Hoops: You can't spell Suck without USC

After last night's game at Hec Ed (and Cal's loss to Oregon State of all teams!), the Huskies find themselves tied for 1st place in the Pac-10 with UCLA. Guess who we play tomorrow afternoon? You got it right in one; UCLA. At the end of the game we will either be in 2nd (possibly tied, though, who knows, maybe Oregon will beat Cal as well) if we lose, or 1st if we win. Yeehah!

The game was a wierd one; lots of typically poor Pac-10 officiating. Plenty of bad calls on both sides, so I guess it balances out. But it did seem to me that alot more fouls were called on USC than UW. They did have 3 guys foul out and no-one on UW fouled out. That being said, USC was a very impressive team; they are big (their 5 starters were 6'5", 6'7", 6'7", 6'9", and 6'9"), fast, and highly athletic. I don't have the stats on it, but they seemed to be blocking an amazing number of our shots and changing quite a few others.

Jon Brockman had an abysmal offensive night; he scored 4 points, all from the foul line on 4 of 6 shooting. He did pull down 13 rebounds, so that was good and he was, as usual, a solid presence in the middle. He just couldn't buy a bucket to save his life last night. Quincy Pondexter and Justin Dentmon kept us in it to begin with. MBA (Matthew Bryan-Amaning) and Isaiah Thomas also gave us a bunch of points. At the end it turned into a foul shooting contest and we won it. By my count we were 32-40 (80% is way better than we usually shot last year when we were the worst foul shooting team in D1). Dentmon, MBA, and Pondexter were perfect from the line; all 8 misses were from Isaiah and Jon.

Overall, it was an exciting game to watch and we came away with the win; UW 78, USC 73.

The other big excitement last night was the pre-game ceremony. They retired Brandon Roy's #3 jersey. That's only the second number retirement in Husky history; the other being Bob Houbregs from the 50s. I brought along my camera to get some shots of the ceremony and was rudely awakened to a UW rule when I got to the doors of Hec Edmundson pavilion. Cameras are allowed inside only if you have a media pass. With 20 minutes left to go before the ceremony started, I had to hoof it all the way back to my truck parked in the University Village parking lot to store the camera bag safely and then return to the arena. I made it with a couple of minutes to spare, but I was mightily pissed off. If they are going to have a rule like that, the least they could do is let you know by posting the rule somewhere. Nope, learn from experience. Sorry, dude.

On the other hand, the ceremony was pretty cool. Brandon Roy got the noisiest ovation I have ever heard at Hec Ed and it went on for a long time too. Very cool guy. He is an example of the positive effect good parenting and coaching can have in your life. When he was a UW freshman, he was a punk. Went into the NBA draft, found out he wasn't going to get drafted, pulled out, screwed around in school. His dad took him in hand and had him working at the Port of Seattle on the docks (where he worked) as long as he wasn't in school. Once he got back to school a little humbler and harder working, Lorenzo Romar guided his athletic becoming over the next three years. NBA Rookie of the Year, NBA All Star, leading his team as point guard. Not a bad end to the story and it isn't even close to over

Tomorrow's game against UCLA will be crucial. My son, Walter, will be going with me. Should be a good time.