Washington Husky Huddle for Tuesday January 24th 2012 (Part Two)

Washington will need more than the three starting guards to put itself in position to gain an NCAA at large-bid or win another Pac-12 Tournament, requiring three grueling wins in three days. Romar had the good fortune and vision to add “ASJ” to a team that sorely needed toughness in the paint. Now Lorenzo needs to have the vision and recognize his good fortune in having the option to bring in Andrews. Unfortunately Romar needed ‘Drew on Thursday, as Cal were able to grind out a win over a UW team that really could have used a boost, especially early. The Huskies fought back admirably in the 2nd half, but came up a little short against a
tough well balanced Bears team 69-66. The YouTube highlight reel also told the story of an exciting come back that just fell short. After coming off a huge win against Washington State, the Dawgs started off ice cold against Cal. Ross talked about it to the media after the game.

“We came out really lethargic, dead and slow. Everything that could go wrong in the first half, kind of did.”

The Huskies came into the weekend in a three way tie in the loss column for first place in the Pac-12 conference with the Bears and Cardinal, but the loss put them back in a pack of teams with two losses going into Saturdays games. The most
surprising stat of the game was Cal junior walk-on post Robert Thurman scoring a game high and career high 16 points and grabbing seven rebounds. It was the obvious comparison of Gant’s game to Thurman’s that was the clear difference, though to be fair junior post Aziz N’Diaye was assigned to Thurman more than Darnell. Cal’s thin two man bench was just better than UW’s duo of Gant and Stewart, as the Bears were also down a man, losing sophomore post Richard Solomon to grades issues earlier in the week. It may be that Cal coach Mike Montgomery won the game of wits with Romar, as Lorenzo failed to devise a scheme to take greater advantage of the weakened front court of Cal. Not using Austin while also choosing to not use Andrews on Thursday may have been the reasons that UW ultimately missed out on a great opportunity to put itself into 1st place, going into this weeks games. We’ll see what the read is on Wilcox and whether Andrews is utilized, but I find it very hard to believe that we have seen the last of “ASJ”.

The Dawgs really looked like a team that needed new blood and in the first half on Thursday there were only a couple of Huskies who seemed like they wanted to play. Gaddy and N’Diaye played well throughout the game, with Aziz notching one of his best with with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Gaddy was aggressive getting to the rim and finished with 12 points, but two missed lay-ins late cost UW dearly. Other than those two in the 1st half though, there was little heart shown from the rest of the UW team. Senior Cal guard Jorge Gutierrez is one of the best defenders in the country and was giving Wroten fits throughout the game. Gutierrez is also crafty with the ball and knows how to get to certain spots on the court and get his teammates involved. You could say Gutierrez is a poor man’s Steve Nash, but Tony still managed to score 14 points with an encouraging 5-5 from the free throw line, though another five turnover game for Wroten really hurt UW’s chance to win.

Ross actually led the Dawgs with 15 points, as he caught fire in the last 15-minutes, coinciding with UW’s furious com back. Terrence was mediocre though early, which caused the double digit deficit to exist to begin with and ended up only 6-15 from the field, even with his hot streak. The real goat for the Huskies though was Darnell, who shot 0-9 from the field with two boards in 28-minutes. It was Gant who bricked the final attempt that would have tied the game. Gant must also take some of the blame, along with Aziz and to an extent Dez, for what Thurman was able to do. The walk-on, who quietly had his way with Huskies in the paint most of the game was able to score and board against UW in a sneaky fashion and made it look easy. It seemed as if it was tough for Gant to keep his head in the game. Darnell gave the worst shooting performance of his UW career going 0-9 from the field.

With Gutierrez defending the league’s 2nd leading scorer in Wroten, it was hard for the freshman to get anything going and a lack of options for Tony to pass out of trouble to with Gant bricking like he did really hurt. Most of Tony’s TO’s were caused by the defensive pressure Cal displayed on the young man, but Wroten did find a way to get to the rim anyway, which was impressive. After a huge game against WSU Ross couldn’t find his rhythm in the first half, but With the Dawgs down 13 with less than 15-minutes to play, things would change. Ross came alive and UW were a much different team. Terrence was hitting shots that he was hitting against WSU and Wroten was getting to the rim and finding his teammates. Gant unfortunately continued to struggle, bogging down the effort, leaving Aziz on his own as UW’s only scoring option down low. Mostly everyone who was hot in the first half for California cooled down in the second half as well. Gaddy showed great composure on the court and Cal sophomore Allen Crabbe wasn’t getting his way on the wing like he had earlier in the game.

The Huskies continued to battle back but never made it over the hump. Collectively at times the UW team showed what they can do if they are all on the same page though, but Gant’s continued jinx and Gaddy’s inability to finish what could have been a break out game for him did the Dawgs in. On the final possession of the game the Dawgs had a chance to tie it with a three and had 8-seconds to play. Coach Romar drew up a perfect play for Gant who hadn’t hit a shot all night. There was no way Montgomery wanted Ross with the ball in his hands and the Bears did a good job defending him on the play. Gant was wide an open from three, but like the rest of his night(mare) and missed another wide open shot. I don’t fault Romar for calling the play to Darnell, who is usually a good shooter when open from three, but I do feel that he could have brought in Austin in the game to begin with, just to see if he was more effective than Darnell or Simmons, who did not have his best night with eight points and three boards in 19 minutes.

