Andy Russo sees some similarities between his struggling Washington basketball team and nationally ranked Kansas.
For one thing, both schools have lost a starting forward to a knee injury. Kansas, of course, doesn’t have Archie Marshall anymore while Washington is without 6-7 soph Ron Caldwell.
“We both have a bunch of young guys, too,” Russo said. “Basically, I see Kansas as similar to us. Except they have Danny Manning and we don’t.”
The Jayhawks will be in Seattle on Monday night to return last year’s visit by the Huskies to Allen Fieldhouse.
Tipoff is 10:40 p.m., Lawrence time, in ancient – it’s 60 years old – Edmundson Pavilion on the UW campus. The game will be nationally televised by ESPN (cable channel 18).
The 39-year-old Russo, in his third year at Washington, remembers in general what Manning did to the Huskies last year in Lawrence.
“All I know is he didn’t have any trouble against us,” Russo said. “I think he made 17 of 19 shots, something like that.”
Actually, the Jayhawks’ 6-10 All-American made 15 of 20 shots in KU’s 82-68 victory. Manning wound up with 32 points and nine rebounds while playing 30 minutes.
But that was in Allen Fieldhouse, not 8,000-seat Edmundson Pavilion.
“If us playing at home can neutralize Danny Manning, so be it,” Russo said. “But I doubt if it will.”
Last year the Huskies seemingly had the size to handle Manning with both seven-footer Chris Welp and 6-10 Phil Zevenburgen in the lineup. They couldn’t do it, though, and both those players are gone now – Welp to the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA where he’s currently on the shelf with a knee injury.
Russo, in fact, has only one returning starter in Eldridge Recasner. The 6-3 sophomore leads the Huskies with a 16.4 scoring average. And even though Recasner is only a sophomore, he’s Russo’s most experienced starter.
Eleven of Russo’s 13 players are either freshmen or sophomores. The other two are seniors, but they seldom play.
“When you start a new program, at one point or another, you’re faced with a transition period,” Russo said. “There’s no question this is the youngest team I’ve ever coached…even in junior college.”
Russo spent two seasons as head coach at Panola Juco in Carthage, Texas, before moving on to Louisiana Tech. After six seasons at Tech, including a 29-3 season in ’84-85, Russo went to Washington where he replaced the retiring Marv Harshman.
Now, after a 19-12 season two years ago and a 20-15 campaign last year, the greenish Huskies are off to a 4-6 start. They’d lost four in a row until they stopped Fairfield, 70-60, in the consolation game of the Utah Classic last week.
One of those six defeats was to No. 1-ranked Arizona in Edmundson Pavilion. The Wildcats won 110-71, and those 110 points were the most a Washington basketball team had ever surrendered.
Washington has played another Big Eight school, too, bowing to Colorado, 75-61, in Boulder, partially because of 22 turnovers and 25 foulds.
In addition to Fairfield, Washington has defeated Portland, New Mexico and Fresno State. The Huskies’ other losses were to Memphis State, DePaul, Arizona State and Northeastern Louisiana.
Clearly, Washington has had a rough schedule so far, certainly rougher than Russo would have liked with such a young and basically small – usually Russo doesn’t start anyone taller than 6-7 – group of players.
“We’re coming along,” Russo said. “It’s never as fast as you’d like…but you have to be realistic.”
The road-weary Jayhawks, who haven’t played at home since Dec. 12, return to Allen Fieldhouse on Wednesday night to meet American University of Washington, D.C., before opening the Big Eight season here next Saturday afternoon agaisnt defending league champ Missouri.
Notes
Brown will start senior Chris Piper in Marshall’s place…Brown also says he’ll indefinitely red-shirt both 6-10 Sean Alvarado and 6-8 Mark Randall this season. Randall is scheduled for jaw surgery next week in Denver…The Missouri game is the last before the start of the second semester, meaning it would also be the finale for any KU player who came up ineligible. Brown has made no announcements, but the Jayhawks are expected to lose at least one player to grades…
