Lorenzo Romar after Huskies’ 100-67 win over Mount St. Mary’s: ‘I was really excited about the way we started out the game’

Here’s everything Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar said after Washington’s 100-67 win over Mount St. Mary’s on Thursday night.

(Opening) “One more day removed from China and the jetlag, so as each day passes from leaving China, it’s a good thing. So we’ve got to come back Saturday early and play another game, so I trust our legs will be good. We were able to get some guys rest and rotate a lot of guys tonight. I was really excited about the way we started out the game. We were really, really dialed in. With a young team like this, it’s something that you are concerned about, coming back on the big stage like the game in China against Texas, and now coming back for this game, our first home game, I wondered how we were going to react. But I thought we reacted fine.”

(On Marquese Chriss’ game) “Obviously he played very well, 29 minutes, to do what he did out there. he was really active, very aggressive, and just so athletic. He just gets up to places it’s hard for others to get to.

(He played 29 minutes. Is that about right?) “He certainly could play 29 minutes. He played 29 minutes and probably could have played the rest of the game tonight. He’s in pretty good shape and he’s a pretty good athlete. We still like to keep guys fresh. Sometimes if we keep guys in there too long, then the returns diminish a little bit. So it’s safe right around there.”

(What does it tell you about this team that they were so locked in after dealing with jetlag, etc?) “What it tells me is I keep saying, is this group really like this? They really like playing together, they really want to do the right thing, they are really up to the challenge. And they continue to keep confirming what we have been seeing for quite a while now. So this is further evidence that this team is just going to try to play right, do the right thing.”

(On the guards getting so many rebounds) “If you remember comments before the season started, the question was, ‘how are you guys going to rebound?’ And I said repeatedly, our guards. Whenever we’ve been good as a rebounding team, with the exception of when Jon Brockman just got every rebound, our guards have gone in and helped rebound. And I felt like we had that this year. So this is kind of what we were hoping we would see.”

(On putting Matisse Thybulle on 5-foot-5 MSMU guard Junior Robinson) “I’m not sure, but over the years, we’ve had a lot of success with the Bobby Joneses and the Justin Holidays and now Matisse Thybulle, and even Dejounte (Murray), guarding smaller guys. If you think back, guys like Tajuan Porter from Oregon, even an Aaron Brooks and (Jerome) Randle, we didn’t fare too well with him a lot of times. But we feel if we can put a guy who’s pretty versatile and long on a smaller guy, it can make it a little more difficult for them to just kind of have their way with us.”

(On defending the perimeter against a team that shoots so much) “I thought we did a good job. We knew going in, almost 50 percent of their shots are from three. … If you look here, it was almost true in this game, I guess. They shot 24 percent, so I thought we did a decent job of guarding them.”

(On the offensive gameplan) “Well, we wanted to get inside. Initially, we were going to try to go inside and get Robinson in foul trouble, but they did a good job of helping out with him. You can tell that other teams have tried to do that and they know how to defend against that. We got a lot of points in the paint. Fifty points in the paint, so half our points. That’s what we wanted to do.”

(On how UW fared against MSMU’s defense) “We had 19 turnovers. They were scrappy. We turned the ball over a few times when they trapped and pressed us, but then again, some of them were unforced. But that’s kind of what they try to do. They try to create that in that way. I thought we turned the ball over, but we probably scored more than we turned it over, which enabled us to score 100 points.”

(On David Crisp’s game) “He was very good, he played under control, he hit shots. He’s quick, and he’s very strong. Has a lot of confidence. He’s played in some big, big games, David Crisp has. This is the second game in the row I think he scored in double digits, so he’s doing a nice job for us.”

(On Crisp being an energy guy) “Right now, he comes off the bench, we know he can defend. We know he plays with energy. He can score. He gives us a little different look when he comes into the game.”

(Do you look at Marquese as a true scorer? Or is his role different than that?) “I think Marquese goes out and plays. Now, he scored 14 against Texas, was in foul trouble and only played 18 minutes, you wonder if he had played 29 minutes in that game, what would he have done? He hit a 3-ppinter tonight. He gets offensive rebounds. He’s pretty quick for his size, and the way we play, he’s all over the floor. It makes him a little more difficult to defend him. He can go out and possibly have games like this.”

(Are you guys on track/ahead of schedule/etc?) “I just keep saying the same thing, I’m sorry, but I’m just excited that our guys are so willing to do what we ask them to do. In terms of on track, on target, ahead of the game – to me, we turn the ball over too much. I don’t know if we’re on track. I would have liked to see us take care of the basketball better. We don’t box out very well. There are some things I see as a coach where we understand what the standard is supposed to look like, and we’re not there yet. So I can’t say we’re ahead of the pace.”

(What was the explanation on the Chriss head stomp?) “They felt that it was not intentional.”

(On Matisse Thybulle’s game) “You have to really understand how we’re trying to play and what he does to understand what he brings to the table. He’s a very good defender as a freshman. There was one play early in the game where their big guy was running the floor, and he had a layup. And they pass it and Matisse just extends those long arms and intercepts it right away. He’s making plays like that all the time. You don’t quite notice it. A guy will be open and he’ll just get a deflection out of nowhere and it prevents – he puts out a lot of fires, is what he does. He’s just kind of finding his way a little bit right now. He has a huge upside.”

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 11:21 PM with the headline "Lorenzo Romar after Huskies’ 100-67 win over Mount St. Mary’s: ‘I was really excited about the way we started out the game’."