Tonight I can't do the player reviews, finals week is coming up and the profs are loading on the work. Anyways, I'll drop a short review and try to put up a more complete one along with the Maui review at the end of the week
Final Score UW-102 LBSU-75
Offense was much much much better tonight, our shooters were hot, MBA made a bit of a return, Aziz started and C.J. went for 20 points on 6 for 8 from the arc. Gaddy went 3 for 3 from the arc and Isaiah was terrible from range 0-6.
All players who scored scored in the double digits except for Aziz who finished with 1 point. His efforts were stopped short tonight after a scary fall that busted his lip and required stitches at the half. C.J. lead the team with 20, followed by I.T. at 19, Gaddy at 17, MBA at 14, Holiday at 11, Gant and Venoy both put up 10. Terrence Ross and Brendan Sherrer did not score during their play time.
I.T. and Ross lead with 6 boards a piece and UW out rebounded LBSU 36-30, not great, but I'll take what I can get. Still something that needs work from our post players. MBA went a perfect 7-7 from the field btw, a great improvement over his inconsistent play in Maui.
10 steals and 7 blocks today, 4 blocks by MBA. 24 assists on 41 shots, we continue to pass extremely well. The team did a great job of finding the open and hot C.J. Wilcox who was unstoppable tonight. MVP of the game definitely goes to C.J. tonight, he is showing himself to be a major contributer and will get many more minutes. With Suggs injured right now and his still less than stellar play, C.J. and Ross are in prime position to seize minutes as Romar looks to reduce his 10 man rotation to 9.
Yet again, only one bench player scored for LBSU and their high scorer was Casper Ware who had 18, getting 7 from 10 free throw attempts.
Overton had a ridiculous 8 assists, but 3 sloppy turnovers. Isaiah had 6 with 0 turnovers. Darnell was again perfect behind the arc, 2-2.
What Needs Improvement
Rebounding
Still are not where we should be in terms of our post players getting boards. Narrowly out rebounding LBSU is not going to cut it. We should dominate the glass against lower caliber teams, much like we did with McNeese. We have too much size and talent not to do it. When one person goes up for the block, the others need to be looking to rebound.
Fast Breaks
Quite a few turnovers came from sloppy transition basketball where we out ran ourselves. Ross missed a perfectly easy lay in by over rolling the ball instead of banking it off the glass. Overton threw a few sloppy passes as did C.J. on a few occasions. We are fast, but we can't let ourselves get ahead and play out of control.
What Was Good
3 point shot
Except for Isaiah, our team shot amazing behind the arc. If you exclude Isaiah's 0fer stat, we went 14 for 20. Thats 70% folks, absurd. C.J. was a beast on the court tonight.
MBA
Offense, defense, much better tonight. Still not a great rebounding effort, only 5 boards, but perfect from the field along with his 4 blocks and a steal. Maybe Romar should make him come off the bench a little more often, he plays a little tougher. Give him something to prove.
Passing
Another terrific night with over a 50% assist rate on made shots. Keep it up boys.
Final Thoughts (for now)
A good rebound game after tough losses. C.J.'s air ball didn't phase him at all, he is ice cold that kid. Need to keep this momentum and mentality rolling through the week, into the weekend as we face a tougher test at home against Texas Tech who we lost to in overtime last year. Something that could have been avoided had Elston Turner made one of his free throws in the final seconds. Allowed the opposition to shoot a few more threes than I would have liked, 8-19, but our offense was in too much of a rhythm for that to affect us much.
More later this week, I promise.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Long Beach State Preview
Long Beach State is 3-3 on the season, losing 77-80 to Loyola Marymount on Saturday. Their high score of 82 came against San Francisco State. The 49ers are averaging 70.8 points a game and are ranked 109th in adjusted offense according to Kenpom.com while ranking 115th in adjusted defense. Compare this to the Huskies ranked 18th and 12th respectively.
Larry Anderson and T.J. Robinson lead Long Beach State in scoring and rebounding. T.J. Robinson is averaging 13.3 a game, Larry is averaging 12.8 a game (Casper Ware is scoring 13.2 a game as well). T.J. leads the team with 10.5 boards a game and 5.7 for Larry. Eugene Phelps is also averaging 5.7 rebounds a game.
Thus far, in 4 of 6 games, only one bench player has scored for Long Beach, that person scored 6 or less points in said games. They usually run a 7 man rotation, 8 on occasion, more on blowouts. The 5 starters all average 30+ minutes a game, followed by Tristan Wilson at 15.8 and 10.0 by Edis Dervicevic.
Long Beach has a 7 footer on their team, but he averages only 2 minutes a game and has yet to shoot the ball, grab a board, or do anything to get himself on the stat sheet. I doubt we will see him on the floor, so we have size on our size, something I am beginning to love. Their biggest contributing player comes in at 6-8.
This is a game where MBA needs to show he is tough and completely dominate the down low. He needs to get some consistency and some toughness to be the force we need him to be come Pac-10 time. The only way that is happening is if he gets practice in now. Long Beach is a decent rebounding team (38 a game), we have a higher average thanks to the McNeese State game. We need to get the average up due to consistency, not single great performances.
Greg Plater is Long Beaches 3 point specialist going 19 for 48 on the year (.396 overall). He has 3 times the makes of the next player (Larry Anderson). He is also the only starter that doesn't get to the free throw line. Only 3 for 5 on the year compared to 13+ makes on 24+ attempts for the other 4 starters. LBSU is shooting 60.2% on the year.
Long Beach State should be a nice recovery game after a pair of tough losses to top 10 teams in Maui, both games the Huskies has chances to win, but let slip away. The Dawgs should have an easy time this game, but cannot let their guard down and fall into another slump like last season. We need to reestablish ourselves as top 10 talent and Final Four contenders. We need to win out in non conference and put up a great showing come conference time. A record of 16-2 or better along with the tourny title should be our aim. I fully expect a Virginia type blow out on Tuesday.
Starters
Long Beach State
Casper Ware 5-10 170 lb G
Greg Plater 6-1 180 lb SG
Larry Anderson 6-5 205 lb G
Eugene Phelps 6-6 235 lb F
T.J. Robinson 6-8 215 lb F
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185 lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185 lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240 lb F
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
I've said it time and time again, we need to rebound and rebound well. MBA, Aziz, and Holiday are all averaging 7 boards a game, solid, respectable numbers for all three. It's going to take more than 3 players to get us where we need to be. We need a few more players to average 4 to 6 boards a game. If our average gets up to 45 a game, we will be sitting pretty. We cannot continue to be out rebounded by our opponents it costs us games, if you don't believe me, watch the last two minutes of the MSU game. Those two offensive boards by MSU cost us valuable time and at the end, cost us the game.
Shooting Consistency
In each of our wins we have made 12 or more three's, in our losses 6 or less. Hitting the 3 is a dangerous thing, win by the 3, die by the 3. We have many more options than the three ball, our talent is too good and too varied for this to be the case. We need to shoot well regardless of our other options. Holiday has been the most consistent thus far, Gant has stepped up, and Isaiah has struggled. He is getting his points, but his shooting is subpar. Let's hope the poor shooting in the last two games of Maui showed the Huskies the need to drop shots consistently.
Push the Inside
Getting the ball into the middle is going to get our outside shots open. We haven't done a great job of showing a strong, offensive, inside presence for this to work. MBA and Aziz need to step up the offensive scoring to get our perimeter rolling. Aziz is showing great potential, with a lot of strength and new found body control. If he can develop some of the moves MBA has shown the last few games he will be a huge weapon for the Huskies and may take MBA's starting position if MBA doesn't improve his toughness on the block.
Defense
If there has been one consistently good thing about the Husky team, it has been our defense. Game in and game out we have held every opponent under 76 points. Our adjusted defense is 88.6, holding the other team almost 12 points below the average of 99.9. With an average of 10 steals and 5 blocks a game alongside an opponent turnover percentage of 26.7% (over 1 in 4 possessions the opponent turns the ball over) we are a menacing defense to come up against.
What We Should See
I.T. should be looking to come back after some bad shooting performances. His will to be a winner drives him to play and practice hard. If he wants to be Pac-10 player of the year and help lead this team past the Sweet 16 he needs to step up his performances and impact on the game. I would like to say MBA will have his way down low against a skinny post player, but considering the kid averages over 10 boards a game I would say he knows how to get the ball much like Jon Brockman did. MBA needs to step up or get benched like last year when Breshers took the starting role. Aziz may not have the established offensive game we need, but MBA hasn't been consistent either. Aziz has the advantage of showing better skills on the defensive end. Aziz will continue to be an impact player regardless of whether he starts or not. Holiday should continue to stuff the stats with everything from points to boards, steals, assists and everything in between. We always shoot well at home and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be the case on Tuesday. Let's hope C.J.'s airball against MSU doesn't freeze him up in his future performances. We will be returning to our winning ways and dominating performances.
Scoring Prediction
98-66 UW over LBSU
*Update*
It appears Scott Suggs is suffering from a knee injury and will not be playing tomorrow. Venoy Overton is still recovering from his tailbone injury. I have also heard one of LBSU's players is injured, though he only receives 10 minutes a game he will be missed by the already short staffed LBSU team.
Also, this needs to be seen. I thought the Dancing Dawgs was goofy, check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fOuY5un9bs
LBSU has an interesting way to get ready for the season.
Dawg Pack Dirt http://freepdfhosting.com/493e1e6d7c.pdf
Larry Anderson and T.J. Robinson lead Long Beach State in scoring and rebounding. T.J. Robinson is averaging 13.3 a game, Larry is averaging 12.8 a game (Casper Ware is scoring 13.2 a game as well). T.J. leads the team with 10.5 boards a game and 5.7 for Larry. Eugene Phelps is also averaging 5.7 rebounds a game.
Thus far, in 4 of 6 games, only one bench player has scored for Long Beach, that person scored 6 or less points in said games. They usually run a 7 man rotation, 8 on occasion, more on blowouts. The 5 starters all average 30+ minutes a game, followed by Tristan Wilson at 15.8 and 10.0 by Edis Dervicevic.
Long Beach has a 7 footer on their team, but he averages only 2 minutes a game and has yet to shoot the ball, grab a board, or do anything to get himself on the stat sheet. I doubt we will see him on the floor, so we have size on our size, something I am beginning to love. Their biggest contributing player comes in at 6-8.
This is a game where MBA needs to show he is tough and completely dominate the down low. He needs to get some consistency and some toughness to be the force we need him to be come Pac-10 time. The only way that is happening is if he gets practice in now. Long Beach is a decent rebounding team (38 a game), we have a higher average thanks to the McNeese State game. We need to get the average up due to consistency, not single great performances.
Greg Plater is Long Beaches 3 point specialist going 19 for 48 on the year (.396 overall). He has 3 times the makes of the next player (Larry Anderson). He is also the only starter that doesn't get to the free throw line. Only 3 for 5 on the year compared to 13+ makes on 24+ attempts for the other 4 starters. LBSU is shooting 60.2% on the year.
Long Beach State should be a nice recovery game after a pair of tough losses to top 10 teams in Maui, both games the Huskies has chances to win, but let slip away. The Dawgs should have an easy time this game, but cannot let their guard down and fall into another slump like last season. We need to reestablish ourselves as top 10 talent and Final Four contenders. We need to win out in non conference and put up a great showing come conference time. A record of 16-2 or better along with the tourny title should be our aim. I fully expect a Virginia type blow out on Tuesday.
Starters
Long Beach State
Casper Ware 5-10 170 lb G
Greg Plater 6-1 180 lb SG
Larry Anderson 6-5 205 lb G
Eugene Phelps 6-6 235 lb F
T.J. Robinson 6-8 215 lb F
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185 lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185 lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240 lb F
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
I've said it time and time again, we need to rebound and rebound well. MBA, Aziz, and Holiday are all averaging 7 boards a game, solid, respectable numbers for all three. It's going to take more than 3 players to get us where we need to be. We need a few more players to average 4 to 6 boards a game. If our average gets up to 45 a game, we will be sitting pretty. We cannot continue to be out rebounded by our opponents it costs us games, if you don't believe me, watch the last two minutes of the MSU game. Those two offensive boards by MSU cost us valuable time and at the end, cost us the game.
Shooting Consistency
In each of our wins we have made 12 or more three's, in our losses 6 or less. Hitting the 3 is a dangerous thing, win by the 3, die by the 3. We have many more options than the three ball, our talent is too good and too varied for this to be the case. We need to shoot well regardless of our other options. Holiday has been the most consistent thus far, Gant has stepped up, and Isaiah has struggled. He is getting his points, but his shooting is subpar. Let's hope the poor shooting in the last two games of Maui showed the Huskies the need to drop shots consistently.
Push the Inside
Getting the ball into the middle is going to get our outside shots open. We haven't done a great job of showing a strong, offensive, inside presence for this to work. MBA and Aziz need to step up the offensive scoring to get our perimeter rolling. Aziz is showing great potential, with a lot of strength and new found body control. If he can develop some of the moves MBA has shown the last few games he will be a huge weapon for the Huskies and may take MBA's starting position if MBA doesn't improve his toughness on the block.
Defense
If there has been one consistently good thing about the Husky team, it has been our defense. Game in and game out we have held every opponent under 76 points. Our adjusted defense is 88.6, holding the other team almost 12 points below the average of 99.9. With an average of 10 steals and 5 blocks a game alongside an opponent turnover percentage of 26.7% (over 1 in 4 possessions the opponent turns the ball over) we are a menacing defense to come up against.
What We Should See
I.T. should be looking to come back after some bad shooting performances. His will to be a winner drives him to play and practice hard. If he wants to be Pac-10 player of the year and help lead this team past the Sweet 16 he needs to step up his performances and impact on the game. I would like to say MBA will have his way down low against a skinny post player, but considering the kid averages over 10 boards a game I would say he knows how to get the ball much like Jon Brockman did. MBA needs to step up or get benched like last year when Breshers took the starting role. Aziz may not have the established offensive game we need, but MBA hasn't been consistent either. Aziz has the advantage of showing better skills on the defensive end. Aziz will continue to be an impact player regardless of whether he starts or not. Holiday should continue to stuff the stats with everything from points to boards, steals, assists and everything in between. We always shoot well at home and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be the case on Tuesday. Let's hope C.J.'s airball against MSU doesn't freeze him up in his future performances. We will be returning to our winning ways and dominating performances.
Scoring Prediction
98-66 UW over LBSU
*Update*
It appears Scott Suggs is suffering from a knee injury and will not be playing tomorrow. Venoy Overton is still recovering from his tailbone injury. I have also heard one of LBSU's players is injured, though he only receives 10 minutes a game he will be missed by the already short staffed LBSU team.
Also, this needs to be seen. I thought the Dancing Dawgs was goofy, check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fOuY5un9bs
LBSU has an interesting way to get ready for the season.
Dawg Pack Dirt http://freepdfhosting.com/493e1e6d7c.pdf
Friday, November 26, 2010
Maui Review Coming
Now that I have gone through my mourning period, I will be posting a review of the Maui tournament in the next week. I'm going to try to have it up by Tuesday or Wednesday, depends on how fast I can get through my lab work. I plan to discuss what was good, what was bad, what was ok, etc. etc.
I'm also going to post a preview for Long Beach St. by Monday evening, that wont take as long as the Maui review so I'll be able to fit it in for sure.
In other news, Kenpom has us ranked at 10th overall, with Kentucky at 14 and Michigan St. at 8. UConn beat Kentucky by 17 in the finals to take home the title. Cal has the only win against a ranked team in the Pac-10, beating number 21 Temple 57-50. I'm a tad surprised we moved up, but at the same time, it is reasonable considering how well we faired despite poor shooting. As a reference, in our 3 wins we hit 12, 13, and 17 3 pointers while in our losses we have hit a combined 9 for 32. We have other options than our 3 point shot, but it appears against skilled teams, it is a bit of an achilles heel for the Huskies. This is something we need to change if we expect to make a deep run. We have to be more consistent with our shooting and willing to change our game plan if we want to win.
Arizona is the next best team in the Pac-10 ranking in at 15 according to Kenpom, followed by UCLA at 41, ASU at 50, WSU at 57, Stanford is at 61, Cal at 63, USC at 73, Oregon at 115, and OSU is in last at 137. If this is any indication of how the year will play out, expect it to be a two horse race for the Pac-10 title.
Texas A&M and Texas Tech are the best remaining non conference foes on UW's schedule, coming in at 43 and 68 respectively.
We need to win out in nonconference and dominate the Pac-10 if we are to garner any respect and gain high seeding. It would be in the Dawg's best interest to get a 3 seed or higher to avoid playing the 1 seed until the Elite 8. To do this, I would think the Huskies would need to go 16-2 or better and possibly win the Pac-10 tournament. That should be more than enough to gain a 2 or 3 seeding, maybe not a 1, but possibly, depending on other teams' successes.
More later, heads up Dawg fans, there are still many games to played and a lot for our players to learn and master. We will be ready come tournament time, Romar will make sure of that
I'm also going to post a preview for Long Beach St. by Monday evening, that wont take as long as the Maui review so I'll be able to fit it in for sure.
In other news, Kenpom has us ranked at 10th overall, with Kentucky at 14 and Michigan St. at 8. UConn beat Kentucky by 17 in the finals to take home the title. Cal has the only win against a ranked team in the Pac-10, beating number 21 Temple 57-50. I'm a tad surprised we moved up, but at the same time, it is reasonable considering how well we faired despite poor shooting. As a reference, in our 3 wins we hit 12, 13, and 17 3 pointers while in our losses we have hit a combined 9 for 32. We have other options than our 3 point shot, but it appears against skilled teams, it is a bit of an achilles heel for the Huskies. This is something we need to change if we expect to make a deep run. We have to be more consistent with our shooting and willing to change our game plan if we want to win.
Arizona is the next best team in the Pac-10 ranking in at 15 according to Kenpom, followed by UCLA at 41, ASU at 50, WSU at 57, Stanford is at 61, Cal at 63, USC at 73, Oregon at 115, and OSU is in last at 137. If this is any indication of how the year will play out, expect it to be a two horse race for the Pac-10 title.
Texas A&M and Texas Tech are the best remaining non conference foes on UW's schedule, coming in at 43 and 68 respectively.
We need to win out in nonconference and dominate the Pac-10 if we are to garner any respect and gain high seeding. It would be in the Dawg's best interest to get a 3 seed or higher to avoid playing the 1 seed until the Elite 8. To do this, I would think the Huskies would need to go 16-2 or better and possibly win the Pac-10 tournament. That should be more than enough to gain a 2 or 3 seeding, maybe not a 1, but possibly, depending on other teams' successes.
More later, heads up Dawg fans, there are still many games to played and a lot for our players to learn and master. We will be ready come tournament time, Romar will make sure of that
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
University of Kentucky Review
Final Score UK-74 UW-67
I might post a review tomorrow if I have time, I don't know if I will be able to post a preview of the MSU game. School is not canceled tomorrow so I have homework to finish at the moment and I also have lab data to take and a ferry to catch home. I'd also like to take some time to cool off and watch the game again. The reffing was poor and due to our lack of shooting ability tonight, it really hurt us. We should not have let the refs control the outcome, but we did. A complete game changing moment came when Brandon Knight elbowed Overton in the face, no foul was called, a pass was made inside where a foul was called against UW. They went to the monitor after some coaxing and determined it was a technical. Overton made both baskets, but Kentucky retained the ball and took both their foul shots as well, effectively canceling out the technical. If the official had made the proper call when it should have been made it would have been a 5 point game. UW shot themselves in the foot too many times to get the win. They let themselves get out rebounded and out shot. Aziz was one of the few players I thought played well. I give him props for that. If you want a review of the game check out Percy Allen's blog for the Seattle Times, Montlake Madness should put up a review, ESPN will likely have a brief story as well. I may be able to convince Scott to put up a review, but he has less time than I do.
