Some Habits Are Tough to Break

Washington hasn’t had much fun at Pauley Pavilion, so the Huskies are eager for change.

They’re 2-39 on UCLA’s home court, having last won there 18 years ago. Of course, that’s the past.

The present is much brighter for hot Washington, which is atop the Pacific 10 Conference as it faces UCLA tonight.

The Huskies (13-1, 3-0 in Pac-10 play) are off to their best start since they won six consecutive conference games in 1984. They’ve won nine in a row overall and are ranked 12th in the Associated Press poll.

After an 84-59 rout of USC, Washington focused on the biggest goal of its L.A. trip: Starting a new streak at Pauley Pavilion.

“We know the history,” said Nate Robinson, the Huskies’ standout guard. “Sometimes we get caught up in, ‘Why haven’t we won there?’ And that’s why we lose there.”

This season, the Huskies have lost only to No. 11 Gonzaga.

Washington is loaded with talent, has the Pac-10’s most exciting player in Robinson, a 5-foot-9 sparkplug, and Coach Lorenzo Romar is guiding the group well. That could provide the foundation for the Huskies’ first Pac-10 title in 20 years, but defeating the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion is first on their to-do list.

“Because of how good we are now, we look back at why we can’t win there,” Robinson said. “We just have to play hard and not worry about it. If we play like it’s a regular game, we’ll be all right.”

Washington’s blowout of USC put the Huskies in position to sweep a Pac-10 trip in L.A. for the first time since 1987.

It won’t be easy, Romar said.

“The UCLA freshman guards [Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo] are really good, and they’re only going to get better and better,” said Romar, the top assistant on UCLA’s 1994-95 national-championship team.

“You see what those kids are doing already and it’s really impressive. I could go on and on about them.”

Many coaches have raved about Farmar and Afflalo. Farmar scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half Thursday to help the Bruins beat Washington State, 80-77, in double overtime after they’d trailed by 15 at halftime.

UCLA (8-3, 2-1) is among the Pac-10’s surprising teams, and the Huskies expect an energized performance from the Bruins’ young guards.

“I know they’re going to be fired up,” Robinson said. “Every game to them is probably a big game because they’re freshmen.

“I was fired up the first time I played a Pac-10 team. Even the second time.”

But the Bruins haven’t faced a team as good as Washington.

“We feel we’ve got some good athletes, but we just can’t walk out on the floor and win games,” Romar said. “We’ve got to play at a high level every night, with a high level of concentration. We’re not ready to cash in the chips and say we’ve arrived.”

*

TONIGHT

vs. Washington, 7:30, FSNW2

Site -- Pauley Pavilion.

Radio -- XTRA (1150, 690).

Records -- Bruins 8-3, 2-1 in Pacific 10 Conference; Huskies 13-1, 3-0.

Update -- This is the Bruins’ biggest game so far, especially for freshman point guard Jordan Farmar. The Huskies apply full-court pressure, putting Farmar on the spot to run the offense. Washington leads the conference in scoring, averaging 89.2 points, and six players average in double figures, led by Nate Robinson at 17 points. UCLA forward Dijon Thompson has team-high averages of 16.4 points and 9.1 rebounds.