UW basketball notebook

With three games left — all on the road, two of them against ranked opponents — the odds are stacked against Washington in every way possible.

Throw in a 14-game losing streak at Maples Pavilion, the site of Thursday’s matchup with No. 8 Stanford, and things look downright bleak.

An optimist may speculate that streaks don’t mean much in the Pac-10 this season. After all, the Huskies recently had an 11-game winning streak over Arizona State snapped on their home floor.

Washington State had lost 13 straight to Oregon before defeating the Ducks in Pullman earlier this season, then snapped a 12-game losing streak at McArthur Court earlier this month.

Are the Huskies due?

“There’s not a game on our schedule that we go in thinking we’re not going to win,” UW coach Lorenzo Romar said.

Junior forward Jon Brockman said the streak only adds to the team’s motivation factor.

“I don’t think you really need to think too much about it,” he said. “But at the same time, they play real well on their home court. That just means we have to play even better. It gives them a little bit of confidence, but at the same time it should give us a little bit of urgency that it’s time for that streak to come to an end.”

Focus on the present

Coaches have all repeated the mantra: one game at a time, one game at a time, one game at a time.

But few will blame Romar for holding true to that philosophy for the remainder of the season. His team may have to win out to have any kind of sniff at the postseason, but Stanford is the focus for the time being.

“If I’m in a street fight, I’m not thinking about what I’m going to have for dinner tomorrow night,” Romar said. “You have to get out of the situation you’re in.”

Conventional wisdom would suggest that the Huskies, with a 15-13 overall record, need at least one win before the beginning of the Pac-10 tournament to garner consideration from any of the postseason tournament committees — at this point, namely the National Invitation Tournament and College Basketball Invitation.

But that line of thinking can distract from the task at hand: winning the next game on the schedule.

“We just focus on the next team,” junior forward Artem Wallace said. “We can’t look past anyone, and that (taking things one game at a time) is definitely true for us.”

On Holiday

Freshman forward Justin Holiday will likely miss both of Washington’s games this weekend. He is still recovering from a sprained knee and ankle he suffered in practice the week before UW’s trip to Oregon.

“Hopefully, he can return to practice on Monday,” Romar said.

[Reach reporter Christian Caple at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.]