UW hoops: Lorenzo Romar talks UCLA, UW’s defensive scheme and more

Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar met with reporters earlier this afternoon to preview UW’s road trip this week to play against UCLA and USC. Here is what he said.

(On this being an important stretch of games coming up) “You’ve heard me say it before – it was a big stretch when we played our first game. That was a big stretch. That’s when it started. It’s all one big stretch. And every week I’ll tell you it’s going to be a big stretch. It’s the truth. We come back next week, we have the Arizonas. That’s not going to be light. It’s just a way that we have to prepare that we have to worry about ourselves and being the best we can be, because the season is a stretch.”

(Kind of like Pete Carroll’s championship mindset mentality) “Very similar. Very similar. Regardless of how high the perceived level of the team, perceived in a high level or low level, that’s a huge game, that next one. Especially in this league.”

(UCLA look any different than the first time you played them?) “Not a whole lot. They kind of do what they do. They tweak here and there, but not a whole lot.”

(What do you remember from first game against UCLA?) “Early on, if we weren’t guarding, if we would have guarded them like we did the first five minutes against Utah in the second half, they would have went up probably 20 points in the first half. But we were doing a decent job of defending, so they weren’t able to get away from us. And obviously the other thing, our resiliency that game and just the heart that we had down the stretch.”

(On Utah taking advantage a couple times of a guard being switched onto Jakob Poeltl) “You asked me this question, so I’ve got to answer it – you said they were able to take advantage a couple of times. You’re exactly right – two times. When we had a guard on the big, when a guard was on Poeltl or the rest of their bigs, if you go back – I challenge you to go back and look at the film, and see how many times a guard got scored on, you will find it wasn’t very many. As a matter of fact, in overtime, when they threw over the top, we weren’t in position on the backside, and Malik Dime was guarding him. And Malik did a good job of fronting him. It wasn’t a guard on him. When we front the post, regardless of how small the guy is – and it helps to have a bigger guy – and we play behind, and then the third component is the ball pressure. But if you play behind, we have found it’s not as easy as it may look. Now, you’re constantly saying, ‘they’ve got a little one on them, they’re trying to …’ And sometimes, the team will just abandon whatever they’re doing and maybe get out of rhythm to try to take advantage of that perceived mismatch. Every now and then, it’ll hurt us on the boards, because (we’re) fronting the post and the ball goes up and there’s a big guy on him and there’s not a whole lot we can do. But we’ll take the tradeoff. Hopefully it gets teams out of running their offense.”

(More on backside help and the tradeoff) “Yeah, you have, for instance, early in the game, they had a clear, open path. Poeltl had one, and Marquese Chriss was in position to come over and block the shot. There were a couple of other times, and that’s what goes unnoticed, I think. They get the one where it’s like, ‘where is the defense? It’s a wide-open layup!’ But they miss the five that we stole, the five that we got deflected. I think David Crisp got one, I think Dejounte Murray got a couple of them, from the backside, where that help is. And we drill it and drill it, try to make sure guys are in the right position. Every now and then, someone’s not in the right position and we’ll miss a coverage. That’s what makes it look like they’ve been doing this all game, but that’s why I say I challenge you to go back and look at the film and see how many times that happened.”

(Why does it make sense for this team to switch everything?) “We’re versatile enough, quick enough, long enough, to cover enough ground. We’ve always fronted the post until the last couple of years. Early on, when we were smaller and we were successful, we fronted the post and sometimes it would get the best of us, but this year we have a little more size. So that length and quickness allows us to be in the paint, but yet, Utah did a great job of throwing skip passes and I thought our guys covered out, guys did a good job of getting out to the shooters at the same time.”

(Is that what you always want to do, ideally?) “Ideally, if we have the personnel to do it, I like it, if you have the personnel. You rarely have the personnel to do it 1 through 5. We can do it 1 through 4 a lot of times, but 1 through 5 makes it a little more difficult.”