I'll see what I can do and give you what I can later. The one problem with a physics major, or in Scott's case a double science major, is time and homework can really creep up on you if you don't stay completely on top of it.
UW will face Michigan State tomorrow in the 3rd/4th place game.
Scott's thoughts: I agree with John on most of his points. We didn't do enough to win but it would have been interesting to see what happened if some calls had gone the other way. Hopefully we can bounce back tomorrow and take it to MSU. I'm definitely proud of our team for battling back, and I have faith that by tournament time they will be ready to win games like this.
My last thought on the game, until the weekend at least: I'm so glad we have such a classy coach in Lorenzo Romar. I was embarresed for Kentucky fans the way that Calipari behaved during the game, I hope he doesn't behave like that every game. Coach Romar is one of the best things about the University of Washington and I'm glad he's going to be around a long time.
Expect big things out of I.T. tomorrow.
I might post a review tomorrow if I have time, I don't know if I will be able to post a preview of the MSU game. School is not canceled tomorrow so I have homework to finish at the moment and I also have lab data to take and a ferry to catch home. I'd also like to take some time to cool off and watch the game again. The reffing was poor and due to our lack of shooting ability tonight, it really hurt us. We should not have let the refs control the outcome, but we did. A complete game changing moment came when Brandon Knight elbowed Overton in the face, no foul was called, a pass was made inside where a foul was called against UW. They went to the monitor after some coaxing and determined it was a technical. Overton made both baskets, but Kentucky retained the ball and took both their foul shots as well, effectively canceling out the technical. If the official had made the proper call when it should have been made it would have been a 5 point game. UW shot themselves in the foot too many times to get the win. They let themselves get out rebounded and out shot. Aziz was one of the few players I thought played well. I give him props for that. If you want a review of the game check out Percy Allen's blog for the Seattle Times, Montlake Madness should put up a review, ESPN will likely have a brief story as well. I may be able to convince Scott to put up a review, but he has less time than I do.
I'll see what I can do and give you what I can later. The one problem with a physics major, or in Scott's case a double science major, is time and homework can really creep up on you if you don't stay completely on top of it.
UW will face Michigan State tomorrow in the 3rd/4th place game.
Scott's thoughts: I agree with John on most of his points. We didn't do enough to win but it would have been interesting to see what happened if some calls had gone the other way. Hopefully we can bounce back tomorrow and take it to MSU. I'm definitely proud of our team for battling back, and I have faith that by tournament time they will be ready to win games like this.
My last thought on the game, until the weekend at least: I'm so glad we have such a classy coach in Lorenzo Romar. I was embarresed for Kentucky fans the way that Calipari behaved during the game, I hope he doesn't behave like that every game. Coach Romar is one of the best things about the University of Washington and I'm glad he's going to be around a long time.
Expect big things out of I.T. tomorrow.
The difference
As you may have heard, the UW men's basketball team put on a dominating performance last night, absolutely dismantling Tony Bennet's Virginia squad. In two hours they will take on the Kentucky Wildcats in a game which both fan bases are looking forward to and which has been hyped all day on ESPN (Trust me, I've been stuck at home due to snow and there has been nonstop talk about this game from ESPN). I'm not here to hype up the game anymore, especially not the Terrence Jones aspect of it. You all know what happened, and you all want the Dawgs to show Jones what he is missing out on. What I'm here to talk about is what this game means for this team.
Winning this game will put Washington in the top 10 in next weeks AP and Coaches polls. Winning will allow them to dream of a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. A win would show that the Pac-10's best can play with anyone in the country. It would also show that there is something to be said for having multiple juniors and seniors playing big minutes for you, and that Romar can develop talent with the best of them. A win today will allow the Huskies another opportunity at a big win tomorrow night against either UCONN or MSU.
More than anything though, a win tonight would show that this UW team is not like the others. Past Husky teams would go into this game with great expectations, play a decent game, and shoot themselves in the foot too many times to win. They would put up a good effort, but it wouldn't be enough. This team can be different. If they go out tonight and beat Kentucky they will show that they can be the team to take UW back to the Final Four. I would take this team over any UW team of the past few years, and possibly over some of Brandon Roy's teams. If they can pull out a win tonight, this city should get excited. The student section should fill the Dawg Pack, and the Pac-10 conference will bow down to the UW. We can ride into march with a #1 seed and cement Lorenzo Romar as one of the best coaches on the west coast, and that UW has ever seen.
I know you will all be watching, cringing, and celebrating tonight with the rest of us (if only we could turn our excitement into energy maybe Kitsap County would get power back sooner...). Enjoy it, this is the true start to a season for the ages, I can feel it. Try not to get too down if we lose, this team would bounce back from a loss tonight, but if we win, celebrate like there's no tomorrow, cause it means we have finally arrived.
Score Prediction: UW 95 to UK 84.
Winning this game will put Washington in the top 10 in next weeks AP and Coaches polls. Winning will allow them to dream of a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. A win would show that the Pac-10's best can play with anyone in the country. It would also show that there is something to be said for having multiple juniors and seniors playing big minutes for you, and that Romar can develop talent with the best of them. A win today will allow the Huskies another opportunity at a big win tomorrow night against either UCONN or MSU.
More than anything though, a win tonight would show that this UW team is not like the others. Past Husky teams would go into this game with great expectations, play a decent game, and shoot themselves in the foot too many times to win. They would put up a good effort, but it wouldn't be enough. This team can be different. If they go out tonight and beat Kentucky they will show that they can be the team to take UW back to the Final Four. I would take this team over any UW team of the past few years, and possibly over some of Brandon Roy's teams. If they can pull out a win tonight, this city should get excited. The student section should fill the Dawg Pack, and the Pac-10 conference will bow down to the UW. We can ride into march with a #1 seed and cement Lorenzo Romar as one of the best coaches on the west coast, and that UW has ever seen.
I know you will all be watching, cringing, and celebrating tonight with the rest of us (if only we could turn our excitement into energy maybe Kitsap County would get power back sooner...). Enjoy it, this is the true start to a season for the ages, I can feel it. Try not to get too down if we lose, this team would bounce back from a loss tonight, but if we win, celebrate like there's no tomorrow, cause it means we have finally arrived.
Score Prediction: UW 95 to UK 84.
University of Kentucky Preview
Well, I can't act like I haven't been looking forward to this match up. I thought yesterday we might see a bit more of a test from Virginia, but the Dawgs came out on fire. I'm hoping they can continue their stellar performance today against UK.
There is a lot of fan hatred towards Kentucky after two UW verbal commits decided to sign with Kentucky. Arguably, with TJ and EK on our team we would have easily been favorites to win a championship. Such is not the case, none the less we are stocked with top tier talent and team unity that the NBA farm will never have.
Our coach and staff see this as just another game and that's how I'm going to treat it. You can bet that our team knows this is our chance to shine and show off that we can play with the big boys. We have a more reasonable game time (6:30 PST) so there will be a little more coverage and exposure for the program. This is a big time match up that will propel us forward with a lot of momentum should we win.
Kentucky looks beatable. Without Enes, there is definitely a hole in the middle that the Huskies need to use and abuse. They have three stellar freshman and a good junior. Calipari plays an 8 man rotation with 4 to 5 scorers. After Kentucky's main 5 scoring drops to 3.3 ppg. Yesterday against Oklahoma the three freshman, Jones, Knight, and Lamb combined for 66 of their teams 76 points, Jones scoring the team high of 29. As a comparison the UW bench combined for 50 points with our 5 starters combining for 56. We have 8 scorers (by scorers I mean 9+ points per game, I count Aziz because he has 8.7, close enough for me). Our scoring is very spread out and suffers no drop off with subs. This is a great testament to the development of players over a few years versus the one and done method Kentucky is now so fond of. Kentucky is good no doubt, I do not believe they are a top 10 or top 15 team, not with such a limited bench and lack of interior defense. I would also say Kentucky lacks a post player. Jones does a good job of starting wide and driving into the middle, but Kentucky does not have a 5 man.
Kentucky's best shooting guard has to be Doron Lamb. While Knight has made a few three pointers this year as well, Doron looks to have the better shot. Yesterday Doron went 2 for 3 while Knight went 2 for 8 from distance.
The biggest key to complete domination of Kentucky will be our ability to contain Terrence Jones. I would not be surprised to see MBA take over that responsibility as he is a little bigger and stronger than Darnell Gant, but with a 6-10 265 lb forward in the middle, Romar may want to keep MBA home to keep him ineffective (he only scores 3.3 ppg thus far). If I had to guess the defensive assignments I would bet on MBA taking Jones.
This is a game where our size with Aziz may be a huge game changer, if we can find him in the middle and he can take advantage of his strength and height. What is really going to help the Huskies today will be our depth and overall talent. If Jones has to score 29 to shut down the rest of the Kentucky offense, so be it. I'll let one player have a 30 point night if it means we get the win. Our team plays as a team, its not about their stats. Isaiah and Gaddy embody this completely, scoring as they need and dishing out the ball as is needed.
Starting Line Ups
Kentucky
Brandon Knight 6-3 183 lb G
DeAndre Liggins 6-6 202 lb G
Darius Miller 6-7 223 lb G
Terrence Jones 6-9 230 lb F
Josh Harellson 6-10 265 lb F
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185 lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185 lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 240 lb F
Defensive Assignments (UW on Defense)
Isaiah Thomas-Brandon Knight
Abdul Gaddy-DeAndre Liggins
Justin Holiday-Darius Miller
Matthew Bryan-Amaning-Terrence Jones
Darnell Gant-Josh Harellson
Keys to the Game
Defense
Like the Huskies, this game will truly be Kentucky's first test. Oklahoma is not that good and despite the final score, OU had a chance to win the game, getting it within 6 with a few minutes left. If the Huskies can play solid defense, as they usually do, contain the guards, and prevent their perimeter play, we will find a lot of success. The freshman guards looked vulnerable to good defense. The best way to shut down Jones is to prevent him from getting the ball. This is a two fold assignment, not only does MBA/Gant need to be on top of Jones, but our guards need to run intercept and prevention by playing tight and fast. Shutting down UK's ability to shoot the 3 will really help momentum stay on our side.
Shooting
It probably won't be every night that we can shoot 65.4% from range. We saw this against Eastern Washington where we only made 13 on 32 attempts. If our shooting remains high, us it to our advantage. Hitting 17 three pointers puts a lot of pressure on the opposition defense to get out on the perimeter, opening up the middle for action and scoring. As a comparison, you would need 31 makes from 2 point range to equal 17 three pointers. I'm not sure if we can drop 17 again, 12 to 13 seems a more reasonable number considering the stiffer defense we should be facing in Kentucky. We did a fairly good job of getting inside, especially I.T. and Gaddy, we need to keep this up as well.
Bench Players
Playing three games in three days is tough. This is where having a deep bench is very useful. 4 players on Kentucky played 30+ minutes with 3 players playing 35 minutes. Compare this to UW where our maximum play time came from Abdul Gaddy at 26 minutes. Our guys played less time allowing them to stay well rested and prepared for tonight's match up. Our deep bench will allow us to run and run and run, wearing Kentucky into the ground. Our bench has been huge, game in and game out, keeping up the defense and offense. Venoy, C.J., Ross, Suggs, and Aziz, all need to be ready to play all out every play along with the starters.
Fast Breaks
Kentucky has terrible transition defense. Whether they score or we rebound the ball, we need to move it out quickly. Kentucky cannot defend in transition for whatever reason. We excel in fast break situations, so let's continue that trend tonight and use it to maximum advantage. Holiday needs to finish at the rim and Overton needs to step up big and get steals and force turnovers. I.T. should be out in transition often as he should be a great match up for the Kentucky guards.
Rebounding
If we let Kentucky out rebound us, this game will be much tighter than we want. I'll let Jones have his 13 if we win the rebounding battle. It was nice to see everyone grabbing boards, but we need our bigs to do better on the glass. I want to see 45 boards tonight versus 30 for Kentucky. Its a bit of a tall order, but very obtainable with our size and experience.
Score Prediction
This should be a tighter match up. Kentucky is a good team, But I think we have the talent to respond. We play better as a team, sharing the ball and scoring well. 1st overall in scoring and assists per game, 3rd in rebounding, 23rd in shooting percentage. If we play Husky basketball, we will win this one in the end. I'm not sure how to call the scoring on this one. Its tough to judge how both teams will come out
I'll call it 91-80 UW over Kentucky
Our superior bench play and defensive ability will be the game winning differences, along with a better coach.
There is a lot of fan hatred towards Kentucky after two UW verbal commits decided to sign with Kentucky. Arguably, with TJ and EK on our team we would have easily been favorites to win a championship. Such is not the case, none the less we are stocked with top tier talent and team unity that the NBA farm will never have.
Our coach and staff see this as just another game and that's how I'm going to treat it. You can bet that our team knows this is our chance to shine and show off that we can play with the big boys. We have a more reasonable game time (6:30 PST) so there will be a little more coverage and exposure for the program. This is a big time match up that will propel us forward with a lot of momentum should we win.
Kentucky looks beatable. Without Enes, there is definitely a hole in the middle that the Huskies need to use and abuse. They have three stellar freshman and a good junior. Calipari plays an 8 man rotation with 4 to 5 scorers. After Kentucky's main 5 scoring drops to 3.3 ppg. Yesterday against Oklahoma the three freshman, Jones, Knight, and Lamb combined for 66 of their teams 76 points, Jones scoring the team high of 29. As a comparison the UW bench combined for 50 points with our 5 starters combining for 56. We have 8 scorers (by scorers I mean 9+ points per game, I count Aziz because he has 8.7, close enough for me). Our scoring is very spread out and suffers no drop off with subs. This is a great testament to the development of players over a few years versus the one and done method Kentucky is now so fond of. Kentucky is good no doubt, I do not believe they are a top 10 or top 15 team, not with such a limited bench and lack of interior defense. I would also say Kentucky lacks a post player. Jones does a good job of starting wide and driving into the middle, but Kentucky does not have a 5 man.
Kentucky's best shooting guard has to be Doron Lamb. While Knight has made a few three pointers this year as well, Doron looks to have the better shot. Yesterday Doron went 2 for 3 while Knight went 2 for 8 from distance.
The biggest key to complete domination of Kentucky will be our ability to contain Terrence Jones. I would not be surprised to see MBA take over that responsibility as he is a little bigger and stronger than Darnell Gant, but with a 6-10 265 lb forward in the middle, Romar may want to keep MBA home to keep him ineffective (he only scores 3.3 ppg thus far). If I had to guess the defensive assignments I would bet on MBA taking Jones.
This is a game where our size with Aziz may be a huge game changer, if we can find him in the middle and he can take advantage of his strength and height. What is really going to help the Huskies today will be our depth and overall talent. If Jones has to score 29 to shut down the rest of the Kentucky offense, so be it. I'll let one player have a 30 point night if it means we get the win. Our team plays as a team, its not about their stats. Isaiah and Gaddy embody this completely, scoring as they need and dishing out the ball as is needed.
Starting Line Ups
Kentucky
Brandon Knight 6-3 183 lb G
DeAndre Liggins 6-6 202 lb G
Darius Miller 6-7 223 lb G
Terrence Jones 6-9 230 lb F
Josh Harellson 6-10 265 lb F
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185 lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185 lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 240 lb F
Defensive Assignments (UW on Defense)
Isaiah Thomas-Brandon Knight
Abdul Gaddy-DeAndre Liggins
Justin Holiday-Darius Miller
Matthew Bryan-Amaning-Terrence Jones
Darnell Gant-Josh Harellson
Keys to the Game
Defense
Like the Huskies, this game will truly be Kentucky's first test. Oklahoma is not that good and despite the final score, OU had a chance to win the game, getting it within 6 with a few minutes left. If the Huskies can play solid defense, as they usually do, contain the guards, and prevent their perimeter play, we will find a lot of success. The freshman guards looked vulnerable to good defense. The best way to shut down Jones is to prevent him from getting the ball. This is a two fold assignment, not only does MBA/Gant need to be on top of Jones, but our guards need to run intercept and prevention by playing tight and fast. Shutting down UK's ability to shoot the 3 will really help momentum stay on our side.
Shooting
It probably won't be every night that we can shoot 65.4% from range. We saw this against Eastern Washington where we only made 13 on 32 attempts. If our shooting remains high, us it to our advantage. Hitting 17 three pointers puts a lot of pressure on the opposition defense to get out on the perimeter, opening up the middle for action and scoring. As a comparison, you would need 31 makes from 2 point range to equal 17 three pointers. I'm not sure if we can drop 17 again, 12 to 13 seems a more reasonable number considering the stiffer defense we should be facing in Kentucky. We did a fairly good job of getting inside, especially I.T. and Gaddy, we need to keep this up as well.
Bench Players
Playing three games in three days is tough. This is where having a deep bench is very useful. 4 players on Kentucky played 30+ minutes with 3 players playing 35 minutes. Compare this to UW where our maximum play time came from Abdul Gaddy at 26 minutes. Our guys played less time allowing them to stay well rested and prepared for tonight's match up. Our deep bench will allow us to run and run and run, wearing Kentucky into the ground. Our bench has been huge, game in and game out, keeping up the defense and offense. Venoy, C.J., Ross, Suggs, and Aziz, all need to be ready to play all out every play along with the starters.
Fast Breaks
Kentucky has terrible transition defense. Whether they score or we rebound the ball, we need to move it out quickly. Kentucky cannot defend in transition for whatever reason. We excel in fast break situations, so let's continue that trend tonight and use it to maximum advantage. Holiday needs to finish at the rim and Overton needs to step up big and get steals and force turnovers. I.T. should be out in transition often as he should be a great match up for the Kentucky guards.
Rebounding
If we let Kentucky out rebound us, this game will be much tighter than we want. I'll let Jones have his 13 if we win the rebounding battle. It was nice to see everyone grabbing boards, but we need our bigs to do better on the glass. I want to see 45 boards tonight versus 30 for Kentucky. Its a bit of a tall order, but very obtainable with our size and experience.
Score Prediction
This should be a tighter match up. Kentucky is a good team, But I think we have the talent to respond. We play better as a team, sharing the ball and scoring well. 1st overall in scoring and assists per game, 3rd in rebounding, 23rd in shooting percentage. If we play Husky basketball, we will win this one in the end. I'm not sure how to call the scoring on this one. Its tough to judge how both teams will come out
I'll call it 91-80 UW over Kentucky
Our superior bench play and defensive ability will be the game winning differences, along with a better coach.
University of Virginia Review
Final Score: UW-106 UVA-63
Just the Facts
So my prediction was wrong....I underestimated us and overestimated UVA. Even Hosley hit a three this game (his first career score). Only Sherrer was unable to score, sadly. In the first half UW went 8 for 9 from behind the arc. The only miss came off of a near half court shot taken near the end of the first by Isaiah Thomas. UW shot an amazing 17 for 26 from range. Ross, Wilcox, and Thomas all hit 4. Holiday lead the team in rebounding with 9. MBA only managed 8 points and 4 rebounds in limited minutes. Venoy Overton was also a nonfactor scoring 2 points with 4 assists. Speaking of assists, UW had 18 assists on 40 made shots. Holiday lead the team with 6 of the 8 steals UW snatched away. Aziz N'Diaye went perfect from the free throw line, shooting 4 for 4 (all swished by the way). 58% from the field tonight from the Dawgs and 65.4% from range. They also shot 69.2% from the charity line on a 9 for 13 night. Thomas lead the team in scoring with 18. Wilcox put up 17 in only 15 minutes. Ross and Gaddy added 12, Holiday dropped in 11. Suggs, Aziz, and MBA had 8. UW out rebounded UVA 37-32, not great, but better than losing the rebounding war.
