UW Basketball | Huskies' identity changing

These Washington Huskies no longer bear much resemblance to the ones Ken Bone left behind.

Only two players remain from the roster of Bone's last season as a UW assistant (2004-05), and there are four others from the last recruiting class he helped sign.

So maybe it's fitting that as Bone returns to Edmundson Pavilion for a game against the Huskies with his current Portland State team — tipoff is at 7:30 p.m. — UW is also still searching for itself.

"I think they're going through a little bit of growing pains right now," said Bone, who was the coach at Seattle Pacific from 1990 to 2002 before moving to UW as an assistant for the first three years of the Lorenzo Romar era. "It looks like they are trying to figure out who their key guys are going to be."

Romar admits as much, having used his fourth lineup in nine games for Saturday's game against Portland, a tighter-than-expected 67-63 win.

Romar said the lineup UW used for that game — Jon Brockman and Artem Wallace up front and Tim Morris, Joel Smith and Ryan Appleby in the backcourt — could remain for tonight's contest, especially considering the tight turnaround.

Romar would like to settle on a lineup and a rotation by the time Pac-10 play begins Jan. 5 against Washington State, and dominating performances in some of the four remaining nonconference games — three against mid- to low-major teams — would help the decision-making.

But Portland State figures to be far from a pushover — Bone has the program on an upswing in his third season.

The Vikings, 19-13 last season, come to town 7-4, including a 78-73 win at Portland. PSU is 3-1 in December with the only loss a 72-60 defeat at Washington State in which the Cougars were never really able to put away the Vikings.

"They are a much better team than last year," said Romar, recalling a 105-73 win for the Huskies over the Vikings. "They are a good three-point shooting team, a well-coached team, that will definitely challenge us."

Bone has seven transfers from other Division-I schools, though three are sitting out this season because of transfer rules, including former Huskies player Phil Nelson. Bone said he didn't intend to build his team that way but noted that four were from in or around Portland before going to other schools, three of whom had gone to schools out of state before returning.

"Some of those are kids that, out of high school, Portland State would have died for and now those kids are calling us to come back home," Bone said.

One of the transfers eligible this season — guard Jeremiah Dominguez, formerly of the University of Portland — was declared academically ineligible last week and probably won't play tonight. Bone said Dominguez, who was leading the team in scoring (11.8), assists (31) and steals (23) was working on getting eligible Monday, but it was unlikely he could get it done in time for tonight's game. In his place will likely be walk-on Mickey Polis, a 5-8 transfer from Lower Columbia College.

Romar has often said he'd prefer not to play former assistants but signed a three-year deal to play Portland State — this is the middle game of that set — once Bone got the job. Bone likes having the game here because Seattle is a key recruiting base for the Vikings.

"Ken and I have been good friends for a long time and that hasn't changed," Romar said.

With Dominguez out, PSU's leading scorer is 6-4 senior guard Deonte Huff (11.6), but the Vikings have a balanced attack with seven players averaging from 6.1 to 11.6 points.

NOTES

• Bone said Nelson, the former UW player, had surgery on his foot to clean up an injury suffered last spring but returned to practice three to four weeks ago.

"He's doing a good job for us, and he's going to be a really good player for us, that's for sure," Bone said. Romar said he was surprised that Nelson — a native of Salem, Ore. — transferred to Portland State but after talking with him concluded it makes sense.

• Bone said he didn't read much into UW's tough game against Portland, noting it was the end of finals week. "I think they showed their true colors against Pittsburgh," which was a 75-74 loss to the undefeated Panthers on Saturday.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com