SEATTLE – A few weeks ago, Washington point guard Justin Dentmon was featured in a large photo in Sports Illustrated, accompanying an article about freshmen who were making an impact.
But for the past three weeks, Dentmon has seen a somewhat surprisingly good season turn into a nightmare. Usually a steady ball distributor and reliable scorer, his offense tumbled dramatically in the past six games when he averaged 4.3 points on 28.1 percent shooting. He’s 0-for-9 on 3-pointers and has 27 turnovers (4.5 a game) against 27 assists in those six games.
But it was on defense that Dentmon’s season hit its low last week. With the Huskies ahead by three points and 2.5 seconds to play, Dentmon chased down Stanford’s Chris Hernandez and fouled the Cardinal senior on a 3-point attempt at the buzzer. Hernandez made all three foul shots and Stanford went on to win the game in overtime.
Washington coach Lorenzo Romar was shown on television angrily addressing Dentmon after the foul, but said he has moved on and hopes that Dentmon has moved on. Dentmon will be in the starting lineup when the Huskies play at Washington State on Saturday.
“One thing I’ve tried to not ever do is hold a grudge when you walk off the lines,” Romar said. “In between the lines, it’s a war, it’s a battle, you’re all fighting for a common goal. But what happens on the court stays on the court.”
Romar said Dentmon’s foul had nothing to do with the freshman not playing in the overtime period. Instead, Romar said it was just a matter of being more comfortable with Ryan Appleby and Brandon Roy on the court.
“Historically as a head coach, I’ve allowed guys to play through mistakes,” Romar said. “When it’s a mistake we’ve been talking about for about three weeks that has continued to occur in games and practice and now you do the same mistake, then I don’t have as much patience for that.”
Romar said he pointed out several instances when prominent athletes have made significant mistakes, including Chris Webber’s ill-advised time out call in the 1993 NCAA championship game. The UW coach also made a few blunders of his own as an NBA player. One in particular cost his team a game.
“I remember coach Don Nelson calling a play and it was to get the ball to Bob Lanier for a last shot, and the play he called, I thought it was a different play,” Romar said. “So I ran a different play, ending up with the ball in my hands at the end and I end up shooting the ball. As a result, we lost the game.”
The Washington upperclassmen also have stepped in to try to ease Dentmon’s disappointment.
“We tell him it’s just life,” senior forward Mike Jensen said. “You’re going to make mistakes. Things are going to happen. It’s a life lesson and a basketball lesson for him. He’s still our starting point guard. He’s still going to make plays for us.”
“We just told him, ‘Justin, we still need you, we need you to play well and turn the page on that loss,’ ” Brandon Roy said. “There’s a lot of things we did as a team that made the game closer than it had to be. Just because (he) made a mistake at the end doesn’t mean (he) lost the game. We win as a team and lose as a team.”
Romar said he expects Dentmon to learn from the mistake and move on.
“Things like that happen,” Romar said. “You don’t want them to happen, but they happen. That’s not to excuse them at all. …You’ve got to learn from your mistakes.”
Breaking down the play: The Huskies have spent plenty of time second-guessing the final play of regulation against Stanford, and came to the conclusion that several things went wrong in defending it.
Bobby Jones was supposed to keep the ball away from Matt Haryasz, who made the pass to Hernandez, but Jones was screened off Haryasz. The Washington guards were supposed to prevent Stanford’s guards from catching the ball if Haryasz got the ball, but instead they overplayed the guards too much early and allowed them to break free.
“It seemed like everybody did something wrong on that play,” Jones said.
Romar said he thought a backcourt violation could have been called on Haryasz, but he also took the blame for not explaining the defense well enough during a timeout.
“We told our guys what was going to happen,” Romar said. “We told them how to defend it. Obviously, I could have done a better job in making sure they understood the positioning of how we wanted to defend it.”
Romar said he considered fouling in the backcourt to prevent a 3-point attempt, but decided against it because he had been burned on a similar situation in the past.
Roy pulling for the Seahawks: Roy admits he’s a bandwagon fan of the Seahawks, but he’s excited to watch the Super Bowl – so much so that he is hosting the team at his house to watch the game.
“I’ve always been a Seattle fan, but our teams haven’t been doing great so I would cheer for another team,” Roy said. “The end of last season, I jumped on the bandwagon because I thought they had a chance to go to the Super Bowl this season. I feel like it is my team because I am from Seattle.”
Roy said he knows some of the players, like Ken Hamlin and Seneca Wallace, from summer pickup basketball games. Of the two, who’s the best basketball player?
“Seneca Wallace,” Roy said. “He’s good, he’s real good. When I saw him play, I was like, ‘This dude’s good, did you play in college?’ He’s got some hops and he can shoot.”
Roy predicts the Seahawks will win 31-28.
Roy midseason star: Roy was a third-team pick to Sports Illustrated’s Midseason All-American team. He was one of two Pac-10 players picked, joining Cal’s Leon Powe, also a third-team choice.
Gonzaga star Adam Morrison was a first-team pick, along with Duke’s J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, Villanova’s Randy Foye and West Virginia’s Mike Gansey.
Women’s Sunday super: The Husky women play Washington State at 1 p.m. Sunday and have several events coinciding with the game. The team’s annual auction begins at 10 a.m. at the North Court in Hec Ed, with the auction ending at the end of halftime. Items up for bid include an autographed Sue Bird jersey, seats to any Husky sports event on the West Coast aboard a Citation Excel jet, Mariners’ box seats, VIP Storm tickets, a round of golf at Washington National with Husky Athletic Director Todd Turner, Husky football tickets and a Brandon Roy autographed jersey.
The annual alumni game begins at 10:30 a.m. at Hec Ed. Before the women’s game there will be a presentation in which Kayla Burt will receive her V Foundation award.
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