Huskies Upset UCLA: The Scene from Hec Ed

The Huskies played with an aggressiveness and intensity that they hadn't shown all year.

17:37, 1st h: Ryan Appleby was flying around bumping people like a mad man during introductions, and he carried his aggressiveness onto the court. Normally he doesn't shoot unless he's all alone, but he threw up a three with Westbrook guarding him closely and drew a foul. (After the game, Romar told Bob Rondeau "Appleby had a look in his eye I hadn't seen before).

11:19, 1st h: Quincy Pondexter brings the crowd to its feet. He gets the ball at the free throw line, drives to the hoop, and dunks over two UCLA defenders. This was the moment when I really thought the Huskies had a chance.

3:05, 1st h: Kevin Love scores his first points on a putback in transition. Artem Wallace is doing an amazing job fronting Love. Love would have only one field goal in the first half, and that came on a putback in transition. He didn't have a single first-half field goal in the halfcourt offense.

18:00, 1st h: Venoy Overton comes out after making a turnover. After the game, Romar tells Bob Rondeau that is wasn't the turnover that got Overton pulled, it was the fact that he jogged back on defense after making the turnover.

15:50, 2nd h: After Josh Shipp hits shots on three consecutive possessions, giving him 15 points, Romar inserts Justin Holiday to guard him. Guarded mostly by Holiday, but also by Pondexter and Morris, Shipp had only four points the rest of the way.

13:12, 2nd h: The refs have been terrible--for BOTH teams--all game, but they outdo themselves when they call a foul on UCLA, let Artem Wallace miss a free throw, then confer for three minutes, then award the ball to UCLA, saying it wasn't a shooting foul...except that the Dawgs weren't in the bonus, so if it isn't a shooting foul, it should be the Dawgs' ball. After the entire Husky coaching staff points this out by gesturing wildly at the scoreboard, the refs confer again, and give the ball to the Huskies. I wonder when Pac-10 coaches are going to get together and finally just refuse to play until the league gets better refereeing.

6:58, 2nd h: Tim Morris fouls Kevin Love hard on a dunk attempt. Love reacts like "how dare you have the temerity to foul me!" and motions for an intentional foul call. I saw this when Love played high school ball--he doesn't like contact. If Brockman got knocked down on a foul, he'd jump up and pat the guy, but Love reacts like he's been assaulted. Being 6-10, 271, Love's played almost exclusively against players much smaller than he--but he'll be in for a rude awakening when he gets to the NBA.

The crowd has been on its feet for most of the UCLA possessions in the half. This is fun.

5:05, 2nd h: Jon Brockman to the free throw line, and his struggles there are obviously in his head. He misses the first short and off the side of the rim. He misses the second, too.

3:19, 2nd h: I'm sitting next to four UCLA fans, and they haven't made a peep the whole game. Every time UCLA looks like they are about to make a run, the Huskies do something to stop it.

2:17, 2nd h: Dentmon drives to the bucket and scores--his third bucket in the last four minutes. He finishes with 20 points, his high in Pac-10 play and 2nd-best game of the year (he had 22 vs. Long Beach State).

2:03, 2nd h: With the Dawgs looking like they might be able to put the game away, Collison hits a long three=pointer to keep it close. It turns out to be the Bruins' only three of the game, they finish 1-16 from three-point range.

1:47, 2nd h: Tim Morris misses two straight free throws. I've never seen a whole team get the yips like this before. My friend suggests that you could put Hersey Hawkins in a Husky uniform and he'd be bricking off the back iron.

1:12, 2nd h: UCLA within four, and Morris is having trouble finding anyone to inbounds the ball to, so he fires it off Alfred Aboya's face. Not a foul, but generally considered bad sportsmanship--maybe Morris figures, "hey, I'm a senior, I won't play these guys again." They get the ball in, UCLA fouls, and Dentmon hits one of two free throws.

:28, 2nd h: Dentmon needs to hit one of two free throws to make it a four-possession game and basically end it...of course, he misses the first. But he hits the second!


:24, 2nd h: Appleby dribbles out the clock! Huskies win--despite going 16-30 from the line. Best win of the year! Only other teams to beat UCLA are USC and Texas.