Joe Harris had 19 for the Cavs with Harrell adding 14. UVA only made 4 three points the whole night.
The Spin
A completely dominant game for UW. The first few minutes of the game were close as expected, with Virginia taking the early lead. After that the skies opened and 3 pointers rained down from everyone and everywhere from all sorts of range. C.J. was the most impressive, shooting on the run, fading away, from behind the yellow line. He did it all. Holiday, I.T., and C.J. all deserve recognition for their excellence on defense and offense. Romar did well in resting I.T., MBA, and Holiday for what should be an intense game tomorrow against Kentucky (write up coming either later tonight or early tomorrow morning). MBA, while limited in minutes and scoring, was efficient as ever, scoring over opponents at will, banking shots in. Overton just wasn't himself out there. Low scoring, no steals, a good amount of assists. He may still be sore after taking a hard fall against Eastern. He may have been told to take it easy to conserve him for tomorrow. I don't know the reason. Holiday started hot, but had troubles with easy lay-ins throughout the game.
Lets look at the highs and lows of the game.
Needs Improvement
Rebounding
While we won the rebounding game tonight, we only managed 5 more than Virginia. We need to do better than that, especially tomorrow against Kentucky. A good, obtainable goal for the Dawgs should be 45 rebounds a game, with maybe 15 to 20 offensive boards. Holiday was great on the boards tonight, while the bigs again struggled to find consistency. On the plus side, nearly every player grabbed two or more boards. We are getting there, but we still have work to do.
Chaos
We began to get out of control about 6 minutes into the second half jacking up shots and playing slack defense. I partially blame this on Overton and Ross who both played a tad too fast and anxious during that period. It was soon brought back under control by Gaddy and Isaiah. When we get up we need to take control and not let our play get out of hand. This wasn't a common theme throughout the game, but it happened enough times that Romar should think to address it.
What Was Great
Three Point Shooting
Nearly 66% from behind the line is unstoppable, especially considering the 66% was on 17 makes. An 8 for 9 half with the only miss coming off a last second shot is ridiculous. Wilcox looks like he has found his groove and was nailing ridiculous shots I couldn't believe were dropping. Each make just made the night that much better. I think C.J. wants more minutes and he deserves it. He played a complete game (more on this in the player reviews). Isaiah was absurd, Ross was lights out, Suggs even looked pretty good. Hell, even Gant and Hosley went 1 for 1 behind the line. It was impressive to say the least. I'm quite in awe of how well we shot tonight that I'm partially at a loss for words. If you didn't see the game, please watch the replay first chance you get, its well worth it.
Defense
UW did a good job of shutting down Scott, holding him to 11. Harris stepped up big for Virginia by getting 19. He drove really well and this was the one place were UW was sketchy on defense. There was some trouble with our bigs not stepping in to help. C.J. was looking fabulous out there on D. Holiday was ridiculous on steals, nabbing 6 officially, I counted 8 or 9 myself, either way it was just beautiful. Holding Virginia to 39% shooting and 25% from range is a great example of how vicious we can be defensively. Kentucky will be facing a huge test tomorrow against our defense.
Passing
Yet again the Huskies did a great job of sharing the ball. Nearly 50% of all made shots were assisted. Gaddy led the team with 5 assists and Venoy dished out 4. The excellent three point shooting was not only due to our pretty stroke, but our ability to move the ball and find the open man. We did a great job of forcing the middle and dishing back out to the perimeter. This will be a huge strength tomorrow when facing the lacking interior of Kentucky.
Inside Shooting
Gaddy highlighted the interior play, going 6 for 7 from short, 0-2 from long, though one made shot was a half step inside the arc. I.T. was excellent on the drive per usual and looked back in form after last game's subpar outing. He made some impressive shots driving from the baseline.
Player by Player Review
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
Not a bad performance for only 17 minutes of play. 8 points and 4 rebounds is a decent night, but not quite the 20 point, 10 rebound effort we were expecting from him. Chalk it up to good defense by Virginia and lack of overall opportunities for MBA. With almost half our makes coming from downtown, its not surprising that he only scored 8. His rebounding should have been better. Let's hope he shows up strong against Kentucky. Nothing fancy tonight, but nothing to really detract from his performance. His best shot was probably the short jumper over 4 defenders. Admittedly 2 of them were facing the wrong way.
Grade: B
Justin Holiday
11 points on 4 for 10 shooting. I don't know what happened, but Holiday struggled on the break and simple lay-ins. He made a somewhat greedy play opting to shoot on the fast break when I.T. was right by with a far better and much more open shot. He went 2 for 2 on threes. His 6 steals and 9 rebounds were the important contributions he brought to the team. He did a fabulous job on defense as we have come to expect. He did have 3 fouls, a bit unusual for him, but I don't think it'll become a trend. If Holiday can get his short shots down, he'll have a much better offensive night. He also needs to look for the open players on breaks if his shot is not going to be successful.
Grade: B+
Venoy Overton
A down night for Overton. He passed well and was a great team player, but did nothing outside of assists on offense or defense for that matter. He did well controlling his man, but didn't force turnovers like we are used to him doing. He had good speed and did well on his only scoring drive. Not sure the reason for the stat lacking night, but let's hope it clears up by tomorrow. He had a great pass to Gant for a monster dunk.
Grade: C+
Isaiah Thomas
18 points, 4 for 6 on range, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. Great night for I.T. who came out fired up and shot like a demon had possessed him. He played 24 minutes on the night, coming out with about 10 minutes to go in the second if my memory serves me right. It may have been a bit later. All I know is he was enjoying watching UW rain down the points. Personally, I thought he played like the MVP of the game tonight. He was a leader through and through. Defensively, he executed well. Offensively, they had no answer for him. He was not to be stopped. Great night, great shot, great athlete.
Grade: A+
Darnell Gant
4 rebounds and 7 points on 3 for 7 shooting including 1 for 1 from the arc. Defensively, Darnell played very well in front of his man, but fouled too often trying to block shots. We need him to avoid foul trouble so our bigs can get some rest time. He still is developing his shot, but it looked better than it has in the past. Darnell is going to have to step up big tomorrow and play like a champ against Terrence Jones. His long arms were foul prone tonight. We need them to be more effective and straight up. Go for the D rather than the block. He also needs to continue to improve on his glass work. 4 rebounds is nice, but we need him to get 6 or 7. He played his role well overall and its good to see his shot confidence is rising. Once they start falling, we will have another offensive threat on the court.
Grade: B+
Scott Suggs
It looks as though Scott may once again be taking the back seat to more skilled players. While he had a decent performance tonight, shooting 50% on the tres, and grabbing 4 boards, C.J. and Ross definitely looked to be much better all around players on the court. Suggs is still not as strong defensively as I would like to see. He showed some driving ability, but turned the ball over a few times after losing his handle on it. If he can begin to pass out when under pressure and not force the drive to happen, he will be a much better player. We will most likely see his minutes drop the most. I am slightly surprised to see he garnered 23 minutes, while C.J. only played for 15 and Ross for 12. Romar must be seeing something out of him I am not, personally I think C.J. is a much better defender and has a sweet stroke. Whatever Romar sees I hope starts to show more. He isn't a bad player, but of the three shooting wings he seems the weakest.
Grade: B
Brendan Sherrer
No stats for the Cigar today, just 2-3 minutes of play time. Let's hope we keep the smoking chain going.
Grade: A for effort
Aziz N'Diaye
Free throws were out of this world tonight. Much, much better than the McNeese fiasco. As I wrote for that game, he has good form and nearly all of his misses were close. Tonight he aced them all with perfect swishes. Let's hope that kind of shooting stays. Two blocks, two assists, and three rebounds to go along with 8 points. A good night for 15 minutes of play. Like Darnell, we need to get more consistent rebounding out of him. This will allow our guards to get out in transition versus hanging in the back snatching up boards. I am still impressed with how much space he takes up on the court. He gets low on screens making a huge wall to go around. On defense he gets his arms out wide and clogs the lanes. His immense size is going to be very useful the entire season. His best play came on a wonderful hook shot over his opponent's head that banked in. His long arms keep his shot out of reach for most opponents. If he finds a grove against Kentucky we will be in a happy situation.
Grade: B
Abdul Gaddy
While his long ball didn't connect tonight, he shooting game was outstanding. He made 6 of 7 from short including two or three of those beautiful tear drops from the middle of the key. He drove well with fancy spin moves, passed as great as ever, and put up another fantastic performance. It looks like the new and improved Gaddy is here to stay and I'm in love with it. His great play was the missing key to last years team and he will be key in this season's success. His confidence goes up with every made shot and it gets our team going as well. He is a quiet leader on the court, but knows how to take charge and talk with his teammates when he needs to. He pulled Ross over after a sloppy, unnecessary foul and told him how to avoid it next time. He has a great calming effect, which will be huge in the emotional, physical games that tomorrow could turn out to be.
Grade: A
Antoine Hosley
Came in for 3 minutes. Knocked down a three almost immediately. As wonky as his shot is, it sank beautifully. He is on his way to Cigar stardom as well.
Grade: A for effort A+ for sinking that three like a boss.
Terrence Ross
Ross showed why he is a 5 star recruit, no matter what the polls say. 4 for 5 from range on beautiful shots. He showed why he pulls up and takes shots that might make you cringe at first glance. He was a bit rough on defense tonight, picking up some sloppy fouls. That is a freshman mistake that will be corrected with time and practice. I can promise we will be seeing more of him before long. He may not quite be a one and done, but it is not unforeseeable for him to leave after 2 years, though I hope he stays for 4. He did well at getting open and making his shots. Only 2 boards tonight. I'd like to see him with 4 to 5 per 15 to 20 minutes.
Grade: A-
C.J. Wilcox
Another MVP of the game candidate along with I.T. and Holiday, C.J. was absolutely filthy on the floor tonight. His shot was untouchable. He must have hit two near 30 feet out. He nailed fade aways, pull up jumpers, and just plain open shots on the perimeter. On top of his 17 points he put up 3 boards and 4 assists. Defensively he looked better than ever. He was extremely feisty on D, getting low and in the face of his opponent. He controlled their play and tempo and stepped up like a champ. He is looking to be a very promising player, one who should see 20+ minutes a game if he continues to play so efficiently. Play like that will get you more minutes guaranteed. I'm starting to love this kid more and more every game. I hope we get to keep him for 4 years.
Grade: A+
Concluding Thoughts
I thought we played even more dominantly than I thought we would. Our shooting was absurd and our defense was great. While not our best defensive game (allowing a player to get 19 points is not something we want), overall we were effective at holding their offense down. Keeping our percentage at 60% or more while keeping theirs to 40% or less will almost guarantee a win every time. So will 100+ points a game. I like the team effort and the all around scoring our team puts out each and every game. It allows us to be versatile, dangerous, and protects us when players have slump nights as we have others who can step up and perform as we need. If we continue to play as we did today, there isn't a team in the nation that can stop us. Our offense has been too potent, and too varied to be shut down. Our defense has played well, holding opponents to 76 points or less in all 4 games of the year, an average of 68.75 points a game. Kentucky will be much more potent on offense tomorrow so our defense will need to be at its best and our offense needs to maintain its pace. I'll have a full write up tomorrow morning on Kentucky.
Great job tonight boys, let's keep it rolling tomorrow and take the world by storm.
Links
http://www.montlakemadness.com/maui-virginia-game-recap/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013498958_you_want_kentuc.html
http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/112310aaa.html
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/18574/huskies-dominate-big-blue-next
Just the Facts
So my prediction was wrong....I underestimated us and overestimated UVA. Even Hosley hit a three this game (his first career score). Only Sherrer was unable to score, sadly. In the first half UW went 8 for 9 from behind the arc. The only miss came off of a near half court shot taken near the end of the first by Isaiah Thomas. UW shot an amazing 17 for 26 from range. Ross, Wilcox, and Thomas all hit 4. Holiday lead the team in rebounding with 9. MBA only managed 8 points and 4 rebounds in limited minutes. Venoy Overton was also a nonfactor scoring 2 points with 4 assists. Speaking of assists, UW had 18 assists on 40 made shots. Holiday lead the team with 6 of the 8 steals UW snatched away. Aziz N'Diaye went perfect from the free throw line, shooting 4 for 4 (all swished by the way). 58% from the field tonight from the Dawgs and 65.4% from range. They also shot 69.2% from the charity line on a 9 for 13 night. Thomas lead the team in scoring with 18. Wilcox put up 17 in only 15 minutes. Ross and Gaddy added 12, Holiday dropped in 11. Suggs, Aziz, and MBA had 8. UW out rebounded UVA 37-32, not great, but better than losing the rebounding war.
Joe Harris had 19 for the Cavs with Harrell adding 14. UVA only made 4 three points the whole night.
The Spin
A completely dominant game for UW. The first few minutes of the game were close as expected, with Virginia taking the early lead. After that the skies opened and 3 pointers rained down from everyone and everywhere from all sorts of range. C.J. was the most impressive, shooting on the run, fading away, from behind the yellow line. He did it all. Holiday, I.T., and C.J. all deserve recognition for their excellence on defense and offense. Romar did well in resting I.T., MBA, and Holiday for what should be an intense game tomorrow against Kentucky (write up coming either later tonight or early tomorrow morning). MBA, while limited in minutes and scoring, was efficient as ever, scoring over opponents at will, banking shots in. Overton just wasn't himself out there. Low scoring, no steals, a good amount of assists. He may still be sore after taking a hard fall against Eastern. He may have been told to take it easy to conserve him for tomorrow. I don't know the reason. Holiday started hot, but had troubles with easy lay-ins throughout the game.
Lets look at the highs and lows of the game.
Needs Improvement
Rebounding
While we won the rebounding game tonight, we only managed 5 more than Virginia. We need to do better than that, especially tomorrow against Kentucky. A good, obtainable goal for the Dawgs should be 45 rebounds a game, with maybe 15 to 20 offensive boards. Holiday was great on the boards tonight, while the bigs again struggled to find consistency. On the plus side, nearly every player grabbed two or more boards. We are getting there, but we still have work to do.
Chaos
We began to get out of control about 6 minutes into the second half jacking up shots and playing slack defense. I partially blame this on Overton and Ross who both played a tad too fast and anxious during that period. It was soon brought back under control by Gaddy and Isaiah. When we get up we need to take control and not let our play get out of hand. This wasn't a common theme throughout the game, but it happened enough times that Romar should think to address it.
What Was Great
Three Point Shooting
Nearly 66% from behind the line is unstoppable, especially considering the 66% was on 17 makes. An 8 for 9 half with the only miss coming off a last second shot is ridiculous. Wilcox looks like he has found his groove and was nailing ridiculous shots I couldn't believe were dropping. Each make just made the night that much better. I think C.J. wants more minutes and he deserves it. He played a complete game (more on this in the player reviews). Isaiah was absurd, Ross was lights out, Suggs even looked pretty good. Hell, even Gant and Hosley went 1 for 1 behind the line. It was impressive to say the least. I'm quite in awe of how well we shot tonight that I'm partially at a loss for words. If you didn't see the game, please watch the replay first chance you get, its well worth it.
Defense
UW did a good job of shutting down Scott, holding him to 11. Harris stepped up big for Virginia by getting 19. He drove really well and this was the one place were UW was sketchy on defense. There was some trouble with our bigs not stepping in to help. C.J. was looking fabulous out there on D. Holiday was ridiculous on steals, nabbing 6 officially, I counted 8 or 9 myself, either way it was just beautiful. Holding Virginia to 39% shooting and 25% from range is a great example of how vicious we can be defensively. Kentucky will be facing a huge test tomorrow against our defense.
Passing
Yet again the Huskies did a great job of sharing the ball. Nearly 50% of all made shots were assisted. Gaddy led the team with 5 assists and Venoy dished out 4. The excellent three point shooting was not only due to our pretty stroke, but our ability to move the ball and find the open man. We did a great job of forcing the middle and dishing back out to the perimeter. This will be a huge strength tomorrow when facing the lacking interior of Kentucky.
Inside Shooting
Gaddy highlighted the interior play, going 6 for 7 from short, 0-2 from long, though one made shot was a half step inside the arc. I.T. was excellent on the drive per usual and looked back in form after last game's subpar outing. He made some impressive shots driving from the baseline.
Player by Player Review
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
Not a bad performance for only 17 minutes of play. 8 points and 4 rebounds is a decent night, but not quite the 20 point, 10 rebound effort we were expecting from him. Chalk it up to good defense by Virginia and lack of overall opportunities for MBA. With almost half our makes coming from downtown, its not surprising that he only scored 8. His rebounding should have been better. Let's hope he shows up strong against Kentucky. Nothing fancy tonight, but nothing to really detract from his performance. His best shot was probably the short jumper over 4 defenders. Admittedly 2 of them were facing the wrong way.
Grade: B
Justin Holiday
11 points on 4 for 10 shooting. I don't know what happened, but Holiday struggled on the break and simple lay-ins. He made a somewhat greedy play opting to shoot on the fast break when I.T. was right by with a far better and much more open shot. He went 2 for 2 on threes. His 6 steals and 9 rebounds were the important contributions he brought to the team. He did a fabulous job on defense as we have come to expect. He did have 3 fouls, a bit unusual for him, but I don't think it'll become a trend. If Holiday can get his short shots down, he'll have a much better offensive night. He also needs to look for the open players on breaks if his shot is not going to be successful.
Grade: B+
Venoy Overton
A down night for Overton. He passed well and was a great team player, but did nothing outside of assists on offense or defense for that matter. He did well controlling his man, but didn't force turnovers like we are used to him doing. He had good speed and did well on his only scoring drive. Not sure the reason for the stat lacking night, but let's hope it clears up by tomorrow. He had a great pass to Gant for a monster dunk.
Grade: C+
Isaiah Thomas
18 points, 4 for 6 on range, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. Great night for I.T. who came out fired up and shot like a demon had possessed him. He played 24 minutes on the night, coming out with about 10 minutes to go in the second if my memory serves me right. It may have been a bit later. All I know is he was enjoying watching UW rain down the points. Personally, I thought he played like the MVP of the game tonight. He was a leader through and through. Defensively, he executed well. Offensively, they had no answer for him. He was not to be stopped. Great night, great shot, great athlete.
Grade: A+
Darnell Gant
4 rebounds and 7 points on 3 for 7 shooting including 1 for 1 from the arc. Defensively, Darnell played very well in front of his man, but fouled too often trying to block shots. We need him to avoid foul trouble so our bigs can get some rest time. He still is developing his shot, but it looked better than it has in the past. Darnell is going to have to step up big tomorrow and play like a champ against Terrence Jones. His long arms were foul prone tonight. We need them to be more effective and straight up. Go for the D rather than the block. He also needs to continue to improve on his glass work. 4 rebounds is nice, but we need him to get 6 or 7. He played his role well overall and its good to see his shot confidence is rising. Once they start falling, we will have another offensive threat on the court.
