Quoting Lorenzo Romar on Markelle Fultz’s status, Malik Dime’s health, playing at WSU and more
Here is everything Huskies men’s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar said today about Markelle Fultz’s practice participation, Malik Dime’s recovery from a broken pinky and UW’s upcoming trip to Washington State (5 p.m. Sunday).
(On playing the right way the last couple games) “I feel like if we play that way and approach it that way, I feel confident whomever we play against. Obviously, our record doesn’t reflect that and it’s easy to say, ‘well, what else is a coach supposed to say?’ But I really believe that. I really believe that we have shown flashes. I see that our team has made an improvement. Not just Sunday, any game we play, we give ourselves a chance if we play the right way, the way we’ve been the last couple.”
(On whether the effort vs. Arizona can carry over vs. WSU) “I certainly hope so. I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be. I think we gave ourselves a little confidence in how if we go out and try to play the right way the entire game, what potentially can happen, even in this short season we have left.”
(On Dan Kingma getting more minutes) “Markelle Fultz being out was part of it. The other part is, Dan doesn’t make many mistakes on the basketball floor. He has a very good feel. He hasn’t played a whole lot, btu he is a junior. He plays against those guys every day in practice and does a good job. But with Markelle being out, that allowed Dan to play a few more minutes.”
(On having guys who can handle the ball next season) “Well, Blake Harris, Daejon Davis, David Crisp, those guys are ball handlers that’ll come in. We recruited those guys, Blake and Daejon, to come in and help us in that regard.”
(More on ball-handlers) “Carlos Johnson handles the ball pretty well. Jaylen Nowell, coming in, handles the ball well. He hasn’t played a lot of point guard, but he’s handled the ball. But I’ve mentioned Blake Harris before – Blake is just a phenomenal passer and very good with the basketball.”
(How much has Markelle Fultz done in practice this week?) “He hasn’t done much. We just want to keep him calm. With this being a long week, even today, we still don’t play for a couple more days. He’ll probably do a little more today but we haven’t had him do a whole lot.”
(Is he mostly fine, or is he really having to grind through the pain when he plays?) “If he goes back to back, like we went Thursday-Saturday, that makes it a little more difficult. But if there’s rest in between, he’s able to bounce back pretty good. He would benefit by longer rest, but we have a little bit to go.”
(No setbacks, though?) “No, he’s been fine.”
(Malik Dime 100 percent, or still working his way back?) “His conditioning, he’s still working his way back in. Little rust, but he’s getting there. This is now a couple of weeks where he’s been practicing, so he’s getting there. You can see still, he goes up to dunk or there’s some contact, he’ll get that one hand out of the way, get that finger out of the way and dunk with his left. He uses his left a lot, anyway, but you can see him being cautious at times. Each day, he gets better and better.”
(On what they learned from first game against WSU) “We know that we have to play a 40-minute game to be successful against them. We certainly respect what they’re doing. They have four seniors out there that have been through the wars. I think Coach (Ernie) Kent and their staff are doing a good job with their team. I think we are aware of that and respect them.”
(On whether he thought finishing would be a problem for this team) “You could see the pattern. We didn’t finish – we weren’t in a position where we were up in the second half against TCU, at TCU, but we were up like 20-4 early, something like that, and weren’t able to sustain it. So there were signs that we weren’t able to sustain the level of play for 40 minutes, even in the preseason, that we needed to be successful.”
(On whether they would finish games better if they were older) “For the most part, if you just look at young teams, typically, that’s something that they struggle with. Typically, that’s what happens.”
(On how WSU has changed since that first game) “Malachi Flynn was the starting point guard, had very good game against us, and has had good games against other teams, but he’s even more experienced now. And then just as a group, they’ve settled in on their rotation, know who’s playing where, who’s supposed to get shots, certain points of the game. I just think they’ve found their rhythm as a team, even though they’re not undefeated in the last 14 games or so. They still – I think they’re playing good basketball. I think they’re playing better basketball now than when we played them the first time.”
(On whether he’s surprised by how well Flynn has played as a freshman) “We saw him play but didn’t get to see him play a whole lot. Early on we had a commitment from JaQuori McLaughlin, who is at Oregon State now, and then Markelle Fultz, got him. So we didn’t watch him as much as we watched some others. But you knew he was very cerebral, knew he could shoot the basketball. But what he’s done this year has been very, very impressive.”
(On whether coaches are evaluating current players for skills they can use next season) “We’re not looking to experiment with anything right now. We’re still trying to get better. What has happened, over the course of the season, is certain players have evolved. Like Carlos, you see him getting the ball off the board and bringing it in transition, making plays. That’s not something that we said, ‘hey, you need to start doing this,’ and in the back of our minds we’re thinking, ‘so we can see if you can do it and prepare you for next year.’ No, he’s gotten better, so he’s able to do that. Across the board, that’s how the rest of the season is going to go. Players have improved in certain areas and we look for them to be able to do that. We don’t look at it as an exhibition. We are still trying to be the best team that we can be and we still have a conference tournament ahead of us. So we’re trying to play it straight-up, trying to be the best that we can be out there.”
(On what he wants to see the team improve the last couple weeks of the season) “You know what, shot selection. And I thought we played one of our better games, in that regard, against Arizona. There’s a balance of putting the foot on the gas, and you’re coming up the court fast, and something’s not there – not only not taking a shot, but not holding the ball on one side. Getting that ball reversed, making the defense move, making the defense shift until you get a good shot. That’s the thing right there. Obviously, defensively, (we’re) still trying to make that work. But just shot selection and making the defense move.”
(On being able to replicate effort vs. Arizona on the road against WSU) “We’ve had some experiences so far where we’ve played in some pretty hostile environments and our guys have done that. And the last one we played in with a big crowd and all was at Arizona, and I thought our guys did a pretty good job there handling that. So I felt that last weekend, we grew up a little bit, and if that is the case it’ll reflect when we go to Pullman – that we’ve grown up a little bit in how we go about handling our business.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 2:31 PM with the headline "Quoting Lorenzo Romar on Markelle Fultz’s status, Malik Dime’s health, playing at WSU and more."