Huskies trying to shake road, Pauley woes tonight at UCLA

Jan 21, 2010, 12:00 AM

Lorenzo Romar isn't ready to concede just yet that his team psychs itself out when it plays on the road, where the Huskies haven't won a game yet this season. And their next attempt to erase that losing streak comes at a place where they also don't win - Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles - where they'll face the struggling UCLA Bruins tonight at 7:30 in an attempt to push their Pac-10 record above .500. Washington is 3-43 all-time against the Bruins at Pauley, and the Huskies have won there just once in Romar's eight years as the UW's head coach - in 2006, when they followed a home loss to WSU with a sweep of USC and UCLA during Brandon Roy's senior season. UCLA's not nearly as tough this year as it has been traditionally -- the Bruins are just 6-4 at Pauley this season -- but the Huskies were blown out by Arizona State and Arizona two weeks ago in their first road series of conference play, causing some to wonder if maybe this team just isn't tough enough to win on the road. Romar's going to wait and see. "I can't call it a mental thing yet because we've played two conference games, and we didn't do well, so I can't say that yet," Romar said. "I'll say this: On the heels of how we performed this weekend, if we go out on the road and, win or lose, just don't play the right way, then it could become more of a concern." More concerned, likely, are the Bruins, who are 7-10 this year and are coming off a 67-46 home loss to rival USC last week. They'll be missing 6-foot-10 center J'Mison Morgan, and guard Jerime Anderson is going to be a game-time decision due to a hip flexor. They've struggled to find an offensive identity after losing point guard Darren Collison to graduation, guard Jrue Holiday to the NBA, and forward Drew Gordon to a transfer. No Josh Shipp. No Kevin Love. No Russell Westbrook. Ben Howland's Bruins team has no stars and no NBA lottery picks like it did in years past. Nikola Dragovic is the only thing they have close to a big-time scoring threat, and he might not even play; the Los Angeles Times reported that he underwent X-rays on his right knee Tuesday and is listed as questionable. Still, considering the way the Bruins have owned the Huskies at Pauley, any UW win in that building almost has to be seen as an upset - even in a year when the Huskies are expected to compete for the Pac-10 title, and the Bruins are likely more focused on just staying out of the cellar. "They would be in a good position right now, but it's part of being in sports; you have to live with graduation, and you have to live with the early entrants," said UW guard Quincy Pondexter, who admitted he was a big UCLA fan growing up in Fresno, Calif. "They've played some good basketball this year in spurts, so they're capable of still doing great things. I know they're going to be gunning for us just as much as anyone else, especially on their own floor. So it's going to be a great game to play." And if any UW player has an urge to overlook this one after two blowouts over Stanford and Cal last weekend, it's easy to remember why they shouldn't: that darn Arizona trip, which is the reason the Huskies are still stuck on .500 in conference play. "The last two road games, we didn't play as hard as we could," guard Isaiah Thomas said. "We didn't bring that energy that we brought these last two home games. If we bring that, I mean, the sky's the limit. We could go in there and try to get the sweep this week." They've got to shake the Pauley curse first, though. Reach Sports Editor Christian Caple at sports@dailyuw.com.

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