Romar: Abdul Gaddy’s slump is over

Lorenzo Romar clearly didn’t like the implication that Abdul Gaddy was in a slump.

Sure the junior point guard from Bellarimine Prep hadn’t played his best basketball in losses to Nevada, Marquette and Duke. But he wasn’t the only Huskies player who didn’t play his best.

So when Gaddy scored 17 points and finished with zero turnovers in the Huskies’ 87-80 win over UC Santa Barbara on Friday night, Romar was pleased to talk about Gaddy’s performance.

“Abdul Gaddy broke out of his so-called slump tonight,” Romar said.

The Huskies coach doesn’t get irritated, but it’s clear that the talk of Gaddy bothered him.

But Gaddy seemed to take it in stride. He just wanted to play better.

“I just tried to come out and be really aggressive,” Gaddy said. “I was trying to get to the foul line as much as possible – that’s what we’ve been working on all week, just trying to get more people up to the foul line. I was trying to get to the foul line and just be really aggressive.”

There was no hesitancy in Gaddy. He went hard to the basket and looked for his shot instead of deferring.

He took a page from backcourt-mate Tony Wroten, who never seems to lack for aggressiveness or the willingness to look for his shot.

Gaddy said it makes him more aggressive when he plays with Wroten.

“His personality is always aggressive and that’s how he has to play,” Gaddy said. “If he doesn’t be aggressive, then he’s not good. I tell him all the time on the court ‘If you see something, then just go. Just keep being aggressive all the time.’”

He took his own advice.

“I don’t think he defers to anyone,” Romar said. “We’ve seen him play times when he’s aggressive and times when he isn’t. He played with Isaiah (Thomas) last year and he definitely was aggressive. And last year before he got hurt, he was aggressive. When you’re playing basketball and your shots don’t go down, that can definitely affect your aggressiveness. Players have to understand you can be aggressive without shooting the ball though.”

WROTEN’S EMOTIONS

Late in Friday’s game, after two consecutive turnovers and some missed free throws, Romar removed Wroten. The emotional freshman was clearly displeased as he came off the floor. It isn’t the first time that he’s been upset about being taken out of a game.

“He’s just like Will Conroy,” Romar said. “They never want to come out of the game. Will would come out of the game and sit right next to me. And then if I waited too long he would stand next to me and point out something that we need to be doing. After he pointed it out he would stay standing. ‘I got you Will, I got you.’ He never wanted to come out and Tony’s like that. He never wants to come out. That’s not a problem, he did play 34 minutes.”

Wroten understood why he was being taken out and explained the outburst.

“I was frustrated at myself, not Coach Romar,” he said. “He can’t have me in if I can’t make free throws. The other team would have won so I got to stay in the gym and work on my free throws.”

ROMAR’S 200TH WIN

After waiting a few weeks – thanks to three straight losses – Romar finally won his 200th game as coach of the Huskies. In typical fashion, he credited his assistant coaches and players over the years as the reason for his prolonged success.

“It’s a blessing that there’s been longevity here,” he said. “You don’t get any amount of wins and have any success if you don’t have a lot of people around you – from Ken Bone to Cameron Dollar to Paul Fortier, Jim Shaw, Raphael Chillious. The guys that we work with all the time. And Lance LaVettier. We’ve had eight pros play for us. And then Tre Simmons and Hakeem Rollins, guys that were really good that didn’t play in the NBA. We had a lot of good people around us, and when you talk about 200 wins, that’s the reason why. The confidence from our administration has been great. The Dawg Pack as well.”

Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483
ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports

HUSKIES GAMEDAY

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE (9-4) AT WASHINGTON (5-4)

Noon, Alaska Airlines Arena

TV: Root Sports. Radio: 950-AM/102.9-FM

Series: It’s the first meeting between the two teams.

PROBABLE STARTERS

South Dakota State

Name, Pos, PPG, RPG, APG, FG Pct, FT Pct
Nate Wolters, G, 20.5, 5.1, 5.9, .429, .776
Brayden Carlson, G, 6.3, 3.0, 2.7, .417, .577
Griffan Callahan, G, 11.2, 6.6, 0.8, .446, .750
Jordan Dykstra, F,8.2, 0.8, 1.0, .463, .643
Tony Fiegen, F, 7.7, 3.7, 0.8, .477, .621

Washington

Name, Pos, PPG, RPG, APG, FG Pct, FT Pct
Abdul Gaddy, G, 9.6, 3.1, 4.7, .437, .654
C.J. Wilcox, G, 15.4, 3.7, 1.7, .468, .867
Terrence Ross, G, 16.4, 6.8, 2.1, .470, .870
Tony Wroten, G, 15.7, 4.8, 3.0, .495, .508
Darnell Gant, F, 8.9, 4.6, 1.0, .536, .737

Scouting report: Players like Nate Wolters make college basketball great. The 6-4 point guard may play for a relatively unknown midmajor team, but he has major conference talent. The native of St. Cloud, Minn., is averaging 20.5 points and 5.9 assists per game, both in the NCAA’s top 10. Wolters can do a little bit of everything. He can drive to the basket and finish. He can step back and shoot the 3-pointer. And he’s an outstanding passer. The entire offense for the Jackrabbits runs through him.

Washington can counter with any of its four guards, all of them over 6-3 and physical enough to make Wolters work. That may be the best way to wear him down – run fresh bodies at him. The Huskies also must be wary of senior shooting guard Griffin Callahan, who is shooting 41 percent (28-of-68) on 3-pointers this season. The Jackrabbits aren’t big, so Washington will be able to use its four-guard lineup extensively while center Aziz N’Diaye rests his injured left knee. Tony Wroten had an outstanding game in his first start, and his aggressiveness rubs off on teammates.

Next: 7 p.m. Dec. 22, Cal-State Northridge., Alaska Airlines Arena

Ryan Divish, staff writer