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PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

October 21, 2016

San Francisco, California

THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar and senior Malik Dime. Coach, an opening remark?

LORENZO ROMAR: We're excited about our season starting, like I'm sure everyone else is. We had a great time this summer going to Australia and New Zealand, playing five ballgames. It helped some of our younger kids get acclimated to what we were trying to do. It allowed everybody to play together. We were allowed to merge the two, the returners as well as the new kids. So we kind of knew what we had coming into the season, and I believe that more than any other year in recent memory for me, we have much more of an idea in terms of our depth and where we're headed earlier in the year as a result. And that's kind of where we are.

Q. Without the three-pointer shot last season in the college game, it was a high percentage, but is there a Stephen Curry factor here? Why so many more three-pointers? And one follow up to that, the rule changes in recent years to increase scoring and make the game more exciting, what's your take on that as well?
LORENZO ROMAR: Well, it's my understanding that points were up six points per game nationally, so something changed in that regard. I don't know if it's necessarily the Steph Curry effect. When you watch the Warriors play, he's not the only one. But I don't know if that's the case. This is not what you want to hear. But where I really noticed it was our summer camp this year with the little kids. All of them are trying to mix each other and shoot from 30. They can barely get it up there, but that's how they're all playing. I hope that's not a trend coming up by the time they get to our level. Probably how you did it, K.C., when you were younger.

Q. Malik, last year you participated, celebrated Ramadan, and you lost quite a bit of weight. How did you deal with that this year?
MALIK DIME: This year being home the first couple of weeks helped me a lot because actually I had time to sleep in and eat more. So by the time I got back, I only had 18 days to go, I think, so it wasn't really that bad. I didn't lose as much. That was a big difference.

Q. When you look around the country, a lot of teams put a lot of responsibility on freshmen. Are you guys prepared to do that with Markelle, and what kind of impact do you think he can have with your program?
LORENZO ROMAR: We got a little experience from it last year in that we had a quite a few freshmen out there on the floor. But I think there are freshmen, all freshmen have to learn. They have to make the adjustment to the level of intensity, the level of concentration it takes on every play. It takes some a little longer than others. I think Markelle is a little unique in that he's farther along in terms of his overall basketball IQ and his talent ability. So I think he's ahead of the curve a little bit. As I mentioned earlier, us being on the trip on the foreign tour this summer helped. I think it helped him, and it helped our group learn to play with him, quicker than it would have if it wouldn't have been there. So I think he'll be fine. I think he'll definitely impact our team in a positive way. I think he's ready to do that.

Q. What was the biggest benefit of playing overseas in Australia? How much of that helps your team develop and grow, and what is your biggest takeaway from that experience, on the court and also from a cultural experience?
MALIK DIME: I think that, first, playing overseas is a different type of game. Maybe the speed in the U.S. is a little bit faster, but out there it's more physical, because most of the people are grown people. So I think it's good for us to know where we're at because we have three new players, and we could test ourselves from the last season. And we grew up a lot and we're playing more together right now, so it was an amazing experience.

Q. Coach, there is a game last year where it was late in the game, crunch time, Huskies ran defense. And Andrew Andrews physically moves one of your players out of position into proper defensive position for an inbounds play. With his presence now no longer with the program, how does your job change losing that guy off the court and on the court as well?
LORENZO ROMAR: Andrew Andrews not being with us is definitely a significant loss. He was in our program for five years. He knew our philosophy. He knew what we were trying to do inside and out more than anyone else. But hopefully when you run a program, you run it so that you can maintain some type of consistency in that regard. Malik right here is our team captain this year. Although he had only spent one year with us because he was a junior college transfer, our guys really, really respect Malik and look up to him.

But the thing with Malik is -- with Andrew last year, there were a bunch of new players that he had to lead. Malik has guys that are a little more experienced this year. So you can just watch our practices and see it's not just Malik that's able to help our guys, but some other guys you can see are teaching on the sides. A guy makes a mistake and he's on the side, and another guy's over there trying to teach him and telling him what he can do better.

So I think collectively we have more experience to be able to be led by, like I mentioned, Malik Dime here.

Q. Your women's team did really well last season. Is that motivation? Do they razz you at all or try to help you get ready to go for this season? Is it an incentive? Malik, what do you think?
MALIK DIME: I mean, I would just say yes, but then again we all got together when everybody got on campus in June, and we talked about what we really need to do to get where we need to be, and everybody is willing to put whatever it takes to get to that point. I think we all just want it, so we're working hard right now and we're going to be ready.

LORENZO ROMAR: For me it was more exciting. We were pulling for them. It was great. It was a great story. Great year.

Q. How do you adjust in terms of recruiting when you've got two players last year that are then gone, and I don't think you even have a fourth-year senior this year. How do you go forward matching guys with top talent, but also maybe wanting to have some guys that can be around and be veterans down the road?
LORENZO ROMAR: People have asked. I mean, all coaches get asked the question quite a bit, are you for or against one-and-dones? And I think I just don't know who is going to -- not many, certainly not Washington is going to see someone that has a one-and-done-level talent. And I say, no, I don't think so. You're only going to be here a year. I don't think that's going to happen. But the key, I believe, is when you have that mixed with veterans. I think if you have several one-and-dones, I know Kentucky's been successful doing it, but even those Kentucky teams had on other older kids that may not have been the featured guys, but behind the scenes they were leading the way.

I think if you have veterans around the one-and-dones, I think it can be very, very beneficial. But for us, we're not making any adjustments in that regard.

I think last year Marquese Chriss and DeJounte Murray who were both first-round picks after a year were the first ones we've had going into the season we didn't know they were going to be one and done. Before you kind of know that they're probably going to be in college a year. We thought it would be a little longer with those guys, so we made the adjustment in terms of recruiting a couple years ago that we're not going to turn down very many kids that are talented. You're not going to wait around. You just keep taking them. Now college basketball seems to be although we as a group are trying to cut this down, it's moving toward free agency. So with 800 kids transferring at the end of the year, and then you have the NBA Draft and you have kids that can be eligible immediately upon transfer after four years, you have to be prepared for it. So you have to make sure that your roster's filled out year-in and year-out.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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