Isaiah Thomas and Venoy Overton will be starters in Huskies' crowded backcourt for exhibition game

The Washington Huskies men's basketball team will open the preseason tonight against Division II Central Washington with Isaiah Thomas and Venoy Overton starting in the backcourt and highly touted freshman Abdul Gaddy on the bench.

"Between Venoy, Isaiah and Abdul, whoever is not the starter, I consider them a starter," coach Lorenzo Romar said.

Senior captain Quincy Pondexter and sophomore Darnell Gant will start at forward, and junior Matthew Bryan-Amaning at center.

Romar plans to use UW's only exhibition to tinker with lineups and experiment with different groupings.

"From the exhibition game you can never say that's who the starters are going to be," he said. "Not with us. Now it could be, but this isn't necessarily who the starters will be for the rest of the year."

Thomas, the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year last season, figures to start because he's Washington's most dynamic scorer in the backcourt and will likely play a more traditional shooting-guard role this season.

Perhaps the most contested battle in training camp has been at point guard between Overton, who started his freshman year and was a sixth-man standout last season, and Gaddy, who was rated the No. 2 point-guard prospect in the country by Scout.com.

On the court, they couldn't be more opposite.

Overton, a 5-foot-11 junior, is a defensive wizard and Huskies crowd favorite because of his intense playing style. Gaddy, 17, is a gifted pass-first 6-3 guard whose leadership skills belie his age.

"We don't have anyone better at running the team in our program [than] Abdul," Romar said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. "We don't have a better on-ball defender than Venoy Overton and I don't think we have a better scorer out of the smaller guards — take Quincy Pondexter out of the equation — than Isaiah Thomas. So everyone brings something special to our group."

Who starts an exhibition might not mean much in March or even Nov. 13, when UW begins the regular season against Wright State.

"It's not how you start the game it's how you finish the game," said Gaddy, who last came off the bench during his freshman year at Tacoma's Bellarmine Prep. "When the game is on the line, I want to be in the game and hopefully coach puts me in the game."

Huskies fans will get their first extended look at freshmen C.J. Wilcox, Clarence Trent and Tyreese Breshers, who redshirted last season because of knee and shin injuries. Junior forward Justin Holiday, who is recovering from offseason hernia surgery, is the only Husky who isn't likely to play.

Romar said the defending Pac-10 champions are back at full strength after the flu forced several players to miss the first week of practice.

NCAA rules prohibit the Huskies from talking about their Oct. 25 scrimmage at St. Mary's, but several players insinuated they were unhappy with the team's performance.

"We didn't really have a great start, but we had the flu and everything so our chemistry wasn't really there," Gaddy said. "But having this week and a half of practice and getting after it, I think our chemistry has really grown a lot and people will see that. I think this will be a much better game for us."

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com