Huskies not bringing it for full 40 minutes

SEATTLE – The Washington Huskies were getting out-hustled and outworked in their own gym.

Think about that. How often has that happened since Barbara Hedges hired Lorenzo Romar in 2002? In Romar’s world, that’s an embarrassment on par to forgetting to put game shorts on under your warm-ups.

Nevertheless, that’s what happened against the Eastern Washington Eagles. The Huskies fell behind 47-35 with three minutes remaining in the first half. They allowed Eagles superstar Rodney Stuckey enough room to score 21 first-half points. Contrary to their predecessors, they weren’t dying out there. They weren’t exhausting their foe with the guts-out style Romar demands, especially defensively.

It’s been a theme for this young team in the first five games of the season. Only this time, it was about to bite them.

“That’s what we’ve been working on: Coming out and having the first punch,” freshman guard Adrian Oliver said. “Tonight, we got punched first. We know that they’re playing harder than us, but we have more talent.”

Bringing it every night. It sounds simple, but it isn’t. It’s a learned trait, just as much as weakside help is. At this point in the season, the Huskies don’t have it. They turn the effort on and off, but they haven’t sustained it for 40 minutes a game. They’re 5-0, but have no games in which they can say they’ve ground it out for 40 minutes.

If they want to go places they want to go in 2007, they’d better learn quickly.

Romar calls it the difference between playing hard and competing. Playing hard is anything but bad – in fact, it’s the first step toward truly competing. Example of playing hard: diving for a loose ball, even if you don’t have a chance to come away with it. It’s putting out energy, but with no achievement. Example of competing: knowing where the ball is headed on an in-bounds play, knowing where the target is going, getting in his way, even knocking him down, and coming up with the ball.

“I don’t think we competed as a whole,” Romar said. “Adrian Oliver competed.”

Oh, did he.

As lax as the Huskies were for the majority of the first half, Oliver saved them. The 6-foot-3 freshman had a dazzling first half, starting the minute he came into the game. He nailed a 3-pointer midway into the first half to give the Huskies a 25-32 lead. He rebounded – seven in the first half, nine in the game. He scored 10 points in the first half, 14 in the game. He took charges.

Oliver also took several turns guarding Stuckey. A block of an attempted jumper by Stuckey resulted in a fastbreak layup by Justin Dentmon that cut the Eagles’ lead to 47-43 with 40 seconds left.

But Oliver saved the best just before halftime, when he launched a halfcourt shot at the buzzer that found nothing but net, further cutting EWU’s lead to 47-46 and sapping whatever momentum the Eagles had.

“I don’t practice that shot,” he said.

What Oliver does practice is defense, which he relentlessly strapped on Stuckey for much of the second half. Stuckey, a junior who, Romar says, can play in the NBA today, managed a mortal 10 points after intermission. Oliver induced two charging fouls on the Eagles star and did a superb job of denying him access to the ball on numerous possessions.

The second half belonged to Dentmon, who woke up from a first-half slumber to score 19 of his game-high 23 points after intermission.

Dentmon’s totals are indicative of what Romar referred to as the difference between playing hard and competing. On a team that starts two freshmen and two sophomores and has eight of same in the rotation, Romar’s skills as a teacher will be tested.

In that way, games such as Friday’s with EWU will be valuable. Eastern, as was Northern Iowa (the Nov. 14 opponent), could well be a player in the NCAA Tournament. Down the road before Pac-10 play are more tests – at Gonzaga Dec. 9; Portland State Dec. 16; LSU Dec. 20; and Weber State Dec. 22.

“At this point, any game could be a close game for us,” Romar said.

This bunch needs as many as it can get.