(On allowing backdoor cuts because of backside help) “If we’re executing defensively, again, we play up in the lanes, and I’ll never forget, I think we were playing Air Force, and they had I want to say four backdoor baskets on us, and I was getting questioned – where was the help? They attempted 18 of them and they turned it over or got it blocked the other 12 or 14 times, but you tend to see the easy baskets. But we’re looking at the tradeoff. Teams that press the entire game, the entire game they press, and sometimes teams get regular open layups, but they believe they are pressing and they will risk the layups because they get the game going up and down and they’re forcing turnovers and making teams uncomfortable. So you’ve got to weigh the good and the bad of it. The other thing is, we have at times sent four guys to the boards, and if you’re quick enough, you can get back. What’s the tradeoff? The breakaway layup that they may get every now and then, or the high volume of rebounds that you get on the offensive end? There’s going to be a tradeoff, there’s going to be a give and take to some things. Even the conservative, pack-it-in defenses that a lot of teams run – well, you may give up some 3s. If a team is really knocking down 3s – why weren’t you guarding the 3? Well, most teams don’t knock the 3 down like that against a lot of those teams that pack it in.”

(Have you ever switched 1 through 5 like this before?) “The closest was when Mike Jensen, if you had to call it a position, Mike Jensen was like our 5 man. Him and Bobby Jones were like our perceived bigs, but they were really forwards and guards and wings, and we were able to do it at times then.”

(Is it easier to teach?) “Not really. There’s an art to it. There’s a certain way. Again, one of those layups that Poeltl got in the last game is because we thought there was a screen and there wasn’t. we thought it was a switch. One guy did and the other didn’t, and they got a layup. When they get that a lot of times, there are breakdowns in it. So you have to teach it, you have to be fundamentally sound in it, or it won’t work. You can’t just say, ‘you switch, you switch,’ or teams will expose you.”

(What kind of progress do you think you’ve made in that regard?) “Well, I look at the Arizona game in the first half and I look at our game against Utah in the first half, and I’d say we’ve made tremendous progress. There has been slippage in the second half, and that’s what’s hurt us. We have to be able to maintain that level of defense for 40 minutes.”

(On the trend of defensive slippage in the second half the past few games) “I was wrong – Colorado there wasn’t. We were able to distance ourselves in the second half. They came back, but we were able to distance ourselves. But it may have something to do with maybe guys playing too many minutes in the first half, maybe. We use it all in the first half and we don’t realize we’re a little more tired in the second. We may have to rotate bodies a little quicker so that we keep fresh bodies in there.”

(On Marquese Chriss benefiting from playing football when he was younger) “A little bit. He is not afraid of contact. I think again, it goes back to Marquese started playing organized basketball when he was in ninth grade, and sometimes that has an effect with him and some of his fouls, I believe. He’s quickly learning. Second foul he picked up in the game (against Utah), he immediately did that (hands on head), like, ah, I knew I wasn’t supposed to do that one. Whereas before he may have thought maybe it was a bad call or something like that. So he’s recognizing that now. The last two games, he’s gone until the last minute, minute and a half until he’s fouled out, so that’s progress.”

(How unique is it for someone to be that skilled without playing basketball very long?) “It’s very unique. Very unique. He’s a good athlete and he’s also athletic. Sports are pretty easy for him. (Strength) coach (Daniel) Shapiro, during their strength and conditioning time during the summer, instead of going in the weight room they went out and had a little touch football game. They’re out there in Husky Stadium and I’m watching and making sure Coach (Chris) Petersen’s not looking, because Marquese is throwing these 50-yard bombs like it’s nothing. Then he’s chasing, running guys down like he’s a DB. He’s 6-9 and it was like he’s a 5-11 DB. He’s just gifted that way.”

(Who have your best leapers been?) “Terrence Ross was pretty good getting up there. Inch for inch, Nate Robinson is the guy, but he doesn’t count. That’s not fair. Inch for inch, it’s not a contest. But those two, Terrence Ross, and a walk-on, KJ Garrett, he gets up there pretty good, inch-for-inch, also. I’d say those guys have probably been the best.”

