Quoting Lorenzo Romar on losses to TCU, renewing Gonzaga series, transfer of Nigel Williams-Goss and more

Here is everything Huskies men’s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar told reporters earlier this afternoon as UW prepares for its 8 p.m. Wednesday game at Gonzaga. The Huskies will face former UW point guard Nigel Williams-Goss, who played two seasons at Washington before transferring to GU.

(What do you like about your team right now?) “Our potential. That’s what I like. Potential means you haven’t done anything yet. So we have to reach our potential.”

(On what they tried to do differently in second game against TCU) “We were more purposeful on the defensive end guarding their ball screens. They scored quite a bit on their ball screen stuff, two-man game stuff, against us in the first outing. This time, we were able to cut that down considerably. So I thought our guys did a good job of adapting to what we were trying to do the second time. We still lost the game, but it was a lot better effort, a lot more organized in what we were doing.”

(How discouraging is it to lose two games like that and fall to 4-3 this early?) “You’re disappointed, for sure. I was more disappointed in … we started to play defense in the second game, the first 10 minutes, we played very good defense. We play that way – I wish we could bottle that. If we play that way for the rest of the season, we’ll do just fine. But then we began to turn the ball over, and it wasn’t just one person. As a team, we began to turn the ball over. That allowed them to get some easier baskets. That gave them a little more confidence, and there we went. It was disappointing in those two, because I would have liked to have seen us play a little better. But again, as much as I was disappointed, I was very encouraged in the moments we had in the second TCU game, with that being our first true road game.”

(Did you think you would be closer to being able to do that for a whole game at this point?) “I did. I thought we would be. But we’re not. But like I said, I do see progress. I think we are starting to see progress. We’re not undefeated, so it doesn’t reflect that, but we know what we’re doing here, and we’re seeing the progress. So we have to keep heading that direction.”

(On whether he’s considering tweaking the defense yet) “A few years ago, we tweaked a couple of times, because one was injuries, another was – I think 2014, we started out the season and went uh-oh, we’re not able to do this. 2007, we did the same thing, we said uh-oh, we’re not able to play this way, so we kind of tweaked a little bit. Now, I don’t think it’s as much of a tweak as much as, we’ve been spending more time doing certain things defensively, and we’ve gotten better. If from Game 1 to now we hadn’t seen any progress at all, yeah, then we would make sure we change some things. But we’re getting better. We’re making progress.”

(On whether the defensive issues are personnel or something else) “We’ve played a couple of opponents that were somewhat problematic for us to guard, the way they were playing, but for the most part, I just think it’s us getting it. I don’t think it’s a total lack of personnel. I just think us getting it and understanding it. Like I said, if we were not able to see any improvements, then we’re talking a different story. But we’re seeing improvements here. It just hasn’t happened for 40 minutes. If you play a certain way for 10 minutes, you’re able to do that. You’re not making it up. It didn’t just happen. It wasn’t a coincidence. You did it. It wasn’t three possessions. We did it for 10 minutes in the beginning, and obviously, that doesn’t win you a game, 10 minutes, but it just showed more progress. There were a couple other games we did it for a half and sometimes teams were missing. This time, we were playing the kind of defense we want to play.”

(This team seems built to score, but is it built to play defense?) “What you just hit on I think has something to do with our defense. Right now, in some of our lapses, our offense is contributing to our defensive lapses more than anything, because we’re shooting the wrong shots too quickly and turning the ball over too much. Sometimes the wrong shot can be the first pass, so to speak, to a fast break by the other team. You shoot too quickly and it’s the wrong shot, and I emphasize the wrong shots. If we take the right shots, I don’t mind us shooting quickly. That’s fine. That’s how we want to play. But when you take the wrong shots, and they happen quickly, the other team doesn’t have to get out of rhythm. They’re in the same rhythm that they were the time before, and that’s how teams are able to go on runs against us. So offensively, especially here going on the road this game, we have to make sure that we take better shots, the right shots, and that will in turn help our defense.”

(On getting good shots early against TCU) “I think we were taking good shots, and it wasn’t necessarily transition that we were getting those buckets. We were just flat getting stops and coming down. I thought we were getting good shots, we were making shots. The other thing about those first 10 minutes is, I think they only had one offensive rebound. And there were plenty of misses because they were only shooting like 8 percent at one point. But we were getting the rebounds. So we were doing everything that was necessary to play basketball at a high level, and we showed that to our team. And again, like I said, it wasn’t three possessions. It was 10 minutes. And if it were not for us turning the ball over, I feel confident that we would have extended that. But we were our own worst enemy by turning the ball over like we did.”

(On whether the turnovers were just sloppy or something else) “Some were sloppy, but here’s the thing. We could play against other teams … I’ll say this, it’s the first team we played against that was that active defensively. They were very active defensively. And that pass that maybe I throw this way needs to have a little more caution, a little behind it, needs to be thrown away from your body as opposed to close to your body for them to get deflections. Things like that were happening. And we play against that every day in practice, active hands and that whole thing. We didn’t do a good enough job there.”

(Is this a concerning time to be playing a team of this caliber?) “I don’t know that I’d say concerning. I’d say that we better step it up really quickly, I’ll say that, because Gonzaga is a very, very good basketball team.”

(On renewing the series with Gonzaga) “We decided to do it, so we’re excited about doing it. It’s going to be a great, great atmosphere over there. They’ll come back here the following year and I know it’ll be a great atmosphere here. I always said that we would renew the series at some point. And now it’s here.”

