At 9-4 the Huskies head into the Pac-10 schedule. The starting lineup and rotations have been in flux most of the season, and this is largely reflective of the position UW finds itself in. There is a tremendous amount of talent on this roster, but they are very young and Coach Romar seems to be shuffling the pieces around to find the right fit.

So, let's see how the Huskies stack up heading into conference play.

According to Ken Pomeroy's rankings (his model of RPI), the Huskies rank 9th in the Pac-10 and 67th overall. But, as you'll also notice there, the Pac-10 is the #1 ranked conference. Without a doubt, UW is in the deepest conference in college basketball this season. Which is why it will be easy to view our losses to teams that are better than us as reflective of our true ability. There are some great teams we are going to have to play. If we win, I think we'll all feel vindicated about believing in this team. But, if we don't, I think we should realize that this program is in transition still. We've built a foundation for this to be a top program and it has had solid recruiting classes, but it is taking time for that to come around to results on the court (especially since losing both Hawes and Oliver of the 2005 class).

In the end, I think we'll play the Pac-10 close, but probably end up somewhere in the bottom part of the standings. Say 7th or 8th. But, I'd be thrilled to see things begin to gel. And if that happens we'll snag a tournament spot and come out maybe 5th in the conference.

Tomorrow night we'll start off against WSU with a chance to bring down our hated rival.