UW Men's Basketball | Duck fans target Ryan Appleby

Ryan Appleby says he never thinks about the forearm shiver he received from Oregon's Aaron Brooks in the 2006 Pac-10 tournament — except when others bring it up.

He can expect to hear about it again on Thursday from the Oregon student section, dubbed the Pit Crew, when the Huskies make their annual trek to Eugene's Mac Court.

Appleby had hoped that last year's game in Eugene, which was the first time he and Brooks met on the court since the incident, would be the end of it.

Instead, a story in The Oregonian on Monday quoted Daniel Cogan, the president of the Pit Crew, as saying that Appleby will likely again be the target of the fans' ire. In an e-mail to the paper, Cogan wrote that Appleby refused a handshake from Brooks before the game which could have "put the matter behind them. Appleby decided he didn't want to; we haven't either and look forward to his return."

Appleby doesn't think it would have changed anything if he had taken Brooks' handshake, noting he was met with boos, derisive chants and signs during the pregame warmup.

"They were going to come after me no matter what," he said.

Appleby seemed to thrive in the charged environment, scoring 21 points, his third-highest total of the season.

"I was really just trying to ignore it all and go out and play," he said. "Maybe ignoring it helped me play better."

UW coach Lorenzo Romar said he was reluctant to talk about the subject Tuesday, not wanting to give it any more attention, but noted that Appleby was the victim of the blow, suffering a cut that required six stitches in his upper lip.

"Ryan did absolutely nothing wrong," Romar said. "It's unfortunate. Maybe they'll come up with something on me instead of him. I wouldn't mind that one."

Two weeks ago, the Pit Crew received criticism for its incessant, and some thought over-the-line, heckling of UCLA's Kevin Love — an Oregon native. Oregon coach Ernie Kent said Tuesday he has talked with members of the Pit Crew and "urged" them "not to take personal shots at anyone." But Kent defended Oregon's students by saying he thinks there are heckling issues everywhere.

Appleby noted wryly that he'd heard Oregon officials talked with the Pit Crew before Love came to town. "So we'll see how that works out," he said. "But I'm not too worried about it. [Those are] Oregon's fans and they are trying to help their team out in any way they can."

Morris in the news

Washington guard Tim Morris and Romar each expressed surprise Tuesday at the attention given to the play late in Sunday's game when Morris threw a ball off the face of UCLA's Alfred Aboya.

Morris was attempting to inbounds the ball and when he found no one open, threw it off Aboya to save the possession for UW. The play was shown on ESPN Monday, and Morris said he tuned in to the show "Pardon The Interruption" in time to see the hosts "trashing me." Co-host Michael Wilbon called the play "cheap."

Morris said he was trying to bail his team out of a bad situation as he was attempting to inbounds the ball in front of the UCLA bench with the five-second count nearing. UW led by five with 47 seconds left.

"It was honestly just a reaction," said the 6-foot-4 senior. "We ran a play where guys are curling off and none of them were open and [UCLA] coach [Ben] Howland was in the way so I couldn't throw deep and I just reacted. He [Aboya] was so close I just kind of turned. I didn't mean to [hit him in the face]. But I didn't want to turn the ball over. He was so close. He's a big guy [6-9, 245] so I couldn't throw it off his knee and if I threw it at his torso he would have caught it. So it was just a reaction."

Legendary UCLA coach John Wooden also weighed in, telling the Los Angeles Times he would have immediately benched Morris.

Romar again defended Morris, saying it wasn't intentional. Told about the Wooden comment, Romar who worked as an assistant at UCLA from 1992 to 1996, said that the former Bruins coach "is the wisest man I ever met."

"I know coach Wooden and I know how he is and that there are certain things he didn't tolerate with his team," Romar said. "So I know how coach is. I understand what he is saying."

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