Quoting Lorenzo Romar on preparing for Colorado, getting past the UCLA loss and an update on Malik Dime
Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar met with reporters today to rehash Washington’s ugly loss to UCLA and look ahead to Thursday’s 7 p.m. game at Colorado. Here is most of what Romar said.
(On team’s response in practice after UCLA loss) “Thought we did fine. We did fine. Guys put forth effort.”
(On whether he has a better gauge on what happened in that game) “What happened, yes. Why it happened, I don’t know. UCLA, when they get it going, it’s hard to stop them offensively. It wasn’t our team. It just was not our team that night.”
(More on what happened vs. UCLA) “It was weird, because it wasn’t just … all their points weren’t just pure defense. We turned the ball over 20 times. Just across the board, it just wasn’t our team. We just can’t point at any one thing. Our turnovers led to easy baskets for them. I know in the first half, we cut it, it was 27-17, I think. Matisse had a reverse layup. At another point it was 41-29. After that, it just didn’t work.”
(On not being able to put it together) “We come out, we practice, we’ve made all sorts of adjustments this year (to) how we try to play defensively, offensively. We’re just still waiting for that point to where we just play the right way consistently. I did think we were making progress up until that UCLA game. So we have to get back to where we were before the UCLA game. We can’t take that UCLA game and have that define everything that we’re doing, like that’s the team that we are. Because that wasn’t the team that we are.”
(On Matisse Thybulle’s ability to steal passes) “I think some of it is innate. He used to gamble a lot and get out of position trying to get steals. He doesn’t do that as much anymore. He’s older, he’s more mature, he knows how to pick his spots. He does have unusually long length. Close to 7-foot wingspan. He anticipates well, and he’s extremely quick, extremely gifted that way. He’s been stealing balls for a long time on that basketball floor. He has a pretty good idea when he can get to one. He’s really good at just kind of laying back in the woods as if he’s not there, but he can get there.”
(On what to focus on from first game against Colorado, which UW won) “I don’t know about surprises as much as, you showed your team both – where we were hurt, and where we were successful. As a coaching staff, you try to determine the ways you were successful, how they may counter and try to force you not to be as successful, and on the flip side, the areas where you were deficient, and try to adjust so that you can be on the positive this go-round.”
(Can you take anything from that first game against CU?) “Yeah, but not necessarily in terms of just strategically. They were up 17 in the second half. How did that happen? Our team needs to understand that. Our team needs to also understand when we finally caught them, we were up four, we had a number of breakdowns defensively where we could not just put them away. It’s important for our team to understand those things.”
(On preparing for altitude) “You try to point it out and sometimes you can do more harm than good because you make such a big deal of it, then they make a big deal of it. I always use the example of going up to Laramie, Wyoming, and playing 13 years ago, 14 years ago, and our guys walking up the ramp, and they get up there and the sign says, ‘Welcome to Laramie, altitude 7,000’ … and it says, ‘how’s your oxygen?’ Right away, one of our players says, ‘I feel a little dizzy,’ immediately after he read the sign. It’s crazy how that works. We try to talk about it, not let that be a distraction.”
(Does Markelle Fultz have to have a phenomenal game for you to win?) “No. If Markelle’s the only one scoring, yeah. But if we come together and we have a number of contributions – that doesn’t mean everyone has to score, it just means we’re playing good basketball as a team – he does not have to be Superman. But we all have to be on the same page on the same night.”
(On how good the Metro League has been this year) “I don’t know how much I can comment on it – I know I can’t comment on individuals – but a high, high level. It’s been shown there are a couple teams that can compete with anyone in the country in that league.”
(On whether he’s impressed by the local high school basketball scene) “Oh, yeah. Year in and year out. We always have a few teams that can represent Seattle and the state of Washington on a national basis.”
(On their defense letting them down this year) “It’s difficult, because everything that you do is predicated on your defense providing something for you, providing a service for you, so to speak. If that isn’t happening, it puts a lot of pressure in every other area for you to be almost perfect. When we’re playing defense the way we’re supposed to play defense, you can have some margin for error in some other areas because the defense can cover for it. But if we’re not playing that, boy, it just puts a strain on every other area and makes it really tough.”
(On whether this team can be an aggressive man-to-man team) “We thought it did early on. But I don’t think it does. Now, this same team a little bit later with more experience would be closer to being able to do that. But at this stage, where we are, it’s just harder for this group to do it.”
(Can Malik Dime play this week?) “I don’t think Malik will play on this trip. Like I said, he’s getting closer.”
(On the sideline spat between Romar and Carlos Johnson during the UCLA game) “It’s been addressed. You go through a season, there are so many things that come up within a season. It’s just no different than your household, things that come up. If it was a reality show where we hung out at anybody’s houses – things come up, and you deal with them.”
(So he’s available?) “Oh, yeah.”
(What did you think of Bitumba Baruti vs. UCLA?) “I thought he did a fine job. I think that was his first opportunity for meaningful minutes, and I didn’t think he hurt himself.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2017 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Quoting Lorenzo Romar on preparing for Colorado, getting past the UCLA loss and an update on Malik Dime."