SEATTLE -- Maybe Washington got what it deserved.
No, not the 20-point loss at Gonzaga late Saturday night, in
which the young, previously undefeated Huskies never led and were
simply not quick enough or intense enough to keep up with the
rampaging Bulldogs.
No, maybe they deserved the five-hour bus ride back across the
state even later Saturday night. That thankless trip, which
probably felt like 15 hours after a 97-77 loss, was scheduled to
get the soon-to-be-formerly No. 13 Huskies (7-1) back to campus
after 3 a.m.
"That was a reality check right there," team captain Jon
Brockman said.
He meant the surprisingly noncompetitive defeat inside the
rollicking McCarthey Athletic Center, not the bus ride away from
it.
"We've got to wake up," he said.
Washington took the 45-minute flight to Spokane Friday and had
the normal, pregame routine of a morning shoot-around, meetings and
meal Saturday. But the final game of the annual series between the
two rivals started after 8 p.m. So after the two-hour game, the
team couldn't get to the airport before the day's last commercial
flight departed for Seattle.
So, in the interest of getting home as soon as possible so the
players could begin preparing for final exams -- not in the interest
of easily putting the brutal loss behind them -- the Huskies trudged
home along a lonely interstate through ice and fog.
The team of eight freshmen and sophomores had plenty to think
about.
"That happens when you are on the road. This is a young team on
its first road trip, against a veteran team like that," Washington
coach Lorenzo Romar said.
"(Saturday's) game got our attention."
For Romar, the most obvious realization from Gonzaga's
highest-scoring game of the season, which included the Zags'
season-high of 56 points in the first half, was the need for better
defense.
"We got beat soundly," Romar said at least twice after
Washington's first nonconference loss in 25 games, dating to the
last time the Huskies played at Gonzaga in 2004. "We weren't quite
ready for this yet."
But the Huskies need to get more ready -- soon. They have just
one get-the-kinks-out game, at home this Saturday against Portland
State, before current No. 9 and last season's Final Four entrant
LSU comes to Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Dec. 20.
Then it's one more breather, against Weber State, before the
rugged Pac-10 season begins Dec. 28 and 31 with a Los Angeles trip
that ends at No. 1 UCLA.
Yes, the nights of learning against Nicholls State, Idaho and
Southern Utah are long gone.
"We wanted to know where we were against a good team on the
road and we found out," Romar said. "We are going to go to work
and be a better team coming up."
The Bulldogs (9-2), ranked 18th but coming off a dismal,
10-point loss at Washington State, relentlessly pushed the ball
past the Huskies from the opening tip-off. Derek Raivio was
particularly unstoppable. He scored 17 points in the first half and
25 total while frenetically running all over the front court
without the ball to get open.
Freshman guard Quincy Pondexter, listed as three inches taller
than Raivio but probably more, initially couldn't corral Raivio.
Neither could Ryan Appleby. Raivio was so much quicker to spots
than both, he rarely needed screens to get open.
Inside, the Huskies chose to often play in front of Gonzaga's
big men. That led to some easy baskets early from second-leading
scorer Josh Heytvelt. The first two of his 14 points were an omen:
an easy, emphatic dunk off a wide-open alley-oop pass from Jeremy
Pargo on the game's first possession.
Then, there was Gonzaga freshman Matt Bouldin. No one seemed to
be guarding him while he scored a season-high 21 points on 9-for-12
shooting in his first collegiate start.
"Some of it was GU's offense," Romar said. "But in general,
they cut us up."
The Pac-10 was watching. So the Huskies had better be ready for
teams to run, run and run some more at them into the new year.
But as Romar said a week ago, a loss in Saturday's last showdown
with Gonzaga for a while doesn't mean this season is going to be a
failure.
"We came here two years ago with a veteran team that went to
the Sweet 16," Romar said of a 29-6 squad led by seniors Nate
Robinson and Will Conroy.
"And we got beaten soundly that day, too."