By JOE McDONNELL
FOXSportsWest.com
March 9, 2011
LOS ANGELES - If there's one positive for the University of Washington men's basketball team as it readies for play in the Pac-10 tournament at Staples Center, it's their seeding.
Last year, when the Huskies upset top-seeded California to win the tourney, they went in as the third seed. As they try to pull another upset and guarantee a trip to the NCAA tournament, they're again ranked third.
So much for the good news.
A season that began with so much promise in the Pacific Northwest, the Huskies were ranked No. 18 in the preseason Associated Press poll and were favored to win the conference has disintegrated into bad basketball, injuries and legal woes.
Washington enters its Thursday evening matchup with rival Washington State having lost six of its last 10 conference games to finish in third place, three games behind champion Arizona.
Senior forward Justin Holiday (11.3 points per game, 5.2 rebounds per game) suffered a concussion Saturday in a loss to USC. He didn't practice Tuesday and will be a game-time decision for coach Lorenzo Romar. Sophomore guard Abdul Gaddy is already out for the season because of a torn left ACL.
Guard Venoy Overton, the Pac-10 active leader in assists (387) and steals (176) has been suspended for the Pac-10 tournament after being charged with providing alcohol to a pair of underage girls, a gross misdemeanor. If convicted, Overton could spend up to a year in jail.
The loss of Overton and a less-than-healthy Holiday will cause problems on defense, where Romar says that the two are merciless against opposing teams.
"And Holiday was just starting to play his best basketball," Romar said.
Romar's disappointment was evident at his news conference Tuesday.
"This has been the toughest year for me as a coach (at Washington)," said Romar, who is completing his ninth year in Seattle. "You want your program to be a certain way, and when a guy makes a mistake, it's a setback. When you make mistakes, there are consequences to be dealt with."
The Huskies were 12-3 (4-0 in the Pac 10) and ranked No. 23 after crushing Oregon State by 31 points on Jan. 8. After that game, police said, Overton met the two 16-year-old girls and engaged in sexual acts with each. The age of consent in Washington is 16.
The Washington free-fall began following the incident.
The Huskies finished the regular season at 20-10, the third-straight 20-win season and fifth overall under Romar. The victory total is a bit misleading, though, when you factor in an 8-7 record down the stretch, 7-7 in the Pac-10. Included in that total were a pair of losses to Washington State. Washington also lost to Oregon and Oregon State, who both finished under .500 overall and in conference play.
Pretty damning evidence for the "Overton situation ruined our season" theory. Romar says no to that conclusion.
"I'd love to be able to say that was the reason, but I can't," the coach said. "I'd love to be able to say that's the reason we didn't play as well. But who knows?
"The year started off with high expectations and we stubbed our toes a little bit in Maui, but we came back and started out the first half of conference 7-1 and doing pretty well. Then we became very inconsistent."
And the snowball effect took over.
"We started losing a little bit of confidence offensively," Romar said, "and the shots weren't dropping the way they had earlier in the season. . . . I thought we'd end the season on a high note, but we just didn't do as good a job as we should have. We were just very inconsistent all year."
With all that, Washington is right where it was a year ago: holding that No. 3 seed for the Pac-10 get-together.
"We know what we have to do," senior forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning said. "We've used (situations like this) as motivation, and that's what we have to do here. We know where we've been in the past and what we're capable of. So we just have to go out and play hard with the players we have available.
"We're playing a lot better defense than we have in the past, and that's going to fuel our offense. If we can keep playing defense, we'll get loose balls and easy baskets in transition. If we can play that way, we're going to be all right."
With all the problems and lackluster play notwithstanding, Romar still feels his team has a good chance to repeat as Pac-10 winners and earn the NCAA bid.
"If we can get our heads on right and manage to hit a few shots, we can gain some confidence. I think that would quickly bring us back to life," Romar said. "Hopefully, we can get back to playing the way we're capable of."
Even if the Huskies make it to the NCAAs, more controversy awaits them.
Overton will be allowed to rejoin the squad for any NCAA tournament games, prompting an outcry from Seattle media members. At least one of his teammates disagrees.
"He (Overton) knows what he did was wrong," said junior point guard Isaiah Thomas, who Romar jokingly said would be his own backup with the lack of available players. "He knew what was at stake, but people make mistakes. I always feel you deserve a second chance for any mistake you make.
"I can't be mad at him."
