UW men seek first road win

All they needed were a couple more rebounds at USC. A couple fewer turnovers at Stanford.

One more measly free throw at California.

Any of those things, and the Washington men's basketball team might not be just one of two Pac-10 teams without a road win this season — the other being cellar-dweller Arizona State.

That the Huskies have come so close might indicate a road breakthrough is around the corner, especially with the Sun Devils (6-14 overall, 0-9 Pac-10) the next team in the way. Washington plays at Arizona State on Thursday at 6 p.m.

And turn just one of those games around and Washington's NCAA tournament aspirations may not be so precarious.

"But that's the trick," said UW coach Lorenzo Romar. "We didn't win. We didn't win because we weren't good enough to win [on the road] yet."

The hope is that they are good enough now, fresh off a home sweep of No. 9 Oregon and Oregon State and seemingly healthier than they've been in a month. Spencer Hawes said Tuesday he feels the best he has in weeks, finally getting over a sprained ankle and a stomach virus. Other banged-up Huskies such as Adrian Oliver (thigh) and Quincy Pondexter (knee, ankle) are also recovering.

But the only thing that will make the Huskies feel completely healthy is a road win. Washington is 0-6 in road games — 0-5 in Pac-10 play — compared to 13-1 and 3-1 at home.

"We've got to overcome this," Romar said. "And the only way to overcome it is to overcome it."

Explanations for the road woes have centered primarily on the team's youth — the Huskies have four freshmen among their top seven players.

"It's a lot different playing on the road in college than in high school," said Pondexter, one of the frosh quartet.

Says Romar: "Experienced teams that are good teams win on the road. Inexperienced teams have a more difficult time."

To support his case, Romar cites last year's UW team that went 7-2 at home in Pac-10 play and 6-3 on the road.

Romar acknowledges the Huskies might have been better off if they had scheduled at least one more nonconference road game. Washington's only nonconference road game this year was a 20-point loss at Gonzaga.

But UW coaches have tried to prepare their young team for the rigors of the road in practice, doing such things as conducting drills in which the players are put in adverse situations typical of away games.

"They might get traveling called on them when they are on defense," Romar said. "There might be a technical foul for just one little bad piece of body language. There may be a change of score knowing that the team losing is going to have to run if they lose. Just things where they begin to take their mind off of what's going on and their jobs and get distracted by something else. That's what the road ends up being. No one is yelling on your behalf. They are yelling at you, trying to distract you. You've got a lot of things stacked against you. You try to stack it against them in practice."

But Romar says such tactics can only do so much.

"Until we get that victory, we won't know what it's like," Romar said.

Winning at least one game on the road this weekend is all but a must for the Huskies to continue to hold legitimate NCAA tournament hopes.

"If we are able to be successful on the road [coupled with the win against Oregon], that would suggest that maybe we are starting to turn a corner here," Romar said.

Notes

• Romar said the starting lineup is expected to remain the same, which means Artem Wallace at center and Hawes coming off the bench. Hawes said it bothers him "a little bit" not to be starting.

"But I've just got to keep working to get back in the starting lineup," he said. "It's worked the last two games, so we'll see."

Hawes said he really hasn't been told why he's not starting and admits he's been tempted to ask, though he hasn't.

"But it's not really that big of a deal," he said. "It's not who starts but who finishes."

• Junior guard Joel Smith, out all season with a foot stress fracture, had originally been expected back this week but had his return delayed after a meeting with the doctors last week. He will be re-evaluated next week.

Romar had previously been adamant that Smith would play this season, and Smith has also said he'd like to play. But with games running out, Romar said Tuesday a redshirt season is possible.