Against Gonzaga, we will meet the real Dawgs

The first month of the college basketball season is nearly at an end. The refurbished Huskies are an unblemished 6-0, all six wins coming by double digits. In fact, I would guesstimate the combined score so far as something like a billion to three.

Washington has risen to No.18 in the most recent AP poll and stretched its home-court winning streak to 28 -- the longest in the nation.

Yet, the question remains, do we actually know anything about this team?

Sunday's tangle with sixth-ranked Gonzaga will be the first real bonding experience with this year's Husky squad, where we all sit down and have a long chat and really get to know one another. Our deep, dark fears may be exposed, but we will see what we are made of, what we are capable of and where we have room to grow. Very cathartic, especially when you factor in all the screaming in the Dawg Pack.

Here's what we know so far:

Ryan Appleby enjoys the three. The Florida transfer has put up 43 shots so far this season, 37 of which have been from beyond the arc. He has a quick release, akin to, dare I say, Gonzaga's Derek Raivio. Ill-advised threes could be flowing free in Hec-Ed on Sunday. We know Appleby is hitting at a 46 percent clip from long range, but will he raise and fire with such ease when the pressure is turned up to 11? (That's one more pressure, for the non-Spinal Tap fans).

We also know that Appleby has the nastiest locks this side of Gonzaga star Adam Morrison. Whichever team loses this weekend ought to be punished by running their fingers through Morrison or Appleby's hair. For Morrison, that includes touching his Euro-stache.

We know that Hans Gasser is the new Mike Jensen. The junior from Mercer Island has earned himself a solid spot in the rotation with his newfound jumper, even extending out past the three-point line where he has hit on 3-7 attempts. No centers want to be dragged 15 feet away from the basket to guard him, so the mid-range shot should be open for Gasser all year long. If he keeps knocking them down, he can feel a lot better about the scholarship he got back only when Roburt Sallie couldn't make the grade.

We know that Brandon Roy still needs some work in recognizing and handling double-teams, especially in the post where he has had his pocket picked a few times by guards coming to help. But the talented small forward/power forward/point guard, or whatever he chooses to be, still has plenty of time to adjust before the Pac-10 slate.

We know that Jon Brockman is a difference-maker every time he is on the floor, but he has occasionally picked up cheap fouls that limited his minutes in a few games. Such mistakes are to be expected of a freshman, but you can be sure the Zags will go right at Brockman with J.P. Batista in full attack mode. Can Brockman defend down low against talented forwards while staying out of foul trouble?

Last, and probably also least, we know that 11th-man Zane Potter has turned into a garbage time monster, shooting a perfect 2-2 from three-point land. How long can he keep up his torrid shooting?

If Potter actually enters the Gonzaga game to try another trey, it will mean either the Huskies have answered many of these issues with emphatic affirmations, or else the question marks just might loom larger than ever.

Exactly who are the Huskies and how will they respond when facing a top-ten rival? They are about to find out for themselves.