SEATTLE – It was just as Lorenzo Romar has been saying for weeks.
As green as his University of Washington men’s basketball team is, the early portion of the season is about a series of tests. The kids have to learn.
They have to learn how to finish off an opponent.
They have to learn to play hard for 40 minutes.
They have to learn Division I toughness.
They learned a lot Tuesday night in a 70-61 victory against rugged Northern Iowa University in the final game of the Travelers Classic at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Northern Iowa presented all that Romar had hoped it would three games into the year: a good, solid team whose style could take away an opponent’s strength by playing whale-on-the-cranium defense.
The Panthers are good. Really good.
“It was one of those games where the water is cold and they pushed us right in,” Romar said. “We had to learn how to survive right there. We had to learn how to swim.”
Defense is second nature to the veteran, physical Panthers, who finished last season 23-10. Ranked seventh in the nation last year in points yielded (57.1), UNI scratches and claws in the backcourt and raises contusions inside. In their previous 35 games, the Panthers allowed just two foes to score more than 70 points; none scored more than 72.
So this was what the sleek, unfairly athletic but inexperienced Huskies were up against. Starting two sophomores and two true freshmen, Washington, predictably, had problems galore.
It didn’t help when sophomore forward Jon Brockman played just seven minutes, picked up three fouls and was just 1-for-5 shooting in the first half.
Brockman’s struggles were typical of Washington’s. Getting off shots was an ordeal: A night after setting a school-record with 17 3-pointers, the Huskies were just 12-for-32 shooting in the first half, 1-for-7 from beyond the 3-point line. They creaked. They turned the ball over 10 times. They saw perfectly good shots rattle out. The only stunner was that they trailed NIU just 31-28 at intermission after having built several eight-point leads.
It didn’t start much better for Washington when Brockman picked up his fourth foul 21/2 minutes into the second half and sat.
Test? This was a stay-up-all-night midterm.
This was the game everyone waited for: A solid Northern Iowa team that made the NCAA Tournament the last three years. The Panthers are a patient bunch, one that makes up for a lack of top-flight talent with a disciplined, structured offensive system, a hunger for rebounds and a style of defense that looks as though they’re defending their sisters’ honor.
Run with the Huskies? Absolutely not. But NIU was dangerous in so many other ways.
“It felt like an NCAA Tournament game,” Brockman said.
Yes, this was what Romar was talking about. His young, blindingly quick team couldn’t afford to take any respites as it did in the previous two Classic victories against Pepperdine and Nicholls State.
The Huskies didn’t always play cleanly. They had too many turnovers and bricked too many shots.
But in the last three minutes, they were nails.
The Huskies saved their best defense for last, drawing three charges and contesting every shot.
Freshman post Spencer Hawes, having practiced just three days after undergoing knee surgery, blocked a shot by Eric Coleman. Justin Dentmon, the tournament’s MVP, grabbed the ball, dribbled across mid-court, stopped at the foul line and buried a jumper to give the Huskies a 62-56 lead with 2:05 left.
Later, Quincy Pondexter drew an offensive foul on a driving Grant Stout with 37.5 seconds left and the Panthers couldn’t come back.
So let Washington pass this test. There will be others.
“We have a chance to be successful if we do things right and improve throughout the next few months,” Romar said. “We’re not there yet. Some teams, you don’t have a chance to get there, but this team has a chance.”
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