UW hoops: Huskies had fun in China, but trying to re-adjust after jetlag

By all accounts, the Washington Huskies men’s basketball team enjoyed its trip to Shanghai, China for their season opener against Texas.

But the effects of the travel are lingering a bit.

UW coach Lorenzo Romar said Wednesday that his team hasn’t fully recovered from the jetlag of the return flight home, and that their practice on Tuesday “was rough.”

“Monday, we were pretty good, but yesterday ... we weren’t ourselves yesterday,” Romar said. “So hopefully we get back on the right track here today (Wednesday). Definitely hope to by tomorrow (Thursday). But I think we experienced a little jetlag.”

Huskies forward Noah Dickerson said he went to class on Tuesday, then walked to Hec Edmundson Pavilion, then immediately fell asleep in the locker room. When he woke up, he saw several other teammates asleep in the room, too.

Last night, he couldn’t get to bed until 3:45 a.m.

“That’s probably the main thing, is the sleeping schedule,” he said. “I’m still trying to get back.”

Dickerson called the trip “a really cool experience. I loved it out there.” He said meeting Alibaba founder Jack Ma was a highlight. Malik Dime said he was excited when Romar surprised the team with a visit from former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, the 7-foot-6 Chinese star.

“He made everyone look, like, 4-(foot)-5 in the room,” Dime joked.

“I’m pretty sure that nobody wanted to come back,” Dime said. “It was so fun.”

Dickerson’s knee OK

When Dickerson crumpled to the floor with what appeared to be a non-contact knee injury during UW’s win over Texas, he feared the worst.

It turned out to be just a hyperextension, and Dickerson came back into the game after jogging a bit on the sideline. He said his first thought was that he didn’t want to have to deal with an injury two seasons in a row (he missed part of his senior season at Montverde Academy due to injury).

When he tweaked his knee on Friday, Dickerson said, “it felt like death. Because in my brain I’m thinking oh wow -- I thought I tore something -- so in my brain I’m not even thinking really about the pain. I’m thinking, ‘that’s two years in a row I’m out, I’m really out for most of the season.’ … Then walking to the bench it started to get better and better. By the time I got to the bench, the trainer did some stuff on it, and I stood up, started jogging around, I felt pretty good afterwards.”

Dime talks fasting

Dime said he lost 32 pounds earlier this year when he fasted in observance of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. He said he’s down to 203 pounds.

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 1:16 AM with the headline "UW hoops: Huskies had fun in China, but trying to re-adjust after jetlag."