You will receive no easy road games.....

"...but on your death bed, you will receive total consciousness."

Maybe by dying a litte, UW gained a litte. By hitting rock bottom, only then could UW stop laying to themselves and everyone that things were going to be alright. Maybe by dying, you can lose the identity of your former self, and return as your own team, your own legacy. UW died in Pullman, they were reborn in Seattle.

UW is now lead by the person who has been through the largest trails and tribulations this season, Justin Dentmon. Life without Brandon Roy was harder then it ever seemed it was going to be. Turnovers, bad shooting nights, and a brusing of the "EGO" has been life for Dentmon over the past month. Over the previous two games, Dentmon has slashed, scrapped, and dug his was out of his hole, and back into the starting line. Roy is gone, Dentmon had to learn on his own, how to run this Husky tea.

UW's last two games have revived what some where calling a lost season, a total failure, a waste of Spencer Hawes' only NCAA season. After two wins, and 180 points in two games, this new-look Husky squad must travel to valley of the shadow of death to face what might be the worst of all villians written in the chapters of this year's story of turnarounds, comebacks, and NCAA births; the road.

"The road is fuckin' hard,

It's also really fuckin' tough,

There's no question that,

It don't take no guff.

The road is a be-a-itch my friend"

Tenacious D put it right, the road is fuckin' tough, but it is the only fuckin road I know. UW knows what is has to do now...it must win. Win or your season is done after the Pac-10 tourney. Let us not talk about NIT's, or wasting Hawes, but let us talk about turnarounds, NCAA tournament games, and beating Arizona State and Arizona on the road.

Baby steps to a NCAA birth. The first step is Thursday, Arizona State on the road. Win there, and UW will have won its first road game of the season, and in return, shoot the monkey dead that once was on their backs. Up after that is a STRUGGLING Arizona team that has begun suspending players about this time every year.

Seems to me, this is the best time to travel to the desert.

UW needs to sweep the bay

And it won't be all that easy. After Oregon and Wazzou toppled UCLA and Arizona (respectively), it looks like the Pac 10 is the toughest conference in the nation. All this is good news for the Dawgs, as the stronger the conference looks, the more likely the possibility of getting 6 teams from the Pac 10 into the show. Stanford is coming off an impressive road win against Virginia after losing at home to Cal last Thursday. Before that win, neither team had really shown much (I'm not counting Cal's win against a Bill Walker-less Kansas state team as a significant win).

This trip is an opportunity for the Dawgs to leapfrog both bay area schools and take over 6th place in the conference. While this is no extraordinary feat, it would set up UW for a nice second half run at a top 3 finish in the Pac 10. Additionally, we've got a brutal pair of games after these two, travelling to Wazzou and then facing Oregon at home. If we can get a couple road wins under our belt, it may give the confidence chance to take it to Wazzou, and/or get a nice home win against Oregon (who will be without Aaron Brooks - suspended for the sucker punch he laid on Appleby in the pac 10 tourney). Escaping this stretch with only one loss, plus what should be easy wins against OSU and ASU would put us at 6-4 in the conference and would be a huge step forward for our young team. By that time, Joel Smith should be healthy and back in the rotation, just in time to face the top of the conference the second time around.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Our dogs have some real flaws right now, particularly with our ball handling and perimeter defense. For UW to be successful, Justin Dentmon needs to play well. It appears like his confidence was genuinely shaken by the long, atheletic matchups he's had to face against USC, UCLA, and Arizona. In his first 4 pac 10 games, he looked like he was aiming the ball and overthinking his passes. Something has to happen to get him confident again, and I think he will find it in the Bay Area. Or he will completely crumble (I hope not, but after all, the game at Stanford was where he made one of the dumbest mistakes you could ever make, and cost us the game). Quincy Pondexter also looked shocked by the athleticism of the Pac 10. His supreme offensive performance against Arizona aside, he has been caught in double teams numerous times and his rebounding numbers have dropped. He seems surprised every time a player his size can move as fast or faster than he can. He will get through this, he is at least as atheletic as Bobby Jones, and has proven to be a hard worker. It's just a matter of when. Oliver has almost the opposite problem. While he takes everything in stride and does't look too overwhelmed (for the most part), it's almost like he is afraid to be noticed on the court. Adrian is only taking 4 shots a game in about 26 minutes (in pac 10 play).

Other than that, this team is sweet! Here's to hoping for good guard play against Stanford
tonight.

