Huskies to begin Part II of season

SEATTLE – When Washington freshmen starters Justin Dentmon and Jon Brockman went the wrong way on a play during their first 10 collegiate games, it generally turned out just fine.

The Huskies won all 10 of those games, nine of them easily, and have soared from unranked to No. 7 – their highest national standing since 1984.

But if Dentmon, Brockman or any of the other newer Huskies get lost during Pac-10 Conference play, they’ll hear about it from their opponents.

“The teams are so familiar with what you do. The freshmen, if they forget, these guys will tell you, ‘You are supposed to go to the corner on that play’,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar chuckled Tuesday.

The Huskies begin Pac-10 play Thursday against rugged Arizona State.

The perennial power Arizona Wildcats arrive to play Washington on Saturday.

Pac-10 opponents “will take away your right hand if you are a right-handed player,” Romar said. “If you like to spin in the low post, they are going to take that away, too.”

Therein lies the test for these still unproven Huskies, and Romar acknowledges, “I still don’t know what to expect.”

Brockman said the team’s upperclassmen have told the new guys “it’s almost like two different seasons.”

Washington’s only high profile opponent so far has been No. 8 Gonzaga. The Huskies beat the Bulldogs for the first time in eight tries, 99-95 on Dec. 4. Other than that, they’ve faced Morgan State, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Air Force, American, Idaho, Loyola Marymount, Eastern Washington and Lehigh.

All those off-the-marquee games have been inside Hec Edmundson Pavilion, where the Huskies have won a national-best 31 consecutive games.

“There are no Americans or Morgan States in the Pac-10,” senior Brandon Roy said.

Roy is averaging a team-leading 16 points per game. Yet he has yielded large swaths of the non-conference games to teammates he wanted to ready for stiffer conference competition.

“Everyone’s a Gonzaga now,” Roy said. “Everyone has a chance to beat us.”

Rebuilt Arizona State gets the first shot. The Sun Devils (6-3) are using six new players while trying to adjust to life without Ike Diogu, last season’s Pac-10 Player of the Year and the school’s first top 20 NBA draft choice since 1983.

Arizona State lost three in a row earlier this month – including an embarrassing home loss Dec. 10 to Utah Valley State.

Arizona State junior guards Bryson Krueger and Kevin Kruger are each averaging 15 points per game. Kruger is third in the Pac-10 with 23 3-point baskets.

The Sun Devils are also trying to apply more defensive pressure than in recent years – which is exactly the game Washington loves to play.

But the Huskies know from experience not to expect their preferred, free-flowing track meet Thursday.

Senior Bobby Jones remembers many “confrontations and scuffles” the last two times Arizona State has come to Seattle.

“I expect rough plays,” Jones said.

And Romar said that’s OK.

“We’ve never backed down from a good scrap,” he said.