No. 14 Washington looking to play up-tempo basketball with exhibition game looming

SEATTLE - With three of the quickest guards around and a front line athletic enough to get up and down the court, it's inevitable that No. 14 Washington's games are going to look like a track meet.

Sure they'll be quick, but the Huskies say it won't be out of control.

"It's going to be as expected, but our team is a lot smarter than the average up-and-down teams. There are going to be times when we come down and set up offence and get a good shot," forward Quincy Pondexter said Tuesday. "It's not going to be chaotic basketball going up and down and forcing shots. It's going to be fun basketball."

The fun for the Huskies begins Wednesday night when they host Division II Central Washington in their lone exhibition game before things start for real on Nov. 13 against Wright State. It will be the first time the Huskies and Wildcats - separated by 170 kilometres - have played since 1943.

While the Huskies of the past few years wouldn't be considered a team that looked to play at a measured pace, this year's group might be the fastest fleet of Huskies in Lorenzo Romar's tenure at Washington.

Playing fast is not a departure from past philosophy. Washington averaged nearly 80 points per game in winning the Pac-10 Conference regular season title a year ago.

But the quickness this version of the Huskies possesses might be eye-opening.

"This team happens to be quicker so there is potential for us to be out in transition more because we're quicker. But we always try and play quick," Romar said.

"Our quickness just affects so many areas of the way we play," Romar said. "It effects us defensively, on the boards, getting loose balls, getting out in transition and it impacts a lot of areas. I like that."

The backcourt trio of Venoy Overton, Isaiah Thomas and freshman Abdul Gaddy is the engine for Washington's speedy pace. While Romar considers all three starters because each brings a different strength to the floor and can be used in any rotation, it will be Overton and Thomas getting the start against the Wildcats.

That leaves Gaddy in an unfamiliar position: coming off the bench. The last time Gaddy said he didn't start was as a high school freshman at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma.

"It's different. It's hard," said Gaddy, who likely would have been an instant starter at any other school he might have attended. "People would ask, 'why would you do that?' But I look at it as a positive because they make me better every day in practice. Guarding Isaiah and playing against the defensive pressure of Venoy, they make you better on both sides."

Just because Gaddy isn't getting his name announced with the starters Wednesday night doesn't mean he won't get significant time on the floor. Romar said his goal for the exhibition is to try different combinations of players, different rotations and get a solid evaluation of where the Huskies stand a week before the season begins.

"We're at a stage right now where we have to continue to polish what we do," Romar said.