The Washington Husky basketball team plasy six of their next eight games on the road. They will visit such hostile places as Tempe, Tucson, Palo Alto, Berkeley, and Westwood, and Los Angeles.
How the Huskies fare on these road trips will go a long way in determining how they will finish the season. The golden rule during this crucial part of the season is to do no worse than split on the road to finish the season.
The next two weekends the Huskies travel to Arizona and the Bay Area. They need to at least split. A 1-3 finish would be tough to recover from if you are playing for a conference championship. If Washington continues to sweep or goes 3-1 chances are they will finish on top of the conference.
Coming up on Thursday are the Arizona Wildcats who are struggling after the retirement of Lute Olsen. The Cat's are only 12-8 this season and are trying to avoid the league basement which is inhabited by the Oregon Ducks. Washington needs to come in and take this one. On paper this has to be a 10-15 point victory and I have a lot of confidence that it will happen.
On Saturday the Huskies face up an up and coming Arizona State squad for the first time this season. Herb Sendek's Sun Devils have been in the top 25 for most of the season. James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph lead the Sun Devils. Harden is one of the best players in the conference. This will be a tough contest against a team that can beat anyone on most nights.
I have seen ASU beat up some people this year. This game is a real toss up that will test them as much as they have been tested this season. ASU is a real good team and it will be tough to beat them on their home court.
If UW can sweep in the desert I am going to get a pretty good feeling about this teams chances.