West Coast Bias: Why Andrew Andrews didn't flee Washington

Before Washington's season ended in the opening round of the Pac-12 tournament last March, Dony Wilcher's phone was already buzzing.

BEST IN THE WEST RANKINGS (PRESEASON EDITION):

1. Gonzaga (0-0): Opener against Pitt halted early when court become a slip and slide.

2. Arizona (2-0): Freshman Alonzo Trier's greatest skill is an ability to draw fouls.

3. Cal (2-0): Freshmen have shown promise, but Tyrone Wallace is the early MVP.

4. Oregon (2-0): No Ennis or Bell? No problem. Chris Boucher has been a revalation.

5. Utah (2-0): Edged formidable San Diego State behind 21 from Jordan Loveridge

6. San Diego State (1-1): Dakarai Allen, Winston Shepard bright spots of Utah loss.

7. Oregon State (2-0): Freshmen bring scoring punch to a team that needed it.

8. UCLA (1-1): Season-opening loss to Monmouth did not inspire confidence. 

9. Colorado State (1-0): Quality road win at Northern Iowa was a promising start.

10. Colorado (1-1): Encouraging for the Buffs: George King's unlikely emergence.

College coaches from across the nation called or texted the Portland AAU coach to find out whether one of his former players intended to explore the possibility of transferring.

Washington's Andrew Andrews was an appealing option for programs seeking to fill a hole in their backcourt. Not only was Andrews a dynamic scorer who averaged 18.4 points during his final 11 games last season, the 6-foot-2 guard also was on pace to graduate last spring and thus could transfer without sitting out a year.

As March turned to April and other players began fleeing the struggling Washington program, the volume of calls urging Andrews to join the exodus only increased. NCAA rules prohibited college coaches from contacting Andrews directly until he received a release from his letter of intent, but even coaches he hadn't worked with since middle school received calls pumping them for information or texts asking them to pass along word of a particular program's interest.

"He probably had 15 or 20 schools calling," Wilcher told Yahoo Sports. "Every mid-major on the cusp was trying to get a steal and lots of major-conference schools wanted him too. More than half the schools that called at least on paper were probably better than Washington projected to be this season."

Andrews quietly evaluated his options for about a month after last season ended before making a decision that surprised many of the coaches pursuing him. He would remain at Washington as one of only two returnees from a 2014-15 season that started 11-0 before crashing to a 16-15 finish after the midseason dismissal of center Robert Upshaw.

It would be heartwarming if loyalty to embattled coach Lorenzo Romar was the primary reason Andrews chose to stay at Washington and pilot the Huskies through a transition year, but in reality that was only a small part of it. While Andrews enjoys playing for Romar and is grateful to him for offering a scholarship four years ago when other power-conference schools not, the fifth-year senior stayed mostly because he believed Washington provided a better platform to further his career than other programs could.

When close friend and former McDonald's All-American Nigel Williams-Goss transferred to Gonzaga last spring instead of returning to Washington for his junior season, it created a void at the position Andrews needs to prove to pro scouts he can play. Andrews played point guard in high school, but he has always played him off ball in college alongside highly recruited standouts Tony Wroten, Abdul Gaddy and Williams-Goss.

"That was a huge, huge factor for me staying at Washington," Andrews told Yahoo Sports. "I didn't want to go my entire college career without playing point guard when that was the position I was recruited to be. I would have regretted not getting that chance because I feel like I was never really a natural two guard."

Other programs that put out feelers to Andrews last spring promised playing time at point guard, but the Portland native was pragmatic enough to realize the roster reset at Washington could be advantageous to him.

As the only returning upperclassman on a team welcoming eight talented freshmen and a junior college transfer, Andrews didn't have to worry about splitting time with another point guard or playing a complementary role. He also craved the opportunity to lead a young team to a surprise NCAA tournament bid and leave a lasting legacy at Washington.

"He's shown he can play at that level and hit big shots, but he wants to show he can lead that team," Wilcher said. "Even when four Top 25 schools called and said, 'You can spend your senior year here and the ball's in your hands buddy,' he sat in a dark room and decided to give himself the ultimate test. He said, 'I'm going to stay here and see what I can do.'"