(On his impressions of Williams-Goss at Gonzaga so far) “He’s doing a great job of running his team. Very good job of running his team. You can just see he’s a precision type of player. He understands what they’re doing, he gets them into what they’re doing. I think he’s just doing a really good job.”

(On Gonzaga beating UW up in the Bahamas last year) “With us, Gonzaga, as opposed to the physicality that they bring, I think it’s something that, it’s one of those teams that we talk about shooting quickly, the wrong shots, if we do that, it’s just going to play into their hands, and we did that in the Bahamas a little bit last year. We have to be pretty efficient against them or they’re going to make us really pay.”

(On having more size this year) “We do have more size, for sure, and we have more bodies. Last year I know we got in foul trouble early and had to go deep into our bench. This year I just think we have more bodies. I think in terms of physicality, we’re more physical inside than we were last year.”

(What would you tell someone unfamiliar with UW-Gonzaga history about why you stopped playing them?) “When we stopped the series initially, we had just been involved in the Big 12 challenge, where we were playing cross country, and then sometimes it was even two of them in one year, and the way our schedule was going with playing in some nationally televised tournaments – that was back in ‘07, we had been here for four or five years and we were still trying to gain notoriety ourselves – and at that point, as great as the Gonzaga game was in state, on a national scale, it wasn’t really televised. All of a sudden we were presented with some great opportunities to play nationally, and that’s when we decided to do it.”

(On whether the dispute over the recruitment of Josh Heytvelt, among other things, might have played a role in canceling the series) “No. No, it didn’t.”

(On how he thought Williams-Goss would fit in at Gonzaga) “I thought he’d fit in fine. They’ve had good guards over the years, and they want their point guards to really be able to run that team and get him into their offense and their sets, and he was going to do fine, but he was going to do fine wherever he went. He’s a good basketball player.”

(On being surprised that Williams-Goss chose Gonzaga) “I was more surprised that he transferred. It didn’t matter what school he went to. I knew he had talked a lot about going to the NBA, but when he decided not to do that, he transferred … that probably caught me off guard more than anything. Him and I talked about it. But whether he went to Gonzaga or North Carolina or wherever, that wasn’t the issue to me.”

(On Williams-Goss’ comments that he wanted to play for a winning program and that UW didn’t prepare as well as he thought they could have) “Obviously Gonzaga has gone to the tournament 17 straight years, so it’s a good bet they’re probably going to win and go to the tournament. Totally understand what he’s saying. We also have to understand that the two years Nigel was here, especially his second year, was probably the worst two years that we’ve had. Even our first year, we were 11-17, but in terms of what was going on, there were a lot of changes being made and we were going this way. But once we got established, I think those two years, especially the second year, were probably as dysfunctional as we’ve been since we’ve been here. If you want to take that time and decide if Washington was the best place to be, it probably wasn’t. So that’s how I see that.”

(Did you put any restrictions on where he could transfer?) “No. No.”

(No restricted list at all?) “No. Like I said, it didn’t matter where he transferred, to me. That’s his choice.”

(Why doesn’t it matter to you?) “Why would it matter? Let me ask that.”

(A lot of coaches probably wouldn’t want their leading scorer leaving to play for an in-state rival who they recruit against, etc.) “That kind of stuff doesn’t bother me. Some coaches get all caught up in that. That doesn’t bother me.”

(What do you expect from the Markelle Fultz vs. Williams-Goss matchup?) “I don’t know. You know, in those games, games like that, sometimes guys … Gonzaga plays a lot of zone. You don’t know. Back in the day, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson going head to head, they cleared out on one side, they both go at each other the whole game. Those kind of matchups, I don’t think it’ll be that kind of game.”

(Does Gonzaga look different than it usually does?) “A couple years ago, they had Gary Bell and Kevin Pangos. They were senior guards who were good, all-conference level guards who were really good. And their team was really good. And you watch them, and you think, ‘well, when those guys leave, maybe they dip a little bit.’ And then the next year – last year – you’re thinking, wait a minute, this team could win it all, when you look at their team last year. Then they lose something, they lose a lot, now they come back again and this team is really good. So I’m just impressed with their ability to sustain their level of play at a high level every year. So in terms of something different, as far as that goes, it’s not different, because they continue to play at a high level and they’re very efficient.”

(Do you have to play a perfect game to beat them?) “We have to play at a high level, yeah. We’ll have to play at a high level.”

(Have you seen that game yet?) “We haven’t put one together like that. We’d have to play 40 minutes like we played the first 10 against TCU.”

(On the development of younger players like Matthew Atewe and Sam Timmins) “I wish we had some more games where Matt was in there more, because Matt sat out two years. He sat out where he was hurt – he didn’t do anything for a year – and then he redshirted last year and half of that year, he was hurt. It’s just taken him a little longer to get some of the rust off. And then Sam’s a freshman. Sam will be a fine basketball player for this program.”

(On talking to the team about how losing nonconference games will cost them in March) “Prior to us playing games, we talked about how each game is such a big game. We even brought up instances: last year, which game was bigger? Here against Arizona, or here against Santa Barbara? Which one was bigger? When you look back at the big picture, we dropped the Santa Barbara game, that ended up being a huge, huge game. So we talk about those things. We haven’t really talked about the big picture as the season goes on in the future, because we’re just trying to get the next day established.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2016 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Quoting Lorenzo Romar on losses to TCU, renewing Gonzaga series, transfer of Nigel Williams-Goss and more."