Lorenzo Romar says Markelle Fultz ‘fine,’ Malik Dime not seriously injured after 87-61 victory over Oregon State
Here is everything Huskies men’s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar said after Washington’s 87-61 victory over Oregon State on Saturday at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Romar also updated the status of guard Markelle Fultz and forward Malik Dime, each of whom was shaken up on the same play late in the game. Romar didn’t think either injury was serious -- Fultz just tweaked his ankle, while Dime injured his finger -- and said both should be able to play Thursday at California.
(Opening) “Winning the game was one thing today, but the way we did it was refreshing in that I just thought we did a lot of things the right way and had contributions from a lot of different players today. I think this is a great situation to be used as a springboard to head on to the Bay Area, because it’ll be two tough games down there.”
(How are Markelle and Malik?) “Not sure about Malik – I don’t think there’s anything major with Malik – but Markelle is fine. Tweaked his ankle, but we have a day off tomorrow, we don’t play until Thursday, he’ll be fine.”
(Was that scary to see him go down?) “I just saw Malik go down. It was just a flurry, what happened. Matter of fact, I went out there and saw Malik, and then I happened to look, and someone said ‘where’s Pat (Jenkins)?’ our trainer, and I was thinking, where is Pat? And I turned around and he was over there tending to Markelle. I didn’t even realize Markelle was down.”
(On Dime’s injury) “Finger. His finger was bent up a little bit.”
(Shooting hand?) “I don’t remember which one it was.”
(What changed today?) “I thought our approach, our outlook, our mindset changed. I thought we were able to do some things we hadn’t done as much. Trapping and pressing today. We tried to speed the game up and I thought it was effective. But the trapping and the pressing without the proper mindset would not have been effective. But today, I thought we had the right mindset going into the game.”
(On trapping and pressing more) “It wouldn’t matter what we put in if the mindset wasn’t right. So it was the mindset. Before we pressed one time and trapped one time, there was a certain mindset that you could see our guys had.”
(Is that something you can use against anyone?) “I think we can use it again, but I don’t know if we can do it game in and game out and be effective. We hadn’t done it yet. I don’t think Oregon State prepared for it because we hadn’t done it. That’s all. If we had done it and shown it before, I’m sure they would have spent more time practicing for it. We know we have that and we can go to that when we need it, or if we need it.”
(On Matthew Atewe playing more) “Matt has been very good in practice as of late. I’ve said it before, but Matt really did not play for two years. He literally didn’t play because of an injury – he couldn’t play, he couldn’t practice, he couldn’t do much. Then last year he wasn’t able to practice at first and then he was cleared to practice as a redshirt. He just had been shedding the rust, and in practice he had been doing a really good job. I’ve been saying he gives us a physical presence, he just hadn’t had the opportunity to get in there. Today he played the way he’s been practicing.”
(On David Crisp playing better lately) “He really has been, and you look at the assists, and he’s our second-leading scorer, but just kind of the energy he’s bringing now. David is really starting to emerge as a leader on this team, you can just see it. It’s been good to see him do that, and I think it’s been good for our team.”
(On Crisp’s alley-oop attempt off the backboard) “I didn’t have a whole lot of words for him, to tell you the truth. I think it kind of spoke for itself. I know what he was trying to do, but that’s just one of the things we’re working hard … we’re trying to concentrate. That’s why I talk about that mindset of being businesslike out there. He knows. It wasn’t something that there was a grudge being held and you’re going to be benched the rest of the game. He only came out as a reminder, that’s all.”
(On having to live with some of that when you let players play loose) “Sometimes the drives to the basket may not be the best decision at the time. Those are some of the ones you live with. But that one – that’s not one of them. But we do like to see them have fun. And we have had players make that play before, just in a different circumstance.”
(David said you had a meeting last night -- is that normal?) “On the road all the time we meet the night before the game, and last night we did. Just probably the content of the meeting was different than usual. We usually talk about the other team. Last night we talked about the other team, but we spent a whole lot more time talking about us. Just trying to identify some areas that if we didn’t change the mindset, that things that have been happening are going to continue to reoccur. Just tried to drive that point home.”
(Is that mostly a defensive thing?) “It’s mostly a mindset, but the mindset manifested itself on the defensive end. But also, when we get stagnant standing around on offense, take difficult shots – that’s usually because we’re standing around on offense. Again, I hate to keep using the word, but a certain outlook, mindset that you have, an approach in practice and in games, that we have to be able to identify to not go that way. And I thought we did a real good job of it tonight, of not going that way. There were a couple of times that we could have, but we didn’t. We pretty much stayed on the course.”
(On Carlos Johnson bringing energy off the bench) “He’s so strong and quick and just has a knack for scoring the basketball, he really does. You can see that from Day 1 with us. Carlos has been working to get better on the defensive end and we’ve talked about that. We had a freshman that played here once upon a time that was instant offense, but had difficulty early on the defensive end, and he finally got it – Terrence Ross, ended up being a really good player. Carlos can score points and he can rebound the ball, but now he’s starting to understand and figure out defense a little bit more, so he’s able to stay on the floor longer.”
(He’s slimmed down?) “I think Carlos has dropped 25, 30 pounds, I think. He was up a little over 250. Coach (Daniel) Shapiro have worked together and done a phenomenal job of getting him to where he looks almost studly.”
(On Matisse Thybulle) “I thought Matisse played a very good game tonight. Hit his first few shots, four steals with us trapping and pressing, that’s right up his alley. He was able to get deflections. He just played a really solid basketball game. It was good to see Matisse play like that. Our team is better when he plays like that.”
(Was this close to a 40-minute effort for you guys?) “It was pretty close. I’d say probably 35. There was a stretch in the second half where they scored probably eight out of 10 times. We were up 30 at the time and we kept trading baskets. Aside from that, I thought our guys did a pretty good job.”
(On Fultz not having to score a ton for them to win easily) “I think when you look at the really good players, sometimes because of the nature of the game, a guy has to take over and try to score for his team just because it’s not really going for the others. I don’t think Markelle has the mindset to go out and score 20 a game, I just think that he’s a talented enough player, he sees the ball is not going in the basket for his team, he tries to take over. And as we saw tonight, he didn’t have to do that, so he didn’t force it.”
(On finding something before they go on the road) “If we found something, it’s the right mindset, the right approach, if we’ve found something. But even when it’s positive, I still look at patterns. So we’ve got to see when we go on the road, see what happens Monday in practice, all of that. See if we’re prepared to build on what happened today.”
(On what the next step in their progress has to be) “We’re able to close games out. We were up, I forget, with four minutes to go in the first half, maybe 16, I don’t remember. But we talked to our team about, in games, it’s been a pattern that we don’t finish halves out very well. We give up leads. Teams close gaps on us. But we didn’t do that this time. So I thought that was progress. But to be able to close out games, to be in that situation where you’re up six with 10 minutes to go and you double your lead. The score is tied and now you go up and maintain your lead. We have to start trying to do that on the road, which is not easy.”
(On backup plan if Dime can’t play) “I think he’ll be able to go. We need Malik, he’s a starter for us. I think we do have other serviceable big guys, though. But I’m not even thinking that way right now. I’m anticipating that he’s able to play.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2017 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Lorenzo Romar says Markelle Fultz ‘fine,’ Malik Dime not seriously injured after 87-61 victory over Oregon State."