Huskies’ Middle Manager After Trading Skates For Hightops, Macculloch Has Big League Goals

Winnipeg boys are supposed to skate, not slam.

And spend time in penalty boxes not at free-throw lines.

But when is the last time you saw a 7-footer in the NHL? Then again, when is the last time you heard of a Canadian as a potential first-round NBA draft pick?

So Todd MacCulloch’s not your typical Winnipeg boy, eh?

“I gave up hockey at about 11,” said the University of Washington center.

“Why, was it hard to balance on those blades with all your height?” he is asked.

“No. Just too much time. I was dreaming about the NHL, just like everybody else there does, but the practices and the games are just really intense. We would have about 160 outings a year - 80 practices and 80 games.”

A decade later, 160 outings would seem pretty tame. Today against Washington State (6-5) in the Spokane Arena will be MacCulloch’s 11th game this season for Washington (7-3). But those games have taken him from Hawaii to Chicago to Boise to Spokane and back to Seattle. Then there are the practices that started in mid-October and he hopes won’t end until late March.

And, oh yeah, there are those classes he has to take.

Of course, many might contend he’s doing his most important hands-on training for his future on the hardwoods.

After all, what’s going to come into more use in the next four years: an in-depth analysis of Beowulf or a working knowledge of how to defend Tim Duncan’s drop step?

“Yeah, I think about the NBA now,” the senior said. “And I hope it’s something that becomes a reality for me.”

That’s a long way from being a kid who was 6-feet tall going into high school before growing 6 inches in a year. Still, MacCulloch was playing basketball on the tundra, which is a lot like trying to garner an NHL tryout if you’re from the Caribbean.

Basketball was foreign to most in Winnipeg - even his family. MacCulloch spent much of his time those first years trying to explain all the refs’ whistles to his father.

There were no off-season conditioning programs. To improve his quickness and jumping ability MacCulloch played volleyball and … badminton?

“Yeah, badminton.”

Well, it worked. And the height didn’t hurt much either.

At first there were just a few local universities interested. Then some North Dakota schools took a look.

But it wasn’t until he went to Seattle that he knew where he wanted to play basketball.

MacCulloch spent much of his youth in a tent, camping with his family. The toughest and most rewarding thing he’s ever done, he said, was to take a two-week canoe trip when he was in his early teens.

“Hundred pounds on my back when we were walking and then all that paddling, I didn’t know if I was going to make it at times,” he said.

In fact, the pictures on his apartment walls aren’t of NBA superstars, they are photographs he took while hiking - Lake Louise, a waterfall and so on. This 7-footer was always more comfortable among the tall trees.

So, it didn’t matter that the Husky program was dormant. The wilderness surrounding the city certainly wasn’t.

Four years later, the tall timber everybody’s talking about is MacCulloch.

Last season, he and the duo of outside sharpshooters, Deon Luton and Donald Watts led the Huskies to the Sweet Sixteen. It was their first trip to the tournament since 1986. And their 20 wins were the most since 1987. MacCulloch led the nation in field-goal percentage (65 percent), had 15 double-doubles (the most in the Pac-10), and averaged 18.7 points and 9.7 rebounds.

This season, there was the preseason Top 20 ranking and all the expectations that came along with it.

A three-game early December slide caused many to wonder if MacCulloch and crew were going to live up to those expectations.

“Last year, it was a little losing streak that kind of brought us together as a team and helped us get closer so we could be a good enough team to go the Sweet Sixteen,” said Luton.

“After that I think we got mad at ourselves,” MacCulloch added about this year’s losing streak which came in the midst of an 8,000-mile, weeklong odyssey. “We know those were games we could have won, even with the travel.

“Now, we realize we can’t even drop one or two,” he continued. “We want to go beyond the Sweet Sixteen this year.”

Chances are if they do, the MacCullochs and a few others from Winnipeg will be camping out for tickets.

Notes

Donald Watts, who has missed the last four games after spraining his right ankle in the Boise State game, will be back in the starting lineup for the Huskies today. Watts, who was out of practice until Friday, will replace Chris Walcott. Prior to the injury, the senior had started 41 consecutive games. Thalo Green, who received 10 stitches after a collision in Wednesday’s Portland State game, is probable.

1. PAC-10 OPENER Today: Washington (7-3) vs. Washington State (6-5), 2 p.m., Spokane Arena. TV: Fox Sports Northwest Radio: KXLY 920-AM; KKPL 630-AM.

2. BY THE NUMBERS Todd MacCulloch’s statistics: G FG FT PPG RPG 11 78-121 57-100 19.7 11.1 Also: Assists 8, steals 8, blocked shots 19, turnovers 15.