Much Ado About the Dawgs. . .

Links and more after an eventful few days in Husky basketball:

First: Quincy Pondexter won his third Pac-10 Player-of-the-Week award for his play against Stanford and Cal, averaging 26 points and 7.5 rebounds in the two games. Here’s the release, which shows Pondexter leading the league in award-winning weeks. Wazzu’s Klay Thompson is second.

Not surprisingly, the Huskies are still absent from both polls this week. No Pac-10 team appears in either top 25, although Arizona State did receive a few votes, and Cal received one vote in the Coaches’ Poll.

Joe Lunardi has the Huskies in the “next four out” category in his latest Bracketology column. He projects Cal and Arizona State into the tournament, both as 11 seeds.

Seth Davis at CNNSI.com actually says that the Huskies helped themselves with their non-conference schedule by not playing any “really bad teams.”

Also at CNNSI.com, Andy Glockner projects the Dawgs making the Tournament as a 10 seed, and Cal in there as a 9.

And thanks to reader Andy for pointing out that the Huskies have less losses (five) than North Carolina or UConn (six each). Sure, both national powers are struggling, but it’s another reminder that other teams with high hopes slip up sometimes too, and they haven’t necessarily doomed their seasons.

Yes, I’m excited about this team. How ’bout you, Husky fans? Let me hear it in our comments section!