When coach Lorenzo Romar tossed 7-footer Robert Upshaw from his squad two weeks ago for violating an unspecified team rule, he had to know his Huskies, once nationally ranked, would struggle with no inside game. But UW has more than struggled: It flat-lined, at least evidenced by Sunday’s 60-54 loss to the Oregon State Beavers at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, OR.
After falling behind 10-1 and failing to score a basket until 7:58 remained in the opening 20 minutes, after setting a season-high in turnovers with more than 10 minutes remaining, the only question was whether Washington would avoid setting a record for the fewest points in a game in the Romar era.
The Huskies did, but only barely (the 2007 team scored 47 in a 75-47 loss at Washington State), but were defeated for the fifth consecutive time, all losses since Upshaw was tossed. This is Washington’s first five-game losing streak since Jan. 2-15, 2004, and UW’s next game is against nationally ranked Arizona, coming off a loss to Arizona State.
“They (Arizona) are going to be coming in with an attitude and we have to do the same thing,” said Romar, upset that his team failed to protect the ball.
“We didn’t do a good job of defending in the first half and we just gave up too much,” Romar said. “It was unacceptable on our end. Right now, we have to be the grittier team. We have to be the aggressor because we don’t have a lot of margin of error. If we continue to play casual, this is going to continue to happen. We.just have to be dialed in and concentrate and take care of the things we have to take care of.”
“They came out with a lot of energy and we were kind of flat, but we fought our way back and they got some momentum and put us away,” said Husky guard Andrew Andrews. “We have to be the quicker team on the floor. That’s something we have to work on. I give a lot of credit to the zone they were playing, they took away a lot of our shots.”
Although the Huskies (14-9, 3-8) couldn’t find the hoop for 12 minutes (they started 0-for-9), they trailed by only 21-18 at intermission, marking a season halftime low (19 points twice) and their 13 turnovers representing a halftime season high.
The Huskies, who defeated Oregon State 56-43 at Alaska Airlines Arena Jan. 15, gave up two quick baskets to open the second half and trailed 29-24 with 16:14 remaining after Shawn Kemp Jr. converted a layup. The Beavers went on a 10-1 run and that was the ball game.
Washington hit 35.7 percent of its field goal attempts and went 3-for-15 from 3-point range. With a season-high 22 turnovers, the Huskies didn’t give themselves a chance to win, as those turnovers translated into 17 Oregon State points.
Andrews, who converted only one shot in the first half, led the Huskies with 14 points. Nigel Williams-Goss finished with 13, as did Kemp.
Gary Payton II, son of the Sonics legend, scored 17 for Oregon State, which won easily despite getting outrebounded 32-24. Malcolm Duvivier added 14 and Jamal Reid 12 off the bench. Langston Morris-Walker tallied 11.
Next
The Huskies return to Alaska Airlines Arena at 6 p.m. Friday to face nationally ranked Arizona (ESPN).
8 Comments
Wow, this is getting really bad. I’m afraid Romar might be gone. He seems to have completely lost his team.
Is there a better option? Especially for the Husky program? Are they willing to trash what’s been established and go on the 3-5 year rebuilding program? This season Coach Romar was able to bring in 3 players from in-state. Last year he had only two, both freshman who didn’t play much and left as a result. There were 3 the season before with two leaving after one season, again due to playing time. Kids are not sticking around and that affects the growth of the team. Reasons have been varied, playing time, family issues, homesick. But no player has had issues with Romar. If anything, the current class of recruits need to stick around and be cultivated to become the core group.
With both Upshaw and Jarreau out teams are collapsing on Kemp. It’s not a good sign when you’re SG (Anderson) is your best rebounder. Two observations are that they need to play better defense and find a way to close out games.
What do you mean is there a better option, especially for Washington? And what is this 3-5 years to rebuild stuff? It doesn’t have to take that long anymore. Look at the team that just beat us. Some guy named Wayne Tinkle from Montana has the Beavers at 16-7 (7-4 in conference) in his first season. So, yeah. I think there are better options out there. There are soooooo many basketball coaches out there who know what they are doing and can run a clean program. I’m sick of not being able to attract a single decent Large Human to play in the middle, I’m sick of collapses, I’m sick of departures from the team. I don’t care what in-state recruits he’s managed to keep. There are always seemingly impressive guys coming to this program, only to totally not do anything of significance at all. This program has become totally lifeless and wholly uninteresting.
It’s also a bad sign when your second leading scorer is shooting 38% from the field. I still have no idea why they let Andrew Andrews shoot the ball so much.
I don’t know. But I know Romar seems to be having issues recruiting lately and his players don’t seem to be listening to him.
I’m not sure if the talent is what it used to be in Washington. Five years ago the influx of Washington state players in the NBA was quite high. Not so much anymore. The Spencer Hawes class really hurt. Out of five highly regarded players only Quincy Pondexter stayed the full four years.
We.just have to be dialed in and concentrate and take care of the things we have to take care of.”
“Dialed in?” They’re already phoning it in, coach. Right now, the Huskies would have to grovel to get a CBI bid. I think a lot of us knew that December run was the usual against lightweight opponents but how many of us knew how much quit this team had in them?
Another year, another underachieving, undisciplined Romar team. Not that this team has a lot of talent, but even in years that they have, I feel like they’ve underperformed.
Of course, you might be able to say the same thing about Mark Few’s teams at tournament time, but that’s another thread…
I think the Romar run has about reached its end. The basketball program could use a change of head-coach scenery, and I think a change of scenery might benefit Romar as well.