Washington is projected to finish in the bottom half of the Pac-12 because of its youth, but the Huskies got off to a promising start on Friday night in Shanghai. They returned to the fast-paced, turnover-forcing style of the program's heyday, spoiling Shaka Smart's Texas debut with a 77-71 victory over the Longhorns.

Shouldering a bigger burden than he ever has before as Washington's primary scorer and playmaker, Andrews had some good and bad moments in the game. He scored a game-high 23 points and showed leadership whenever Texas mounted a surge, but he also shot poorly from the field and did not register any assists.

While Andrews knows there's room for improvement both individually and collectively, he was both encouraged and relieved by the outcome.

"You don't want to fly that many hours home after a loss," he said. "The biggest thing I was proud of was the resilience we showed. When Texas made its run, we didn't quit. We kept playing hard and kept playing aggressive. We were able to play through adversity."

It will be up to Andrews to keep Washington on an upward trajectory and help pilot the program through a transition season.

As one of the only Huskies who didn't join the exodus out of Seattle last spring, there's no doubt this is his team. Now it's time to see where he can lead it.

THE BACK STORY BEHIND WEDNESDAY'S CLASH OF GIANTS:

The matchup between college basketball's two tallest players exists because of Russell Turner's keen eye for marketing.

Hoping to bankroll a raise for his assistants last spring, the UC Irvine coach searched for an opponent willing to pay the Anteaters to play a road game this season. Someone on the Anteaters staff mentioned Central Florida needed another home game, which got Turner's mind working.

UCF had signed 7-foot-6 incoming freshman Tacko Fall. UC Irvine already had a 7-6 center of its own in Mamadou N'Diaye. Why not set up a game that would not only pay the bills but also potentially generate some publicity?

"It's unusual for us to make a cross-country trip for one game while class is in session, but this seemed like a good enough combination of reasons to do it," Turner told Yahoo Sports. "We're going to get some nice exposure because of the interest in both guys. That could be good for both teams."

Any buzz Wednesday night's clash of giants produces would be welcome for a UC Irvine program overshadowed by the Lakers, Clippers, UCLA and USC in its home market. The Anteaters return eight rotation players from their first NCAA tournament team in school history, yet their rout of Loyola Marymount on Sunday drew only 2,077 people to the Bren Center.

The matchup between N'Diaye and Fall appeared to be in some jeopardy as recently as last week because NCAA officials were still assessing the UCF center's high school transcript and had not yet cleared him to play. The NCAA finally ruled Fall academically eligible on Friday, wisely avoiding the PR hit of sidelining an engineering student who speaks four different languages and is already excelling in calculus and chemistry courses.

Fall, a native of Senegal who played high school basketball in Florida, came off the bench in his college debut Saturday and tallied four points, three rebounds and two blocks in 14 minutes during a 90-85 loss to Davidson. N'Diaye, now in his third season as UC Irvine's starting center, has averaged 11.5 points, six rebounds and five blocks in two games this season despite drawing frequent double and triple teams from opposing defenses.

"He's a dominant player," Turner said. "The stats don't always show the impact he has on a game. In our last game against Loyola Marymount for example, the guy next to him (power forward Mike Best) scored 22 points in large part because of the amount of attention Mamadou draws."

Only two centers taller than N'Diaye and Fall have ever played in the NBA, former Golden State Warriors player Manute Bol and former Washington Bullets player Gheorge Muresan, each at 7-foot-7. The NCAA doesn't track college basketball's towering giants, but only 7-foot-7 former UNC Asheville center Kenny George is known to be taller.

The presence of such a player is often a challenge for opponents not accustomed to a giant altering shots around the rim, but both UC Irvine and UCF experience that in practice every day. The only difference is that the Anteaters have had three years to figure out how best to use their 7-foot-6 center on offense.

"We've had more time with Mamadou, and that's probably the one advantage we have," Turner said. "It's definitely different when there's a guy that size on the court."