Grade: B+
Scott Suggs
It looks as though Scott may once again be taking the back seat to more skilled players. While he had a decent performance tonight, shooting 50% on the tres, and grabbing 4 boards, C.J. and Ross definitely looked to be much better all around players on the court. Suggs is still not as strong defensively as I would like to see. He showed some driving ability, but turned the ball over a few times after losing his handle on it. If he can begin to pass out when under pressure and not force the drive to happen, he will be a much better player. We will most likely see his minutes drop the most. I am slightly surprised to see he garnered 23 minutes, while C.J. only played for 15 and Ross for 12. Romar must be seeing something out of him I am not, personally I think C.J. is a much better defender and has a sweet stroke. Whatever Romar sees I hope starts to show more. He isn't a bad player, but of the three shooting wings he seems the weakest.
Grade: B
Brendan Sherrer
No stats for the Cigar today, just 2-3 minutes of play time. Let's hope we keep the smoking chain going.
Grade: A for effort
Aziz N'Diaye
Free throws were out of this world tonight. Much, much better than the McNeese fiasco. As I wrote for that game, he has good form and nearly all of his misses were close. Tonight he aced them all with perfect swishes. Let's hope that kind of shooting stays. Two blocks, two assists, and three rebounds to go along with 8 points. A good night for 15 minutes of play. Like Darnell, we need to get more consistent rebounding out of him. This will allow our guards to get out in transition versus hanging in the back snatching up boards. I am still impressed with how much space he takes up on the court. He gets low on screens making a huge wall to go around. On defense he gets his arms out wide and clogs the lanes. His immense size is going to be very useful the entire season. His best play came on a wonderful hook shot over his opponent's head that banked in. His long arms keep his shot out of reach for most opponents. If he finds a grove against Kentucky we will be in a happy situation.
Grade: B
Abdul Gaddy
While his long ball didn't connect tonight, he shooting game was outstanding. He made 6 of 7 from short including two or three of those beautiful tear drops from the middle of the key. He drove well with fancy spin moves, passed as great as ever, and put up another fantastic performance. It looks like the new and improved Gaddy is here to stay and I'm in love with it. His great play was the missing key to last years team and he will be key in this season's success. His confidence goes up with every made shot and it gets our team going as well. He is a quiet leader on the court, but knows how to take charge and talk with his teammates when he needs to. He pulled Ross over after a sloppy, unnecessary foul and told him how to avoid it next time. He has a great calming effect, which will be huge in the emotional, physical games that tomorrow could turn out to be.
Grade: A
Antoine Hosley
Came in for 3 minutes. Knocked down a three almost immediately. As wonky as his shot is, it sank beautifully. He is on his way to Cigar stardom as well.
Grade: A for effort A+ for sinking that three like a boss.
Terrence Ross
Ross showed why he is a 5 star recruit, no matter what the polls say. 4 for 5 from range on beautiful shots. He showed why he pulls up and takes shots that might make you cringe at first glance. He was a bit rough on defense tonight, picking up some sloppy fouls. That is a freshman mistake that will be corrected with time and practice. I can promise we will be seeing more of him before long. He may not quite be a one and done, but it is not unforeseeable for him to leave after 2 years, though I hope he stays for 4. He did well at getting open and making his shots. Only 2 boards tonight. I'd like to see him with 4 to 5 per 15 to 20 minutes.
Grade: A-
C.J. Wilcox
Another MVP of the game candidate along with I.T. and Holiday, C.J. was absolutely filthy on the floor tonight. His shot was untouchable. He must have hit two near 30 feet out. He nailed fade aways, pull up jumpers, and just plain open shots on the perimeter. On top of his 17 points he put up 3 boards and 4 assists. Defensively he looked better than ever. He was extremely feisty on D, getting low and in the face of his opponent. He controlled their play and tempo and stepped up like a champ. He is looking to be a very promising player, one who should see 20+ minutes a game if he continues to play so efficiently. Play like that will get you more minutes guaranteed. I'm starting to love this kid more and more every game. I hope we get to keep him for 4 years.
Grade: A+
Concluding Thoughts
I thought we played even more dominantly than I thought we would. Our shooting was absurd and our defense was great. While not our best defensive game (allowing a player to get 19 points is not something we want), overall we were effective at holding their offense down. Keeping our percentage at 60% or more while keeping theirs to 40% or less will almost guarantee a win every time. So will 100+ points a game. I like the team effort and the all around scoring our team puts out each and every game. It allows us to be versatile, dangerous, and protects us when players have slump nights as we have others who can step up and perform as we need. If we continue to play as we did today, there isn't a team in the nation that can stop us. Our offense has been too potent, and too varied to be shut down. Our defense has played well, holding opponents to 76 points or less in all 4 games of the year, an average of 68.75 points a game. Kentucky will be much more potent on offense tomorrow so our defense will need to be at its best and our offense needs to maintain its pace. I'll have a full write up tomorrow morning on Kentucky.
Great job tonight boys, let's keep it rolling tomorrow and take the world by storm.
Links
http://www.montlakemadness.com/maui-virginia-game-recap/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013498958_you_want_kentuc.html
http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/112310aaa.html
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/18574/huskies-dominate-big-blue-next
Friday, November 19, 2010
University of Virginia Preview
The first team the Dawgs will face in Maui are the University of Virginia Cavaliers. The Cavaliers most recently lost to Stanford 60 to 81 in a game that started out close, but ended in a blow out due to the Cavaliers inexperience and lack of endurance, bringing their season record to 2-1. Their two wins come off of low end D1 programs.
Look for UW to capitalize on the experience, endurance, and speed they possess to really run the floor against Virginia. After watching Virginia in their game against Stanford, well mostly just the second half as I was busy watching the Dawgs football team run UCLA the first half, I believe this is a team we can easily beat by 20 or more. If Stanford can do it, we surely can. We can't overlook Virginia completely, but they don't seem to be much of a match up for us.
Virginia is not the highest scoring team, averaging 70 points a game with their season high coming in at 76 points in a win against William and Mary Tribe (who is that?). Their biggest asset is their free throw shooting, going 80.9% on the year thus far and a perfect 11 for 11 against Stanford. With this in mind we need to avoid the fouls that could keep Virginia in this game.
Virginia's main scoring option is 6-8 240 lb F Mike Scott. He is averaging 15 points a game and 9.0 rebounds thus far in the season. He is shooting .556 from the field and a very nice, envy worthy .882 from the free throw line. MBA and Aziz would be smart to ask him his secret. He has played nearly 33 minutes a game, some thing the Huskies can exploit by subbing MBA and Aziz back and forth to keep up the pressure and thoroughly exhaust him.
The two guards for Virginia, 6-4 181 lb Mustapha Farrakhan and 6-2 192 lb Billy Baron are scoring 11.7 points a game a piece with Billy appearing to be the better shooter, hitting 7 for 13 behind the arc while Mustapha is 6 for 18. Both are shooting above 85% from the charity line and dish out a combined 4.4 assists per game. In the game against Stanford, Mustapha went 2 for 7 on the long ball and 4 for 10 from the field. Billy Baron, the Virginia 6th man, went 0 for 4 while the third Virginia "guard", 6-6 202 lb Joe Harris, went 4 for 7 from range.
Virginia has, in its line up and starting line up for that matter, a 7 footer by the name of Assane Sene weighing in at 239 lbs from Senegal. He hails from a different city than Aziz, but attended South Kent prep school in Conneticut. The same school attended by Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Isaiah Thomas. I didn't look too much into the matter, but I would assume the three have some history together as Assane attended South Kent the same time as Isaiah and plausibly MBA as well. While his size may be intimidating, his play is not. He is averaging 1.3 points and 1.3 rebounds a game during 12.7 minutes per game. He had four fouls against Stanford and seems to be foul prone in general. He only took one shot against Stanford and missed. For whatever reason, this big man starts, but does nothing note worthy with his time on the court. This could be a chance for the Huskies to put out a big line up and abuse the 7 footer with our own 7 foot "Star From Dakar". With MBA taking on Mike Scott, Aziz could be a big factor in the complete domination of Virginia. If Aziz and MBA do not play on the court at the same time, I could see either Darnell or MBA guarding Scott. With the ineffectiveness of their 7 footer, it doesn't seem to matter who is guarding him. I would personally like to see Gant take on responsibility of guarding Mike Scott due to his long arms and defensive abilities. This also allows MBA to abuse Assane on the glass (hopefully).
Virginia appears to run a fairly slow offense with an adjusted tempo of 65.1 versus the average of 68.0 and UW's season tempo currently standing at 74.7 (good for 5th in the nation, a category lead somewhat surprisingly by Seattle University at over 79). With the tenacious backcourt the Huskies possess look for Virginia to turn the ball over often. If Isaiah and Overton can come out and grab another 8 to 10 steals between them, this game will be wrapped up in no time.
Starting Line Ups
Virginia
Jontel Evans 5-11 190 lb G
Mustapha Farrakhan 6-4 181 lb G
Joe Harris 6-6 202 lb G
Mike Scott 6-8 242 lb F
Assane Sene 7-0 239 lb C
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185 lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185 lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240 lb F
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
Something the Huskies have been up and down with this season, more down than up thus far. While they are averaging 52 boards a game, good for 2nd in the nation, they have been out rebounded in two of three games including the exhibition. This is something the Huskies need to correct immediately, especially if they are to advance past the first round of the Maui Invitational and expect to compete and win against teams like Kentucky, Michigan St., UConn, etc. Virginia is currently averaging 32 boards a game with Mike Scott leading the team with 9 a game and Will Sherrill coming in next at 4 boards a game. There are no other significant contributers to the rebounding game for Virginia. UW has several players who can rebound and should do everything they can to wipe the glass clean. MBA, Aziz, Holiday, Ross, Gant, even I.T., C.J., and Suggs should be looking to grab some boards at every opportunity. Kind of a tangent, but if I.T. had successfully dunked the ball when going up for the rebound against Eastern, instead of barely missing, hanging on the rim (trying not to die from falling), and gotten T'd up, I think we would have seen a Nate Robinson type reaction from the crowd. If there is something that will revive the some what quiet Dawg Pack this year, it'll be a nasty dunk from our smallest player. So I.T. if you read this, please, smash a dunk in against Long Beach St. when you return home. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. With the Virginia 7 footer appearing to be a nonfactor in every aspect of the game thus far, look for MBA and Aziz along side Gant and Holiday to do work on the glass. If all goes as it should both MBA and Aziz should put up double doubles. Even Holiday could manage to pull in 10+ boards and have a double double of his own. By grabbing 45+ boards in the game, the Huskies would be doing themselves a huge favor in controlling not only the tempo of the game, but the outcome as well. The Huskies have been known for their rebounding the past few years thanks to Brockman and a bit from Pondexter. While early on it appears MBA is moderately successful at bringing in the loose balls, he should have had an easier time of it against Eastern Washington. While 10 boards is nothing to sneeze at, I was expecting 15 to 20 due to his size, skill, and experience advantage. I believe we will find Mike Scott defending MBA on the post, so MBA will have to work harder at rebounding and showing that his high scoring efforts and rebounding stats thus far are not just flukes due to playing low end schools. This is also a chance for Aziz to redeem himself after a slightly disappointing effort against Eastern.
Fouling
The Husky big men have been doing a better job on the whole of avoiding foul trouble, something that will go a long ways towards the success of the season. By avoiding foul trouble they are not only preventing free throws, something critical against good FT shooting teams like Virginia, but it also allows Romar not to force Gant into the post. From the way Romar has been talking about Sherrer and the way he has been given more minutes, I could see Sherrer coming in to take up 5 to 10 minutes a game if both Aziz and MBA get into foul trouble. He is a big body that does a moderately good job at defending his man. He is foul prone, but this is due to his lack of play time experience. Most people would consider it shocking if Sherrer came in in anything but garbage time, I on the other hand see it as a plausible outcome in more desperate situations.
On the other side of fouling, Aziz and MBA could do themselves and the Huskies a huge favor by acting as foul sponges down low against the foul prone Assane. Taking the 7 footer out of the game, despite his limited minutes and impact, allows the UW to have a major size advantage they can use to control every aspect of the game. After the 7 footer, Virginia's size is more comparable to our own with a few players listed at 6-8 and 6-9 and most of them are bench players who do not see that much action. Body control and positioning are the key to the avoiding fouls and causing fouls. If our front court can be as successful as they were against McNeese, this game will be a complete blowout. Not only did MBA and Aziz put up double double in that game, but they fouled out McNeese's two big men, allowing us to abuse the middle.
Defense
We cannot come out flat against Virginia. While the Cavaliers may not be the best team the Huskies will face this year, they are no pushover. They are coached by former WSU coach Tony Bennett who is quite familiar with Romar and the Husky style of play. I think the minds of all our players should be thoroughly focused and anxious for this game. As much as they say they focus one game at a time, this tournament has been on their mind for quite some time. This is their big chance to prove they are competitors and will make a run at the title this season. Isaiah, Gaddy, and Overton will be the first level of hell Virginia has to descend through to make their way to the basket. If the Cavalier guards are as scared as the Eastern and McNeese guards were (over and back call against one guard who backed up over the line trying to avoid Overton) UW should have no problem snatching up 10+ steals and forcing 20-30 turnovers in the game. Holiday and Gant have big responsibilities controlling two of the more potent members of the Virginia offense. Both are great on ball defenders with long arms and a great nose for the ball. MBA should have no trouble with the 7 footer despite the size difference. MBA is stronger, more skilled, and in way better shape from the looks of things.
Shooting
The Huskies did a fairly good job of taking open shots last game, but they just weren't dropping from range. The biggest problem was we seemed to be settling for the 3 ball versus trying to force the middle. Again, the Huskies need to force the ball down low to MBA and our other front court players. They will either take the shot or dish it back out to our open perimeter players. Holiday made a very humbling and impressive statement concerning his sweet, sweet jumper he has been taking from near the top of the key. He said he saw Terrence Ross taking those shots, saw how effective they were and decided that was something he wanted to emulate. For a senior to say that of a freshman is pretty crazy. Not only does it show Holiday's commitment to learning, improving, and winning, but it also shows the skill level Ross possesses. Success on the inside will mean success from range again. Expect I.T. to have his head back in the game. The family issues he was having before the Eastern game definitely showed and Isaiah will be looking to redeem and prove himself to everyone. As a team we need to not settle for the 3 ball. It should become part of our arsenal, but not our last ditch effort. We have the driving skills and inside presence to take over.
Free Throws
Kind of in the same vein as shooting in general, the Huskies need to improve their foul shot. By Huskies, I really mean MBA and Aziz. I would be moderately happy if they could average 65% from the foul line. Making foul shots against foul prone teams is something that helped the 2008-2009 Huskies be so successful the entire year. Jon Brockman stepped up big and developed a deadly foul shot that could not be stopped about half way through the season. Making our free throws will really keep Virginia from making any progress on us. It also keeps momentum on our side.
Other Thoughts
Isaiah has been a utility man this year. He starts off with an 11 assist game, follows that by a 17 point outing, then a 5 steal performance. What will we see from him on Monday against Virginia? In my mind we will see everything. Isaiah is a winner in heart, mind, and performance. We could see him put up 20 points, 6 assists and 3 or 4 steals against Virginia. Overton should also have a beastly game. Maybe not the highest scoring we have ever seen from the senior, but defensively he should really enjoy himself out there. I expect to see him put up between 6 and 8 points while dealing out 5 to 7 assists and creating numerous turnovers. If he picks pockets as easily as he did against Eastern he should grab another 3 to 5 steals. Holiday looks to have found his shot, a beautiful jumper from the top of the key. This shot should not only be successful as a scoring option against a Virginia zone defense, but also as a way to open up MBA down low for some easy lay-ins/dunks. If MBA can make himself available and open, we will be well on our way to another 100 point game. With the so called "Three Headed Monster" of Ross/Suggs/Wilcox coming off the bench, we should expect them to combine for 20 to 30 points. Any one of them could step up and drop 15 on the Cavaliers. Aziz could have another fabulous showing, it all depends on how well he can make room for himself and convert.
This should be an exciting game to watch as a Husky fan. Virginia offers up some stiffer competition, that while still not top tier, is definitely better than what we have been facing. Some questions should be answered for the Dawgs today. Is MBA really improved or is this just like last season with a fantastic start and terrible first half of the year? Has Gant been able to improve to a point where he could get 20 minutes a game? How good has Gaddy become? Is he back to his All-American status? Who, out of Ross, Suggs, and Wilcox, will step up with some consistency and earn themselves major minutes? And lastly, how good are the Huskies? A first round loss would be a terrible blow to not only the team moral, but also how the Huskies and Pac-10 are viewed by the media. The Huskies should be able to get through the first round fairly easily and should have a tough game in the second round if they face Kentucky. I haven't seen as much of Oklahoma's ability as I would like so I can't really judge how well the Huskies would fare against them. Winning the tournament, most likely a final game against Michigan St the current number 2 team in the nation, would propel the Huskies into the top ten, possibly the top 5. It would also prove we are here to play, we can win and win big, and its not just due to a weak Pac-10 that we find success so often. Winning the tournament is a very real possibility if we find our rhythm and chemistry. It'll be interesting to see how playing time is dished out once we find ourselves against a tough team. My best guess is only two of the "three headed monster" will see significant time. I.T., Overton, and Gaddy should not be greatly affected as all three are now deadly efficient on the floor. Holiday and Gant will probably sub in and out with Ross. Leaving MBA, Aziz, and maybe Gant to play the low post minutes. The tougher games will probably see MBA and Gant or Gant and Aziz on the floor 80% of the time. We may see MBA and Aziz sharing the court, but not as often, at least 'til our big men can show they aren't going to get into foul trouble.
Score Prediction
This one is a little tougher for me to judge. Stanford put up 81 on Virginia. Mostly due to Jeremy Green dropping 21 on a 5 for 9 from range night. Stanford has one great shooter, we have a boat load. We have several players that could put up 20+ against Virginia, mainly MBA, I.T. and Holiday. If all three have 20 point nights this game won't be close in any sense of the word. Gaddy should have another stunning performance on Monday, putting up 10+ point, multiple assists, etc. I have high hopes for this game. Could we see the Huskies put up 100+? 110+? I'm not sure we can score that many points night in night out. If we could there wouldn't be a team in the nation that could stop us. It is very rare to see two teams put up 100+ points in a game without overtime in college, simply due to time constraints. It takes a lot of possessions to score a 100 points, 40 some possessions at 15 to 20 seconds each is about 13 minutes of play time. Considering most teams shoot about 50 to 60 percent that is over half the game for one team alone. Virginia has only posted season highs of 76 and 74 points against teams the Huskies would have easily dropped 100+ on, much like our first three games. Virginia only managed to break 80 points three times last season. They also finished last year with 9 straight losses in conference before their conference tournament. Due to their low caliber offense I only see the Cavaliers putting up 65 to 70 points. As for our offense, the sky is the limit. We have yet to see them play against a defense that could control them successfully. Even terrible shooting against Eastern's zone ended with 98 points.
I'm going to call it 95-68 UW. Eastern played a fast offense that allowed the Huskies many more possession than they normally would have had, allowing the first half slump to be canceled by a much more efficient and successful second half. Because Virginia plays slower, missed shots will take away more from the game than in previous outings. Our shooting should be improved from the Eastern game after a weeks worth of practice and some more work on breaking a zone defense. Let's hope the Dawgs can get it done in spectacular fashion.
