Men's Hoops Notebook: Three-point shooting could be the key

SAN DIEGO — Just as suddenly as all those three-pointers began dropping for the Washington Huskies during the heart of their eight-game winning streak to close the regular season, they suddenly stopped falling against Oregon in the Pac-10 tournament.

UW hit seven or more — including 10 or more four times — in the last five games of the regular season. But against Oregon, UW was 5 of 14, including 1 of 8 in the second half as the Ducks rallied from a 13-point deficit.

The relevance to today's NCAA tournament opener against Utah State is that the outside shot figures to be as important as it has in any UW game this season.

UW coaches describe the Aggies as a team that plays in a 2-3 zone maybe 80 percent of the time, daring their opponent to fire away — especially against a team as athletic as the Huskies, whom they'd like to keep out of the paint.

"They're going to stay packed in and try to force you to make jump shots," said UW guard Brandon Roy. "That's something we've been working on all week, going against a zone and a sagging man-to-man and making sure we still penetrate and don't just settle for outside shots."

Inevitably, though, UW will have to hit a few jumpers, and the keys figure to be Ryan Appleby and Mike Jensen. Appleby was understandably off his game against Oregon after taking an early hit from Aaron Brooks. He didn't score for only the second time all season. Jensen was simply off-target, going 0 of 4 from the floor, continuing a slump that began at Arizona when he was 0 of 5.

A date with Nate

Jensen will also be important on the defensive end as he will get the first crack at guarding Utah State's best player, 6-foot-7 forward Nate Harris, who averages 17.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game and is shooting better than 62 percent from the floor this season.

"I have to try to deny him the ball, not let him catch it on the block and push him off the block," Jensen said. "He's not one of those guys that's going to go in there and dunk it on you. But he's real crafty with the ball — he does up-and-under moves, a fake here and a fake there, and then he gets an ankle on you and scores.

"He's one of those guys you would look at him and probably be like you wouldn't expect anything big out of him. But he plays real hard and real solid around the rim."

Count Appleby as another Husky who has NCAA tournament experience, even if his came with Florida, where he played in 2004 before transferring to UW.

Like the Huskies, the Gators were a No. 5 seed that year. And in something Appleby hopes is unlike the Huskies, Florida lost 75-60 to Manhattan. Appleby played five minutes, scoring two points and making his only field goal attempt.

"That 5-12 game is always a tough game," Appleby said. "Utah State's a good team just like Manhattan. They're from a smaller conference and they want to make a name for themselves. We've just got to be ready to go."

Déjà vu?

Three of Washington's seniors — Roy, Jensen and Bobby Jones — have had success here before, as the Huskies beat host San Diego State at Cox Arena 92-81 on Dec. 27, 2003. It was a key win at the time as UW had lost its previous three games, including blowout losses at Wyoming and Houston.

"I remember I went home and surprised my parents for Christmas," Jones said. "I know I had a good game. I made a lot of bank shots. Those rims treated us well."

NOTES

• The Huskies held a private practice at the University of San Diego on Wednesday before taking part in a 40-minute open workout at Cox Arena. Harvey Perry, Justin Dentmon, Joel Smith, Jon Brockman and Jensen all got in some solid slams.

• Utah State has built its program in part on junior-college transfers. The Aggies have eight on their roster.