UW hoops: Wrapping up the Huskies’ win over USC, plus a look at the first weekend of Pac-12 play and my AP top 25 ballot

Let’s wrap up Washington’s 87-85 win over USC, as well as the first weekend of Pac-12 play, with some links and highlights.

--- Here is my story from Sunday’s game, which featured the largest comeback (22 points) by a Lorenzo Romar-coached team at UW. The previous high was 16 points in a win at LSU in December 2007. Washington begins the Pac-12 schedule with a 2-0 record, and travels to Pullman next weekend for a Saturday game at Washington State.

An excerpt:

He jumped and screamed and waved his arms, punching the air with joyous fury as he stalked in front of the scorer’s table, the kind of celebration this team has not frequently initiated in recent years.

Lorenzo Romar is not an emotional man. Not outwardly, anyway. But the improbability of what the Washington Huskies accomplished Sunday afternoon at Hec Edmundson Pavilion sent him momentarily into some kind of merriment, the crowd of 7,031 in full throat along with him.

Few of them would have believed an hour prior that Washington would win this game against USC, 87-85, after trailing by 22 points with fewer than 14 minutes to play. That they would chisel that deficit with a 24-5 run that spanned only six and a half minutes. That they would then fall behind by seven points twice, but finish the game on a 9-0 run, take their first lead since early in the first half on Andrew Andrews’ putback basket with 25 seconds to play and leave Hec Ed with a 2-0 record to start Pac-12 play.

“It’s a special group,” Romar said. “You don’t get groups like this all the time.”

--- The UW posted this quick snippet of Romar’s postgame speech in the locker room.

--- Percy Allen offers a few observations from the game.

--- Here is everything Romar said after the game.

--- From the AP -- everything turned on Julian Jacobs’ injury. The USC junior guard sprained his ankle early in the second half.

--- And some video highlights from the game.

--- UPDATE: IMG posted audio highlights from Bob Rondeau, so here are those.

Elsewhere in the Pac-12 ...

--- UCLA had a rough weekend in the state of Washington. The Bruins lost, 85-78, at Washington State, two days after their double-overtime defeat at UW. Junior forward Josh Hawkinson led the Cougars with 20 points and 10 rebounds, his ninth consecutive double-double. So UW will see a somewhat revived WSU team on Saturday.

--- The Bruins showed a lack of energy and effort.

--- California probably had the best weekend of any Pac-12 team. After blasting Colorado on Friday, the Golden Bears beat Utah, 71-58, on Sunday. Freshman forward Ivan Rabb led Cal with 19 points.

--- Utah appeared to be outclassed by a more talented team. Jakob Poeltl had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Utes.

--- Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley was ejected from the Sun Devils’ 94-82 loss to rival Arizona.

--- Gabe York led the Wildcats with 22 points, and Allonzo Trier added 20.

--- Oregon State won its conference opener against rival Oregon, 70-57, before a sellout crowd in Corvallis.

--- Oregon coach Dana Altman said the Ducks lacked leadership.

--- Colorado escaped with a 56-55 win at Stanford.

--- The Cardinal couldn’t quite complete the comeback this time.

--- Here are the league standings after the first weekend.

And my top 25 ballot for this week ...

1. Kansas

2. Oklahoma

3. Virginia

4. Maryland

5. Michigan State

6. North Carolina

7. Providence

8. Villanova

9. Miami

10. Iowa State

11. Arizona

12. Xavier

13. Kentucky

14. Iowa

15. SMU

16. Duke

17. Butler

18. Purdue

19. Louisville

20. Texas A&M

21. West Virginia

22. California

23. Dayton

24. George Washington

25. South Carolina

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 12:42 AM with the headline "UW hoops: Wrapping up the Huskies’ win over USC, plus a look at the first weekend of Pac-12 play and my AP top 25 ballot."