There's no place like home

Ugh. Eek. Ack. Balls. Wow. We just got demolished. It feels like the 03/04 season all over again. My faith in Romar keeps me warm at night, and visions of an impeding run help me to keep the faith. But this team feels flawed in a way I did not anticipate this year. We miss Joel Smith BAAAAD. We miss Dentmon's mojo from earlier this year. We miss the athleticism and confidence of BJones, Jamaal Williams and BRoy.

Most of all what we seem to be lacking is the ability to strike first and strength of will to play well through lulls when we are not shooting well. When our shot stopped falling in LA, we began to press and made more mental errors. This, more than anything, reminds me of 03/04. The tools and fight needed to be a unique and exciting team are there, but we just don't know how to put it together from start to finish. 3 years ago, it took an inspired performance by NateRob to give his team the confidence and grit to be a great team.

Hawes will surely be a great player, but he will develop at his own pace, and needs to make mistakes as he learns. Brockman has also played strong much of the year. More that anything, we lack consistency and confidence in at least one ball handler. Right now, Dentmon is the best suited to do this. And you know what? He know's it.

The next game is against another powerhouse. It's a team that is built very similarly to USC and UCLA. Arizona's strength is in its size and athleticism at guard/wing positions. Right now, I don't think UW knows how to solve this sort of puzzle. Hopefully, the home croud will help us to be strong. Hopefully, Dentmon can look inside and find what he needs to demolish bigger foes. UW needs courage and brains from him. So far we have only shown heart and luckily, for the next two games are safe at home.

Dentmon: Is he UW's best player?

With all the attention being drawn by Washington's recruiting class of Pondexter, Oliver, Nelson and Hawes, many people have forgotten about the little guy running the point for the Huskies. He does not have the athleticism like Pondexter or Hawes, but could Justin Dentmon be UW's best player?

Dentmon performance on Friday night was classic clutch leading his team with 23 points, and hitting important free throws down the stretch to put the game into the "W" column. So, with more perfomances like these, Dentmon can definetly be considered the most clutch player on the team, but is he the best?

With Hawes recovering still from knee surgery, he still looks a bit slow, and Pondexter having up and down nights, I think Dentmon right now is UW's best player, and needs to take over, like he did down the stretch the other night over these next couple of games if UW wants to have a chance to enter the Pac-10 season undefeated. They have a great opportunity to do so, but have to avoid losing to LSU, who lost this week, and may not again for a while, and Gonzaga in Spokane.

"It's like a dream": Justin Dentmon Player Profile

Justin Dentmon knows how to be clutch. It's just that he forgets sometimes. The Stanford game happened in front of our eyes, and probably reoccured thousands of times in Justin's mind. That moment may have cost us a win, but it doesn't take away from the many moments where his play was crucial to a UW victory. 17 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and two steals against Gonzaga on night that we only got 10 from BRoy and still managed to win. Big time plays in wins against UCLA, Cal and Illinois. In an article about Dentmon's clutch AAU play, His coach had this to say: "He won probably about six games for us in the two years he's played on the Warriors," said his Illinois Warriors AAU coach, Larry Butler. "You can't teach that." In Justin's words, "it's like a dream, everything in the game is like a cloud. It's just you and the defender."

Dentmon led the Huskies in free throw shooting percentage, steals and turnovers and was second in assists and minutes played. Strong work for a freshman asked to fill the hole at point left by Will Conroy and Nate Robinson. His free throw stroke suggests the potential for an outside shot, but last year he was unable to hit from the outside consistently, especially off the dribble, shooting 41% from the field and 29% from three. That has to change this year as he will be a primary focus of opposing defenses. Also, without a player like Brandon Roy to take charge of the offense, Dentmon will have to show he can take care of the basketball - and assist to turnover ratio of 1.4 to 1 from Dentmon will cost us games this year.

My hopes for Dentmon are as high as they are for any player. He will be a year more mature and in control of the fast paced husky attack. If he can show modest gains in shooting percentage (44% and 33% would do), he will be a devastating weapon for UW.

Last seasons stats:
Min: 27.7
Points: 8.3 .409 .286 .814
Rebounds: 3.5
Assists: 3.8
TO: 2.7
Steals: 1.6

Projected stats for this year:
Min: 30.0
Points: 12.0 .438 .331 .804
Rebounds: 4.0
Assists: 6.8
TO: 2.8
Steals: 2.0