The difference

As you may have heard, the UW men's basketball team put on a dominating performance last night, absolutely dismantling Tony Bennet's Virginia squad. In two hours they will take on the Kentucky Wildcats in a game which both fan bases are looking forward to and which has been hyped all day on ESPN (Trust me, I've been stuck at home due to snow and there has been nonstop talk about this game from ESPN). I'm not here to hype up the game anymore, especially not the Terrence Jones aspect of it. You all know what happened, and you all want the Dawgs to show Jones what he is missing out on. What I'm here to talk about is what this game means for this team.

Winning this game will put Washington in the top 10 in next weeks AP and Coaches polls. Winning will allow them to dream of a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. A win would show that the Pac-10's best can play with anyone in the country. It would also show that there is something to be said for having multiple juniors and seniors playing big minutes for you, and that Romar can develop talent with the best of them. A win today will allow the Huskies another opportunity at a big win tomorrow night against either UCONN or MSU.

More than anything though, a win tonight would show that this UW team is not like the others. Past Husky teams would go into this game with great expectations, play a decent game, and shoot themselves in the foot too many times to win. They would put up a good effort, but it wouldn't be enough. This team can be different. If they go out tonight and beat Kentucky they will show that they can be the team to take UW back to the Final Four. I would take this team over any UW team of the past few years, and possibly over some of Brandon Roy's teams. If they can pull out a win tonight, this city should get excited. The student section should fill the Dawg Pack, and the Pac-10 conference will bow down to the UW. We can ride into march with a #1 seed and cement Lorenzo Romar as one of the best coaches on the west coast, and that UW has ever seen.

I know you will all be watching, cringing, and celebrating tonight with the rest of us (if only we could turn our excitement into energy maybe Kitsap County would get power back sooner...). Enjoy it, this is the true start to a season for the ages, I can feel it. Try not to get too down if we lose, this team would bounce back from a loss tonight, but if we win, celebrate like there's no tomorrow, cause it means we have finally arrived.

Score Prediction: UW 95 to UK 84.