Huskies look to grow up
This should sound pretty familiar to Cougars basketball fans.
“We get so close to winning and then let it slip out of our hands,” Justin Dentmon said. “I think we’ll be real dangerous. We’ve got a lot of young guys who are talented. We just have to learn how to win.”
“We’ve been in close games, but we haven’t done what it takes to get over that next barrier and actually win,” added Spencer Hawes.
Of course, it’s not Washington State that those players are talking about – it’s Washington.
But just as WSU struggled with young teams in the past two years, the Huskies seem to be going through similar growing pains this time around.
There is one major difference, though, even as Washington sits at 1-5 in the Pac-10, perilously close to the conference basement. These guys are supposed to be good.
Coming into the season – even coming into the Pac-10 season – Washington was almost universally regarded as a top-three team in the conference, and many observers thought the Huskies would manage to make their way back into the Sweet 16. Some thought the Huskies might go further.
Hawes is a sure-fire lottery pick whenever he decides to go pro – and most everyone figures that will happen after this season. Dentmon is a talented sophomore point guard who played big minutes last season. Jon Brockman, a sophomore power forward, was a McDonald’s All-American in high school. Another freshman, Quincy Pondexter, could end up being a first-round NBA draft pick somewhere down the road.
After this start in conference play, though, Washington is worried more about making the tournament than it is about doing damage within it.
“It’s still too early (to panic), but we better giddy-up and get going, that’s for sure,” head coach Lorenzo Romar said. “At this point it’s going to be difficult for us to win this conference, but we’ve got to dig ourselves out of this hole and try to finish in the top half of this conference so we can make a case to go to the NCAA tournament.”
The youth has not served Washington well, especially when stacked up against a brutally difficult Pac-10 schedule. Saturday’s game at Beasley Coliseum against the Cougars will be Washington’s fifth road game out of seven contests in the conference.
Making matters worse, Washington has yet to win a game on the road this year after five tries. (The Cougars have not lost on Friel Court this season.)
“With a team that has not learned how to win on the road yet, that can make a difference,” Romar said. “We’ve not played very smart down the stretch. We’ve not come up with the big plays that you need to come up with.”
The Huskies have had their chances, losing in double overtime at USC and in overtime at California. But if they don’t start taking advantage of those chances soon, youth won’t be much more for Washington than an excuse for spending much of March in front of a television set.
“Right now, road, home, we need to get one regardless,” Hawes said. “I think where we’re at now, we’re not in a great position, but it’s not insurmountable by any means. We just need to turn things around and get it going.”