Facing new heights

BOISE – The Washington Huskies admit they’ve never seen a team quite like the Pacific Tigers.

Washington’s opponent today in the second round of the NCAA Tournament offers a stable of tall, skilled front-line players unlike anything the Huskies faced while running to a 28-5 record and a No. 1 tournament seeding.

“They have their own mix,” UW senior Will Conroy said. “This is one team that I would say doesn’t resemble any team we’ve played. They have about four or five guys that are tall and that can make plays.”

Much has been made about Washington’s ability to overcome its relative lack of size while beating teams with dominating big men, such as Utah with Andre Bogut or Arizona State with Ike Diogu or Arizona with Channing Frye.

In the cases of Bogut and Diogu, the Huskies stationed one defender in front of the big man and then sent help quickly when the guards tried to lob a pass over the top.

In the case of Frye, the Huskies willingly let him operate, while making sure guard Salim Stoudamire didn’t beat them with 3-pointers.

Pacific brings the potentially more difficult problem of wall-to-wall big men who can step outside to score, or who can pass to open teammates if the Huskies send help.

“It’s difficult to limit these guys’ touches because (Pacific) goes through them so much,” UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. “A guy like Ike Diogu, the ball has to change hands two or three times before he gets it. In this case, the buck stops with the big, and he may pass to the other bigs. You probably have more individual responsibility as opposed to a more total help situation.”

The Tigers’ front line starts with 6-foot-9 center Yango Guillaume (13.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg), 6-9 forward Christian Maraker (13 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and 6-7 forward Jasko Korajkic (8.2 ppg, 4.7 rpg). Waiting his turn on the bench is 6-10 forward Tyler Newton (7.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg).

To find a comparison, Romar had to combine a couple of Pacific-10 Conference opponents.

“I want to say Stanford’s type of pace and tempo, with Oregon State’s bigs,” Romar said. “And that’s not a knock on Stanford’s bigs at all. They’ve got some very good bigs; it’s just that these guys are very versatile and interchangeable and they run a lot of offense through their bigs, and Oregon State does that also.”

Also resembling Stanford, Pacific’s best player might not be a big man, but guard David Doubley, the Big West Conference player of the year.

Also dangerous is reserve guard Mike Webb, who hit five 3-pointers Thursday for a career-high 15 points in Pacific’s first-round win over Pittsburgh.

Still, the Huskies seem more ready to take their chances in the backcourt than the front.

“They’re bigs are also versatile – they shoot it really well from the outside and Yango is really tough on the inside,” said forward Mike Jensen, who at 6-8 is Washington’s biggest starter. “It will be a group effort to try and contain them, and keep them from getting the ball inside. We want to force them to try to beat us from the outside.”

While the Tigers are unlike anyone the Huskies can recall, the Tigers say the Huskies remind them of someone: Cal State Northridge.

“I think we can look at Northridge and say they play pretty much the same way,” Korajkic said. “They pressure the ball a lot, too. I think they’re most like Washington.”

Pacific coach Bob Thomason agreed, though he diplomatically added the comparison speaks to style, not skill.

“Northridge changes defenses more than Washington does, and obviously Northridge doesn’t have as good players,” he said. “But they do play a relentless style. … They go up and down and they stay after you. Those are difficult teams. The bad thing is, if you’re ahead of them, they can sure score a lot of points in a hurry. But the good thing is, if they’re ahead of you, they’re probably going to give you some chances to catch up if they start missing some shots.”

The winner advances to the regional Thursday in Albuquerque, N.M.