Huskies don’t buy wimpy image
SAN DIEGO – Washington coach Lorenzo Romar believes a myth has sprouted around his team – that the key to beating the Huskies is beating them up physically.
This conventional wisdom developed after UW’s first-round exit from the Pacific-10 Conference tournament last week. The explanation is likely to stand until the Huskies prove otherwise.
They should get their chance tonight, when they open the NCAA tournament against the Utah State Aggies – a team with a reputation for toughness.
“They’re a bruising team,” UW forward Jon Brockman said. “They pound it down low. Real efficient. They’re going to come after you every time. There’s not going to be a lot of offensive rebounds, because they’re going to box out every time.”
Romar’s response: Bring it on.
“UCLA is as physical as anyone. Cal’s physical,” he said. “Three of those four games, we won. Those were all physical games and our guys didn’t back down at all. I think in those games we may have been the more physical team.
“I wouldn’t say that toughness is a problem with us at all. I would say that we’re even more physical than we were last year, with the addition of Jon Brockman and playing with bigger wings last year with (Brandon Roy and Bobby Jones).”
The toughness issue arose after the loss to Oregon for two primary reasons.
Most notable was Oregon guard Aaron Brook delivering his forearm into the mouth of Washington guard Ryan Appleby, sending him to the locker room where he received six stitches. UW was leading by seven points at the time, but ended up losing 84-73.
Romar points out, however, that over the next 15 minutes the Huskies actually increased their lead to 13.
“This incident happened in the first half, and with 13 (minutes) to go we’re still up, we’re making a run,” Romar said. “That didn’t affect us.”
The issue of toughness also persists, however, because several Huskies agree that they allowed themselves to be pushed around.
“Louisville beat us up (last season, in the NCAA tournament),” senior Brandon Roy said. “Oregon did the same thing. The good thing about it is when Louisville beat us, our season was over. This time, Oregon did it and we have a chance to bounce back. … I think we’re ready to go out there and show everybody that we are tough, and the tough team is going to show up.”