STAYING POWER
Washington leads Iona in scoring despite foul woes
THE SEASON was so young and so fresh then, snow was somebody else’s problem.
Former Iona standout Mike Glover had visited the New Rochelle campus in mid-November to work out with his old team, and as practice wrapped up a few days before the Gaels’ second game, a oneon-one battle was set up for him against current power forward Jordan Washington.
The surrounding players hollered. Asked to choose between the present and past, nearly each player lined up behind their teammate, believing Washington would beat Glover, the star who led Iona to an NCAA Tournament less than five years earlier.
Washington scored first. His teammates chirped. Washington scored second, then, again and again, the cheers growing louder with each basket. At 4-0, the duel was done. “Get out !” Washington yelled at Glover, before playfully shaking hands. “This is my house!”
Washington was just starting his senior season, one that seemed limitless. Last season, the Queens native was an AllMAAC second team selection — averaging 14.2 points and 6.4 rebounds — despite playing just 18.7 minutes per game.
If only Washington could finally stay out of foul trouble.
“We’ve tried to do a lot of things, but he is what he is,” coach Tim Cluess said.
This season, Washington ranks second in the nation in points per minute — increasing last year’s nation-best clip from 0.76 to 0.84, while averaging a team-high 17.4 points and seven rebounds — and is shooting nearly 58 percent from the field. The 6-foot-8 forward’s impact, however, has been capped by his inability to consistently stay on the court. His 20.8 minutes per game ranks sixth on the team.
Part of the problem, Cluess bel i eves, is Washington’s “pure, brute force,” which referees are unaccustomed to seeing in the MAAC. Part of it, Washington knows, is his own fault.
“I’ve just been trying to really control my emotions a lot. I’m trying my best,” Washington said. “It’s just getting angry a lot. It’s getting angry at myself as a player. I can’t get angry like that because it takes a lot of energy out of me as a player. I feel like it brings the team down, so I’ve got to stay with high energy and be positive.”
Perhaps Washington will change one day, but the team knows it can’t always count on its best offensive weapon being available, so a contingency game plan is always in place.
“We’re used to it. It’s not like we’re going into a game, saying, ‘Oh my God, that happened fast,’ ” Cluess said. “It’s more like, when he does it, this is what we’re gonna do. It’s been 50-something games now. He’s an emotional player, and sometimes because of that, his emotions in the moment take over. He sees someone getting beat and he forgets about how many fouls he has and he tries to take a charge or he tries to strip the ball.
“Some of that is the reason why he’s good and some of that also hurts him. You have to live with the not so good part and hope over time he understands how to do it. It may not be for several more years.”
Though Iona has won six of its past seven games and is cranking out 80 points per game, no player besides Washington is averaging more than 12 points per game. No longer do the Gaels have an A.J. English or Momo Jones or Glover, a star the coach knows always will be on the floor in the biggest moments.
“On a day where none of our guys has it going, you don’t have that guy to give the ball to and say go make a play,” Cluess said. “That’s why [Washington’s] value really comes into play more in those games where we’re not shooting well. When he gets in foul trouble during those games, that’s when we have those dry stretches that hurt us.
“I think our guards, almost to a fault, play through him on every possession when he’s in and they don’t play that way when he’s out. Their confidence level and their aggressiveness are sometimes better when he’s not on the court. Some games we have them both going and that’s when we’re good. They don’t play with him enough. It’s hard to get a rhythm going with a lot of new players and a big kid who is only playing 15 to 18 minutes most games. They’re usually playing more without him than with him.”
In the chase for a second straight NCAA Tournament, which will it be?