8. Washington
Mixing a sweet-shooting center with a sugar-shunning guard, the Huskies are anticipating a honey of a season
Posted: Wednesday November 18, 1998 01:02 PM
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The 7-foot MacCulloch, once a weakling, is now the most
efficient center in the
land. Lou Capozzola |
Fifth-year
senior
center Todd MacCulloch
doesn't stand
out
among
his
Huskies teammates simply because he's 7-foot. On a squad
that includes four sons of former Seattle
SuperSonics, he may be the one player whose childhood was not
filled with visions of an NBA career. When you grow up in
Winnipeg, there are other things
to dream about, like hockey and moving to a warmer place.
But if the NBA
wasn't in MacCulloch's past, it's almost certainly in his
future.
After arriving in Seattle four years ago so out of shape he
couldn't bench-press 65 pounds, MacCulloch has firmed up
his body and his game to the point that he's led the nation
in field goal percentage for the last two years. (Only Ohio
State's Jerry
Lucas has done that in three straight seasons, from 1959-60
to '61-62.) Furthermore, MacCulloch's averages of 21.7
points and 12 rebounds in three NCAA tournament games last
year were a big reason the Huskies went from a bubble team
to within a point of
making the Elite Eight, losing 75-74 to UConn. "I
didn't know if he would pan out when he got here,"
says senior guard Donald Watts of MacCulloch, who now
bench-presses 240 pounds. "But now he looks like he
wants to go
places."
The same can be said of Watts. The 1995 Washington
schoolboy player of the year and son of former Sonics star
Slick Watts struggled his first two seasons with fatigue
and unspectacular play. His mother suspected those
conditions were related to a diet
that included several candy bars and quarts of Gatorade a
day, which he chased with a box or two of Hot Tamales
candies before bed. After consulting a naturopath, Watts
spent his Christmas break last season eating figs and
battling sugar withdrawal. "It
was like getting off a drug," says Watts. "I was
shaking. But after three days I bounced right back."
His points per game bounced ahead too, from 13.0 to
16.9.
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| STARTING LINEUP |
| POS. | HT. | CLASS | KEY STAT |
| SF Deon Luton* | 6'4" | Jr. | 15.4 ppg |
| PF Thalo Green | 6'6" | So. | 53.6 FG% |
| C Todd MacCulloch* | 7'0" | Sr. | 18.6 ppg |
| SG Donald Watts* | 6'4" | Sr. | 16.9 ppg |
| PG Dan Dickau | 6'1" | So. | 3.8 ppg |
'97-98 record: 20-10
Final rank (coaches' poll): No. 24
*Returning starter
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Along with the touch of MacCulloch, the penetration of
Watts and the long-range bombing of junior swingman Deon
Luton (75 threes last year), Washington is counting on
greater depth, much of which springs from some impressive
gene pools. The Huskies'
three other scions of former Sonics are Lonnie Shelton's son
Marlon, a raw
6'9", 265-pound freshman center with a
7'4"
wingspan; Downtown Freddie Brown's son Bryan, a
6'3" sophomore guard; and Paul Westphal's son, Michael,
a
6'2" walk-on this year. None of the three are likely to
see as much time as Greg Clark, brother of Detroit Tigers
first baseman Tony Clark, who is a redshirt sophomore
competing for the power forward spot with sophomore Thalo
Green, an art major who is
named after a paint
color.
As for MacCulloch, he
doesn't care what color paint he steps into at the end of
this season, as long as it says
ncaa on it. "It was great finally going to the four-letter
tournament instead of the three-letter one," says
MacCulloch, who ended his first two seasons in the NIT.
"We want to go
back."
—Kelli Anderson
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