If there was ever anything that embodied the up and down 2011-2012 season of the Washington Huskies Men's Basketball team, it was last night's one point loss to Minnesota.
The Huskies came out inexplicably flat in the first half of a game that was on national TV (sound familiar?), then rallied back by playing the exact way they SHOULD play all the time, only to fall short in the end because they just dug themselves too deep of a hole.
This begs the question - why? This team, on paper, is the most athletically gifted that Lorenzo Romar has had in his 10 seasons in Seattle. I realize that the 2005 team was a #1 seed, and boasted two NBA regulars and several fringe players, but this year's team has four legit NBA prospects (If you tell me Aziz won't get a sniff as NBA player, you clearly never watched the Sonics draft during the mid 2000's). For the first time ever, UW had BIG guards who were freak athletes. Abdul Gaddy is the smallest, and he's 6'3", and for some reason was ranked the #2 overall Point Guard in the class of 2009 behind John Wall. Seriously - explain that to me....
There is size and athleticism on the front line with Aziz (7'0 260), Darnell Gant (6'8" 235), Desmond Simmons (6'7" 230) and ASJ (6'6" 600 pounds of pure muscle). Even when there were highly touted post players in town like Spencer Hawes and Jon Brockman, they were doing most of the work on their own, and they didn't posses that elite level athletic ability that we have now across the board.
Pair all of that with a seriously down Pac-12, and the Huskies should have cake walked through the season into the NCAA tournament. Instead, well, they didn't. It was a struggle. And I mean a STRUGGLE. No offensive flow, defensive breakdowns, bad shots, quick shots, inexplicable shots and inexplicable losses.
Despite all of that, they won 14 conference games and won the league title outright for only the 2nd time in 50 years. And, there were flashes of brilliance - oh my stars, were there their flashes of brilliance.
Like I said, BRILLIANCE...
That's what made this season even more frustrating - the talent was undeniable. But what in the name of high school football held them back? Why was the defense so bad? Why couldn't they...close?
Ah, there it is - there's what we're missing. A closer. Any great team in any sport has a closer. Think about the best teams in sports over the last 20 years. Yankees? Mo Rivera. Lakers? Kobe. Celtics? Pierce. Patriots? Brady. 2005 Huskies? Nate Rob or B-Roy. 2009 Huskies? Brockman. 2010 Huskies? Quincy. 2011 Huskies? IT. 2012 Huskies? Uh.....
What's even more frustrating? There are TWO guys who it could have been! Both Ross and Wroten are so immensely talented, they should be able to take the game over when it's crunch time. Wroten can get to the rim with ease and draw fouls nearly every time. So what does he do? Misses free throws half of the time, and then makes careless and stupid fouls on defense. And my god, the shooting....the shooting....if somebody, ANYBODY (Ryan Appleby?) could teach this kid how to shoot a jumper, he would be damn near unstoppable. Terrence Ross is one of the most physically gifted players to ever come through Seattle. And yet - he simply disappears for long stretches of games. We've seen him take over games exactly four times. USC in 2011, WSU, UCLA and Northwestern this year. That's it. Not to say he hasn't had good games other times, but he hasn't imposed his will on teams. WHY NOT???? HE'S SO MUCH BETTER THAN 99% OF THE PLAYERS IN THE COUNTRY! Maybe he just doesn't have the killer instinct like those other guys do, I don't know - even Wroten has it, he wants the ball, he just doesn't know what to do with it most of the time.
The long and short of it is, I'm exhausted from this season. Exhausted from the what if's, the near misses and absolute deflating moments. The worst part of it is watching a certain 6'8" power forward make nothing but winning plays for Kentucky on their run to the Final Four, while a 5'9" (in shoes) point guard is on his way to winning Rookie of The Year for the Sacramento Kings, even though he was the last player taken in the NBA Draft this past June. Those are the guys that we're missing. Closers.
Until next year....
The Huskies came out inexplicably flat in the first half of a game that was on national TV (sound familiar?), then rallied back by playing the exact way they SHOULD play all the time, only to fall short in the end because they just dug themselves too deep of a hole.
This begs the question - why? This team, on paper, is the most athletically gifted that Lorenzo Romar has had in his 10 seasons in Seattle. I realize that the 2005 team was a #1 seed, and boasted two NBA regulars and several fringe players, but this year's team has four legit NBA prospects (If you tell me Aziz won't get a sniff as NBA player, you clearly never watched the Sonics draft during the mid 2000's). For the first time ever, UW had BIG guards who were freak athletes. Abdul Gaddy is the smallest, and he's 6'3", and for some reason was ranked the #2 overall Point Guard in the class of 2009 behind John Wall. Seriously - explain that to me....
There is size and athleticism on the front line with Aziz (7'0 260), Darnell Gant (6'8" 235), Desmond Simmons (6'7" 230) and ASJ (6'6" 600 pounds of pure muscle). Even when there were highly touted post players in town like Spencer Hawes and Jon Brockman, they were doing most of the work on their own, and they didn't posses that elite level athletic ability that we have now across the board.
Pair all of that with a seriously down Pac-12, and the Huskies should have cake walked through the season into the NCAA tournament. Instead, well, they didn't. It was a struggle. And I mean a STRUGGLE. No offensive flow, defensive breakdowns, bad shots, quick shots, inexplicable shots and inexplicable losses.
Despite all of that, they won 14 conference games and won the league title outright for only the 2nd time in 50 years. And, there were flashes of brilliance - oh my stars, were there their flashes of brilliance.
Like I said, BRILLIANCE...
That's what made this season even more frustrating - the talent was undeniable. But what in the name of high school football held them back? Why was the defense so bad? Why couldn't they...close?
Ah, there it is - there's what we're missing. A closer. Any great team in any sport has a closer. Think about the best teams in sports over the last 20 years. Yankees? Mo Rivera. Lakers? Kobe. Celtics? Pierce. Patriots? Brady. 2005 Huskies? Nate Rob or B-Roy. 2009 Huskies? Brockman. 2010 Huskies? Quincy. 2011 Huskies? IT. 2012 Huskies? Uh.....
What's even more frustrating? There are TWO guys who it could have been! Both Ross and Wroten are so immensely talented, they should be able to take the game over when it's crunch time. Wroten can get to the rim with ease and draw fouls nearly every time. So what does he do? Misses free throws half of the time, and then makes careless and stupid fouls on defense. And my god, the shooting....the shooting....if somebody, ANYBODY (Ryan Appleby?) could teach this kid how to shoot a jumper, he would be damn near unstoppable. Terrence Ross is one of the most physically gifted players to ever come through Seattle. And yet - he simply disappears for long stretches of games. We've seen him take over games exactly four times. USC in 2011, WSU, UCLA and Northwestern this year. That's it. Not to say he hasn't had good games other times, but he hasn't imposed his will on teams. WHY NOT???? HE'S SO MUCH BETTER THAN 99% OF THE PLAYERS IN THE COUNTRY! Maybe he just doesn't have the killer instinct like those other guys do, I don't know - even Wroten has it, he wants the ball, he just doesn't know what to do with it most of the time.
The long and short of it is, I'm exhausted from this season. Exhausted from the what if's, the near misses and absolute deflating moments. The worst part of it is watching a certain 6'8" power forward make nothing but winning plays for Kentucky on their run to the Final Four, while a 5'9" (in shoes) point guard is on his way to winning Rookie of The Year for the Sacramento Kings, even though he was the last player taken in the NBA Draft this past June. Those are the guys that we're missing. Closers.
Until next year....
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