The Washington basketball team once again will be shorthanded — No. 2 scorer C.J. Wilcox still isn’t ready to return from stress fracture in his femur — but it will be a lousy excuse Thursday at Arizona State, the first of the usual conference pair in the desert.
“There are two or three teams you look at on the schedule every year and go . . .” said coach Lorenzo Romar Tuesday, putting his hands over his face, feigning fear. “Arizona State is one of them.”
Chief concern is that ASU (6-13, 2-5) likes to slow it down, sit back in a zone and dare the Huskies (12-7, 5-2) to beat them from distance. Washington has mostly solved it, winning five of the past eight games, but it is an annual tooth pull.
Personnel-wise, ASU, losers of eight of their past 10 games, including an embarrassing 64-43 collapse against Utah Saturday, is a mess, so Romar may be inflating the fear factor. The Sun Devils’ top player, 6-4 junior guard Trent Lockett, sat out last two games with a bum ankle, and may not play Thursday.
When healthy, Lockett, who leads ASU in scoring, minutes, field goals and three-point percentage, is most of the ASU team. For the first time in his career, he was forced into the point guard spot to fill a screaming void. Earlier this month, starter Keala King, a 6-4 sophomore, was kicked off the team by coach Herb Sendek for a bad attitude.
He was already the third player penciled in for the spot. Jahii Carson was ruled academically ineligible by the NCAA Dec. 9. His backup, JC transfer Chris Colvin, made too many turnovers and was benched. And now Lockett is limping.
At Montlake, Romar played only seven players in the win Saturday over Stanford, but nearly all had big games, including newcomer Austin-Sefarian Jenkins. Despite fouling out scoreless in 16 minutes, the football refugee was a load such as the Huskies haven’t had since Jon Brockman, now in the NBA.
“The most fun was seeing guys get banged around,” said teammate Terrence Ross. “He moved around like he knew he was the strongest player on the court. You could tell by halftime the other team didn’t like it much.”
Yet Seferian-Jenkins was slowed Tuesday by mild illness. He is scheduled to make the trip, which includes a 4 p.m. game Saturday in Tucson against Arizona that will be nationally televised on ESPN.
“He played with an attitude that said, ‘Yeah, this is the way I play — why is everyone so excited?'” said Romar, smiling. “He’s not one of those players who demands a favor of a coach — ‘No matter what I do, coach, leave me in.’ He earns his minutes by the impact he makes. “
6 Comments
Another great Cameron moment came when Lou walked out to talk to Cameron on 1st during the Chicago series in 2000. Supposedly said something about buying Cisco but he was giving him tips about stealing. Lots of great lines in the is article about that game: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20001004&slug=4046093
Way to go on the archive dive.
I can remember the great skepticism when Cameron came in from the Reds to replace Griffey. Even though he was never the batter Junior was (who was?), Cammy was at least as good a fielder (and didn’t dog it after balls the way Griffey would sometimes), was a good baserunner and a MUCH nicer guy with the fans and in the clubhouse.
I’d like to see Mike Cameron back with the M’s in some capacity, even in the broadcast booth (he couldn’t possibly be as boring a commentator as the cadre of ex-M’s they have now).
All the best to Mike Cameron in his future. We loved him here is Seattle, but we all died a little with each strike out at the plate. But he was a very good player and an even better person. All the best!
Thank you all for responding to this post. Cameron was a pleasure to watch and another great piece of Mariners lore. It would be fun to have him in the broadcast booth, as RadioGuy points out.
The guy is about the most loved average player I have ever seen. Always a contender for the Golden Sombrero, his fielding was overrated. He constantly took a wrong first step. This is partly due to his being a nice guy, and partly due to his speed, and partly due to the fact that everyone wanted to cut a break to the guy with the hard job of replacing a legend. Given what got him kicked off of the Marlins, I am not too confident about what the future holds for Cammy.