The Washington Huskies knew they’d have a hard time replacing
Jon Brockman. The pride of Snohomish brought it every game — heck,
every practice — and the current team wasn’t doing that until last
week’s impressive sweep of Stanford and Cal.
For the most part, you can’t fault the Huskies’ effort in
Thursday’s 62-61 loss at UCLA, but it’s becoming clear that the
team doesn’t have anyone they can count on inside. The “bigs” were
MIA again in the loss to the Bruins.
These Huskies are a puzzling bunch. Remember, these sub.-500 Bruins
are not the powerhouse Bruins we’ve come used to watching. And they
weren’t even at full strength, yet they beat the Huskies, who are
still looking for a road win.
Speaking of Brockman, did you seethe rookie’s line the other day in
Sacramento’s 105-103 loss to the Chicago Bulls? 30 minutes, 0
points on 0-1 FG shooting and 14 rebounds, 7 of them offensive
boards.
In Sacramento’s next game, the bullish Brockman made his second
start of the season at center in place of former Husky and good
buddy Spencer Hawes. Brockman had six points, three rebounds and
four fouls in 23 minutes in a loss against Atlanta. He didn’t make
it to the end of the game. In typical Brockman fashion, he struck
his head on a camera while tumbling out of bounds and he had to be
treated for a cut over his left eye.
Brockman was inserted into the lineup to give the Kings some
toughness.
Here’s what the Sacramento Bee had to say about Brockman:
The 6-foot-7 Brockman played 20 of his 30 minutes in the second
half against Charlotte. He grabbed 10 of his career-high 14
rebounds while overseeing a major upgrade in frontcourt defense.
After tallying 38 points in the paint before the break, the Bobcats
had 16 points there in the second half.
The Kings won the other game in which Brockman started (102-100
over Denver on Jan. 9). The rookie from Washington said he is
looking forward to setting a tough-guy tone at the start.
“If we’re the ones back on our heels from the start, it’s going to
take a lot more for us to rear in and start pushing them back,”
Brockman said. “(Huskies coach Lorenzo) Romar always talked about
the first punch … If you come out and you’re the more physical
team, the refs are going to let you play a little more physical and
it’s just going to be a lot easier throughout the night.”
This is what Romar said after Thursday’s loss to
UCLA:
“I think overall, we have to grow up, regroup and mature as a group.”
