Pivotal Weekend: Where Do We Go From Here?

by thecassino on Feb 10, 2010 9:12 PM PST Comment 7 comments

When the Huskies take on Cal, it will, in many ways, be the game that determines what direction the season goes. A win and the Huskies have not only claimed first in the conference (with the tiebreaker over Cal), but they'll have also broken the hex that has bothered them when they leve Hec Ed.

From there, the schedule sets up about as well as you could hope. The teams that figure to give us more trouble (USC and UCLA) have to come to Seattle, while the teams that shouldn't be as much trouble (Stanford, WSU, Oregon and OSU) are met on the road. I firmly believe that if this team can get that first road win out of the way against Cal then it has an excellent shot of running the table and solidifying itself as a legtimate at-large - regardless of what happens in the Pac-10 tournament.

If we should lose to Cal, things aren't so easy. The game against Stanford becomes a must win for two reasons: 1) You can't lose to a team like Stanford when you're trying to move onto the bubble, and 2) Getting swept on the road again would probably destroy the team's psyche. At this point you can rationalize the losses: Texas Tech we played well, took them into overtime and nearly won. Georgetown was simply a bad matchup or us with their size advantage. The Arizona trip we were missing Justin Holiday. UCLA needed the heroics of a walk-on to win at the last second, and the USC game was a result of the UCLA hangover. But these things only matter if the team can win on the road this weekend, otherwise all of those excuses turn into: this team can't win on the road. And the players will probably believe it. And we will have already kissed the NCAA's goodbye, and we may be saying hello CBI.

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I can see them running the table

But like you said the Cal game is must win. In an ideal world for UW they would get furd first and could start the trip off by running them. Going cal to stanford is harder in my opinion.

If they can get this win they’re essentially in the drivers seat with the schedule and you can start talking conference title. If not, well they’re probably in lots of trouble like you said.

I just can’t get how they can’t play on the road

by cougfan on Feb 10, 2010 9:25 PM PST via mobile reply actions

I hope you're right

But I can’t predict them to win a road game until they prove to me it is possible.

by Bamer_ on Feb 10, 2010 9:49 PM PST up reply actions

Hmm.

Not that I disagree with the sentiment, but there’s an awful lot of “rationalization” in the road losses already.

A little more than you’d like.

Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.

by whiskey chainsaw on Feb 10, 2010 11:48 PM PST reply actions

0-6

This team looked very solid when the season kicked off, but for one reason or another we have failed on the road and haven’t been able to find any success outside of Hec Ed.

Cal knows exactly what is at stake tonight, just as we. They’ve been fortunate to stay at the top or near the top. We’ve had to dig ourselves out of a a hole to get back to the top or near to the top. I’m not sure which offers a psychological advantage over the other. But I do know we are 0-6 on the road and that could be the psych advantage Cal will only need. If Cal wins, which they are capable of, they are sitting very comfortable on top, meanwhile our 0-6 grows to 0-7.

At this point I am not going to put much emphasis on the 0-6 thing, I think this team is better then that, yet have not been able to overcome it for some reason. I think it’s time we begin looking at our early season scheduling and ask ourselves what are other major basketball programs doing in early non league that we aren’t doing? I assure you however, none of the answers relate with Gonzaga- we don’t need them.

Big game tonight and not too confident that we end the road jinx on this night, but we’d better…

All I saw was purple

by crazidawg on Feb 11, 2010 7:33 AM PST reply actions

I think this team will be lucky to win 2 more road games in conference play – they have showed nothing on the road so far. Their closest games to win on the road were against UCLA and TT – WOW – BFD. This team will need a miracle to make the NCAA tourney – say hello NIT.

by lorenzothedog on Feb 11, 2010 8:31 AM PST reply actions

Understand your concerns

But look at this team. Without a doubt the most talented roster in the league. To think that Washington has been winless on the road is perplexing to say the least. How much of our road woes have something to do with being “the hunted”. Keep in mind that teams that are on the top end of things usually gets everybody’s A game. Are we considered one of the stronger basketball programs in the Pac 10? Lately, history tells us that we are i.e. No.1 seed a few years ago, a couple sweet 16 apperances, a Pac 10 tournament trophy, and a regular season championship. Not to mention but we are the defending Pac 10 champions. Carring around a bullseye usually gets the opposition’s attention. We’re a young team w/out Brockman and Dentmon and that usually spells doom w/out leadership.

Hopefully our winning streak carries over tonight, this team is too talented to struggle this much on the road. What might make the difference is hitting our free throws and not just the ones that we deem “critical”. Secondly we have to minimize turnovers, especially in our transition game- every posession has to count in order to keep momentum. Tonight is a big game and I hope we can put something together on the road.

All I saw was purple

by crazidawg on Feb 11, 2010 9:45 AM PST up reply actions

I agree FT – TO and every possession is important but they are critical in every game. Not sure if we are that talented crazi. I think this is our play in game to the NCAA tourney as well as the rest of our games are critical not much room for error – only one more loss in league play or winning PAC 10 tourney.

by lorenzothedog on Feb 11, 2010 5:39 PM PST reply actions