*Edit* For the Virginia fans reading this: I am being sarcastic about The Tribe. I know who they are, I just don't know them as a basketball school. It's like our opener against McNeese and Eastern, joke schools that big D1 teams use as warm ups. From what I saw of Virginia against Stanford they did play more man than zone, but teams have a tendency to go zone on us after a while. Unfortunately, I do have to base a lot of my opinions on Virginia from stat sheet analysis. In much the same fashion the East coast does not see us play on the West, the East coast games are not always playing out here, especially the season openers against mid majors. Glad to see it's being discussed on your site, drop a few comments here for discussion, I'm sure Husky fans would love to have some back and forth.
Other links
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013477945_final_practice.html
http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/college_hoops_blog/20101117/Overton-is-the-back-bone-behind-UW's-wish-bone/#comments
http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/111910aaa.html
http://www.montlakemadness.com/maui-classic-scouting-virginia/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013493957_video_scouting_12.html
Look for UW to capitalize on the experience, endurance, and speed they possess to really run the floor against Virginia. After watching Virginia in their game against Stanford, well mostly just the second half as I was busy watching the Dawgs football team run UCLA the first half, I believe this is a team we can easily beat by 20 or more. If Stanford can do it, we surely can. We can't overlook Virginia completely, but they don't seem to be much of a match up for us.
Virginia is not the highest scoring team, averaging 70 points a game with their season high coming in at 76 points in a win against William and Mary Tribe (who is that?). Their biggest asset is their free throw shooting, going 80.9% on the year thus far and a perfect 11 for 11 against Stanford. With this in mind we need to avoid the fouls that could keep Virginia in this game.
Virginia's main scoring option is 6-8 240 lb F Mike Scott. He is averaging 15 points a game and 9.0 rebounds thus far in the season. He is shooting .556 from the field and a very nice, envy worthy .882 from the free throw line. MBA and Aziz would be smart to ask him his secret. He has played nearly 33 minutes a game, some thing the Huskies can exploit by subbing MBA and Aziz back and forth to keep up the pressure and thoroughly exhaust him.
The two guards for Virginia, 6-4 181 lb Mustapha Farrakhan and 6-2 192 lb Billy Baron are scoring 11.7 points a game a piece with Billy appearing to be the better shooter, hitting 7 for 13 behind the arc while Mustapha is 6 for 18. Both are shooting above 85% from the charity line and dish out a combined 4.4 assists per game. In the game against Stanford, Mustapha went 2 for 7 on the long ball and 4 for 10 from the field. Billy Baron, the Virginia 6th man, went 0 for 4 while the third Virginia "guard", 6-6 202 lb Joe Harris, went 4 for 7 from range.
Virginia has, in its line up and starting line up for that matter, a 7 footer by the name of Assane Sene weighing in at 239 lbs from Senegal. He hails from a different city than Aziz, but attended South Kent prep school in Conneticut. The same school attended by Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Isaiah Thomas. I didn't look too much into the matter, but I would assume the three have some history together as Assane attended South Kent the same time as Isaiah and plausibly MBA as well. While his size may be intimidating, his play is not. He is averaging 1.3 points and 1.3 rebounds a game during 12.7 minutes per game. He had four fouls against Stanford and seems to be foul prone in general. He only took one shot against Stanford and missed. For whatever reason, this big man starts, but does nothing note worthy with his time on the court. This could be a chance for the Huskies to put out a big line up and abuse the 7 footer with our own 7 foot "Star From Dakar". With MBA taking on Mike Scott, Aziz could be a big factor in the complete domination of Virginia. If Aziz and MBA do not play on the court at the same time, I could see either Darnell or MBA guarding Scott. With the ineffectiveness of their 7 footer, it doesn't seem to matter who is guarding him. I would personally like to see Gant take on responsibility of guarding Mike Scott due to his long arms and defensive abilities. This also allows MBA to abuse Assane on the glass (hopefully).
Virginia appears to run a fairly slow offense with an adjusted tempo of 65.1 versus the average of 68.0 and UW's season tempo currently standing at 74.7 (good for 5th in the nation, a category lead somewhat surprisingly by Seattle University at over 79). With the tenacious backcourt the Huskies possess look for Virginia to turn the ball over often. If Isaiah and Overton can come out and grab another 8 to 10 steals between them, this game will be wrapped up in no time.
Starting Line Ups
Virginia
Jontel Evans 5-11 190 lb G
Mustapha Farrakhan 6-4 181 lb G
Joe Harris 6-6 202 lb G
Mike Scott 6-8 242 lb F
Assane Sene 7-0 239 lb C
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185 lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185 lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240 lb F
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
Something the Huskies have been up and down with this season, more down than up thus far. While they are averaging 52 boards a game, good for 2nd in the nation, they have been out rebounded in two of three games including the exhibition. This is something the Huskies need to correct immediately, especially if they are to advance past the first round of the Maui Invitational and expect to compete and win against teams like Kentucky, Michigan St., UConn, etc. Virginia is currently averaging 32 boards a game with Mike Scott leading the team with 9 a game and Will Sherrill coming in next at 4 boards a game. There are no other significant contributers to the rebounding game for Virginia. UW has several players who can rebound and should do everything they can to wipe the glass clean. MBA, Aziz, Holiday, Ross, Gant, even I.T., C.J., and Suggs should be looking to grab some boards at every opportunity. Kind of a tangent, but if I.T. had successfully dunked the ball when going up for the rebound against Eastern, instead of barely missing, hanging on the rim (trying not to die from falling), and gotten T'd up, I think we would have seen a Nate Robinson type reaction from the crowd. If there is something that will revive the some what quiet Dawg Pack this year, it'll be a nasty dunk from our smallest player. So I.T. if you read this, please, smash a dunk in against Long Beach St. when you return home. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. With the Virginia 7 footer appearing to be a nonfactor in every aspect of the game thus far, look for MBA and Aziz along side Gant and Holiday to do work on the glass. If all goes as it should both MBA and Aziz should put up double doubles. Even Holiday could manage to pull in 10+ boards and have a double double of his own. By grabbing 45+ boards in the game, the Huskies would be doing themselves a huge favor in controlling not only the tempo of the game, but the outcome as well. The Huskies have been known for their rebounding the past few years thanks to Brockman and a bit from Pondexter. While early on it appears MBA is moderately successful at bringing in the loose balls, he should have had an easier time of it against Eastern Washington. While 10 boards is nothing to sneeze at, I was expecting 15 to 20 due to his size, skill, and experience advantage. I believe we will find Mike Scott defending MBA on the post, so MBA will have to work harder at rebounding and showing that his high scoring efforts and rebounding stats thus far are not just flukes due to playing low end schools. This is also a chance for Aziz to redeem himself after a slightly disappointing effort against Eastern.
Fouling
The Husky big men have been doing a better job on the whole of avoiding foul trouble, something that will go a long ways towards the success of the season. By avoiding foul trouble they are not only preventing free throws, something critical against good FT shooting teams like Virginia, but it also allows Romar not to force Gant into the post. From the way Romar has been talking about Sherrer and the way he has been given more minutes, I could see Sherrer coming in to take up 5 to 10 minutes a game if both Aziz and MBA get into foul trouble. He is a big body that does a moderately good job at defending his man. He is foul prone, but this is due to his lack of play time experience. Most people would consider it shocking if Sherrer came in in anything but garbage time, I on the other hand see it as a plausible outcome in more desperate situations.
On the other side of fouling, Aziz and MBA could do themselves and the Huskies a huge favor by acting as foul sponges down low against the foul prone Assane. Taking the 7 footer out of the game, despite his limited minutes and impact, allows the UW to have a major size advantage they can use to control every aspect of the game. After the 7 footer, Virginia's size is more comparable to our own with a few players listed at 6-8 and 6-9 and most of them are bench players who do not see that much action. Body control and positioning are the key to the avoiding fouls and causing fouls. If our front court can be as successful as they were against McNeese, this game will be a complete blowout. Not only did MBA and Aziz put up double double in that game, but they fouled out McNeese's two big men, allowing us to abuse the middle.
Defense
We cannot come out flat against Virginia. While the Cavaliers may not be the best team the Huskies will face this year, they are no pushover. They are coached by former WSU coach Tony Bennett who is quite familiar with Romar and the Husky style of play. I think the minds of all our players should be thoroughly focused and anxious for this game. As much as they say they focus one game at a time, this tournament has been on their mind for quite some time. This is their big chance to prove they are competitors and will make a run at the title this season. Isaiah, Gaddy, and Overton will be the first level of hell Virginia has to descend through to make their way to the basket. If the Cavalier guards are as scared as the Eastern and McNeese guards were (over and back call against one guard who backed up over the line trying to avoid Overton) UW should have no problem snatching up 10+ steals and forcing 20-30 turnovers in the game. Holiday and Gant have big responsibilities controlling two of the more potent members of the Virginia offense. Both are great on ball defenders with long arms and a great nose for the ball. MBA should have no trouble with the 7 footer despite the size difference. MBA is stronger, more skilled, and in way better shape from the looks of things.
Shooting
The Huskies did a fairly good job of taking open shots last game, but they just weren't dropping from range. The biggest problem was we seemed to be settling for the 3 ball versus trying to force the middle. Again, the Huskies need to force the ball down low to MBA and our other front court players. They will either take the shot or dish it back out to our open perimeter players. Holiday made a very humbling and impressive statement concerning his sweet, sweet jumper he has been taking from near the top of the key. He said he saw Terrence Ross taking those shots, saw how effective they were and decided that was something he wanted to emulate. For a senior to say that of a freshman is pretty crazy. Not only does it show Holiday's commitment to learning, improving, and winning, but it also shows the skill level Ross possesses. Success on the inside will mean success from range again. Expect I.T. to have his head back in the game. The family issues he was having before the Eastern game definitely showed and Isaiah will be looking to redeem and prove himself to everyone. As a team we need to not settle for the 3 ball. It should become part of our arsenal, but not our last ditch effort. We have the driving skills and inside presence to take over.
Free Throws
Kind of in the same vein as shooting in general, the Huskies need to improve their foul shot. By Huskies, I really mean MBA and Aziz. I would be moderately happy if they could average 65% from the foul line. Making foul shots against foul prone teams is something that helped the 2008-2009 Huskies be so successful the entire year. Jon Brockman stepped up big and developed a deadly foul shot that could not be stopped about half way through the season. Making our free throws will really keep Virginia from making any progress on us. It also keeps momentum on our side.
Other Thoughts
Isaiah has been a utility man this year. He starts off with an 11 assist game, follows that by a 17 point outing, then a 5 steal performance. What will we see from him on Monday against Virginia? In my mind we will see everything. Isaiah is a winner in heart, mind, and performance. We could see him put up 20 points, 6 assists and 3 or 4 steals against Virginia. Overton should also have a beastly game. Maybe not the highest scoring we have ever seen from the senior, but defensively he should really enjoy himself out there. I expect to see him put up between 6 and 8 points while dealing out 5 to 7 assists and creating numerous turnovers. If he picks pockets as easily as he did against Eastern he should grab another 3 to 5 steals. Holiday looks to have found his shot, a beautiful jumper from the top of the key. This shot should not only be successful as a scoring option against a Virginia zone defense, but also as a way to open up MBA down low for some easy lay-ins/dunks. If MBA can make himself available and open, we will be well on our way to another 100 point game. With the so called "Three Headed Monster" of Ross/Suggs/Wilcox coming off the bench, we should expect them to combine for 20 to 30 points. Any one of them could step up and drop 15 on the Cavaliers. Aziz could have another fabulous showing, it all depends on how well he can make room for himself and convert.
This should be an exciting game to watch as a Husky fan. Virginia offers up some stiffer competition, that while still not top tier, is definitely better than what we have been facing. Some questions should be answered for the Dawgs today. Is MBA really improved or is this just like last season with a fantastic start and terrible first half of the year? Has Gant been able to improve to a point where he could get 20 minutes a game? How good has Gaddy become? Is he back to his All-American status? Who, out of Ross, Suggs, and Wilcox, will step up with some consistency and earn themselves major minutes? And lastly, how good are the Huskies? A first round loss would be a terrible blow to not only the team moral, but also how the Huskies and Pac-10 are viewed by the media. The Huskies should be able to get through the first round fairly easily and should have a tough game in the second round if they face Kentucky. I haven't seen as much of Oklahoma's ability as I would like so I can't really judge how well the Huskies would fare against them. Winning the tournament, most likely a final game against Michigan St the current number 2 team in the nation, would propel the Huskies into the top ten, possibly the top 5. It would also prove we are here to play, we can win and win big, and its not just due to a weak Pac-10 that we find success so often. Winning the tournament is a very real possibility if we find our rhythm and chemistry. It'll be interesting to see how playing time is dished out once we find ourselves against a tough team. My best guess is only two of the "three headed monster" will see significant time. I.T., Overton, and Gaddy should not be greatly affected as all three are now deadly efficient on the floor. Holiday and Gant will probably sub in and out with Ross. Leaving MBA, Aziz, and maybe Gant to play the low post minutes. The tougher games will probably see MBA and Gant or Gant and Aziz on the floor 80% of the time. We may see MBA and Aziz sharing the court, but not as often, at least 'til our big men can show they aren't going to get into foul trouble.
Score Prediction
This one is a little tougher for me to judge. Stanford put up 81 on Virginia. Mostly due to Jeremy Green dropping 21 on a 5 for 9 from range night. Stanford has one great shooter, we have a boat load. We have several players that could put up 20+ against Virginia, mainly MBA, I.T. and Holiday. If all three have 20 point nights this game won't be close in any sense of the word. Gaddy should have another stunning performance on Monday, putting up 10+ point, multiple assists, etc. I have high hopes for this game. Could we see the Huskies put up 100+? 110+? I'm not sure we can score that many points night in night out. If we could there wouldn't be a team in the nation that could stop us. It is very rare to see two teams put up 100+ points in a game without overtime in college, simply due to time constraints. It takes a lot of possessions to score a 100 points, 40 some possessions at 15 to 20 seconds each is about 13 minutes of play time. Considering most teams shoot about 50 to 60 percent that is over half the game for one team alone. Virginia has only posted season highs of 76 and 74 points against teams the Huskies would have easily dropped 100+ on, much like our first three games. Virginia only managed to break 80 points three times last season. They also finished last year with 9 straight losses in conference before their conference tournament. Due to their low caliber offense I only see the Cavaliers putting up 65 to 70 points. As for our offense, the sky is the limit. We have yet to see them play against a defense that could control them successfully. Even terrible shooting against Eastern's zone ended with 98 points.
I'm going to call it 95-68 UW. Eastern played a fast offense that allowed the Huskies many more possession than they normally would have had, allowing the first half slump to be canceled by a much more efficient and successful second half. Because Virginia plays slower, missed shots will take away more from the game than in previous outings. Our shooting should be improved from the Eastern game after a weeks worth of practice and some more work on breaking a zone defense. Let's hope the Dawgs can get it done in spectacular fashion.
*Edit* For the Virginia fans reading this: I am being sarcastic about The Tribe. I know who they are, I just don't know them as a basketball school. It's like our opener against McNeese and Eastern, joke schools that big D1 teams use as warm ups. From what I saw of Virginia against Stanford they did play more man than zone, but teams have a tendency to go zone on us after a while. Unfortunately, I do have to base a lot of my opinions on Virginia from stat sheet analysis. In much the same fashion the East coast does not see us play on the West, the East coast games are not always playing out here, especially the season openers against mid majors. Glad to see it's being discussed on your site, drop a few comments here for discussion, I'm sure Husky fans would love to have some back and forth.
Other links
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013477945_final_practice.html
http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/college_hoops_blog/20101117/Overton-is-the-back-bone-behind-UW's-wish-bone/#comments
http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/111910aaa.html
http://www.montlakemadness.com/maui-classic-scouting-virginia/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013493957_video_scouting_12.html
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Eastern Washington Review
Final Score: UW-98 EWU-72
Before I get to the review I have to say, despite winning by 26 that game felt like a loss. Not to say we didn't have our moments, but that was pretty sloppy.
On to the Review
Just the Facts
Justin Holiday scored a career high 18 points today along side 4 rebounds and a steal. Matthew Bryan-Amaning posted another double double with 14 points and 10 rebounds with 1 assist, 2 blocks, and a steal in 19 minutes of play. Abdul Gaddy was the only other Husky in double digits tonight with 13 points, 1 steal, an impressive 6 assists, and 0 turnovers. Isaiah Thomas led the team with 5 steals and added 9 points and 2 rebounds, but turned the ball over 3 times against his 4 assists. Venoy Overton put up 9 points as well as 8 assists, 4 steals, 5 rebounds, and 2 turnovers. Scott Suggs and Terrance Ross each added 9 points. Suggs also had 5 assists. The Huskies shot slightly better from the line tonight converting on 64.7%, while their shooting was fairly bad, shooting 16 for 40 in the first half, going 5 for 19 behind the line. The Huskies were out rebounded 40 to 35. The Dawgs forced 24 turnovers while committing 10 themselves.
The Spin
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy first half for the Dawgs offensively. Combined with the slack defense, the Eagles kept the game close for far too long. The Huskies were out rebounded 25 to 16 in the first half as they failed to gain any sort of position on the glass. Abdul Gaddy gets player of the game today for shooting 5 for 6 from the field and 3 for 4 behind the arc, committing 0 turnovers and passing out 6 assists. Venoy Overton made his presence felt today, coming off the bench and immediately snatching two quick steals that led to wonderful transition baskets we should have had more of today. Justin Holiday also had a fantastic game going 8 for 13 from the field. He played superb defense and played with an intensity it seemed the team was lacking as a whole. Isaiah shot terrible today, only making 2 shots on 9 attempts including 1 for 4 from range. The team settled far too often for the long ball and did not convert very well, shooting 26.3% in the first, but a much better 57.1% in the second half. While the Eagles played a good zone defense, our offense did a terrible job getting the ball down low and this allowed the Eagles to focus on pressuring the perimeter. Neither MBA or Aziz did a great job of imposing their will on the defense. They allowed themselves to be pushed around far too often. Shot selection needs to improve, the Huskies cannot allow zone or pressure defense to affect them at that level in a more competitive game. Thank goodness the Huskies stepped up their offense in the second half, settled down, and made plays. They played like they did against St. Martin's. They played hurried, chaotic, and played how EWU wanted them to play. They were boxed out on rebounds and couldn't hold onto the ones they grabbed. What saved the day was the Husky defense grabbing 14 steals.
What Was Bad
Shot Selection
The Huskies settled far too often for shooting the 3 versus working the ball around a little longer and finding a better shot. Terrence Ross and C.J. Wilcox were arguably the worse at this, going a combined 3 for 12 behind the arc tonight. Instead of working the ball in the post, the Dawgs passed around the perimeter until someone was mildly open at which point they would jack up a shot that would knock out three quarters of the time. As I said in the preview, the Dawgs need to force the middle to open up their range game like they were able to do so effectively against McNeese. They did not accomplish that and it led to their shooting, near and far, to suffer. If the Dawgs want to compete in Maui, they cannot let the defense deny the post the ball. This is something Romar should address in practice and work on before tournament time.
First Half Defense
The Dawgs were lazy on defense to start the game, allowing the Eagles to have their shots. Against a better shooting team this will absolutely destroy us. A lot of screening problems and communication errors on switches. The intensity needs to be there all game, not just the second half.
Rebounding
Eastern is not a big team by any means. Plenty of Pac-10 teams are much taller and stronger. If we continue to have problems rebounding against these small teams, I can't, or don't want to, imagine what kind of struggles we will have against USC, UA, UCLA, etc. We need to pound the glass hard, all night long. Getting out rebounded will destroy us come tournament time. We can rebound, we proved this last game. I don't know what the difference was, but the Dawgs need to go back to what they were doing against McNeese. If we can get the rebounds, we will score the points. The only reason we didn't reach my predicted score was the lack of rebounding tonight. We had half the rebounds of our last game and understandably we had less points at the end of the night. Rebound, rebound, rebound.
