ESPN Men's Basketball

Logging on to the Pac-10's relaunched website, the first thing you notice is commissioner Larry Scott smiling right back at you as if this the beginning of a new day for the expansion-minded conference.

But is football such a driving force that the Pac-10 couldn't have bothered to take a second look and worked out the kinks on their men's basketball page? Because some of the picture choices are downright questionable.

A press release on USC appealing NCAA sanctions unfortunately comes along with a picture of John Wooden sitting with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar inside UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. Wooden is also mistakenly pictured in an update on Washington's Abdul Gaddy playing for Team USA's U19 team this summer.

No offense to UCLA, but a basketball year in review piece that's paired with a picture of backup guard Mustafa Abdul-Hamid playing for a 14-18 Bruins team seems like a missed opportunity to promote regular season champion Cal or Washington's Sweet 16 team.

The conference does want to promote its current players, right? In a press release on Stanford's Landry Fields being taken in the second round of the NBA draft, we get a picture of former Stanford star Mark Madsen. Another press release on Gaddy doesn't picture Gaddy himself, but some other kids enjoying a basketball camp.

In recent days, the website was inaccessible as the conference put up a countdown clock on its homepage to announce the relaunch and build up anticipation.

Now it just looks like the Pac-10 could have used that time to fix up more than just its own image.

LOS ANGELES -- Long after most at Pauley Pavilion had gone home happy, Washington coach Lorenzo Romar approached a television crew on the court about getting one more look at the play that could end up defining the Huskies' season.

Romar ultimately came away satisfied that the buzzer-beater counted and that the clock had started on time, but he was also left with an indelible image. One Washington defender nearly jumped out of his shoes and helplessly flew by as UCLA's Mustafa Abdul-Hamid sank the game-winning jumper.

That successful little pump fake the former walk-on Abdul-Hamid said he borrowed from Kobe Bryant essentially sums up Washington's year of inconsistency thus far.

Now you see it, now you don't.

"Going for a shot fake is at that point is a lack of discipline," Romar said. "Our approach every game we can be prepared and ready to go, but mentally, we really have to grasp that there’s another team out there to take your lunch, take your lunch money.

"They're looking to take you out. You can't just show up. All that's part of growing up."

Last March, the Huskies cut down the nets and could finally call themselves champions after capturing their first outright Pac-10 title in school history by going through the conference with only four losses. On Saturday, Washington wearily lost its fifth conference game of the season in a 26-point USC blowout and is all alone in eighth place.

Guard Quincy Pondexter, the team's lone senior, cried after the UCLA game two nights earlier. He said he had trouble sleeping after the game and then scored a season-low two points against USC after going into the game averaging 20.4.

"It just hurts," Pondexter said. "I never thought in a million years that we would lose like this. Every time we lose, I don't take it well. That's me. It hurts. It really hurts."

Washington has lost all six games away from Bank of America Arena and its raucous student section. Consecutive 17-point losses at the Arizona schools dropped the Huskies out of the rankings, and getting swept in Los Angeles only furthers the notion that they wilt outside of Seattle.

Youth is a factor in the team playing less aggressively and disciplined on the road, according to Romar, and the team clearly misses Jon Brockman's presence as well.

"The attitude and his approach to practice and games and his team and teammates, those are things that you miss just as much, if not more, than the rebounding and scoring," Romar said.

"We've got to get to a point where every time we step on the floor, it's war, business. We have to understand the importance of every possession out on the floor. Right now, we have had trouble understanding that."

Coming off a conference championship, expectations are high with Romar aspiring to a program that sustains its success. For now, the Huskies, losers of five of their last seven games, need to get over their hangover just to make it back to the NCAA tournament.

"We haven't taken care of business, and that hurts more than anything," Pondexter said. "Coach Romar has done everything for us to put ourselves in a position to take care of business. I don't know what it is."

LOS ANGELES -- Ben Howland, the son of a Presbyterian minister, said he prayed hard for a game like this one.

UCLA’s coach knows full well that his other methods -- staging extra-punishing practices, relenting on using a zone defense, and publicly expressing at times his embarrassment of the team -- hadn’t worked as well in immediately getting his scuffling team to play up to its potential.

But the Bruins finally got a big win and did it in style, with former walk-on guard Mustafa Abdul-Hamid nailing a jumper at the buzzer to beat defending Pac-10 champion Washington 62-61 on Thursday.

The Den student section mobbed Abdul-Hamid, and Howland hugged and kissed his wife and daughter before walking out of Pauley Pavilion thumbing celebratory tweets into the night. He might have said a few more words before going to bed.

“I have a strong conviction as a Christian, and I’ve been praying a lot for our team and our players as has my wife and my family and her Bible study group and everybody in our church,” Howland said. “It’s all about having faith.”

There are those in Westwood who continue to have an unconditional belief in Howland’s program, but that’s been tested by a team off to an 8-10 start that will likely need a conference tournament title to get to the Big Dance.

For a brief moment, however, magic was made on Nell & John Wooden Court after Washington’s Venoy Overton drove the length of the court for a layup with 3.2 seconds left that put the Huskies up by a point.

A junior guard who wasn’t on scholarship until last year, Abdul-Hamid fired back with a dagger from the left wing. Can one shot change a season?

“I don’t think so,” Abdul-Hamid said. “That shot was a great finish, but that shot was from shooting at practice, from a week of preparation, from freshmen stepping up, from senior leadership.

“We played hard today, and we haven’t always done that.”

UCLA committed 23 turnovers in a loss at Stanford earlier this month, and Howland said the following week that in practice, he counted up the turnovers at the end of practice and had players run based on the total.

The Bruins came out against USC in their next game and lost by 21, their worst showing against their crosstown rival since 1945.

After that one, Howland said he felt embarrassed for the program and essentially apologized to the former UCLA basketball greats who built a program that has 11 national championships.

But for now, the future isn’t worried.

Tyler Lamb, another highly recruited guard who has signed a national letter of intent with UCLA, will enroll in summer school so he can get started early. He loves that Howland preaches defense and has a history of sending players to the NBA.

UCLA starts two freshmen, and Lamb said he’ll have an opportunity for immediate playing time as well. From his talks with current players, he’s actually encouraged.

“They’re not happy with the way things are going, but they believe in the coaches and are following the system,” Lamb said. “Things will turn around.”

UCLA's Mustafa Abdul-Hamid talks about his game-winning basket against Washington.