With the likely possibility of having to face No. 2 Stanford, No. 9 California or No. 18 Arizona State in the Pac-10 Tournament, it may take more than a miracle for the 10th-seed Washington women’s basketball team to win out and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Although the Huskies have not given up on this season quite yet, they are already thinking of the future.

“I think we have to really start looking at next year and what we want to build off of for next year,” junior guard Sami Whitcomb said.

The Dawgs (7-21, 3-15 Pac-10) face seventh-seed Oregon (9-20, 5-13 Pac-10) tonight in the first round of the Pac-10 Tournament.

“Being the 10 seed, no one’s probably going to expect very much from us other than ourselves, so it’s really exciting,” Whitcomb said. “Hopefully we can come out there and surprise a couple [of] people, upset a couple [of] teams.”

Whitcomb also feels the Huskies have something to prove against the Ducks, who defeated Washington both times the teams met this season.

“[It] could have gone either way at Oregon,” Whitcomb said. “That’s one game that does come to my mind when I think about giving up a game that was within our reach.”

During the most recent game, Ducks’ guard Micaela Cocks lit up the scoreboard for 19 points against the Huskies, shooting 4-5 from the 3-point line in the Ducks’ 77-69 victory. Cocks also scored 19 against Washington during a 75-55 win over the Dawgs in Seattle in January.

“We’ve got to really focus on a couple things to get ready,” UW head coach Tia Jackson said. “For example, recognizing hot hands [and] being able to shut them down.”

Jackson emphasized mixing defensive schemes and applying more pressure on opposing offenses as a couple of ways of achieving the team’s goals.

On the offensive side of the ball, Jackson is optimistic that the Huskies’ leading scorers, Whitcomb and Kristi Kingma, have broken their slump against tough defenses.

“Kristi and Sami are our leading scorers, so they get the tendency [to face] the best defensive tandems that [opponents] have,” Jackson said. “I would like to think no matter what defense is thrown at you, you’re going to be able to get your shots off if you’re a scorer.”

Reach reporter Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.