No practice, just games for Wilcox

C.J. Wilcox is living the recreational hoop player’s life – no practices, just games.

With his left femur still recovering from a stress fracture, the University of Washington sophomore shooting guard will sit out of practices and just play in games for the foreseeable future, coach Lorenzo Romar said Tuesday.

Wilcox returned to action after missing nearly three weeks with the injury. The only way to treat the injury is with rest.

“It won’t get sore because he won’t practice,” Romar said. “If he can sit out three weeks and do what he did against Arizona, he can do it week to week”

What he did against Arizona was score 15 points and sink two clutch free throws with five seconds left to seal a 69-67 win in Tucson.

Not surprisingly, the area near his hip was a little achy after playing again.

“It was sore,” Wilcox said. “Sunday and Monday I was pretty sore. It feels better today.”

While some players would like the chance to miss out on drills and conditioning and still get to play on the weekend, Wilcox doesn’t like being sedentary.

“I’d rather practice than sit out,” he said. “It gets boring sitting there and watching and not getting reps.”

Wilcox will ride the stationary bike to try to stay in shape. His on-court activities, however, will be minimal.

“I only get 50 jump shots a day,” he said. “Other than that, I can shoot free throws and form shooting.”

But Wilcox will do whatever it takes to still play in games.

“It’s definitely something new, not practicing and going to play full speed,” he said. “It’s kind of tough to do.”

It isn’t new for Romar, who did something similar with Brandon Roy during his junior season when he was recovering from knee surgery.

“Many people feel when Brandon was a junior he didn’t start because we were loaded and he just didn’t start,” Romar said. “He was still rehabbing his knee and he was kind of available if we needed him. There were games when he said, ‘Coach if you don’t need me tonight I’m OK, I’ll sit out so I can rest this.’ We decided it would be better for him to come off the bench instead of starting one game and not starting another game. So that was the closest to this.”

It was evident during Wilcox’s absence how much his presence as a perimeter scorer means to the Huskies.

“Whoever we are playing against has to guard him,” Romar said. “He opens up the floor just because he’s on the floor.”

The players notice the difference.

“With him on the floor, (teams) can’t help on defense,” said freshman guard Tony Wroten. “If you help, it’s three points for him. I feel like he’s the best shooter in the country, and people have to respect that. It makes it easier for Terrence (Ross) and myself to drive.”

But just because Wilcox has been cleared to play and won’t practice during the week doesn’t guarantee him playing every game. Romar is going to be proactive when it comes to the injury.

“Every week is a game-day decision,” Romar said. “If he has just a little pain, if it doesn’t go away at all, he won’t play. He has to be able to function. It’s my call each week.”

GRIFFIN’S DUNK HAS HUSKIES TALKING

The dunk that almost broke Twitter and the pride of Kendrick Perkins had the Huskies’ players talking. All of them had seen the highlight of Blake Griffin’s monstrous dunk over Perkins during Monday night’s Los Angeles Clippers win over the Oklahoma City Thunder numerous times.

It was a topic nationwide on Twitter and the buzz in the basketball world.

“Oh my gosh,” Darnell Gant said. “I saw it last night. It almost broke my computer. That was ridiculous. I’ve never seen anything like that. I wish I was there in person to see that.”

It’s every players worst fear to be “posterized” by being on the receiving end of a nasty dunk. What would Gant have done if he were Perkins?

“I would have deleted my Twitter account too,” he said, drawing laughs. “I would have deleted it ASAP.”

Wroten delivered such a dunk on Arizona State’s Jonathan Gilling on Thursday that was No. 1 on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10 plays.

“It was crazy,” Wroten said of Griffin’s dunk. “He was so high, he just threw it in.”

But he knows that he could be on the receiving end of one someday.

“I feel like everyone has been dunked on before,” Wroten said.

Yes, even him.

“I think it was seventh grade by Dexter Strickland, who’s at North Carolina,” he said. “Obviously, it’s embarrassing. But you just move on, next play.”

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