Meanwhile, Marquette coach Buzz Williams says he has seen teams like UW – just not all in one uniform.
“Relative to the Big East, this is how I could compare them,” Williams said. “They drive it like Villanova. They play fast like Syracuse. They offensive rebound the ball like West Virginia. And they play with great energy and great pace like St. John’s.”
The Huskies and the Golden Eagles will learn more about each other at 4:20 this afternoon, when they meet in the first round of the NCAA tournament at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
And if the Huskies are going to advance, they’ll have to figure out a way to beat a small, outside-shooting team unlike anything they face in the Pacific-10 Conference.
“People ask, ‘Well, who can you compare them to?’ No one,” Romar said. “We’ve not played anyone like this team. They’re an undersized team, but the things that they do out on the basketball floor allow them to compensate for the lack of size.”
Williams believes his team is the smallest in major-college basketball. The starting lineup includes 5-foot-8 Maurice Acker and tops out with 6-foot-6 Lazar Hayward and Jimmy Butler.
The Eagles compensate by moving the game away from the paint as much as they are able. On defense, they pressure up high, trying to reduce the amount of time opposing – and presumably bigger – offenses have to work the ball into the post. On offense, the Golden Eagles are happy to fire away from beyond the 3-point arc – they led the Big East in 3-pointers made and were sixth nationally in 3-point shooting percentage.
The problem for UW defenders is that they have to defend the 3, but if they defend it too aggressively the Marquette guards can zip past them.
“I’ve used the analogy, if one guy beats you off the dribble it can become like a dog chasing his tail: You just can’t catch up,” Romar said.
“If you allow too much dribble penetration (they can take it to the rim).”
That poses a challenge for the Washington guards – but at least it’s a familiar challenge.
For Washington’s big men – mostly meaning Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Tyreese Breshers and Darnell Gant – defending the Golden Eagles clashes with a lifetime of training for opposing big men.
“Five players on the floor at one time that can all knock the 3s down, (other teams) don’t have that,” Romar said. “You don’t play against that every day. A traditional (big man), all of his life when his team loses the ball and he gets back on defense, he runs straight to the rim on defense. Well, if you do that in this game they’re going to get a wide-open 3.”
That offers both challenge and opportunity to Washington’s Bryan-Amaning, who at 6-foot-9, will have a 3-inch advantage over any other starter on the floor.
“I think it’s going to be a little of both,” he said. “Obviously, they’re going to try to spread us out around the perimeter,” he said. “On the other hand, on the other end they’ve got a lot of small guys that are going to have to try to guard me on the post. It’s going to create a lot of mismatches with me and Quincy (Pondexter), and we’re going to have to take advantage of it by keep pounding the ball inside.”
Marquette tries to prevent that by extending its defensive pressure high onto the court.
Since Washington wants the ball down low, additional pressure will fall to point guards Abdul Gaddy and Venoy Overton.
“You have to really limit your turnovers against these types of teams,” said Gaddy, a freshman from Tacoma. “They really take chances. They gamble a lot because they have to because they’re so small.”
Don Ruiz, 253-597-8808
don.ruiz@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports
