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Any Winning in Losing?
Four road games = four loses. So, all is lost? I don’t think so.
Historically, Romar-led teams have tended to start slow out of the gate. This team has proven to be no different.
Today’s contest against Duke was both disappointing and yet encouraging. Yes, this was yet another loss on the road. That, in itself, is hardly good news.
To begin the game, the defensive intensity was evident, but the dawgs seemed to be too tight when they had the ball – an example of this was a rare air ball by C. J. Wilcox. Wroten was the only player who could manage to score with any frequency in the opening minutes. Once the teams seemed to settle in, the Blue Devils found a rhythm and began to pull away. The dawgs seemed to have little ability to deal with the spacing and passing of the Blue Devils. They looked a touch slow in their rotations and were outmaneuvered in the middle as well. Aziz looked a step too slow at times. Could this be a blowout? It sure looked that way in the first half.
What was encouraging, after the break, was that UW was able to make several runs at Duke. Their shots began to fall and the athleticism of Ross and Wroten began to shine. Aziz had to leave the game after a knee sprain, giving them less size in the middle, but added quickness. The Blue Devils had trouble converting their FT’s which allowed UW to chip away at the double-digit lead.
This team is still a work in progress and needs players to step up and take leadership roles. They still lack a go-to guy. One could argue that Ross has the role locked down. This may end up being the case as the season progresses, but I’m not sure that is cast in stone right now. What I saw today was Wroten taking steps in this direction. He could easily blow by his defender time and time again. What has been holding him back from earning the role is his FT shooting. You want the ball in the hands of your clutch performer. If he can’t make his FTs, he’s much less of a threat. Today, Tony showed well in that department, and ended up with 23 points and 6 of 8 shooting from the charity stripe. He often took charge, knowing that he couldn’t be stopped from driving to the basket.
What I was very pleased to see was that UW didn’t always settle on taking outside jump shots. They didn’t get caught being so one-dimensional. A balanced attack is much harder to defend. The result was that they got to the FT line with higher frequency. This was a problem area in the past.
The end result today was a six point loss to the # 7 ranked team in college basketball. Earlier in the week, they dropped a two point loss to # 11 Marquette. Two tough opponents -- both times falling short.
There are positives from this, I believe. Yes, these are losses, but they serve as a pre-season warm up to Pac12 play. This young team needed these road games in order to take steps in the maturation process. The veteran leadership of Scott Suggs will have to wait until next year. Hopefully, his injury will have fully healed by then. In the meantime, a young Tony Wroten is leaning lessons. In my opinion, his growth will be key to the success of this team. This tough road trip has helped him grow, and made him more determined to win...as well as the entire team.
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