Busy weekend for Husky athletics. Three important games, all on campus. Let’s get to it.
Friday the #4-ranked Washington volleyball team can assure a share of the Pac-10 title by beating #18 Oregon. The Dawgs are tied with Stanford, who hosts Cal Friday. The game, at 7 p.m., is also Senior Night. A victory would likely assure the Dawgs a coveted #1-seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Selection Show is Sunday at noon on ESPN News.
Saturday it’s the Apple Cup at Husky Stadium. Washington is a 25-point favorite over the hapless Cougars, who once again come into the game winless in Pac-10 play. Of course, the Huskies were favored over the winless Cougars last year in Pullman and somehow pulled out a defeat. You know the line — in rivalry games, “you can just throw out the records, because these two teams flat-out do not like each other.” The game is at 3:30 p.m. on FSN. Tickets are still available. UW is asking $70 for them, but I suspect you could head to the stadium and get a better deal from a scalper.
Sunday the undefeated Washington basketball team–other than Wazzu, the only undefeated team left in the Pac-10–tries to help prevent the league from becoming more of a national laughingstock when they play 4-1 Montana. The Grizzlies have already beaten one Pac-10 team this year, Oregon, by a 13-point margin! It was just another in a series of shocking losses by Pac-10 teams. The worst came last night when Portland thrashed UCLA 74-47 (Here’s a piece I wrote about that game for the national hoops site Storming the Floor.)
UW/Montana will be a battle of 253 scorers: Montana’s Anthony Johnson, a Stadium High product averaging 22 points per game, against UW’s Isaiah Thomas, who attended Curtis High five miles away. Thomas is averaging 22.5 points per game.
Not sure if I’ll make the volleyball game tonight, but I’ve got tickets for the Apple Cup and the Montana game. Schultzy’s, here I come!