UDubSports.com - Huskies still feeling effects of flu

October 28, 2009

Ryan Petitt
UDubSports.com Publisher

FLU HAS HUSKIES BEHIND:

Husky men's basketball coach Lorenzo Romar met with the media on Tuesday and the first order of business was the health of his team. Last week Washington was hit hard with a flu outbreak that sidelined nearly half the roster and cost them precious time.

"It's hard to make a lot of progress when you practice with seven people," said Romar. "It's hard to make any assessments right now because it's as if we've only had three days of practice opposed to seven or eight because of the flu."

Romar also admits they are behind on conditioning but doesn't see it as a major problem because the team showed up in such great shape.

"We had to just make it work, but even those that were here we could only go about an hour and a half. Even with them it becomes counter productive at some point. So yeah, last week we lost some conditioning but that will be regained because we were in really good condition prior to that."

Since a lot of players were not even allowed to watch practice due to fear of further spreading the flu, many things have not been put into the gameplan.

"We just decided there were certain things five-on-five that we wouldn't teach because we would have to re-teach them again. Instead we worked on some other things that would be applicable to the guys that were here."

Thursday is Pac-10 media day and Romar is going to make sure they don't miss any more practices by hurrying back that night for a later than normal practice time.

Speaking of Pac-10 media day, Romar doesn't think anything changes going into the event as Pac-10 champs.

"For me, no, because that is over," Romar said. "If we did it the day after it would be pretty sweet, but that was so long ago and this is a brand new season. We could finish fifth in this league. That is the one thing about sports, you can't rest on what you did yesterday. That is not how we approached this year because it's over. Great that it's in the record books but now we must move on."

THE MYSTERIOUS, SECRET, CLASSIFIED SCRIMMAGE:

The Huskies held a closed scrimmage with the St. Mary's Gaels on Sunday and mum is the word. All coach Romar would say is: "I can just say it was good for us."

Some hints came down right after the game with players like Isaiah Thomas tweeted: "On the bus headed to the airport. We played horrible the 1st 20min but after that we played like Washington basketball suppose to play!"

Romar was expecting some rust especially after missing so much practice time. But this scrimmage was less about the game itself and more about the experience of simulating a road game. They couldn't sleep in their own beds, had an unfamiliar back drop and went through all of their road game routines.

"I just felt it was something that would benefit this team," said Romar. "I think if we had done this last year we could have been more successful in our opener on the road against Portland."

He continued to point out this is a very young team with only one senior and teams in the past probably didn't need that type of experience.

"The team in 06 with four seniors and three of them returning starters and Jamaal Williams was a fifth-year senior who was just like a starter. That team didn't need to play on the road one time before we went, they were ready to go. That was reflected with our road record that year."

WALK-ONS ALREADY HELPING:

Rudy Sharar, a junior guard from Bainbridge Island and Brendan Sherrer, a 6-foot-3 forward have been added to the team as walk-ons. Because of the low numbers available for practice last week Romar said they have already been valuable.

"There are obviously some guys that we will keep around. We will wait and see if anyone is going to be on the roster for the rest of the year. But right now with our numbers being down the guys we have are helping us already. They are doing a good job."

TYREESE BRESHERS IS ON THE WAY BACK

Romar said he's progressing well and has gone full out for two weeks now. However he admitted he's still not all the way back.

"No," Romar said when asked if Breshers is back to 100 percent. "And when I say not back to 100 percent, that means he can't run up and down the court at full speed for an entire game before he gets tired. It means he cant jump as high as he can right now. He's not as quick as he can be because he's sat out a year and a half."

Romar expects him to be 100 percent sometime n January and also said that before the season is over don't be surprised if he's in the starting lineup.

The post is the biggest question mark for the Dawgs entering the season and Breshers is the person Washington needs to fill the void left by Jon Brockman. However, despite a handful of true back to the basket options in the post, Romar sees a team that is more than capable of compensating with athleticism.

"We have to mix and match a little bit," said Romar. Matthew [Bryan-Amaning] is going to do fine scoring. Quincy Pondexter can go down on the low post and score. But again like with many of our teams we are going to just come down and shoot 30 threes a game. We do a lot of penetrating. So although you don't have several guys on your roster that can just catch it down low and get you a bucket, we offset that with our ability to penatrate and get into the paint which will give us similiar shots as we would if we were posted up.

FEATURED PRODUCT