This wasn't like the USC-Washington games Will Conroy remembered from his playing days.

The former Huskies point guard and Garfield High graduate was back in town thanks to a break from his duties playing professionally in Italy, and he took in Washington's 73-59 loss to USC on Thursday night.

"We need some toughness," said Conroy, who is the school's all-time assists leader and helped lead the Huskies a 5-1 record against the Trojans his last three years. "We're young, but some guys have got to step up and be like, 'This is our place. We are not losing.' "

Conroy recalled that UW coaches used to tell him and some of his teammates that they had to tone down their attitude a bit.

But Conroy said the current players need to amp theirs up.

"We need a little more of that toughness and we'll be OK," he said.

Conroy began the year playing for La Fortezza Bologna but is now playing for Armani Jeans Milano in Milan, Italy, for a team owned by Giorgio Armani. It's the same team that was coached for 13 years by current Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni, and among his teammates is former Sonic Ansu Sesay. Conroy is averaging 7.4 points in about 27 minutes per game.

"It's great food," he said. "But it's far from here."

Taking out the top

Like a few other teams have done against the Huskies, USC concentrated its defense on Jon Brockman and Ryan Appleby. Brockman usually got double-teamed and Appleby was followed closely everywhere he went. The two struggled offensively as a result; Brockman went 5 of 16 with 13 points and Appleby was 2 of 7 with five points.

"We just wanted to limit Brockman and Appleby's touches," said USC guard O.J. Mayo.

Late substitution

UW coach Lorenzo Romar intended to change the lineup for the second half, inserting Justin Dentmon and Quincy Pondexter for Venoy Overton and Artem Wallace. But Romar failed to inform the official scorer, so the regular five had to start. Romar then made the changes 12 seconds into the second half. "It was my fault," he said. "I didn't report the subs."