Free Throw Shooting
While better than Saturday, it was still not a good showing. MBA again shot 50% going 4 for 8 while Aziz shot 50% on 1 for 2 shooting. Isaiah Thomas went a perfect 4 for 4 and C.J. went 2 for 2 as well. Venoy missed his only free throw attempt. We need to get our team average up to 75% if we are going to be a top 15 team. Missing foul shots will lose us the tough games we will encounter in February and March. The big men need to get their shots together.
What Was Good
Perimeter Passing
The Huskies threw great passes along the perimeter, working it to the open guys. While they did not always pick the best shots, the 28 assists on 37 shots is a great statistic to have. The shooting was much more effective in the second half and gave the passing more purpose and success.
Second Half Defense
The defensive intensity picked up about 13 minutes left in the first half, but really it showed in the second half. 14 steals is excellent and we converted on most of the steals.
Scoring
I wasn't sure if I wanted to put our scoring under good or bad. While we scored 98 points (could have been 100 but we ran out the clock) our percentage was very low the first half, 40% and a much improved 58.3% the second half. I would like to see 65% shooting for the game along side 45 to 50 rebounds. Those kinds of numbers will almost guarantee a win every time. I think the highlight of how talented and scoring capable our team is was a particular possession with Overton, Ross, and C.J. on the perimeter. Ross threw it to a fairly open Overton, who faked a shot and passed to C.J. for the 3. It was a great unselfish sequence in which we opted for the open player rather than a specific shooter.
Player by Player Review
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
Not a bad night for the big Brit. 14 points, 10 rebounds, 0 fouls. Those are solid numbers. It was only disappointing due to the two fabulous nights he has had thus far and the fact that his rebounding total should have been higher if not for sloppy work bringing the ball down off the glass. His free throws were decent, but need work still. Started off 3 for 3 before going 1 for 5 the rest of the night from the charity stripe. He should have had a better night, but the Dawgs had a tough time getting him the ball. Had the Huskies found a way to get him the ball more often he may have had another 20 point night. Give the Eagles credit for double teaming MBA often and forcing him to dish out.
Grade: A-
Venoy Overton
A solid outing for Venoy tonight, much better shooting wise and somehow even better on the assist/turnover side. His defense was stellar, stealing the ball 4 times and forcing other turnovers as well. His 4 for 7 shooting was good to see. He shot 50% behind the arc. He did a solid job of stepping up and helping make up for Isaiah's lack of scoring efficiency tonight. He showed some great heart tonight and worked hard to help his team win the game. I like what I'm seeing from him. If Gaddy had not stepped up in such particular fashion, Overton would easily be starting.
Grade: A
Justin Holiday
Career high point night for the senior. 18 points along with 4 rebounds. While tonight was not his most impressive night in my opinion, he was a very effective scorer from mid range. He has developed a nice one hand, tear drop like shot from the free throw line. He brought the fire tonight, yelling in the face of his opponent while on defense at the beginning of the game. His defense was tight once again, over all doing a great job controlling his man. While he shot well over all, he took a few 3's he probably shouldn't have. His long ball, while improved, is still streaky. Being streaky is a two sided blade, if you're on no one can stop you, but if you are off it'll haunt you like a curse the whole night. I would like to see another 1 or 2 rebounds a game from Holiday, especially on nights like tonight where our big men are struggling to clean the glass.
Grade: A
Brendan Sherrer
Another 3 minutes tonight. It looks as though Romar is beginning to trust him more as a competitive D1 player. This is great for Brendan and the Huskies. If he can be a reasonably effective defensive player, it will be a great asset to have him available in case of foul trouble. Had a steal tonight. Perfect record is still in tact, look out UCLA he is coming after your record.
Grade: A
Darnell Gant
It looks as though Gant will be a permanent fixture in the starting line up as his size gives us a multitude of options and allows Holiday to play the 3 position while Gant covers the 4. Scored 4 points on 2 for 7 shooting. Gant is still not an offensive threat and while his shot may have improved I still get nervous when he faces up to shoot. Let's hope he can step up the consistency a bit to help the Dawgs spread the floor and work the defense. His defense was not as effective tonight for some reason. The Eagles were a very quick team, but Gant is also agile. A very mediocre game in my opinon. He didn't have any spectacular plays, he only tabbed 2 rebounds and had 2 turnovers. His lacking performance showed in his lack of minutes, only playing 14 on the night.
Grade: C
Scott Suggs
Decent night on offensive for Suggs. 9 points on 3 for 8 shooting, of those 8 shots 6 were behind the arc and all 3 makes came on the long ball. His two boards and 5 assists really made his night a lot more successful. It's good to see him dishing for the better shot. Defensively he left a lot to be desired. All too often his man was open in the corner due to screens being set on him. He still has a way to go on defense, but it should come in time. I saw some progress with his on ball defense. His off ball defense is really where the work needs to be done.
Grade: B
Isaiah Thomas
A slow night for Isaiah tonight. He struggled on the drives, he struggled behind the line. He had 3 turnovers. His redemption came in his team high 5 steals and 4 assists. 9 points is respectable, but we expect more from Isaiah. He is a 17+ point a game type of shooter and player. His bad shot could have been due to an external issue that was weighing on his mind. I love how successful his defense has become over the last year or two, its great to see as that type of tenacious attitude on both sides of the ball is hard to find and harder to beat. I expect him to shoot lights out in Virginia to prove his tenacity.
Grade: B
Aziz N'Diaye
Not a great night for the Senegal native. He only managed 5 points, 2 rebounds, and a block. He used his size well. Multiple times the Eagle post player would try to back him down, only to bounce off of him, resulting in a forced pass back outside. He only shot two free throws tonight, which could be considered a blessing. When he makes his shot though, it swishes beautifully I have to say. He is still learning the game, but we will see more McNeese like performances soon enough. There is a bit of a learning curve going from a JC to D1 and after not playing for a year, the curve is that much harder to climb.
Grade: C+
Abdul Gaddy
Wonderful performance tonight. This is exactly the kind of performance the Husky faithful were expecting last year. He was aggressive, calm, comfortable, assertive, and successful. His long shot was spot on and his drive was a thing of beauty. He has a fantastic tear drop that is so tough to prevent. Its almost comical how slow it gets to the hoop, but not a soul can stop it. 6 assists and 0 turnover is more impressive, in my mind, than his 13 points. Great job from the sophomore tonight. Even his defense was good tonight, managing 3 rebounds, a steal, and only 2 fouls. He may end up being the most consistent player for the Huskies, somewhat ironic considering his poor performance last year.
Grade: A+
C.J. Wilcox
2 rebounds, 3 assists, a block, and a steal to go along with 8 points. Normally a successful night, but his 2 for 7 shooting was not good, once again. For supposedly having the best shot on the team he sure hasn't done a great job of showing it. He subbed in before Suggs, but didn't have a great performance. Defensively he was above average. He got beat on occasion, but also contained his man a fair amount of the time. I'm still out on what to think of the freshman.
Grade: B-
Terrence Ross
While he played slightly better offensively than C.J. (4 for 9 shooting) he also suffered from poor shooting and shot selection. I love a player willing to spot up and shoot the 3, but they need to be able to hit it. For the second game in a row, Ross has struggled from behind the arc. No rebounds, no assist, no steals or blocks, 1 turnover. Like Aziz he is still rough around the edges, but once he finds his rhythm he will be a threat on the court no doubt.
Grade: C
Antoine Hosley
2 minutes in tonight's game. A rebound, an assist, and a steal. 2 and 0 on the year. Not much else to say about the walk on. Its awesome both he and Brendan have been able to play in all three games thus far and I hope the trend continues. Another A for effort night
Grade: A
Final Thoughts
This may have been a bit of a wake up call for the Dawgs. While the game was never really in question, the Eagles stayed in it far longer than I wanted. The Dawgs shot poorly and allowed EWU to control the tempo. Play like this against better schools will result in a loss. We need to rebound, we need to control the tempo, we need to take our shots and not what the opposition gives us. A nice win, but not the kind we should have had. A few days off before the Dawgs head to Maui to face Virginia. With Gonzaga losing tonight to SDSU the Huskies should move up in both polls. Polls mean nothing this time of the year, but last year we let our ranking affect our game play. If we are going to be a top 15 team we need to play like it and tonight we definitely did not play like a top 25 team let alone top 15. I believe we will see a much more controlled Husky performance this weekend.
Before I get to the review I have to say, despite winning by 26 that game felt like a loss. Not to say we didn't have our moments, but that was pretty sloppy.
On to the Review
Just the Facts
Justin Holiday scored a career high 18 points today along side 4 rebounds and a steal. Matthew Bryan-Amaning posted another double double with 14 points and 10 rebounds with 1 assist, 2 blocks, and a steal in 19 minutes of play. Abdul Gaddy was the only other Husky in double digits tonight with 13 points, 1 steal, an impressive 6 assists, and 0 turnovers. Isaiah Thomas led the team with 5 steals and added 9 points and 2 rebounds, but turned the ball over 3 times against his 4 assists. Venoy Overton put up 9 points as well as 8 assists, 4 steals, 5 rebounds, and 2 turnovers. Scott Suggs and Terrance Ross each added 9 points. Suggs also had 5 assists. The Huskies shot slightly better from the line tonight converting on 64.7%, while their shooting was fairly bad, shooting 16 for 40 in the first half, going 5 for 19 behind the line. The Huskies were out rebounded 40 to 35. The Dawgs forced 24 turnovers while committing 10 themselves.
The Spin
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy first half for the Dawgs offensively. Combined with the slack defense, the Eagles kept the game close for far too long. The Huskies were out rebounded 25 to 16 in the first half as they failed to gain any sort of position on the glass. Abdul Gaddy gets player of the game today for shooting 5 for 6 from the field and 3 for 4 behind the arc, committing 0 turnovers and passing out 6 assists. Venoy Overton made his presence felt today, coming off the bench and immediately snatching two quick steals that led to wonderful transition baskets we should have had more of today. Justin Holiday also had a fantastic game going 8 for 13 from the field. He played superb defense and played with an intensity it seemed the team was lacking as a whole. Isaiah shot terrible today, only making 2 shots on 9 attempts including 1 for 4 from range. The team settled far too often for the long ball and did not convert very well, shooting 26.3% in the first, but a much better 57.1% in the second half. While the Eagles played a good zone defense, our offense did a terrible job getting the ball down low and this allowed the Eagles to focus on pressuring the perimeter. Neither MBA or Aziz did a great job of imposing their will on the defense. They allowed themselves to be pushed around far too often. Shot selection needs to improve, the Huskies cannot allow zone or pressure defense to affect them at that level in a more competitive game. Thank goodness the Huskies stepped up their offense in the second half, settled down, and made plays. They played like they did against St. Martin's. They played hurried, chaotic, and played how EWU wanted them to play. They were boxed out on rebounds and couldn't hold onto the ones they grabbed. What saved the day was the Husky defense grabbing 14 steals.
What Was Bad
Shot Selection
The Huskies settled far too often for shooting the 3 versus working the ball around a little longer and finding a better shot. Terrence Ross and C.J. Wilcox were arguably the worse at this, going a combined 3 for 12 behind the arc tonight. Instead of working the ball in the post, the Dawgs passed around the perimeter until someone was mildly open at which point they would jack up a shot that would knock out three quarters of the time. As I said in the preview, the Dawgs need to force the middle to open up their range game like they were able to do so effectively against McNeese. They did not accomplish that and it led to their shooting, near and far, to suffer. If the Dawgs want to compete in Maui, they cannot let the defense deny the post the ball. This is something Romar should address in practice and work on before tournament time.
First Half Defense
The Dawgs were lazy on defense to start the game, allowing the Eagles to have their shots. Against a better shooting team this will absolutely destroy us. A lot of screening problems and communication errors on switches. The intensity needs to be there all game, not just the second half.
Rebounding
Eastern is not a big team by any means. Plenty of Pac-10 teams are much taller and stronger. If we continue to have problems rebounding against these small teams, I can't, or don't want to, imagine what kind of struggles we will have against USC, UA, UCLA, etc. We need to pound the glass hard, all night long. Getting out rebounded will destroy us come tournament time. We can rebound, we proved this last game. I don't know what the difference was, but the Dawgs need to go back to what they were doing against McNeese. If we can get the rebounds, we will score the points. The only reason we didn't reach my predicted score was the lack of rebounding tonight. We had half the rebounds of our last game and understandably we had less points at the end of the night. Rebound, rebound, rebound.
Free Throw Shooting
While better than Saturday, it was still not a good showing. MBA again shot 50% going 4 for 8 while Aziz shot 50% on 1 for 2 shooting. Isaiah Thomas went a perfect 4 for 4 and C.J. went 2 for 2 as well. Venoy missed his only free throw attempt. We need to get our team average up to 75% if we are going to be a top 15 team. Missing foul shots will lose us the tough games we will encounter in February and March. The big men need to get their shots together.
What Was Good
Perimeter Passing
The Huskies threw great passes along the perimeter, working it to the open guys. While they did not always pick the best shots, the 28 assists on 37 shots is a great statistic to have. The shooting was much more effective in the second half and gave the passing more purpose and success.
Second Half Defense
The defensive intensity picked up about 13 minutes left in the first half, but really it showed in the second half. 14 steals is excellent and we converted on most of the steals.
Scoring
I wasn't sure if I wanted to put our scoring under good or bad. While we scored 98 points (could have been 100 but we ran out the clock) our percentage was very low the first half, 40% and a much improved 58.3% the second half. I would like to see 65% shooting for the game along side 45 to 50 rebounds. Those kinds of numbers will almost guarantee a win every time. I think the highlight of how talented and scoring capable our team is was a particular possession with Overton, Ross, and C.J. on the perimeter. Ross threw it to a fairly open Overton, who faked a shot and passed to C.J. for the 3. It was a great unselfish sequence in which we opted for the open player rather than a specific shooter.
Player by Player Review
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
Not a bad night for the big Brit. 14 points, 10 rebounds, 0 fouls. Those are solid numbers. It was only disappointing due to the two fabulous nights he has had thus far and the fact that his rebounding total should have been higher if not for sloppy work bringing the ball down off the glass. His free throws were decent, but need work still. Started off 3 for 3 before going 1 for 5 the rest of the night from the charity stripe. He should have had a better night, but the Dawgs had a tough time getting him the ball. Had the Huskies found a way to get him the ball more often he may have had another 20 point night. Give the Eagles credit for double teaming MBA often and forcing him to dish out.
Grade: A-
Venoy Overton
A solid outing for Venoy tonight, much better shooting wise and somehow even better on the assist/turnover side. His defense was stellar, stealing the ball 4 times and forcing other turnovers as well. His 4 for 7 shooting was good to see. He shot 50% behind the arc. He did a solid job of stepping up and helping make up for Isaiah's lack of scoring efficiency tonight. He showed some great heart tonight and worked hard to help his team win the game. I like what I'm seeing from him. If Gaddy had not stepped up in such particular fashion, Overton would easily be starting.
Grade: A
Justin Holiday
Career high point night for the senior. 18 points along with 4 rebounds. While tonight was not his most impressive night in my opinion, he was a very effective scorer from mid range. He has developed a nice one hand, tear drop like shot from the free throw line. He brought the fire tonight, yelling in the face of his opponent while on defense at the beginning of the game. His defense was tight once again, over all doing a great job controlling his man. While he shot well over all, he took a few 3's he probably shouldn't have. His long ball, while improved, is still streaky. Being streaky is a two sided blade, if you're on no one can stop you, but if you are off it'll haunt you like a curse the whole night. I would like to see another 1 or 2 rebounds a game from Holiday, especially on nights like tonight where our big men are struggling to clean the glass.
Grade: A
Brendan Sherrer
Another 3 minutes tonight. It looks as though Romar is beginning to trust him more as a competitive D1 player. This is great for Brendan and the Huskies. If he can be a reasonably effective defensive player, it will be a great asset to have him available in case of foul trouble. Had a steal tonight. Perfect record is still in tact, look out UCLA he is coming after your record.
Grade: A
Darnell Gant
It looks as though Gant will be a permanent fixture in the starting line up as his size gives us a multitude of options and allows Holiday to play the 3 position while Gant covers the 4. Scored 4 points on 2 for 7 shooting. Gant is still not an offensive threat and while his shot may have improved I still get nervous when he faces up to shoot. Let's hope he can step up the consistency a bit to help the Dawgs spread the floor and work the defense. His defense was not as effective tonight for some reason. The Eagles were a very quick team, but Gant is also agile. A very mediocre game in my opinon. He didn't have any spectacular plays, he only tabbed 2 rebounds and had 2 turnovers. His lacking performance showed in his lack of minutes, only playing 14 on the night.
Grade: C
Scott Suggs
Decent night on offensive for Suggs. 9 points on 3 for 8 shooting, of those 8 shots 6 were behind the arc and all 3 makes came on the long ball. His two boards and 5 assists really made his night a lot more successful. It's good to see him dishing for the better shot. Defensively he left a lot to be desired. All too often his man was open in the corner due to screens being set on him. He still has a way to go on defense, but it should come in time. I saw some progress with his on ball defense. His off ball defense is really where the work needs to be done.
Grade: B
Isaiah Thomas
A slow night for Isaiah tonight. He struggled on the drives, he struggled behind the line. He had 3 turnovers. His redemption came in his team high 5 steals and 4 assists. 9 points is respectable, but we expect more from Isaiah. He is a 17+ point a game type of shooter and player. His bad shot could have been due to an external issue that was weighing on his mind. I love how successful his defense has become over the last year or two, its great to see as that type of tenacious attitude on both sides of the ball is hard to find and harder to beat. I expect him to shoot lights out in Virginia to prove his tenacity.
Grade: B
Aziz N'Diaye
Not a great night for the Senegal native. He only managed 5 points, 2 rebounds, and a block. He used his size well. Multiple times the Eagle post player would try to back him down, only to bounce off of him, resulting in a forced pass back outside. He only shot two free throws tonight, which could be considered a blessing. When he makes his shot though, it swishes beautifully I have to say. He is still learning the game, but we will see more McNeese like performances soon enough. There is a bit of a learning curve going from a JC to D1 and after not playing for a year, the curve is that much harder to climb.
Grade: C+
Abdul Gaddy
Wonderful performance tonight. This is exactly the kind of performance the Husky faithful were expecting last year. He was aggressive, calm, comfortable, assertive, and successful. His long shot was spot on and his drive was a thing of beauty. He has a fantastic tear drop that is so tough to prevent. Its almost comical how slow it gets to the hoop, but not a soul can stop it. 6 assists and 0 turnover is more impressive, in my mind, than his 13 points. Great job from the sophomore tonight. Even his defense was good tonight, managing 3 rebounds, a steal, and only 2 fouls. He may end up being the most consistent player for the Huskies, somewhat ironic considering his poor performance last year.
Grade: A+
C.J. Wilcox
2 rebounds, 3 assists, a block, and a steal to go along with 8 points. Normally a successful night, but his 2 for 7 shooting was not good, once again. For supposedly having the best shot on the team he sure hasn't done a great job of showing it. He subbed in before Suggs, but didn't have a great performance. Defensively he was above average. He got beat on occasion, but also contained his man a fair amount of the time. I'm still out on what to think of the freshman.
