If the Washington Huskies want any shot at competing in the Big Ten and for a spot in March Madness in Danny Sprinkle’s first season at the helm, they’re going to need more from Great Osobor. The hyped transfer from Utah State knows it, stating “I have to be better,” three or four times during his postgame press conference following an 85-61 defeat by the USC Trojans.
For the first few games of the season, Osobor’s struggles have been masked by inferior opponents, as he was still able to finish with respectable numbers, but the Trojans smothered him throughout the afternoon, exposing that Washington’s offense isn’t ready to compete without Osobor.
He finished with 9 points, going 4-11 from the floor and 1-4 from the free throw line, adding 3 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and 4 turnovers to his bottom line. The game brought his field goal percentage down to 39.2 on the season, as the Trojans consistently harassed Osobor every time he caught the ball down low, forcing multiple missed layups.
However, Osobor thinks he knows how to get back on track.
“Our spacing isn’t the best right now,” he said on Saturday. “But we’ll fix that, it’s no one’s fault there’s no one to blame, it’s us. That’s where we’re at right now. I’ve got to be better for sure though, teams are making a conscious effort of packing the paint and sending two or three bodies at me. I’ve got to just finish, it’s tough when there’s three guys there but I’ve got to just finish.”
While that doesn’t fix the fact that when Osobor draws a foul, he’s shooting just 53.4 percent from the free throw line, Sprinkle agreed that he wants to see better spacing from his team, which should open up plenty of opportunities for everyone.
“We call it ball and body movement, sometimes the ball moves but our bodies don’t,” he said. “We’ve got to exchange more, we’ve got to cut more, we’ve got guys that are still chasing the basketball instead of spacing out and it’s really easy to shrink the floor then. But it’s hard to space when they can just put five guys in the paint and until we start knocking down some shots, that’s how teams are going to guard us.”
The Huskies went 5-19 from three-point range, bringing their percentage from deep down to 29.8 on the season. With some non-conference matchups ahead on their schedule, Sprinkle will have a few weeks to get his team right before completely embarking on his tough Big Ten schedule.