Huskies 99 Gonzaga 95: The Lord has Cometh

Lorenzo Lordmar has done it again...

Not that he has beat the Bulldogs before (0-4) but he has built a team regarded as young, unproven, and not as good as Arizona into a Pac-10 title contender (you heard it here first). After the losses of Nate Robinson, Will Conroy and Tre Simmons, most had written off the Huskies in the preseason as a "sleeper" pick in the Pac-10. Not I sayeth the Herm, for the Huskies have the single most important intangible in the game...a very VERY talented coach. Although it's early, but it can be said that Romar should belong with the company of Pitino, Izzo, Williams, and do I dare say it, Coach K. It's easy to place him here for the obvious reasons, winning, but there are more important things that Romar has done that he deserves this credit.

When he came into the program, he recruited guys that were regarded as sub par, i.e. not good enough for Duke, Kansas and North Carolina like Tre, Nate, Will, Jones, and Roy. He coached that team up, played thier stregnths and turned them into one of the greatest UW teams in history. Now, they all left, with only Jones, Roy and Williams to lead a group of freshman. The sports world turned away faster than Michael Irvin can smoke a bowl. Lordmar coached his guys up, recognized thier talents, and have turned them into proven winners...in seven games.

Case and point, tonight, in Seattle, Adam Morrison, Mark Few and his 6th ranked Bulldogs were defeated, even after a 43 point effort from Morrison. I'm not going to talk smack about the Zags, I root for them as long as they're not playing Washington, but this is a game where Gonzaga should have been the better team. THey have senior leadership, talented players and an excellent coach. However, the Dawgs out played them, they had a stride unseen and new to Hec Ed. Not confidence, it was the desire to have confidence. Let me explain.




Freshman G Justin Dentmon and freshman PF Jon Brockman have all the talent in the world, but lack the proven confidence that epitomized the game of Conroy and Robinson. They are confident in their abilities, but not in their team and their place in the realm of NCAA basketball. How could you be? You're 18-19 years old, starting for a team that was a #1 seed a year ago that lost fan favorites that you are to replace. That's a lot of responsibility to place on players that are so young. Put those thoughts to rest my young padiwans, for the force is strong with them.

Lordmar has defeated a team that is well coached and very talented by outplaying them. It wasn't on a stroke of luck like Duke over VT, it was through sheer coaching ability. On the night, the team's freshman, Dentmon, Brockman, and Wallace combined for 26 points, 10 rebs, 7 assists and 5 steals. Without Morrison's god-like performance, the Zags would have been helpless against the Dawgs. Establishing a low post presence was key to this game, Jamaal Williams came up big, making very tough shots, and putting up 22-7-1 with no personal fouls. That kind of low post presence sucked the Gonzaga zone in and Appleby, Jones and Smith rained in threes from outside shooting 50% on 7-14 from behind the arc (sports cliche). A powerful 8 minutes from Hans Gasser (5 pts 4 reb) showed how deep this team can be if needed.

I am excited to watch this team play, but don't get your hopes up. This is still a young team, there will be let downs and bumps in the road. However, look on the bright side, Lordmar hasn't missed a step after losing 3 key players, and this teams future looks bright, very bright.

I got you all in check,

Herm