Washington Takes Control of Pac-10

It wasn't very pretty, but the Washington Huskies did what they hoped to do: Sweep the Arizona schools and assure the program at least a share of the Pac-10 regular season championship for the first time in nearly a quarter century.

Washington took down Arizona State on Thursday 73-70 in Seattle, and today had the Wildcats come to town in desperate need of one more big win to assure they'd be returning to the NCAA tournament for the 25th straight time. The Wildcats dominated in the first half on the back of Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger, but an injury to Hill in the second half and foul trouble for the 'Cats allowed the Huskies to pull away and take it 83-78.

It wasn't the prettiest of games for either team, and most of that can be attributed to sketchy refereeing, who seem to call fouls when there didn't seem to be any contact and non-fouls when, for instance, Zane Johnson of Arizona pushed a Washington player out of bounds in the first half.

What was the key to victory for Washington? It won't surprise you to hear the name Jon Brockman, who had 19 points and 11 rebounds and looked like Shaquille O'Neal in (Huskie) purple.

Now, two things happen. The Huskies have played themselves into contention to a possible two seed during March Madness, if they can continue to win out the rest of the regular season, and the Wildcats need a sweep at home next week of California and Stanford to make sure they are in the bracket.

Arizona was one of the hottest teams in the nation a couple of weeks ago but a tough loss to Arizona State in Tempe, followed by back-to-back losses to the Washington teams now has the Wildcats in a tough spot. I guess next week will tell us all we need to know about both team's near future.