{"id":2537,"date":"2016-12-02T18:13:10","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T18:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=2537"},"modified":"2016-12-02T18:13:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T18:13:54","slug":"romar-is-a-great-guy-but-maybe-he-needs-some-better-help-in-recruiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=2537","title":{"rendered":"Romar is a great guy, but maybe he needs some better help in recruiting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Terry<\/a><\/p>\n

TERRY MOSHER<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"markelle-fultz\"<\/a><\/p>\n

MARKELLE FULTZ DRIVING IN GAME AGAINST WESTERN WASHINGTON<\/p>\n

I was thinking last night that things aren\u2019t as they appear with the Washington basketball program. And if you do a lot of watching college basketball among the power programs in the country you will see what I have seen and what I mean.<\/p>\n

We have been told the past couple years that the Washington program has collected some remarkable talent and things are going to turn around for a program that has missed March Madness now for five consecutive years after showing some promise in the previous years.<\/p>\n

But if you closely analyze the program as I have done that isn\u2019t so. Yes, the six-foot-four Markelle Fultz, a remarkable and talented freshman from Maryland, is the real deal. He\u2019s smooth, can handle the ball, and is an excellent passer and shooter as well as a scorer.<\/p>\n

It almost stops there, though, in terms of talent. I realized while scrutinizing the roster and watching teams like Indiana, Duke, Kentucky and Kansas and even TCU, which has beaten the Huskies twice in the past week, that coach Lorenzo Romar is not a good talent evaluator. \u00a0Or, at least it seems that way.<\/p>\n

Those other teams and many others have rosters full of guys who can handle the ball, can pass the ball, can shoot the ball and can score. They don\u2019t just have one. They have many.<\/p>\n

Beyond Fultz, however, who else can come close to what he does for the Huskies? David Crisp? Nope. Crisp is a gunner who seldom passes up an opportunity to shoot the ball.<\/p>\n

Matisse Thybulle? He\u2019s closer than any other Husky. But he\u2019s so inconsistent. One night he can score and pass and rebound. Other nights he disappears.<\/p>\n

Malik Dime? C\u2019mon, give me a break. Dime, a 6-9 jumper can block shots, but he\u2019s not a big rebounder and he can\u2019t handle it. Guys his size on other power teams around the country can do what he does and can rebound it and bring the ball up the court if needed. Dime is a rim protector, and that ain\u2019t bad, but that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

Noah Dickerson? He can\u2019t stay on the court longer than a half without getting into serious foul trouble. He is a garbage man who can get sloppy shots and put them back. But can he handle it? Nope. Can he bring the ball up the court? Nope. He\u2019s pretty much another Dime but without the hops that Dime brings.<\/p>\n

Dominic Green? Now there is a guy who has improved dramatically from last season when he was basically a shooter off the bench. He has gotten better at handling it and can slash to the basket. He\u2019s a keeper, but still has room for improvement and definitely would not get much playing time if he was on one of those national power teams.<\/p>\n

Sam Timmins, the 6-10 freshman from New Zealand, would not even get a sniff from national power teams. He is a slow-footed no-handle guy who has a long way to go if he is ever going to be productive at this level.<\/p>\n

Carlos Johnson, 6-4 freshman from Centralia? I actually like this guy. He shows toughness and can handle it a bit. But he doesn\u2019t have a shot. Not yet, anyway. But he has potential.<\/p>\n

I could go on, but it\u2019s obvious when you look at the roster a little closer that this is not a team that is scary. It lacks ball-handlers, it lacks defense and is a team that will be pushed to stay even in the Pac-12. Last year\u2019s team went 19-15 and finished tied for sixth play in the conference with a 9-9 record. This team doesn\u2019t even smell like that team.<\/p>\n

This is a 2016-17 team that barely beat Western Washington in an exhibition game. It had to rally and score 109 points to do that. And the Huskies got beat at home by Yale, which is 2-4 and is now on a four-game losing streak after being beaten 79-70 by Bryant.<\/p>\n

Bryant?<\/p>\n

Virginia beat Yale easily, 62-38. Virginia admittedly is a national power. But that shows you just how far the Huskies have to go to get to the level Virginia is at, and to rub it in a bit, it\u2019s coached by a former Washington State coach \u2013 Tony Bennett.<\/p>\n

I wish Romar well. He\u2019s a great guy and a wonderful human being that we need more of him now that we are living in dangerous times in his country with the results of the recent election.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m beginning to realize that Romar needs better recruiters and get some players who have height and length and can play like a point guard, but can rebound and score inside if the Huskies are going to get back to national prominence.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it for today. I need to get up to the YMCA this morning and get some of my talent back.<\/p>\n

Be well pal.<\/p>\n

Be careful out there.<\/p>\n

Have a great day.<\/p>\n

You are loved.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TERRY MOSHER   MARKELLE FULTZ DRIVING IN GAME AGAINST WESTERN WASHINGTON I was thinking last night that things aren\u2019t as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-column","category-mosher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2539,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537\/revisions\/2539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}