Not that they probably had much to worry about, but Washington took all the decisions out of the hands of the NCAA Tournament seeding committee by taking care of business Saturday at Staples Center in the Pac-10 men’s basketball championship game.

By virtue of their 79-75 victory over regular-season champion California, the Huskies (24-9) earned the Pac-10’s automatic bid into the tournament. As the No. 11 seed, they take on No. 6 Marquette Thursday in San Jose to open the West Regional.

Cal (23-10), the only other Pac-10 team to qualify, faces Louisville Friday in the South Regional in Jacksonville, Fla. The Golden Bears are seeded eighth, Louisville ninth.

Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said he couldn’t assume the Huskies were automatically in the tournament going into Saturday.

“I thought we had done enough to get in, but I’ve seen enough Sundays (selection day) where teams that thought they deserved to be in were denied. If we had lost, we might have been out.”

That’s why Husky forward Quincy Pondexter, who had 18 points Saturday, was so motivated throughout the tourney, especially the final.

“I told the guys, if we handed our business, we don’t need the committee to get us in,” he said.

“We had to take this tournament one game at a time because all the teams were battling for the same thing we were,” Romar said. “We couldn’t afford to overlook anybody.”

Cal coach Mike Montgomery said it wouldn’t have been right for the Pac-10 to only get one team in the tournament regardless of its perceived lack of strength this season.

“That would be astounding if the regular-season champ wasn’t in,” he said. “It would set a precedent that’s unheard of. If people would do their homework, the games we lost were against the top 10, none of which were at home, and we didn’t have our people.”

Cal had its heroes in defeat Saturday.

Forward Theo Robertson scored 25 points and forward Jamal Boykin, the former Fairfax High School standout, had 20 points and 14 rebounds. Patrick Christopher, the ex-Dominguez star, had 11 points.

Boykin, who began his college career at Duke, is averaging 12 points per game for the Golden Bears. He gives a lot of credit for his success to Montgomery and the rest of the coaching staff.

“I’d have to say my basketball IQ has gone up the last year just by playing for him,” he said. “He makes us better individual players by making us pay attention to details and playing with discipline.”

Local contributions
Darnell Gant (Crenshaw High) and Tyreese Breshers (Price) played limited minutes for Washington during the tourney, but had their moments.

Gant, a redshirt sophomore forward, scored eight points, including three breakaway slam dunks, in the last 2:41 of Friday’s 79-64 semifinal victory over Stanford.

Breshers, a redshirt freshman forward, had six points and four blocked shots in the title game.

Standing ovation
Michael Roll ended his college career at UCLA with a career-high 27 points in an 85-72 loss to Cal. When Bruin coach Ben Howland pulled him from the game in the closing moments, the guard got a standing ovation from the crowd and Cal coach Mike Montgomery.

“I was really proud of the way Michael played for us,” Howland said. “He was our most consistent performer all year. It will be sad to see him go.”

Roll was touched by the applause, but was more disappointed the way his career ended.

“It’s unfortunate we lost and that I’m done,” he said.

Asked what Montgomery told him afterwards, Roll said, “He said he respected me as a player. I appreciate that considering it came from a great coach like him.”