WASHINGTON, D.C. – If Washington plays its best game and Connecticut plays its best game when the teams meet today in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16, the UW might be in trouble.
Washington senior guard Brandon Roy admitted during Thursday’s media session that the UW probably needs Connecticut to struggle some for his team to have a chance to win the game.
“I think we almost need them to have lapses,” Roy said. “They’re so talented and they’ve got experience. We need to play our best basketball and we need them to have lulls at times. I watched them against Kentucky and when they’re clicking on all cylinders, they’re a tough team to guard. We’re definitely going to need them to make some mistakes in order to win.”
The good news for Washington is that Connecticut has been known to make mistakes and not always give its best effort. UConn coach Jim Calhoun said the lapses often come down to ball-handling because the team relies so much on just one player, Marcus Williams.
“We’ve probably had five complete games all year,” Calhoun said. “We’ve been a team of lapses. …We can’t have the kind of lapses we’ve had, it could bite us.”
Roy said the fact that UConn has had some struggles is both encouraging and scary.
“They’ve had games where they are up 20 and let leads slip, and they had games where they were down 15 and they come back,” he said. “That shows how dominating a team they are, and it also shows that sometimes they are less focused for 40 minutes. We know if they do get up 15 that we could come back, and we know if we’re up 15, we’ve got to be cautious because they have the ability to come back.”
Defensive strategy: Though nobody would say definitively, it seems likely that Washington will start with forward Bobby Jones on Connecticut point guard Marcus Williams. Last week, Jones handled Illinois’ Dee Brown, who is seven inches shorter than Jones. The 6-foot-3 Williams has been UConn’s leading scorer in the tournament and led the nation in assists last season. That would leave Brandon Roy to defend UConn All-American Rudy Gay, who is three inches taller than Roy. The biggest mismatch could be 5-11 Justin Dentmon on 6-6, 230-pound shooting guard Denham Brown.
Nice line: Roy has been peppered with questions about the respect, or lack of, he gets from the national media ever since the tournament began, and Friday was no different. He was asked if he were on the East Coast, if he’d be a household name by now.
“I think so,” Roy said. “But on the West Coast, I’m a household name, so that’s good enough for me.”
Taking the tour: Washington took advantage of arriving in D.C. on Tuesday to do a little touring. The Huskies took a tour of the Capitol building and the White House, including the West Wing.
“I was hoping I’d get to see the President walk down one of those hallways and say ‘Hi,’” Roy said. “… We got to see his office, it was pretty nice. I asked, ‘Will he just randomly walk around?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, he’ll just come walking out.’ But it was past his bedtime.”
A little dig: Connecticut guard Denham Brown said he isn’t too concerned about having to defend Roy.
“I go up against guys like this every day like Rudy (Gay) and Rashad (Anderson) in practice all the time,” Brown said. “So we’re well prepared for what goes into guarding Roy.”
Which is?
“Just try to limit his shots,” Anderson said. “That’s basically it. You’re not going to stop anybody who the offense is run through because they’re going to get him the ball.”
Calhoun on Washington: Calhoun already has said he thinks Roy might be the best player in the country. But what about the other Washington players?
On Bobby Jones: “Bobby Jones is their version of Scottie Pippen. I saw the job he did on Dee Brown, playing one of the quickest guards in the country and playing very, very well.”
On Jon Brockman: “Brockman plays like it’s the last game of his career. He’s one of the toughest kids we’ve seen.”
On Justin Dentmon: “He’s grown over the year. I love his defense. …He gets the ball to the people in the right spots for their offense.”
Calhoun also called Jamaal Williams one of the most “unique” players in the country for his ability to score in the post despite his size.
Tough start time: Calhoun said he feels “terrible” about the game starting at nearly 10 p.m. Eastern time. But he doesn’t think it will effect his players.
“One of them said, ‘I went to bed early, I was in bed by 1:15 (a.m.),’” Calhoun said. “That’s early for them. It’s only us old folks that need to be in bed by 11 or 12. And they think getting up at 9 is early.”
Giving credit: Roy said the perceived lack of respect Washington gets nationally has put a chip on the team’s shoulder, but that doesn’t mean he believes a team like Connecticut doesn’t deserve respect.
“UConn deserves everything they get,” Roy said. “They’ve won two national championships in the last 10 years. They’ve been a great program. We feel like we’re on the rise. Arizona, UCLA get more credit than we do on the West Coast because they’ve accomplished more things than we have. We have to try to go out there and use that as motivation. We know in order for us to accomplish those goals and have Washington looked at that way, we have to tear those walls down and beat UConn and go to the Elite Eight and the Final Four. At the same time, I don’t want to take anything away from those teams. They’re not just being handed the credit, they’re going out and earning it.
“We have a chip on our shoulder. But UConn deserves everything they get.”
Coulda’ been: Connecticut standout point guard Marcus Williams said he was recruited by Washington when he was a junior at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles. At the time, Lorenzo Romar was in his first season as Huskies coach and the team had yet to begin winning.
“I looked into them,” said Williams, who played his senior year at powerhouse Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. “I just didn’t think it would be the best fit.”
Williams knew Bobby Jones when the two were growing up in Los Angeles, and they played in the same summer league circuit, including last summer.
Huh? One reporter from College Sports Television asked Romar if it was an advantage for his team having the game in Washington. Romar wasn’t quite sure how to answer that, and it wasn’t clear if the reporter realized that the Huskies are from a different Washington.
Romar wins award: Romar was awarded the 2006 Coach Wooden Keys to Life Award, which honors his “outstanding character.”
The award is modeled after former UCLA coach John Wooden’s “Keys to Life” theory.
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