Following this weekend’s deflating pair of losses at the Arizona schools, freshman guard Jrue Holiday had one thing on his mind. So on Sunday, Holiday got back in the gym.
“I want to show what I can do and what this team can do,” Holiday said.
He’ll have his chance on Thursday against Washington to get the bad taste of the Arizona trip out of his mouth. It was his worst two-game stretch of the season, totaling six points and seven turnovers in 61 minutes.
Such an off weekend might be a problem for many young players but senior point guard Darren Collison isn’t worried about Holiday.
“He’s one of those players who’s going to naturally keep his head up and bounce back,” Collison said. “It’s not like you don’t have those kinds of games in high school.”
In the Bruins first series against Arizona and Arizona State, Holiday put up a total of six points but bounced back with 16 the next weekend.
FLU SEASON FOR ABOYA: Last week it was Darren Collison and Nikola Dragovic experiencing flu-like symptoms, now senior center Alfred Aboya has a virus. Aboya first began feeling sick on Sunday and missed practice on Monday with severe vomiting.
“I don’t know how I’ll feel tomorrow,” Aboya said. “Right now, I just want to get back to my full strength.”
At 2 o’clock on Tuesday, Aboya said he had not eaten anything since Saturday night and had lost some weight. His availability on Thursday will be crucial as Washington is the No. 3 ranked rebounding team in the country.
“It would be very tough (without Aboya on Thursday) but we know what’s at stake,” Collison said. “I think he’s going to play.”
Washington’s senior forward Jon Brockman is No. 8 in the country in rebounds per game and will be hard to contain even with Aboya in the lineup.
“It’s a big concern whether we’re completely healthy or not,” coach Ben Howland said.
BRUINS NOT GETTING THE CALLS: With only 19 free throw attempts in the past two games, the Bruins have grown frustrated with missed calls and what they see as mistakes by the refs. On Thursday at ASU, a charge call on Darren Collison with 39 seconds left and down two points effectively crushed the Bruins’ chance at a comeback.
“We have to get over that,” Holiday said. “There’s a lot of calls that we’ve seen on film that are completely false. The charge on Darren definitely wasn’t a charge. We talked about it but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
The Bruins’ problems with getting the calls might get worse before they get better with the Huskies coming in on Thursday. Washington attempted 43 foul shots when they beat the Bruins in Seattle.
“Away (from home) we really don’t get calls,” Holiday said. “We’re going to have to be more aggressive and make the refs make calls.”
SWEPT ON THE ROAD A FIRST: Saturday’s loss at Arizona signaled the first time any of the Bruins have been swept on the road. It also means that the Bruins do not control their own destiny in terms of winning the Pac-10. If ASU wins out, the Bruins will not have a chance at the conference title.
“It’s definitely an unfamiliar situation,” senior guard Josh Shipp said. “The freshmen ““ they don’t really understand the severity of it.
“We’ve won (the Pac-10) three years in a row. I’m sure other teams are tired of seeing us celebrate.”