Grade: B-
Terrence Ross
While he played slightly better offensively than C.J. (4 for 9 shooting) he also suffered from poor shooting and shot selection. I love a player willing to spot up and shoot the 3, but they need to be able to hit it. For the second game in a row, Ross has struggled from behind the arc. No rebounds, no assist, no steals or blocks, 1 turnover. Like Aziz he is still rough around the edges, but once he finds his rhythm he will be a threat on the court no doubt.
Grade: C
Antoine Hosley
2 minutes in tonight's game. A rebound, an assist, and a steal. 2 and 0 on the year. Not much else to say about the walk on. Its awesome both he and Brendan have been able to play in all three games thus far and I hope the trend continues. Another A for effort night
Grade: A
Final Thoughts
This may have been a bit of a wake up call for the Dawgs. While the game was never really in question, the Eagles stayed in it far longer than I wanted. The Dawgs shot poorly and allowed EWU to control the tempo. Play like this against better schools will result in a loss. We need to rebound, we need to control the tempo, we need to take our shots and not what the opposition gives us. A nice win, but not the kind we should have had. A few days off before the Dawgs head to Maui to face Virginia. With Gonzaga losing tonight to SDSU the Huskies should move up in both polls. Polls mean nothing this time of the year, but last year we let our ranking affect our game play. If we are going to be a top 15 team we need to play like it and tonight we definitely did not play like a top 25 team let alone top 15. I believe we will see a much more controlled Husky performance this weekend.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Eastern Washington Preview
The Huskies performance this weekend moved them up two spots in the ESPN poll to number 15 and one spot in the AP poll putting them at 17. In other news, it appears Kanter's ineligibility has affected Kentucky's ranking as they dropped from 10 to 13 after winning their opener. Let's hope the Huskies don't drop off like they did last year. On to the review.
Tuesday at 7pm the Washington Huskies will take on the Eastern Washington Eagles in the second game of the season for both teams. Washington is fresh off a thorough beat down of McNeese State while Eastern Washington lost their opener 67-60 against San Jose St. San Jose St. is a team the Huskies beat last year 80-70 and is home to former Husky player, Adrian Oliver. Oliver scored 34 points against Eastern and had a similar scoring output against the Huskies last year. The Eagles also lost both exhibition games against Seattle Pacific and Mont. St. Billings.
Eastern finished last season with a 9-21 record and 5-11 in conference. Not good at all and somehow worse than McNeese State.
So what do those two outcomes mean for the game tomorrow? It's fairly irrelevant how well or how bad Eastern did, the fact of the matter is Eastern will be completely outclassed by the Huskies and stand little chance of even competing. While I don't know if the Dawgs can put up another 118 point showing, the margin of victory should be fairly similar. Eastern does not have a lot of size and for once we can exploit our size to an advantage. Their tallest player is 6-9, though their tallest starter is more likely 6-8 220 lb, Laron Griffin. Eastern has 15 players on its roster, but only played 8 against San Jose St.
The Eagles' star player has to be 6-7 200 lb forward, Treymane Johnson. He played all 40 minutes against San Jose St and scored 21 points. He went 3 for 7 behind the arc so he possesses a legitimate three point shot that our forwards will need to take care of. Most likely that duty will fall on Justin Holiday or Darnell Gant. Personally, Holiday is the better choice, he is a better on ball defender and he matches up size wise fairly well.
The other main scoring option is 5-10, 170lb guard Jeffery Forbes. He went for 15 points and shot 2 for 4 behind the arc and 4 for 9 over all. He is a good free throw shooter, hitting 5 of 6 from the charity stripe. Forbes shot .364 on the long ball last year and scored just about 11 points a game for Eastern in the 2009-2010 season.
One interesting fact to note is their returning lead scorer and Big Sky Freshman of the Year, Glen Dean, a 5-10 170 lb guard, is out with a stress fracture in his foot and will most likely sit out against the Huskies tomorrow.
Eastern has a turnover percentage of 25.7%, something the Huskies should be able to not only exploit, but also increase with our terrific guard defense in I.T., Overton, and even Gaddy. Expect Holiday, Gant, and Ross to harass the forwards all night long.
Due to the Eagles lack of size, MBA and Aziz should have another field day. Both should be very capable of putting up double doubles and if either hits their free throws, they could combine for 50 points and 30 rebounds.
On to the Line Ups
Eastern Washington
Kevin Winford 5-11 170 lb G
Jeffery Forbes 5-10 170 lb G
Cliff Ederaine 6-7 205 lb F
Laron Griffin 6-8 220 lb F
Tremayne Johnson 6-7 200 lb F
University of Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240 lb F
Keys to the Game
While this shouldn't be much of a contest, there are several things the Huskies can do to contain the Eagle offense and maximize their own scoring output.
Defense
Eastern only put up 60 points against a decent mid major program. The turned the ball over a full quarter of their possessions and a third of their points came from one player. Their bench combined for a total of 35 minutes out of the possible 200. They are not deep and they are not good. With tight defense and relentless pressure the Huskies should run away with this one in no time at all. We can expect Venoy to rack up 3, maybe even 4 steals, depending on the guard's skills as well as force countless turnovers. It seems like he forced 3 to 5 turnovers in only a few minutes against McNeese and I'm sure he will be just as effective against Eastern. Holiday will most likely find himself guarding Tremayne Johnson in an effort to shut down the Eagles offense. Gant will be on Cliff and MBA will work the post against Laron Griffin. I.T. will most likely be on Forbes, with Gaddy covering Winford.
MBA and Aziz may have themselves a block party if the bigs are lacking in post moves and the guards are foolish enough to enter the paint. If we can shut down Tremayne, the Eagles will struggle to find real rhythm.
Rebounding
If the Huskies can put up another 60-70 board effort, second chance points alone should be enough to win this game. Eastern does not have a lot of size and the Huskies need to use and abuse this all day. MBA and Aziz did great jobs on the glass, getting position on the McNeese big men. Look for Holiday, I.T. and Ross to grab boards as well. Gant may be asked in tougher games to get more competitive on the glass, but for now he can take a more reserved roll. Look for the Huskies to grab close to 60% of all offensive boards and close 70 or 80% on defense.
Post Work
Give MBA the ball. Plain and simple, this kid wants the ball, he wants to score, and he is good at it. With the smaller line up Eastern has, MBA should have no time backing down the defender and putting a sweet move on to get to the hoop. Let's hope Romar has done some work with both MBA and Aziz on their free throw shooting, we can't afford those types of miserable performances later in the year. The other side of good post work is it opens up perimeter play and shooting that the Huskies seem to excel at this year. The Eagles may throw a 1-3-1 zone at us either from the start or after half. UW did a good job last game of dishing to Holiday at the top of the key, collapsing the defense, leaving the wings and MBA wide open.
Another blow out game. Should be another 100 point night at least. I'll be fairly impressed if the Huskies can be as dominating as they were against McNeese. It's hard to top a 53-9 lead.
Expect to see some more fast break and transition dunks from the Dawgs tonight. They did a great job of getting out and running on McNeese and I believe that it was entirely due to Gant and Overton's return to the game. Their crushing defensive and agility is a big difference maker.
I'll call it 110-66 UW
Here are some links to other previews and relevant information
http://www.montlakemadness.com/game-preview-uw-vs-eastern-washington/
the dirt is here
http://freepdfhosting.com/29b2388567.pdf
a very informative article here on the opening of husky basketball and the pac-10 as well as recruiting news for the uw and pac-10/12, give it a look
http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/college_hoops_blog/20101115/Huskies-kick-off-regular-season,-plus-Pac~10-Hoops-Round-Up/
Tuesday at 7pm the Washington Huskies will take on the Eastern Washington Eagles in the second game of the season for both teams. Washington is fresh off a thorough beat down of McNeese State while Eastern Washington lost their opener 67-60 against San Jose St. San Jose St. is a team the Huskies beat last year 80-70 and is home to former Husky player, Adrian Oliver. Oliver scored 34 points against Eastern and had a similar scoring output against the Huskies last year. The Eagles also lost both exhibition games against Seattle Pacific and Mont. St. Billings.
Eastern finished last season with a 9-21 record and 5-11 in conference. Not good at all and somehow worse than McNeese State.
So what do those two outcomes mean for the game tomorrow? It's fairly irrelevant how well or how bad Eastern did, the fact of the matter is Eastern will be completely outclassed by the Huskies and stand little chance of even competing. While I don't know if the Dawgs can put up another 118 point showing, the margin of victory should be fairly similar. Eastern does not have a lot of size and for once we can exploit our size to an advantage. Their tallest player is 6-9, though their tallest starter is more likely 6-8 220 lb, Laron Griffin. Eastern has 15 players on its roster, but only played 8 against San Jose St.
The Eagles' star player has to be 6-7 200 lb forward, Treymane Johnson. He played all 40 minutes against San Jose St and scored 21 points. He went 3 for 7 behind the arc so he possesses a legitimate three point shot that our forwards will need to take care of. Most likely that duty will fall on Justin Holiday or Darnell Gant. Personally, Holiday is the better choice, he is a better on ball defender and he matches up size wise fairly well.
The other main scoring option is 5-10, 170lb guard Jeffery Forbes. He went for 15 points and shot 2 for 4 behind the arc and 4 for 9 over all. He is a good free throw shooter, hitting 5 of 6 from the charity stripe. Forbes shot .364 on the long ball last year and scored just about 11 points a game for Eastern in the 2009-2010 season.
One interesting fact to note is their returning lead scorer and Big Sky Freshman of the Year, Glen Dean, a 5-10 170 lb guard, is out with a stress fracture in his foot and will most likely sit out against the Huskies tomorrow.
Eastern has a turnover percentage of 25.7%, something the Huskies should be able to not only exploit, but also increase with our terrific guard defense in I.T., Overton, and even Gaddy. Expect Holiday, Gant, and Ross to harass the forwards all night long.
Due to the Eagles lack of size, MBA and Aziz should have another field day. Both should be very capable of putting up double doubles and if either hits their free throws, they could combine for 50 points and 30 rebounds.
On to the Line Ups
Eastern Washington
Kevin Winford 5-11 170 lb G
Jeffery Forbes 5-10 170 lb G
Cliff Ederaine 6-7 205 lb F
Laron Griffin 6-8 220 lb F
Tremayne Johnson 6-7 200 lb F
University of Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240 lb F
Keys to the Game
While this shouldn't be much of a contest, there are several things the Huskies can do to contain the Eagle offense and maximize their own scoring output.
Defense
Eastern only put up 60 points against a decent mid major program. The turned the ball over a full quarter of their possessions and a third of their points came from one player. Their bench combined for a total of 35 minutes out of the possible 200. They are not deep and they are not good. With tight defense and relentless pressure the Huskies should run away with this one in no time at all. We can expect Venoy to rack up 3, maybe even 4 steals, depending on the guard's skills as well as force countless turnovers. It seems like he forced 3 to 5 turnovers in only a few minutes against McNeese and I'm sure he will be just as effective against Eastern. Holiday will most likely find himself guarding Tremayne Johnson in an effort to shut down the Eagles offense. Gant will be on Cliff and MBA will work the post against Laron Griffin. I.T. will most likely be on Forbes, with Gaddy covering Winford.
MBA and Aziz may have themselves a block party if the bigs are lacking in post moves and the guards are foolish enough to enter the paint. If we can shut down Tremayne, the Eagles will struggle to find real rhythm.
Rebounding
If the Huskies can put up another 60-70 board effort, second chance points alone should be enough to win this game. Eastern does not have a lot of size and the Huskies need to use and abuse this all day. MBA and Aziz did great jobs on the glass, getting position on the McNeese big men. Look for Holiday, I.T. and Ross to grab boards as well. Gant may be asked in tougher games to get more competitive on the glass, but for now he can take a more reserved roll. Look for the Huskies to grab close to 60% of all offensive boards and close 70 or 80% on defense.
Post Work
Give MBA the ball. Plain and simple, this kid wants the ball, he wants to score, and he is good at it. With the smaller line up Eastern has, MBA should have no time backing down the defender and putting a sweet move on to get to the hoop. Let's hope Romar has done some work with both MBA and Aziz on their free throw shooting, we can't afford those types of miserable performances later in the year. The other side of good post work is it opens up perimeter play and shooting that the Huskies seem to excel at this year. The Eagles may throw a 1-3-1 zone at us either from the start or after half. UW did a good job last game of dishing to Holiday at the top of the key, collapsing the defense, leaving the wings and MBA wide open.
Another blow out game. Should be another 100 point night at least. I'll be fairly impressed if the Huskies can be as dominating as they were against McNeese. It's hard to top a 53-9 lead.
Expect to see some more fast break and transition dunks from the Dawgs tonight. They did a great job of getting out and running on McNeese and I believe that it was entirely due to Gant and Overton's return to the game. Their crushing defensive and agility is a big difference maker.
I'll call it 110-66 UW
Here are some links to other previews and relevant information
http://www.montlakemadness.com/game-preview-uw-vs-eastern-washington/
the dirt is here
http://freepdfhosting.com/29b2388567.pdf
a very informative article here on the opening of husky basketball and the pac-10 as well as recruiting news for the uw and pac-10/12, give it a look
http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/college_hoops_blog/20101115/Huskies-kick-off-regular-season,-plus-Pac~10-Hoops-Round-Up/
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Some stats to look at
Its only one game, but its never too early to look at what the results of that beat down were. McNeese State is not good, by any means. I am still a firm believer that St. Martin's was and is, a better team than McNeese.
I think the biggest change from these low level schools to Virginia in the first round of Maui will be more scoring from the opposition. I think our scoring options allow us to put up 80 or 90 points a game, regardless of opponent. As long as we find some sort of rhythm and have mild success in the paint, our outside game will continue to impress.
If you have never been to kenpom.com you should really check it out. It's a very informative site if you know what you're looking at.
On to the numbers
Our adjusted efficiency was 111.9, good for 27th overall. We held our opponents to 88.8, good for 8th over all. For comparison the average NCAA D1 adjusted efficiency is 100.5
Our tempo is fourth overall with a rating of 74.0 compared with the average of 67.6
Our offensive rebounding is ranked at 3rd in the nation with a 55.8% chance of grabbing an offensive rebound, while we held our opponent to 18.4%, good for 20th overall. The average is 32.4%
We also held our opponent to 31.4% 2 point completion, ranking us at 16th in the nation. The average is 47.3%
What was not so good was our FT% at 47.6%, ranking us at 239 out of 336. The average is 67.2%
We also allowed our opponents a score of 69.1 in the FTA/FGA where the average is 39.7, meaning we need to foul less as they are taking more free throws attempts per field goal attempt compared to most other D1 schools.
This can be pretty dry stuff for a casual fan, but if you are really interested in knowing how good the Huskies are compared with the other big name schools out there, this is a great site to visit and good information to know. It's also great for scouting other schools and knowing what to expect when the Huskies hit the floor. I'll try to throw a few of these stats into my future previews to try and give a more thorough write up of what to expect.
I think the biggest change from these low level schools to Virginia in the first round of Maui will be more scoring from the opposition. I think our scoring options allow us to put up 80 or 90 points a game, regardless of opponent. As long as we find some sort of rhythm and have mild success in the paint, our outside game will continue to impress.
If you have never been to kenpom.com you should really check it out. It's a very informative site if you know what you're looking at.
On to the numbers
Our adjusted efficiency was 111.9, good for 27th overall. We held our opponents to 88.8, good for 8th over all. For comparison the average NCAA D1 adjusted efficiency is 100.5
Our tempo is fourth overall with a rating of 74.0 compared with the average of 67.6
Our offensive rebounding is ranked at 3rd in the nation with a 55.8% chance of grabbing an offensive rebound, while we held our opponent to 18.4%, good for 20th overall. The average is 32.4%
We also held our opponent to 31.4% 2 point completion, ranking us at 16th in the nation. The average is 47.3%
What was not so good was our FT% at 47.6%, ranking us at 239 out of 336. The average is 67.2%
We also allowed our opponents a score of 69.1 in the FTA/FGA where the average is 39.7, meaning we need to foul less as they are taking more free throws attempts per field goal attempt compared to most other D1 schools.
This can be pretty dry stuff for a casual fan, but if you are really interested in knowing how good the Huskies are compared with the other big name schools out there, this is a great site to visit and good information to know. It's also great for scouting other schools and knowing what to expect when the Huskies hit the floor. I'll try to throw a few of these stats into my future previews to try and give a more thorough write up of what to expect.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
McNeese State Review
Final Score: UW-118 McNeese State-64
Just the Facts
Another great scoring effort tonight, with a much better defensive and rebounding effort to go along with it. The outcome of the game was never in question, with McNeese's only lead coming off their opening 3 point shot. UW had 38 rebounds at half to McNeese's 15 and UW finished with 69 rebounds on the night, a damn good job on the glass tonight. That alone is cause for celebration. Three players had double doubles tonight. Justin Holiday put up 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Aziz N'Diaye grabbed a team high 15 rebounds and scored 13 points. Matthew Bryan-Amaning gets MVP of the game, putting up 28 points and 13 rebounds. Abdul Gaddy, C.J. Wilcox, Scott Suggs, and Isaiah Thomas all put up double digit scoring. The only negative for the game was the terrible free throw shooting by our big men. MBA went 6-12 and Aziz went 3-15. Give Aziz credit though, almost every free throw he missed was nearly spot on. Isaiah Thomas showed his scoring potential taking his turn at going 4-4 from the 3 line, while Justin Holiday only went 1-4 from range and 4-12 overall. UW shot a ridiculous 51 shots in the first half alone and 41 in the second shooting 46% from the field, 40% from the arc and a saddening 47.6% from the charity stripe. UW held McNeese to under 10 points until there was only 4:44 remaining in the first half.
Also, Darnell Gant got the start today and appears to be quite healthy and active. Overton also played today and is looking pretty good. An interesting stat here. After McNeese scored that first three pointer, they went 12 and a half minutes without a field goal. That's just ridiculous.
The Spin
Well, let's talk about what we can improve.
Free Throws
Big men always have trouble with free throws. Big hands means the ball is much smaller and harder to put up from outside the box, but in close game scenarios those free throws are going to help us win games and in not so close games they will keep the win out of the opponents reach. If Aziz even sinks half his free throw shots he would have had a 20 point game today. MBA could also use some more work in the free throw arena as well. While 6-12 is not completely terrible, a 75% average would be much better for the Dawgs.
Fouling
Terrence Ross fouled out with about 3 or 4 minutes to go. He was given some nonsensical fouls as the refs were absolutely terrible today. A third of McNeese's points came off free throws today. C.J. Wilcox and Darnell Gant both had four fouls. While it's not a huge deal to rack up four fouls in a game, its something we should avoid. That many fouls puts a lot of pressure on the other position players to play a little more reserved to avoid their own foul troubles. On the other side of that Aziz picked up two quicks ones, but didn't foul again the rest of the game. He played a total of 15 minutes on the evening. MBA only had one foul. Both big men did a great job of avoiding the kinds of silly fouls that got them removed last week.
Those two items were the only real concern for me the entire game. There was some sloppy play to start the second half, Diego Kapelan dropped a pair of threes in during the first 48 seconds of the half. Romar quickly called a time out to yell at the Huskies for their lack of effort.
