Miscues sink UW men's basketball team

They all gathered around to watch the game film.

All of the bad passes. The unguarded double-dribble violations. And all of the miscommunication.

But as the Washington Huskies reviewed Sunday's 96-74 loss to top-ranked UCLA, guard Justin Dentmon seemed to take the reel a little more personally. As he did following the game, he absorbed all of the blame. Then he dissected the game tape to figure out his problems.

One big problem for the Huskies, once again, is turnovers. In last week's losses to UCLA and USC, Washington had a combined 42 turnovers after totaling 20 in the two previous games against Louisiana State and Weber State, both wins at Edmundson Pavilion. Dentmon, who leads the team with 41 turnovers, had four in each loss.

"Watching film, there are things all of us could have done to help prevent what happened," forward Jon Brockman said. "Leaders step up and take the blame, but there's no way that loss was because of Justin."

Dentmon disagreed, saying his teammates accepting fault wouldn't change his mind. He is still trying to find a comfortable role on the team, struggling to mesh his instinct to shoot with his traditional point-guard responsibilities, and has been careless with the ball as he figures his game out.

"It's been really hard," he said. "Sometimes I lose what I am because I think too much. I need to be more careful with the ball and stop thinking too much."

But Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said the carelessness is a team problem and may just be a road kink the players need to correct. Distractions linked to a young team traveling for its first conference road games could have flustered the No. 24-ranked Huskies (10-3, 0-2 Pac-10).

Oddly, Washington has gone 6-3 this season when committing more turnovers than its opponents. But all six wins were against nonconference teams. And with the Huskies having not been outrebounded in any game this season, turnovers could be the only piece that keeps them from tough conference wins.

"It's an issue," Romar said. "We thought we resolved it when we had 11 [turnovers against Weber State] and nine [against LSU] and thought we were headed in the right direction. Then we went back on the road and it reoccurred. It's a team problem."

The Huskies will be home this week. But on Thursday they must face No. 7 Arizona, a potent offensive team with a starting lineup featuring five players Romar expects to see in the NBA soon.

Washington has defeated Arizona (11-1, 2-0) in six of their past eight meetings, but the Wildcats have a chance to send the Huskies to their first 0-3 conference start since Romar's first season in 2004. The Huskies started 1-2 last season, including a 96-95 double-overtime loss to Arizona, but finished 13-5.

"We've been through this before," said Romar, alluding to the Huskies needing to bounce back as they did after a tough loss at Gonzaga on Dec. 9. "We've got to gear up, come back and have the confidence to play the kind of basketball we know we can play."

Brockman agreed that the team could make the correction. He called the turnovers "more of a focus issue and things that we could have prevented very easily.

"We know what life on the road in the Pac-10 is like now," Brockman said. "I wish we could have learned that just one time, but it took two times, and I think we're definitely going to grow from what happened."

Note

• Romar said G Joel Smith, recovering from a stress fracture in his right foot, is off his crutches and is wearing a protective boot. During practice, he removes the boot and does light walking and sliding drills. If his rehabilitation continues successfully, Smith could make his season debut this month.

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com