1/16/10: Huskies vs. Bears

Last year, The University of Washington Huskies were the only regular-season power conference champion to lose twice to one of the teams in its own league. And, yeah, it’s still bugging me. That’s why the first date I circled on my 2009/2010 schedule was January 16th — the day Cal comes back to town. /

There’s been enough written about last year’s 3OT epic between the teams, and the Bear’s convincing win in Berkeley. All I’ll add is that the contest at Hec Ed was bar none the best sporting event I’ve ever been to, and it absolutely kills me that we didn’t come out on top. It’s a hard pill to swallow that the 2008/2009 Washington Huskies took care of business in every possible way except one: dispatching of the Bears.

The two teams should be near the top of the league again, and it’s very possible that their games against each other will go a long way toward determining whether the Huskies can cut down the nets for the second straight year.

Cal will have three players on its roster capable of competing at an all-conference level this season, and one, Jerome Randle, could be the top player in the league. (Although the addition of Abdul Gaddy will push I.T. further away from the point guard duties this season, it’s not hard to imagine Thomas eventually maturing into a player similar to Randle, an undersized assassin who’s just plain underrated at this point in his career. After all, if Isaiah has designs on playing at the next level, it won’t be at the 2 spot.)

I’m glad that the Bears will come in with a very similar squad. This way, we’ll get a shot at the only guys that had our number last year. In fact, I’m more than glad — I’m fired up. January 16th, 2010. You know where I’ll be.

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