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GAMEDAY
No. 21 Washington (20-7, 11-4) vs. No. 14 Arizona State (21-5, 10-4) | Pac-10 basketball

UW schedule
Date	Opponent	Time/result
11/15	at Portland	L, 80-74
11/18	vs. Cleveland State	W, 78-63
11/20	Florida International	W, 74-51
11/24	vs. Kansas (CBE)	L, 73-54
11/25	vs. Florida (CBE)	L, 86-84
11/29	vs. Pacific	W, 72-54
12/4	vs. Oklahoma State	W, 83-65
12/6	vs. Texas Southern	W, 88-52
12/14	vs. Portland State	W, 84-83
12/20	vs. Eastern Washington	W, 83-50
12/23	vs. Lehigh	PPD.
12/28	vs. Montana	W, 75-53
12/30	vs. Morgan State	W, 81-67
1/3	at Washington State*	W, 68-48
1/8	vs. Stanford*	W, 83-82
1/10	vs. California*	L, 88-85, 3OT
1/15	at Oregon*	W, 84-67
1/17	at Oregon State*	W, 85-59
1/22	vs. USC*	W, 78-73
1/24	vs. UCLA*	W, 86-75
1/29	at Arizona*	L, 106-97
1/31	at Arizona State*	W, 84-71
2/5	at California*	L, 86-71
2/8	at Stanford*	W, 75-68
2/12	vs. Oregon State*	W, 79-60
2/14	vs. Oregon*	W, 103-84
2/19	at UCLA*	L, 85-76
2/21	at USC*	W, 60-51
2/26	vs. Arizona State*	8 p.m.
2/28	vs. Arizona*	noon
3/3	vs. Seattle U.	8 p.m.
3/7	vs. Washington State*	2:30 p.m.
*Pac-10 game

UW statistics
Player	Pts.	Reb.	Ast.	Min.
Isaiah Thomas, G	15.9	2.9	2.7	28.1
Justin Dentmon, G	15.8	2.8	2.4	28.1
Jon Brockman, F	14.6	11.3	1.2	30.4
Quincy Pondexter, F	11.6	5.6	1.7	27.5
M. Bryan-Amaning, F	6.8	4.4	0.5	18.2
Venoy Overton, G	5.4	1.9	2.1	20.1
Elston Turner, G	3.5	2.2	1.0	13.2
Darnell Gant, F	3.3	3.5	0.5	18.6
Joe Wolfinger, C	2.4	1.0	0.3	6.6
Justin Holiday, F	2.1	2.9	1.3	16.2
Artem Wallace, C	1.4	1.4	0.0	4.6
Scott Suggs, G	1.2	0.4	0.1	4.8

Isaiah Thomas Washington Huskies basketball Pac-10 PHOTO BY DREW SELLERS / SEATTLESPORTSONLINE.COM

XFACTOR

ISAIAH THOMAS
Thomas had a rough go of it against USC last Saturday, scoring a season-low four points. Thomas said Tuesday USC didn't do anything to him he hadn't seen before, it just wasn't his day. It was his day the last time the Huskies played the Sun Devils, Thomas scoring 25 points. Arizona State point guard Derek Glasser, a congenial guy and good quote, has no chance to stop Thomas.
This is like a gazelle racing a fire hydrant. Expect Thomas, who wasn't thrilled being on the bench at the end of the USC game, to attack Glasser early.

STARTINGMATCHUPS

UW's Isaiah Thomas vs. Arizona State's Derek Glasser
Breakdown: Glasser is a smart player, but does not have the physical ability to check Thomas.
Advantage: Thomas

UW's Justin Dentmon vs. Arizona State's Ty Abbott
Breakdown: Much like Thomas tortured Glasser the first game, Dentmon dominated Abbott. Dentmon scored 30 points. Abbott
was 1-for-7 and committed four fouls.
Advantage: Dentmon

UW's Quincy Pondexter vs. Arizona State's Rihard Kuksiks
Breakdown: Pondexter will help on James Harden, and guard Harden straight up at times, but he will initially be matched against Kuksiks. Kuksiks is a 3-point shooter, similar to UCLA's Nikola Dragovic. Pondexter has been on a tear.
Advantage: Pondexter

UW's Darnell Gant vs. Arizona State's James Harden
Breakdown: Gant defending Harden in the first game was an effective surprise. Gant was one of several bigger players the Huskies tried to slow Harden with. They even went to a zone to try and slow him down in the second half when he started to sort things out and began a scoring roll.
Advantage: Harden

UW's Jon Brockman vs. Arizona State's Jeff Pendergraph
Breakdown: Brockman said Tuesday he enjoys his battles with Pendergraph, each dealing the other blows during the game. Brockman also said Pendergraph gets up-and-down the floor as well as any big man in the country. The mutual respect was obvious in Tempe when Pendergraph clobbered Brockman to the ground on an over-the-back foul, then helped him up. Brockman said the two end up laughing about something together during the game.
Advantage: Even

3KEYS

Guards continue dominance
Dentmon and Thomas dominated Glasser and Abbott the first game. Venoy Overton has been playing well of late, so there will be no letdown when Washington goes to its bench. Arizona State will have Jamelle McMillan, Nate McMillan's son, coming off the bench. His scoring has increased of late, as the Sun Devils learn to play off of Harden more.

Just try to
contain Harden
Ask anyone, they'll tell you what a good job the Huskies did in the first game against Harden. Rightfully so, Harden having a quiet first half, and held below his scoring average. But if 15 points, five assists and four rebounds is a bad day, imagine what a superior one would be. When Harden got going in the second half, he was able to get to his preferred left hand, dribbling from the right wing into the lane. That's a problem.

Home, sweet home
If not for a brick and inadvertent foul, among numerous other bad bounces and curious plays during the Cal game, Washington would have a perfect record at home. As it stands, 14-1 is quite sound. The students' tents were being pitched late Wednesday night outside Hec Ed. As Brockman expects, it should be a crazy place Thursday night.

THEPICK

This would essentially seal the conference for the Huskies. It would seem afterward, at worse, they would split the remaining two conference games. The Huskies are four-point favorites according to USA Today.
Washington 84, Arizona State 72.

((())) Listen to coach Romar

The coach talks about the job Washington did against James Harden the first game, and how Harden has enabled his teammates to be better:

Washington rundown
Team stats