugene, Ore., last season and reportedly stole the Sun Devils’ meal money, along with several of Frieder’s personal possessions.

“I guess the guy just got sentenced about two weeks ago,” said Frieder, who plans to stay at the same motel when ASU visits Oregon again Thursday night. “I’m trying to get my TV crew up there and go interview him for my television show.”

Frieder said he is also trying to tap this week’s Super Bowl celebrity stampede into Tempe, Ariz.

And who is he courting the hardest?

“If everything goes right, I’m going to get an interview with Pete Rose tomorrow,” Frieder said. “We’re suppose to hook up at 12:45 (p.m). But he’s got to arrive on time, because I’m leaving for the Oregon trip at 1:10.”

, DataTimes