14 Washington

Junior guard Ryan Appleby (left) grew up idolizing LSU legend Pete Maravich, but aside from Appleby's floppy locks and long-range bombs, there's not much of the Pistol in his play. "Once in a while Ryan will get in a jam and you'll see him pull a pass out of nowhere," says Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar. "But he's not usually a showy guy on the court."

That is, if you don't consider deadly accuracy from 25 feet out showy. Appleby, who played a year at Florida before transferring to Washington, hit 70 treys (42.4%) coming off the bench last season to earn the Pac-10 newcomer of the year award. "He is a phenomenal shooter," says Romar. "If you took a picture of 50 of his shots, I think all 50 would look the same."

Appleby first saw the Maravich biopic The Pistol when he was seven, and he later acquired the Maravich ball-handling and shooting videos. "I fell in love with the way he played, his love for the game," he says. But it was Maravich's work ethic that had the biggest impact: At Stanwood (Wash.) High, Appleby showed up at the gym at 5:30 every morning to take 250 to 300 shots before class.

Now Appleby can stretch defenses that want to focus on 6'7" sophomore Jon Brockman and 7-foot freshman Spencer Hawes, the jewel of a talented four-man freshman class. "We've been pretty perimeter-oriented since I've been here," says Romar, who is in his fifth year in Seattle. "This year we will have more of an inside presence and better balance. That's an exciting prospect."

STARTING LINEUP
COACH: Lorenzo Romar (5th year)
[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

RETURNING STARTER *HIGH SCHOOL STATS

SCHEDULE

Nov. 12 Pepperdine*

Nov. 13 Nicholls State*

Nov. 14 Northern Iowa*