(Is Andrews better on the ball or off, because he mentioned having zero assists against Utah) “You know, patterns. Before that game, he was leading the league in assists in conference play, so he just had 30 points and 12 assists, another game he had 8 assists. So he’s doing fine that way. It was just kind of the nature of that game. It was kind of a low-possession game. We didn’t have very many assists as a team that particular game. We missed a lot of shots, too. The beauty of Andrew is he can play both, and he’s played both in college. I think that just speaks to his versatility.”

(More on Andrews’ assist numbers) “I think it’s more of a reflection of the nature of the game, because there hasn’t been many games that those numbers have been like that once we started league. Usually his numbers have been pretty good, him and Dejounte (Murray). Both of them have been collecting assists. They’re 5 and 6 or something like that in league play in assists.”

(On if there are ever times when Andrews interjects with some input on a play they’re running) “Oh, yeah. It’s not uncommon, as we’re going through the scout with the other team, that we’re preparing to guard something that the opposing team is going to run, and we’ll talk about it and Andrew may bring it up – ‘Coach, if we play that and force it to the right side, I think maybe we can have more help. What do you think?’ OK, let’s look at it. When I played for the Milwaukee Bucks, I played for Don Nelson, who (is) just a basketball mind. I’ll never forget at halftime, Bob Lanier, a really good center, he came in and he says, ‘I think I could do a better job guarding my guy if I had some help in this position.’ So he says, OK, let me see what you mean. Put that up there. And he says, ‘well, if a guy could come here’ – Bob’s diagram wasn’t very good – but he just said ‘if I could have a guy right here,’ and Don said, ‘OK, what about this. What if we put a guy here, we do that.’ I thought, there’s a guy who has forgot more basketball than most people know, and he’s willing to listen to his player, because his player’s out there on the floor, and do that. I said, that’s pretty impressive. And that’s before I thought about getting into coaching. I thought, he is that comfortable in his own skin and his own knowledge to where he didn’t mind doing that. So I think in some cases, not only is that OK, sometimes I think that’s a good thing. Andrew, he does that from time to time. And other players have done it once they’ve been around and you gain their trust. We were playing Arizona in the (Pac-10) championship and we get the ball, and it’s a last-second shot, and I’m looking at our team to see what our faces look like – are we panicking? Do we know what we’re doing? – and in the midst of doing that, Isaiah Thomas gets the ball, and he’s looking at me, knowing what I’m thinking. He does this (extends hand), like, ‘I got this.’ Go for it. Because there was that trust developed over time. And that one worked out.”

(What are Matisse Thybulle’s strengths as a player?) “Matisse covers so much ground. He puts out fires. Matisse is one of those rare defenders that can guard his own guy and everybody else’s guy. That’s what he does. There was a play in, man, maybe the Colorado game, where he was denying on the wing and they went backdoor. He was denying, and when they threw the pass, he turned and still stole the ball. He’s so quick. He covered so much ground so quickly, it was just very, very impressive. He blocks shots. He gets a lot of deflections off the ball. You throw the ball to someone that’s open, he can close out and get there in a hurry. Lately he’s been hitting big free throws and big shots for us, so we’d like to see him get to the point where he would on a consistent basis probably be able to make more plays offensively.”

(On Thybulle adapting to their defensive structure and learning the principles of the system) “Let me say this – and he was well-coached in high school. I know who his coach was. I’ve mentioned Bobby Jones and Justin Holiday as two guys that came in – those guys came in and we said, ‘all right, the ball is here,’ they said, ‘I’m right here.’ Now, when the ball is driven baseline, you’re supposed to rotate – ‘right here, right coach?’ They knew that. Matisse came in as a very good instinctive defender, but he picked up our concepts once he got here. He picked them up quickly. He’s a quick learner.”

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 4:53 PM with the headline "UW hoops: Lorenzo Romar talks UCLA, UW’s defensive scheme and more."