Huskies

The latest news and analysis on Husky men's hoops.

Former Washington star Isaiah Thomas returned to Sacramento’s starting lineup last week and in his second game as a starter, he led the Kings to a 118-96 win over the Boston Celtics. Thomas scored a season-high 27 points, which was one shy of his career best.

MONDAY MORNING LINKS:

— Former UW star Brandon Roy contemplated a second retirement, but he’s decided to give it a go and seek further treatment on the chronic pain in his knees in hopes of continuing his comeback attempt with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

— It’s a Seattle Times tradition to catch up with the newsmakers over the past year and compile stories on the last Sunday of the year. Jerry Brewer caught up with former UW standout Terrence Ross who talked about last season’s disappointing finish. He said: “It was disappointing we didn’t get there (the NCAA tournament), but you just kind of move on after a while. It’s one of those things where you wish you could do something different and go back and make a few changes and get to where we wanted to go. But I think we just learned from it, and I think the guys still there learned from it, and I think it’ll help the program in the long run.”

— In case you missed it, here’s highlights of Washington’s 61-53 defeat at Connecticut.

— Not everyone is pleased with UW coach Lorenzo Romar.

— USC ends the non-conference season with a tough 63-61 win over Dayton.

— Thanks to the unbalanced schedule, No. 3 Arizona may have the easiest schedule in the Pac-12, according to Jeff Sagarin. The Wildcats play Oregon, Oregon State, California and Stanford once and they skip the trip to the Bay Area.

— The game of the year in the Pac-12 could be Thursday’s opener when Colorado travels to Arizona.

— It’s a good time to take a look back at the Pac-12 preseason media picks. Arizona was tabbed preseason favorite by one point over UCLA. Washington was picked to finish fifth, which appears to be a stretch at this point.

— Jerry Palm at CBSSports.com believes three Pac-12 teams (Arizona, Colorado and Oregon) will make the NCAA tournament.