Day 4 At The Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Tournament: Washington Huskies Are Deserved Top Dog

It took the Washington Huskies about 20 minutes to find their game in this year’s Pac-10 Conference Championship. Then they became the most impressive team of the week. Sitting firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble prior to this tournamnent, the Huskies needed a good showing and they left no doubt at weekend’s end. They deserve to be called Pac-10 champions.

The Huskies opened the tournament with a somewhat disappointing half against Oregon State, but you have to credit most of that to the Beavers just being absolutely on point from 3-point range. Then the Huskies employed the press defense and blew right past OSU. They dominated Stanford from start to finish the next night.

But we got our money’s worth during Saturday’s game. It began like a mid-80s NBA game, where neither team could miss. It was a lot of fast-paced action as both teams had more than 30 points with more than five minutes remaining in the first half. Both squads turned a mixture of cold from the field and sloppy with the ball to finish the half and the Huskies held a 41-37 advantage.

Both teams staged big runs in the second half, which set up an ultimate six-minute finish with Washington trailing, 66-63. The Huskies then hit six of their final seven shots and all four free throws. Meanwhile, the Huskies’ defense stifled Cal, which made just two of its final six shots. They forced a couple of critical turnovers late and took away the Golden Bears’ strength from 3-point range,  where they made just 5-of-19 shots Saturday. In the end, the Huskies made the plays to become champs. They did it for the majority of the tourney and certainly did it Saturday. They didn’t run into any luck. They just performed better than everyone else. They looked like the most athletic team in the Pac-10 and shot better than 45 percent. Maybe the greatest news for UW fans is that only one player — Quincy Pondexter — won’t be back in for the 2010-11 season. The Huskies have eight underclassmen, none of whom have the ability to become the next Kevin Love or O.J. Mayo and ditch the Pac-10. They’ll be sticking around. But they do have the ability to make the Pac-10 exceedingly difficult for the rest of the league for the next couple of years.

• Other than the game, the most important thing from Saturday was stomachs. Media row for college basketball games is often right in front of the cheerleaders. That position gives you a lot of time to pick out your favorites. Mine at UCF was this girl who had a well-defined eight pack of abs. It was memorizing — and a bit intimidating. With that being said, I’m pretty sure I could fall in love with all of Washington’s cheerleaders. Six-pack abs must be a requirement for that group. Their stomachs are incredible. You can grate cheese off those things. I’m willing to try.

• Isaiah Thomas was named tourney MVP, but I would have given the award to Pondexter. He contributed about the same amount of offense and didn’t experience the dreadful quarterfinal game that Thomas had. Plus, he’s the team’s only senior. He deserved it enough. But it’s also his last go-around. Just give it to him.

• You might remember me complaining about the Washington band’s rendition  of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from Thursday. Well on Saturday, the PA system played SLTS with a disco/electronica remix that made the Huskies’ band look like grunge kings. I’m glad Kurt Cobain is already dead because he surely would have killed himself after hearing that.