This Huskies' success story this season isn't just about the guard tandem of senior Justin Dentmon and freshman Isaiah Thomas. It's not just about senior power forward Jon Brockman.

Junior forward Quincy Pondexter, who seemingly never lived up to the massive hype that followed him from high school, has been critical to the Huskies' surge to the top of the Pac-10 standings.

Pondexter scored 20 points in UW's 103-84 rout of Oregon, and has averaged 18.0 over the current four-game stretch.

That's quite a change from the previous two seasons, where Pondexter often seemed lost, and certainly paled in comparison two his two former central California high school teammates, Stanford stars Brook and Robin Lopez.

"I did feel a lot of pressure on myself," Pondexter told the Seattle Times. "I found there were a lot of times when I would just be in my room and just wondering when it was ever going to be great here. Now I think it's turning around into that fairy tale, and I'm loving every minute of it."

Brockman said Pondexter has learned how to just play the game, and not stress over it so much.

"I think the biggest thing Quincy has done is taken the pressure off himself," Brockman said. "He's taken the whole NBA thing out of the deal and just said to himself, 'Forget about that. I'm going to think about the team. I'm going to think about our season instead of worrying about my future.'

"He was putting too much pressure on himself. No one's going to come out and score 30 points and have 20 rebounds every single game."

Pondexter has started all 25 games and is averaging 11.1 points and 5.6 rebounds.

Brockman said Pondexter has become more team-oriented and less concerned with scoring.

"Freshmen come in and just want to score, score, score," Brockman said. "But this season, Quincy has come in and concentrated more on defense and rebounding and passing, and it's paying off."

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