Washington Husky Huddle for Thursday January 5th 2012 (Part Two)

When a coach faces a team, he always talks in superlatives about the opponent, to try to get his team focused. Boyle talked about Tony on Tuesday, but in this case I think that a lot of what he said is true.

“When he gets out in the open floor, he’s so strong and he’s so athletic and he handles the ball so well he’s just a tough guy to handle. So you got to get in gaps. Got to make him give it up as best you can. But he’s as good a player certainly, as good a prospect as our league has.”

A lot of UW’s success this season will depend on Wroten, but not on him taking the team on his back. What he needs to do is get his teammates involved better. Against CSUN, UW got Ross 14 shots. Though he only made five of them, that is a huge key as Terrence is going to do much better than that much more often that not. Unfortunately that has trailed off to 11 against OSU and nine against the Ducks and in both games Ross has only hit four per game. The Dawgs, Wroten in particular need to involve Ross more, while certainly not forgetting about Wilcox. Terrence will bounce back, as C.J. did big-time against Oregon. In an ideal world Wroten, Ross and Wilcox would all get double digit shot attempts in every game and Gaddy would get at least seven with at least five assists.

If Wroten and Gaddy can make sure that those two get plenty of good looks, while continuing to do what they have been doing offensively AND everyone keeps playing tough defense, UW has a great shot to win the Pac-12. It’s funny that now that his team is playing better defense, that Wroten is now getting better mentions as an individual player. It’s all about winning as a team, as to how you are viewed by the media, fans, etc. If Ross, Wilcox or another Husky has a great game, that is only going to draw more attention to Tony. Nobody is going to forget about him, it will just enhance how he is perceived if he is able to involve others. He’s looking to be a point guard at the next level after all.

Former Dawgs in the Spotlight

Last Thursday Bleacher Report listed the top-30 “Game winning shots of 2011” and listed Isaiah Thomas’ “Game-Winning Three-Pointer in Pac-10 Championship Game” at #4. Unfortunately UW landed on the other side of the coin against Marquette earlier this season when the #24 game winner by Jae Crowder was the difference. Isaiah is currently the 1th most efficient rookie in the NBA, statistically and on Tuesday scored 15 points on the road against his old team mate Quincy Pondexter and the Memphis Grizzlies. Pondexter was the subject of a feature in the UW Daily on Thursday. Romar was quoted and the coach talked about how Q grew into a pro, during his four years at UW.

“He had his ups and downs and persevered. By the time he left here, he had developed a great work ethic and a toughness about him that he’s carried over to the NBA.”

Quincy, Isaiah, Jon Brockman, Spencer Hawes and now Nate Robinson make up the ex-Huskies in the NBA. On Wednesday ESPN reported that Nate signed with the Golden State Warriors. While five NBA players is impressive for a school to have at any given time, all five are relatively young and that number could jump up closer to 10 in the next few years. Romar and former assistant coach and current Seattle U head man Cameron Dollar will take part in a SU Alumni Breakfast at the Seattle Sheraton on January 10th, to benefit Boys & Girls Clubs of King County. What is more amazing is that this event falls on the morning of the SU/UW game at Hec-Ed. For a coach to help the opposing coach out with his program on the day of a game, shows a lot about the depth of the relationship between Romar and Dollar.

Jason McCleary of leftcoastrecruiting.com contributed to this post