Notes: Romar on Cal loss, C.J. Wilcox’s health
Jan 20, 2012, 2:25 PM | Updated: 5:32 pm
By Shannon Drayer
With the quick turnaround the Huskies do not have a long time to dwell on last night’s loss to Cal. Stanford is in town after their loss to WSU for tomorrows 3 p.m. tip at the Alaska Airlines Arena.
On the final shot … Romar echoed what he said after last night’s game about choosing Darnell Gant to make the final shot. For Romar, it wasn’t about what he had done that night or trying to show confidence in one of his team leaders.
“I actually was not thinking about, ‘man, this was the senior,'” he explained. “It was what I thought was going to be the best option to get an open look from 3.”
Romar knew that Cal would not let Terrence Ross be an option and coach Mike Montgomery said as much last night. He went with his next best option with Wilcox on the bench.
On his second technical foul in the last two games … Romar said that this one was different from the one against WSU. That one was cumulative. “Making more a statement that we have had enough,” Romar said. Last night was in reaction to the particular play that in retrospect wasn’t as bad as it seemed at the time.
“When I looked at it (Aziz N’Diaye’s foul) on film you could have let it play but you can’t chastise the officiating for calling that,” Romar said. “He went after the ball pretty hard.”
Many believe that the technical against WSU fired up the Huskies and helped contribute to the win. Last night’s foul and Romar’s technical resulted in a four-point swing in the middle of a Huskies comeback. How much of an effect did Romar think this had on the game?
“The technical affected two points because there was already a foul,” he said. “Prior to that we had the momentum pretty good. The tech may have slowed it a little bit, made it tougher to come back even though we came back. Maybe could have stayed away from that one.”
On C.J. Wilcox’s injury and when he could make a return … With any luck the Huskies should see Wilcox on the floor soon. For how long? That remains to be seen.
“We are hopeful that he can give us something on the Arizona trip,” Romar said. “I don’t know if that is five minutes or 10 minutes … I don’t know.”
Wilcox will have the loss of conditioning to deal with along with the injury that will continue to heal as he plays. He has missed 11 days already and been limited to just shooting in practice. The injury is not 100 percent healed but if used right he can play while it continues to heal.
“We have to protect it (the leg) until it is no longer symptomatic, that he does not have pain after the game, that he can conduct tests, (show) his leg is strong,” Romar said. “Once that happens you don’t have to protect it as much but as long as that continues to happen you really have to be very sensitive and delicate in how you use him.”
For now he will pick his spots but the good news is Wilcox may not be limited in this manner for the entire season.
“He could end up being 100 percent if it is managed right now,” said Romar. “If it is not managed properly right now, as bad as we wanted him to play, and he could have played, but I don’t know if we would have him next week or the week after that. Progress is made so you don’t want to have a setback. It could eventually be where it totally heals up and he is fine.”
On managing minutes with a short bench … “We are going to make a couple of adjustments to help with that. There are times when a couple of guys … it wasn’t due to lack of effort, they just ran out of gas. They had nothing left in the tank last night.”
On how playable Austin Seferian-Jenkins is right now … “Playable? Much more than he was last week. Right now if he plays we have to keep everything very vanilla because he hasn’t learned yet but he is getting better. He has been impressive in practice.”
