SEATTLE — Losing, not necessarily absence, makes the heart grow fonder.
And so as the University of Washington men’s basketball team prepares to return to the floor tonight amid a three-game losing streak, the absence of starting point guard Abdul Gaddy seems to weigh heavier on the Huskies’ shoulders with each defeat.
Since Gaddy went down with a season-ending knee injury during a practice in the first week of January, the Huskies have gone 5-4 and have fallen behind Arizona and UCLA in the Pac-10 standings. While junior Isaiah Thomas has thrived at times in Gaddy’s role at point guard, the Huskies have missed the sophomore’s calming effect and haven’t gotten the same bench production now that Scott Suggs is in the starting lineup.
“For us to be a complete team, Venoy Overton, Isaiah Thomas and Abdul Gaddy all bring something good to the table that’s different than the others bring,” coach Lorenzo Romar said of his top three guards this week. “If one of them is not there or playing at a high level, then it takes away from the entire team.”
It’s a question that seemed silly two weeks ago, after the Huskies had rattled off five wins in six games without Gaddy, but a three-game losing streak brings into focus just how important he was to the team.
UW averaged 10.7 turnovers per game when Gaddy was healthy but is giving away the ball at a clip of 13.9 since he went down. The Huskies had a season-high 24 turnovers in a loss at Washington State 10 days ago.
Just as significant, UW’s bench production has gone down. With Suggs stepping into the starting lineup, the Huskies’ reserves have averaged just 18.3 points per game — and freshman Terrence Ross (7.5) has almost half of that total.
Swingman C.J. Wilcox, who was among the nation’s best 3-point shooters when Gaddy was healthy, has struggled with injuries and has made just 4 of 21 shots from 3-point range in his past nine games.
Also struggling is senior guard Overton, the energy-bunny sixth man who has provided a defensive spark for the Huskies during most of his UW career. Due to a combination of factors that include nagging injuries, Overton is averaging just 5.0 points and shooting 39.4 percent from the field – the lowest totals since his freshman year.
“It’s been up and down, mainly because he’s been injured a little bit,” Thomas said of his senior teammate, who started three games after Gaddy went down but eventually returned to the bench. “He hasn’t really been 100 percent. But after this last game (at Oregon), he’s showing signs of the old Venoy. He’s getting confidence.”
It seemed preposterous a few weeks ago to think that the UW bench would be a liability. The Huskies had one of the best second units in the nation, with Suggs, Wilcox and Ross producing so much early on that Romar couldn’t find enough playing time to suit them all.
Since then, the Huskies’ bench has been rather pedestrian — due in part to the changing roles caused by Gaddy’s injury.
California coach Mike Montgomery, whose Bears will face the Huskies at Hec Edmundson Pavilion tonight, was quick to point out that UW didn’t seem to miss Gaddy at all in a 92-71 win in Berkeley three weeks ago — a game that saw Thomas put on one of the best performances (27 points, 13 assists) of his career. But the Huskies have lost three of five since that game, so the Gaddy question has popped up.
“I thought, initially, when we played them they were better without him,” Montgomery said. “… Now since that, maybe the depth issue has started to rise up, (and) maybe teams have been able to scout (Thomas) more at that position.
“But I think Isaiah’s natural position is probably the point, and he’s done a very good job.”
Thomas, who is averaging 18.0 points and a conference-best 8.0 assists per game since taking over at the point, said the loss of Gaddy has had “a little bit” of an effect on the team but added that the Huskies have played well at times without him.
“If we were winning,” he said, “you guys (in the media) wouldn’t even think we miss him.
“But we miss him. Even if we’ve won every game, we still miss him. He was a big part of our team. He kind of slowed us down and got us in the right situation in games that we weren’t playing too well. He’s a big part of what we were doing, and we miss him a little bit.”
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