Day 2 Trippers

Let’s make sure we’ve got this name down. Basketball fans should have known it already. But after Friday’s 59-58 victory by Miami of Ohio over Washington in the first round of the Midwest Regional, any further ignorance will be inexcusable.

First name Wally.

Last name spelled S-Z-C-Z-E-R-B-I-A-K. And if you’re wondering how to pronounce that collision of consonants at the beginning, it sounds like “zer.” But you’ll be forgiven if you said it like “ser,” as in: “Today, Wally served us up,” Washington guard Senque Carey said.

Miami’s Szczerbiak did more than serve. He sliced, diced, minced and pureed. He scored 43 points. He had 12 rebounds. And as if that weren’t enough, he blocked Washington forward Greg Clark’s attempt at a game-winning jump shot in the final seconds.

“That [guy] is unreal, isn’t he?” Carey said.

Oh, he’s real all right. But for some reason, teams outside the Mid-American Conference don’t design special defenses to stop him or designate players to stop him.

Midway through the second half Friday, two Washington players actually ran away from Szczerbiak, leaving him all alone. He had 32 points at the time. The way he was filling it, they shouldn’t have left him unguarded even when he was on the sideline.

Not that Szczerbiak missed that much action. He played the entire first half and checked out for only 49 seconds of the second.

If anything, the Huskies should have left the rest of the team alone and guarded only Szczerbiak and Damon Frierson. Frierson scored 12, meaning the two accounted for all but four of Miami’s points. (John Estick handled those.) Yes, the 10th-seeded RedHawks (23-7) won an NCAA tournament game in which only three of their players scored.

That’s because seventh-seeded Washington (17-12) didn’t exploit the height advantage of center Todd MacCulloch, who scored only two of his nine points after halftime. And the Huskies didn’t do anything to stop the one player who mattered for Miami. “The first couple of possessions, we ran set plays and I got as open as I’ve been all year,” Szczerbiak said. “It seemed every time I drove, there weren’t two or three guys ready to help. I had been used to getting a lot more double-teams in the MAC conference.”

He hinted there and expanded on the concept later, that teams outside the MAC apparently don’t believe the 23.6 points he averaged this season were legitimate because of the level of most of his competition, and they don’t adjust their defenses accordingly. So he scored 34 against Tennessee and 29 points against Fresno State.

“We love when they underestimate our team and underestimate Wally,” Miami guard Rob Mestas said. “Because they become our victims.”

Szczerbiak didn’t boast too much afterward. Perhaps that’s because he can’t even lay claim to being the best scorer in his family; his father Walt, who played in the ABA and in Europe, once scored 65 points in a game in Spain.

Szczerbiak’s best game was 54 points in high school. Before Friday, his best collegiate game was 41 points against Dayton on Nov. 22, 1997. He wasn’t gunning for his record.

“Most games I can keep track of how many points I have,” Szczerbiak said. “Today, I had no idea.”

Sadly for Washington’s Donald Watts, who matched his own career high with 28 points, his point total might be the most overshadowed performance of the tournament thus far.

“The thing that bothers me is not that nobody’s talking about my 28,” Watts said. “It’s that I won’t get another chance to score 28 on Sunday.”

Already, it’s a disappointing tournament for the Pacific 10 Conference. Watching Washington bow out and Arizona follow suit made it impossible not to think of UCLA’s quick exit. Around here, you couldn’t even put UCLA’s disappointing Rose Bowl out of mind. For some reason, the Louisiana Superdome scoreboard that provided updates from other tournament games around the country also kept showing “Wisconsin 38, UCLA 31.”

That’s something most folks in Westwood would rather forget. But it’s doubtful anyone will forget Szczerbiak’s performance Friday. His effort on both ends of the court (he also had three blocks and a steal) was reminiscent of Andre Miller’s 18 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists for Utah against Arizona in last year’s West Regional final.

Miami plays Utah in the second round here Sunday.

That means a full day to get the name right: Szczerbiak . . . Szczerbiak. . . .

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Go to The Times’ Web site for live coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, including scores, game stories, updated brackets, and a chance to enter the “Sweet 16 Game”: https://www.latimes.com/ncaa.