SEATTLE – With the University of Washington on Spring Break, the Huskies will take advantage of the time off to get an early start on their trip to Washington D.C.
Washington will leave later today to prepare for its NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game against Connecticut on Friday. The Huskies aren’t slated to have their public practice or media session until Thursday, but heading over early will give Washington a chance to avoid being rushed and adapt to the three-hour time change.
Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar also said it will give his team a chance to see the city.
“We wanted to go early to totally get focused,” Romar said. “We are in college and it took me awhile to get out to D.C. in my lifetime and see some of the history that revolves around our country. So I thought it would be a good idea for our guys to see that. We always talk about when we go play basketball games, it’s a business trip and we don’t have time for recreation, but at the same time when you get these opportunities, you want to take advantage of those.”
Several of the Huskies got experience playing on the East Coast when they played at North Carolina State in 2004, so Romar doesn’t believe changing time zones will make much of a difference.
One thing that could have an effect on the team is the start time. The game is set to begin at about 10 p.m. Eastern time. And though that is still 7 p.m. Pacific time, it will be a long day of waiting. But the Huskies don’t believe that will be a problem either.
“It will be a 7 o’clock game here so that’s our time zone,” Romar said. “Hopefully that will be OK.”
“We’re getting there early so we should be acclimated,” senior Jamaal Williams said. “We should be fine.”
Senior Mike Jensen thinks the start time could even help Washington and hurt Connecticut.
“It will be like playing a 7 o’clock game for us,” Jensen said. “For them, it might be like playing a 12 o’clock game.”
Bobby playing for now, future: Bobby Jones’ ankle injury this season may have affected his NBA Draft hopes, but the UW senior forward thinks Washington’s NCAA run – and his performance in it – could help his status.
The 6-foot-7 Jones certainly helped himself in the Huskies’ second-round victory over Illinois with his outstanding defense against Illinois all-conference 6-foot guard Dee Brown. Brown missed his first six shots and ended up 5-for-18. Jones will likely be matched up with UConn All-American Rudy Gay in the Sweet 16 and it will be his biggest challenge of the season.
“I hope so, I’m not just doing this just to do it,” said Jones when asked if he thought his play in the NCAA Tournament would help his draft chances. “That’s why I’m welcoming this next matchup. There are so many good players in this game, I have another chance to show what I can do on the big stage. It’s the perfect situation. The last couple of games, all this is going to define my whole career at Washington. It’s exciting, playing the best teams out there, I can’t ask for anything else.”
An early impression: Justin Dentmon has looked like anything but a freshman in the NCAA Tournament, going without a turnover in the first two games and handling Brown’s defensive pressure. But that isn’t a surprise to Brandon Roy.
“He was aggressive from the moment he came on campus,” Roy said. “We were playing pickup ball and he was going at guys. He was going against Nate (Robinson) and I was like, ‘He’s not scared. This dude’s trying to go at Nate a little bit.’ It was a fun matchup to watch. Him and Appleby were going at it and I was like, ‘This little guy is tough.’ When he stepped on campus, I knew he was going to be ready.”
Roy said Robinson won most of the games with Dentmon, but that didn’t make it any less impressive.
“I just liked to see that (Dentmon) wasn’t intimidated,” Roy said. “A lot of people here about Nate and get intimidated and back up off of him and don’t want to go at him. But he was going at him, that was fun to watch.”
Speaking of Nate: Roy said he talked to Robinson and Will Conroy after the Illinois game and they were both “going crazy.”
“They’re still big fans of the program,” Roy said. “They helped start something here and they want to see us continue it. They’re definitely happy for us.”
Dentmon’s secret? Dentmon said the reason his turnovers have been cut down recently is because he’s looking to score more than he did in the past.
“I’m more of a threat now,” said Dentmon, who said he has an aunt who lives in D.C. and that other members of his family will be driving over from Illinois. “I used to be out there dribbling the ball, trying to force the ball to people. Now if I don’t see anybody open, Coach said I can take it to the rack or take a jumper. That takes away from my turnovers.”
Unhappy memories: Lorenzo Romar remembers where he was when Washington lost to Connecticut by one point in the 1998 Sweet 16 on a last-second shot by Richard Hamilton. The Huskies coach was the head coach at Pepperdine at the time and says the loss hit him hard.
“I was at Pepperdine, ticked, because this is the Washington Huskies and I was pulling for them,” Romar said. “It was a great shot by Rip Hamilton but I kept thinking, ‘Wow, we had a chance, we had a chance to move on at that point.’ And I thought (they) had a chance to get to the Final Four.”
Take a break: Romar said the extended timeouts in the NCAA Tournament are helpful. While full timeouts and media timeouts are usually one minute, in the tournament they are 21/2 minutes. The first 30-second timeout of each half is also a full timeout.
“Something that really helped us down the stretch (against Illinois), Coach Shaw made a suggestion to call timeout now, we get 21/2 minutes rest now and 13 seconds later we rest 21/2 more minutes because of the TV timeout,” Romar said. “Down the stretch, I thought we were pretty strong. They certainly helped.”
Upset time: Roy said he would definitely consider a win over Connecticut an upset, even though he believes his team is fully capable of winning.
“Unless Duke beats Connecticut, that’s probably the only game that wouldn’t be an upset with Connecticut losing,” Roy said. “Them and Duke are the best teams in the country. If we beat Connecticut, it’s an upset, but we feel it’s something that’s possible. We feel like we can beat them.”
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