TEMPE, Ariz. — Markelle Fultz is everything the Washington Huskies hoped he would be. Truthfully, he is probably even better than that, quite possibly the most talented player to ever wear a UW men’s basketball uniform. He is certainly the most talented freshman the Huskies have ever had, and perhaps the most talented freshman in the country this season, and a potential No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft.
All of which makes this miserable UW season even more confounding.
Fultz leads the Pac-12 in scoring by nearly five points per game over the next guy — Arizona State’s Torian Graham, whom the Huskies face Wednesday night in Tempe — with a per-game average of 23.4 points, which would rank second in school history, if he keeps it up.
That mark is even higher — 25.9 — in UW’s seven Pac-12 games. Fultz also leads the team in assists, and has scored 30 or more points in five games this season — that’s already tied for fifth-most in a career in UW history. He enters Wednesday’s contest having scored 30 or more points in three consecutive games, including a 37-point performance in a victory over Colorado in which he did not make a single 3-pointer.
And yet here are the Huskies with their 9-10 record, their 2-5 mark in league play, their NCAA tournament hopes extinguished before the calendar turned to 2017. Fultz is amazing, the kind of player who assures folks will watch the Huskies play no matter how many games they lose, but he has so little help — particularly on defense, where Fultz has his lapses, too — that his remarkable achievements may end up a mere footnote.
UW coach Lorenzo Romar, who bears the brunt of nearly all criticism of his struggling team, is quick to marvel at Fultz and defend him from those who suggest he has a hand in the Huskies’ shortcomings — such as Pac-12 analyst Kevin O’Neill, who said last week during a television broadcast that Fultz needed to play harder and improve his body language.
“Anyone that wants to entertain the thought for a second that Markelle Fultz isn’t doing enough or try to put it on him,” Romar said, “I’ll just say you’re wrong, whoever thinks that.”
The coach knows why his team isn’t good. So does anyone else who has watched them play.
“We’re not playing good defense,” Romar said. “Pretty simple to me.”
In a 94-72 loss to Utah last week, the Huskies allowed the Utes to shoot 60.0 percent from the field with 60 points in the paint and 20 layups or dunks. UW ranks 11th in the Pac-12 in field-goal percentage defense overall and eighth in league games only.
But Wednesday’s game might offer the Huskies a temporary reprieve from being the worst defensive team on the floor. Arizona State (9-11, 2-5) is the only Pac-12 team ranked lower than UW in adjusted defensive efficiency by Ken Pomeroy — UW is 280th, ASU is 282nd — and the Sun Devils rank last in the conference in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense both overall and in league games only.
That’s good news for Fultz, and for the Huskies. But ASU’s starting lineup features four players averaging more than 13 points per game, and while the Sun Devils lack meaningful depth, they have enough scoring talent to expose UW’s defensive issues.
The Huskies have also lost seven consecutive Pac-12 road games dating to last season, though they have won their last five in Tempe.
“We’ve seen glimpses of us playing great defense and we’ve had stretches where we’ve played great defense,” said sophomore guard David Crisp, “but our challenge is keeping that going throughout the whole game.”
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