It remains to be seen if C.J. Wilcox, Washington's second-leading scorer who suffered a concussion Sunday, will be available when the Huskies return to the court.

However, coach Lorenzo Romar promised the offense will have a different look for Friday's game against Houston Baptist at Edmundson Pavilion.

No more freelancing. No more high-risk, high-reward maneuvers. And no more experiments.

"Offensively now guys probably won't get as much freedom," Romar said. "I don't mean to play basketball, I mean to go out and take chances and to experiment."

After a humiliating 77-64 defeat at Saint Louis in which Washington trailed by 29 early in the second half, Romar re-examined how he prepares teams early in the season. During his 10-year tenure at UW, the Huskies are 0-9 in road openers on the opposing team's court. Romar took responsibility for those pratfalls.

"I've looked at that quite a bit, and obviously that's my fault," he said. "Early on, as you're putting your team together, a lot of times offensively you kind of let the guys play more just to try to find out who can do what when they're actually playing.

"Sometimes you can restrict players and hold them back and you don't know what they are capable of giving you. I kind of let the guys blow it out early on, probably too much. It usually bites us early because we don't do as good of a job offensively as we should do."

In their first three games, Washington (3-1) averaged 87 points and shot 48.2 percent on three-pointers. The Billikens held the Huskies to 23 points below their scoring average and 33 percent (4 of 12) on three-point shots.

Washington shot 32 percent (9 of 28) from the field and 17 percent (1 of 6) behind the arc in the first half when it fell behind 50-25.

After reviewing the game, Romar said the Huskies did a poor job executing their offense against a Saint Louis defense that's allowing 49 points per game.

"I just don't know if you can simulate a better situation to expose all of your warts and weaknesses than that game," Romar said. "That's good. We know where the bubbles came up in the tire so now we put the patch where we need to put the patch."

The Huskies practiced Tuesday without Wilcox. But Romar is optimistic the sophomore sharpshooter will return this week.

Friday's game against Houston Baptist (2-3) is the final tuneup before Washington enters the toughest part of its schedule — a three-game trip that begins at Nevada followed by games in New York against No. 16 Marquette and No. 6 Duke at Madison Square Garden.

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @percyallen.