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEAN MILLER'S JAB AT UCLA

Sean Miller took a swipe at a rival school Monday night with all the precision of a surgeon wielding a scalpel and all the subtlety of a lumberjack brandishing a chainsaw.

When Arizona secured its 40th straight home victory by routing Bradley, Miller thanked fans for filling 14,500-seat McKale Center no matter the opponent and noted that many other schools couldn't do the same. Miller twice specifically noted a game he watched the previous night in which the stands were half empty.

"I watched a couple games last night like, 'Wow!' That is amazing who's not at the game,'" Miller told reporters in Tucson. "I know there's a lot of traffic, but you wonder if the season ticket was not printed the right way. Did they give the wrong date? The wrong starting time?

"There's a lot of programs right now that for some of these early games, they can't come anywhere close to 14,500. Again, I think it's what separates us as a program. As a young kid, why would you ever want to go to a place where nobody comes to the games? That puts a lot of pressure on their recruiting. For us, if you come here, you have an opportunity to play in front of 14,500, you've got that pregame introduction, you've got the Zona Zoo. It feels like college basketball."

Miller never specifically mentioned a particular school, but he was careful to drop enough breadcrumbs for reporters — and recruits — to figure out he was talking about UCLA. The Bruins edged Cal Poly on Sunday night in front of a sparse crowd of 6,595. In the past, UCLA officials have cited inconvenient start times and Los Angeles gridlock as reasons for why 13,800-seat Pauley Pavlion is often half empty unless the Bruins are facing an elite opponent.

"There are no excuses here in Tucson," Miller said. "When we play a game, everyone knows the start time and they're coming to watch the Wildcats. They're not going to say traffic or this and that."

It's probably no coincidence that Miller took at shot at UCLA at a time when the Bruins have reemerged as a threat to Arizona on the recruiting trail. Steve Alford has three Class of 2016 top 50 recruits signed and two more in the Class of 2017 that have already committed. The most recent addition is five-star forward T.J. Leaf, an El Cajon, Calif., native who backed out of his pledge to Arizona over the summer and signed with UCLA instead last Thursday.

Before this recent UCLA surge, Miller hadn't lost many recruiting battles in California. Seven of the 13 top 50 recruits Arizona signed in the past four recruiting classes hailed from California including Aaron Gordon, Stanley Johnson and Gabe York.

So while the UCLA staff may not a appreciate a rival coach making a thinly veiled reference to their attendance issues, the Bruins probably should take it as a compliment.

They hadn't recruited well enough in years past for Miller to take them seriously as a threat, but they're clearly on his radar now.

DON'T MISS THESE

• Wednesday, Nov. 18: UC Irvine at Central Florida

Comment: When else will you ever see a pair of 7-6 centers square off against one another?

• Thursday, Nov. 19: SMU at Stanford

Comment: The preseason AAC favorites will challenge a shorthanded Cardinal team without its starting backcourt

• Thursday, Nov. 19: Boise State at Arizona

Comment: If Boise State couldn't win at Montana on Friday night, what chance do the Broncos have at Arizona?

• Sunday, Nov. 22: Valparaiso at Oregon

Comment: The dangerous Crusaders return almost every key player from a 29-win NCAA tournament team.

• Monday, Nov. 23: UCLA vs. UNLV (Maui Invitational)

Comment: The winner likely gets a crack at Kansas in the Maui semifinals; The loser likely faces D-II Chaminade.

LAST CALL

Stone Brewing Company is unapologetic about producing so many different irresistable IPAs, so it sought to make that clear in the name of its latest one. "Sorry, Not Sorry" is a newly released imperial IPA brewed with peaches and made in collaboration with Missouri's Four Hands Brewing and Washington's Bale Breaker Brewing. I picked up a bomber at a store last week and also had a glass on tap a few days later. While I wasn't sorry I tried "Sorry, Not Sorry," I wasn't as impressed as I hoped to be either. The crisp piney and citrusy flavors and aromas that I crave in an IPA weren't especially strong in this one, nor were the peach notes for that matter. It's pleasant to drink and masks its nine percent alcohol pretty well, but it's not remarkable. (GRADE: 6.5/10)

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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