How much it was due to the “ASJ” factor or not, remains to be seen, but UW bounced back in a double digit 76-63 victory over Stanford on Saturday. The UW fans got to see their first a glimpse of the football standout on the court and Austin delivered. In the first half though, the game started out as a defensive struggle, as the Huskies only shot 36% and Stanford shot 26% from the floor. The YouTube highlights reel showed much of the big moments, as well as some of the
“little things” that Dez and “ASJ” did away from the ball. It wasn’t a pretty first half for UW fans but some good things did come out of it. Aziz again looked very strong on the boards before the break and was a force in the paint. ‘Ziz finished with six boards and five points though, as he was slowed by foul trouble later on. Gaddy was attacking the rim like he did against Cal early against Stanford, but much more aggressively. Wroten was back in the high post, looking comfortable on the court. In the first half the Huskies showed heart and hustle but the shooting wasn’t great.

In the second half however UW turned up the heat, in the midst of a cold and snowy weekend in the Puget Sound area. After a mediocre game on Thursday for Ross and arguably Gant’s worst ever, they both stepped up and combined for 35 points with 30 of those points coming in the second half. Wroten finished with a game high 21 and looked as if a large weight was removed from his back, dealing with the likes of Stanford sophomore Aaron Bright instead of Gutierrez. Memories of Gant’s ice cold night against Cal melted away, like the ice and snow on the streets of Seattle, as Darnell found his shot against Stanford. The Cardinals are a good rebounding team with Aziz was in foul trouble most of the game, things could have been difficult but that’s where “ASJ” stepped in. Austin is just still learning the Huskies system and didn’t score on the offense but the big man showed Husky fans how hard it will be for opposing teams to rebound or go in the lane against him.

The second half was very intense and the Huskies withstood the physicality of Stanford. Wroten took it to the rim at ease anytime he wanted from the high post. With Wroten at the high post it opens things for the team on the wings. The whole
team hustled the whole game and was probably the best team defensive effort the Huskies have had this season. With the new addition of the big guy, it gives the Huskies four legit bigs, with Austin probably the one that you’d pick first to take to a back alley brawl. In the second half the heart and hustle had the Husky lead all the way to the 20 point mark, but Stanford started chipping away at it to cut the lead to 12 with 3:02 remaining to play. UW fans have seen big leads get blown to shreds this season, but the Huskies held their composure and hit the shots they needed to down the stretch to fend off the Cardinal run. The crowd was loud in an almost sold out Alaska Airlines arena. Fans got to see Coach Lorenzo Romar’s 300th victory and 100th in conference play and Romar was his usual modest self after the game, when he spoke to the media.

“The key to getting 300 wins is not getting fired”

It will be a lot tougher on the road, as any casual fan knows and at least Tony admitted as much when he spoke to the media after the game Saturday.

“If that happens on the road, we’ve gotta be able to put our foot on their throat. Because they will get some calls, and some baskets and be right back into it.”

The Huskies are now a half game out of first place but they will now take their talents on the road to meet Arizona State on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. (PST), followed by Arizona on Saturday at 4 p.m. (PST). Blogger Eamann Brennan of ESPN called UW “Insanely frustrating” in his column on Thursday and though this UW team is really fun to watch, it’s an apt description. If UW can win both games AND Stanford can beat Cal AND OSU can beat the Ducks, the Dawgs will be all alone in 1st place. To get a split in the desert would at least keep UW within range for one more week. To lose to ASU would be a disaster. UW fans should hope that Romar can put a team out on the floor that is ready to win a game in Tempe AZ. To beat the ‘Cats on Saturday it is going to take a unique effort and if Wilcox is not available, I feel that Romar should consider using Andrews as of this weekend. Romar shut that down, but intimated that though he is always weighing his options, but the thought of losing Andrews senior season with 12-13 games to play is hard to pull the trigger on.

“This is the conversation I have with myself, that’s all I’m telling you”

Former Dawgs Doing Well

The Sacramento Bee called for Isaiah Thomas to play a “bigger role” for the NBA Kings on Friday. All things continue to point to Thomas finding a home in the NBA and nothing could be better for Dawg fans if he does. Thomas is just they type of gym rat that will hang out in Seattle during the summer and live down at Hec Ed like former Dawg Spencer Hawes. Hawes and Thomas sat together at a number of UW games during the lock-out and I’m sure that UW fans will see them at events in
the future.

Elston Turner came into UW the same year as Thomas, in the class of 2008, but his career has led him to the Big-12. Elston told ESPN on Friday that he left UW because, “It was a chance to showcase everything I can do besides just shooting the ball”. Turner also added that, “My family being down here (in Texas) was a plus”. Elston has been one of the few bright spots for Texas A+M in a year in which their head coach has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and things have not gone well on the court to boot. Elston is a really talented player and I would expect him to turn a lot of heads before he’s through with college basketball at the end of next season. UW could sure use him now, with Wilcox and Suggs down, but I can see why he would want to move on with that type of depth and Ross on board as well.

On Wednesday the UW Athletic Department announced that Romar is participating in the “Infiniti Coaches’ Charity Challenge” with the NCAA and ESPN. The coach and former UW guard also is involved in the lorenzoromarfoundation.org, whose board of directors include his wife Leona, former star player Brandon Roy and the great Lenny Wilken’s who I caught referring to UW as “we” on a number of occasions over the past week, as color commentator for the Cal and Stanford games. Gohuskies.com also reported on Tuesday that former Dawg legends Detlef Schrempf and Bob Houbregs will be honored as part of the 77th Annual Sports Star of the Year, presented by ROOT Sports. On January 25, 2012 at Benaroya Hall. Detlef will receive the Sports Citizen of the Year award and Bob the Royal Brougham Legend Award.

(Jason McCleary of leftcoastrecruiting.com contributed to this post)