Now on to the good news
Rebounding
The Huskies obviously learned something from the St. Martin's big man and worked hard in practice this week at their rebounding skills. 69 rebounds is a great stat to have. Aziz was simply superb down low using his length and strength to power his way into position. He grabbed 9 offensive rebounds. 9. That's awesome. He was not to be trifled with on the defensive board either. He brought the ball down hard with elbows out to make room and a barbaric roar that was terrifying even 40 feet away in the stands. I'm fairly sure I saw the McNeese 5 man shiver at that point. MBA also had a great rebounding effort tonight snagging 8 defensive boards and 5 offensive. Justin Holiday split his 12 rebounds with 6 offensive and 6 defensive. C.J. Wilcox nabbed 7 boards and Ross had a respectable 5 rebounds. If the Husky big men can continue this kind of rebounding production along side the support of the wings and guards we will be hard to stop. 30 offensive boards is a lot of second chance shots that can make or break games. Isaiah and Aziz both tried for a rebound at one point, knocking the ball out of bounds. Romar asked Isaiah what he was doing and you could see him say something along the lines of "Coach, you said you wanted more rebounds, I was rebounding." Give the coaching staff a pat on the back for getting the rebounding mentality into the Husky heads.
Scoring
Not a whole lot to say that isn't immediately clear after our first two games. We can score and we can do it in a variety of ways. Inside, outside, doesn't matter. If one player is having an off game, as Holiday did, we can guarantee there is another player lighting it up, aka Isaiah Thomas today. MBA had his way down low, using a variety of superb moves to score. Backed his man down, jump hook, left handed lay-ins, jumpers, all impressive, all extremely effective. Even with McNeese offering a taller lineup, their big men could do nothing against the dynamic duo of MBA and Aziz. Even Gant caused problems for them. Isaiah Thomas came out with fire in his veins and shot lights out going 4 for 4 behind the line and 6 for 8 overall. At one point he shot three 3's on three consecutive possessions. It was an impressive feat. Another big highlight of the night has to be the manner in which the Huskies hit 100 points. Justin Holiday and MBA fought for a loose ball, Holiday tossed a great pass to MBA who was wide open and threw down a monster reverse dunk. MBA threw down a couple of big ones today including one from about halfway up the paint. Aziz also ripped a couple dunks that lit the crowd up. He had a massive dunk taken away by a foul that, I am almost positive, would have torn the back board off its hinges.
Defense
Minus some sloppy play to start the second half the defense did a great job tonight forcing 18 turnovers in the first half and another 9 in the second. Overton was a non factor offensively, scoring two points and dishing out 6 assists (a nice number by the way), but his defense was as good as it usually is. He had three credited steals, but he also forced many turnovers including a 5 second call on one McNeese guard. The Huskies posted 12 steals for the night, MBA snatched two as did Aziz and Holiday. Ross, despite his 5 fouls, played great D getting low and containing his man.
Player Reviews
Venoy Overton
Didn't get to start today, but no surprises there. Gaddy is in good form and Overton always does well off the bench. He made an immediate impact defensively and had great court vision, dishing out assists left and right. Scoring wise he left a lot to be desired. 1 for 8 is pretty bad, he had a few fast breaks he should have passed off for a better shot that he took instead and missed. His cocky attitude is still as apparent as ever. Tongue waggling, he shut down the McNeese guards quite effectively. He seemed a tad rusty at times, having some trouble on a few screens, but all in all he did a great job of getting around them and forcing bad plays. Three or four terrible passes were thrown due to his great defense. A good night for Overton, fresh off a hamstring injury. Once his shots start dropping the Huskies will really be rolling.
Grade: B
Justin Holiday
Not a bad night for the senior forward. His 12 rebounds really helped the Huskies maintain their offensive assault and his defense was quite good as well. He had a decent night offensively scoring 11 points. His shot was missing the pizzazz that brought down the roof last week. His shots were on target, but tended to clatter out. He had 3 assists today, which helps offset his somewhat subpar shooting night. He will regain his shooting composure in no time I'm sure and could very well have a 20 point night next Tuesday against Eastern Washington. It was just one of those nights when the ball couldn't find its way through the net. Holiday made both of his free throws Without the rebounding and defensive effort it would have been a disappointing night, in my mind, for Holiday.
Grade: B
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
MVP of the game, 28 points (a career high), 12 rebounds, 2 steals, and only 1 foul. An awesome night for the London big man. He put on a show that was fun to watch. Reverse, two hand slams. Distance dunks. Spin moves. Cross overs. Hook shots. Tear drops. He did everything short of taking a 3 point shot. You could make a highlight reel for him from his performance tonight alone. He did a great job down low preventing their post players from scoring or rebounding. His free throw shooting was somewhat improved over last weeks game, though still not as good as I would like. Let's hope he can keep his performance up and man handles the big boys from a more competitive school, aka Kentucky, Michigan St., UCLA, etc. Like I said in last week's write up, his moves seem like they will be effective against anybody and he should be a force to be reckoned with in the post. Stellar performance, stellar player. Look out Isaiah, if MBA keeps on like this he may grab Pac-10 player of the year honors.
Grade: A+
Brendan Sherrer
Played three minutes today, even managed to grab a rebound and foul someone. The Victory Cigar is still without a loss in game play. Let us hope he is smoking often. Not much else notable from the walk on today.
Grade: A for effort
Scott Suggs
A better, more rounded, offensive game this week. He scored 11 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots. He showed off his driving ability and had a few nice lay-ins and base line cuts. His range game was off tonight, going 2 for 7 beyond the arc. Highlight of the night for him has to be a nice reverse lay-in off of a great baseline drive. His defense was also improved today. He really got after it and got in the opponents faces, resulting in the above said two blocks. He still had some troubles getting stuck on screens, but seemed to have an easier time of breaking free than last week. He isn't big enough to be much of a rebounder so pulling in three is a good night for him. Overall a pretty good performance. Only thing to be improved were his shots. If he wants to play more minutes, his shots need to drop with more consistency. As I said before, when one player struggles another is shooting well, C.J. Wilcox in this case (more on him later).
Darnell Gant
Good to see the Birdman back in action. He looked healthy and didn't seem to be nursing his hamstring at all. Defensively he was a shut down player. P.J. Alawoya fouled out with only 2 points both of which came from free throws. Offensively he was pretty good. He didn't make either 3 point attempt, but went 3 for 3 from the free throw line. He also grabbed 5 rebounds, had 3 assists, and a block. He played the role he was meant to, a defense first player. His offensive game seems to be shaping up nicely. I saw flashes tonight of a dangerous player who should not be left open, who could drive and score with a little more practice. The four fouls is a little high, but give him another few games to avoid the sloppy fouls and things will really come together for him.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
The man was a beast today. He came out cocky, excited, and amped in every way possible. He saluted the Dawg Pack pregame and you could see the intensity in his eyes. He was feeling his shot tonight, raining threes down from the Heavens. He was excellent on defense as well. He did a great job of getting low and moving his feet. He took a couple nasty hits running into screens, including a moving screen that ended with the screener getting called for a foul that fired him and the Dawg Pack up. He showed the Pack the love and they loved him right back. A close second for game MVP. He had 3 assists and a steal to go along with his 1 rebound and 17 points. The only smudge on the night was his 1 for 3 from the line. For such a prolific shooter, you would think he could make free throws with a blind fold on. Definitely a part of his game he needs to work on. If he can be dangerous from the free throw line, it puts a lot of pressure on the defense to avoid fouling. Between last weeks game and this one, you can see the makings of a star player in him. With Venoy back and healthy, expect Isaiah to do more scoring as Overton and Gaddy allow I.T. to play his more fitting shooting guard position.
Abdul Gaddy
Yet another great performance for the McDonald's All American. He worked hard over the summer and it shows. His confidence is high, his shots are looking good, his moves break ankles, and his passes even confuse our team. Gaddy finished the night with 10 points coming off of a 3, a few nice drives, and an AND 1 free throw. He also dished out 5 assists and had a steal. He had one nice spin move into what should have been a lay-in that he opted to try to pass to Aziz who wasn't ready for it, leading to a turnover. He also had a sloppy pass when McNeese switched to a zone defense that caught him slightly off guard. Gaddy managed to pull in 2 rebounds of his own on both sides of the court. He is a fun player to watch and as the season progresses, look for him to impress even more.
Grade: A-
Aziz N'Diaye
Wow. A complete turn around from the subpar performance last week against St. Martin's. This big man picked up two fouls rather quickly, but found himself in control the rest of the game, not picking up a single foul after those first two. It only took him 7 minutes to grab 10 rebounds and he finished with a very impressive 15 on the night. Could we have a new Jon Brockman in the Sengal native? I don't know yet. Once he shows some consistency in his play, we will know for sure just what the 7 footer has to offer. His size and strength is going to be hard to match, even in Pac-10 play and the Maui invitational. He took up a lot of space on the inside and was somewhat under used due to our guards tight defense. Should his play continue at this high level, expect him to see 20 minutes a game, versus the 15 he played tonight. He shot was also looking great. He had a few nice lay-ins and a jump hook on top of his powerful dunks. He had a scary moment trying to dunk over a man. He came down hard and seemed to be in some pain before being helped to his feet. He didn't limp afterwards, but a big body like that coming down from that high up is bound to hurt. If he hadn't had his feet taken out from under him that dunk would have been on par if not better than MBA's facial of Andrew Zimmerman from Stanford. His emotion and dedication to rebounding was evident in how strong he would come down with the defensive boards, often yelling like a warrior. While his free throw shooting was atrocious tonight, he was a foul sponge on the block. Two of McNeese's big men fouled out mainly due to Aziz getting position. If he had made half his shots he would have had close to 20 points. Free throws need to be his concentration for the next few weeks. Without being able to shoot free throws well, the fouls will continue to come since a foul will be better than an open shot. However, I am all for him soaking up the fouls and taking hits if it means the opponent big men end up warming the seats. If we can get his percentage up to 50% I'll be quite happy. I'll be even happier if he gets above 50%. Would have been an A+ game if he shot the freebies with a little more consistency.
Grade: A
Antoine Hosley
Played two minutes and missed the only shot he took, a long range 3 ball that clanged around the rim. Nothing else to report on him, another day as The Victory Cigar's apprentice.
Grade: A for effort
Desmond Simmons
Did not play today and Romar confirmed after the game that Simmons would indeed be redshirting this season. I won't be posting on him any more unless there is notable news concerning injuries or what not.
Terrence Ross
A decent game tonight after what was a superb performance last week. He fouled out with 3 minutes left in the game on a nonsense foul called by the refs. He shots were off today, going 1 for 4 behind the arc and 2 for 7 overall. He scored 6 points, grabbed 5 boards, and had 1 assist. He didn't look as dangerous today, but his shots were close so once they start falling expect some double digit scoring nights to come on a regular basis. Defensively the kid was good. He gets real low and almost looks like Overton with his open mouthed, in your face defense. Still finding his role on the team and learning the fast paced nature of the Husky offense. Look for him to improve offensively and learn some more control to avoid fouls. 2 to 3 of his fouls were from lazy defense where he just grabbed at the ball as the guard ran by versus getting his body in front and playing the kind of defense he is capable of. I'm happy to see he maintained his rebounding efforts as it takes a lot of pressure off our big men, knowing there are others on the court that can snatch the long ones.
Grade: B
C.J. Wilcox
A much better shooting night for the redshirt freshman. He seems to have found his shot as he went 3 for 4 behind the arc and 4 for 6 over all. He shot 2 for 2 from the line giving him 13 points on the night. He also grabbed a very respectful 7 rebounds, with 6 coming on the defensive side. He even had 2 assists and a steal. A very good performance. Defensively he wasn't a stand out player, but he was no slouch as well. His 4 fouls could be a problem if they continue to accumulate as it takes him out of the game. Thankfully we have other shooters in Suggs, Ross, IT, Holiday, and even Overton when he finds his stroke. A pleasant look at what kind of skills he possesses. Hopefully Ross and Holiday can show him how to use his longer frame a little more effectively on the defensive end and mold him into a defensive threat as well. A very good night over all.
Grade: A
It was also Lorenzo Romar's birthday today and the Dawg Pack sang him a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday. He turned 52 today.
Here are some links to other reviews as well
http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/college_hoops_blog/20101113/Huskies-Roll-Over-McNeese-St.-118-~-64/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013428482_where_is_the_fi.html
http://www.montlakemadness.com/uw-routs-mcneese-st-game-wrap/
Just the Facts
Another great scoring effort tonight, with a much better defensive and rebounding effort to go along with it. The outcome of the game was never in question, with McNeese's only lead coming off their opening 3 point shot. UW had 38 rebounds at half to McNeese's 15 and UW finished with 69 rebounds on the night, a damn good job on the glass tonight. That alone is cause for celebration. Three players had double doubles tonight. Justin Holiday put up 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Aziz N'Diaye grabbed a team high 15 rebounds and scored 13 points. Matthew Bryan-Amaning gets MVP of the game, putting up 28 points and 13 rebounds. Abdul Gaddy, C.J. Wilcox, Scott Suggs, and Isaiah Thomas all put up double digit scoring. The only negative for the game was the terrible free throw shooting by our big men. MBA went 6-12 and Aziz went 3-15. Give Aziz credit though, almost every free throw he missed was nearly spot on. Isaiah Thomas showed his scoring potential taking his turn at going 4-4 from the 3 line, while Justin Holiday only went 1-4 from range and 4-12 overall. UW shot a ridiculous 51 shots in the first half alone and 41 in the second shooting 46% from the field, 40% from the arc and a saddening 47.6% from the charity stripe. UW held McNeese to under 10 points until there was only 4:44 remaining in the first half.
Also, Darnell Gant got the start today and appears to be quite healthy and active. Overton also played today and is looking pretty good. An interesting stat here. After McNeese scored that first three pointer, they went 12 and a half minutes without a field goal. That's just ridiculous.
The Spin
Well, let's talk about what we can improve.
Free Throws
Big men always have trouble with free throws. Big hands means the ball is much smaller and harder to put up from outside the box, but in close game scenarios those free throws are going to help us win games and in not so close games they will keep the win out of the opponents reach. If Aziz even sinks half his free throw shots he would have had a 20 point game today. MBA could also use some more work in the free throw arena as well. While 6-12 is not completely terrible, a 75% average would be much better for the Dawgs.
Fouling
Terrence Ross fouled out with about 3 or 4 minutes to go. He was given some nonsensical fouls as the refs were absolutely terrible today. A third of McNeese's points came off free throws today. C.J. Wilcox and Darnell Gant both had four fouls. While it's not a huge deal to rack up four fouls in a game, its something we should avoid. That many fouls puts a lot of pressure on the other position players to play a little more reserved to avoid their own foul troubles. On the other side of that Aziz picked up two quicks ones, but didn't foul again the rest of the game. He played a total of 15 minutes on the evening. MBA only had one foul. Both big men did a great job of avoiding the kinds of silly fouls that got them removed last week.
Those two items were the only real concern for me the entire game. There was some sloppy play to start the second half, Diego Kapelan dropped a pair of threes in during the first 48 seconds of the half. Romar quickly called a time out to yell at the Huskies for their lack of effort.
Now on to the good news
Rebounding
The Huskies obviously learned something from the St. Martin's big man and worked hard in practice this week at their rebounding skills. 69 rebounds is a great stat to have. Aziz was simply superb down low using his length and strength to power his way into position. He grabbed 9 offensive rebounds. 9. That's awesome. He was not to be trifled with on the defensive board either. He brought the ball down hard with elbows out to make room and a barbaric roar that was terrifying even 40 feet away in the stands. I'm fairly sure I saw the McNeese 5 man shiver at that point. MBA also had a great rebounding effort tonight snagging 8 defensive boards and 5 offensive. Justin Holiday split his 12 rebounds with 6 offensive and 6 defensive. C.J. Wilcox nabbed 7 boards and Ross had a respectable 5 rebounds. If the Husky big men can continue this kind of rebounding production along side the support of the wings and guards we will be hard to stop. 30 offensive boards is a lot of second chance shots that can make or break games. Isaiah and Aziz both tried for a rebound at one point, knocking the ball out of bounds. Romar asked Isaiah what he was doing and you could see him say something along the lines of "Coach, you said you wanted more rebounds, I was rebounding." Give the coaching staff a pat on the back for getting the rebounding mentality into the Husky heads.
Scoring
Not a whole lot to say that isn't immediately clear after our first two games. We can score and we can do it in a variety of ways. Inside, outside, doesn't matter. If one player is having an off game, as Holiday did, we can guarantee there is another player lighting it up, aka Isaiah Thomas today. MBA had his way down low, using a variety of superb moves to score. Backed his man down, jump hook, left handed lay-ins, jumpers, all impressive, all extremely effective. Even with McNeese offering a taller lineup, their big men could do nothing against the dynamic duo of MBA and Aziz. Even Gant caused problems for them. Isaiah Thomas came out with fire in his veins and shot lights out going 4 for 4 behind the line and 6 for 8 overall. At one point he shot three 3's on three consecutive possessions. It was an impressive feat. Another big highlight of the night has to be the manner in which the Huskies hit 100 points. Justin Holiday and MBA fought for a loose ball, Holiday tossed a great pass to MBA who was wide open and threw down a monster reverse dunk. MBA threw down a couple of big ones today including one from about halfway up the paint. Aziz also ripped a couple dunks that lit the crowd up. He had a massive dunk taken away by a foul that, I am almost positive, would have torn the back board off its hinges.
Defense
Minus some sloppy play to start the second half the defense did a great job tonight forcing 18 turnovers in the first half and another 9 in the second. Overton was a non factor offensively, scoring two points and dishing out 6 assists (a nice number by the way), but his defense was as good as it usually is. He had three credited steals, but he also forced many turnovers including a 5 second call on one McNeese guard. The Huskies posted 12 steals for the night, MBA snatched two as did Aziz and Holiday. Ross, despite his 5 fouls, played great D getting low and containing his man.
Player Reviews
Venoy Overton
Didn't get to start today, but no surprises there. Gaddy is in good form and Overton always does well off the bench. He made an immediate impact defensively and had great court vision, dishing out assists left and right. Scoring wise he left a lot to be desired. 1 for 8 is pretty bad, he had a few fast breaks he should have passed off for a better shot that he took instead and missed. His cocky attitude is still as apparent as ever. Tongue waggling, he shut down the McNeese guards quite effectively. He seemed a tad rusty at times, having some trouble on a few screens, but all in all he did a great job of getting around them and forcing bad plays. Three or four terrible passes were thrown due to his great defense. A good night for Overton, fresh off a hamstring injury. Once his shots start dropping the Huskies will really be rolling.
Grade: B
Justin Holiday
Not a bad night for the senior forward. His 12 rebounds really helped the Huskies maintain their offensive assault and his defense was quite good as well. He had a decent night offensively scoring 11 points. His shot was missing the pizzazz that brought down the roof last week. His shots were on target, but tended to clatter out. He had 3 assists today, which helps offset his somewhat subpar shooting night. He will regain his shooting composure in no time I'm sure and could very well have a 20 point night next Tuesday against Eastern Washington. It was just one of those nights when the ball couldn't find its way through the net. Holiday made both of his free throws Without the rebounding and defensive effort it would have been a disappointing night, in my mind, for Holiday.
Grade: B
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
MVP of the game, 28 points (a career high), 12 rebounds, 2 steals, and only 1 foul. An awesome night for the London big man. He put on a show that was fun to watch. Reverse, two hand slams. Distance dunks. Spin moves. Cross overs. Hook shots. Tear drops. He did everything short of taking a 3 point shot. You could make a highlight reel for him from his performance tonight alone. He did a great job down low preventing their post players from scoring or rebounding. His free throw shooting was somewhat improved over last weeks game, though still not as good as I would like. Let's hope he can keep his performance up and man handles the big boys from a more competitive school, aka Kentucky, Michigan St., UCLA, etc. Like I said in last week's write up, his moves seem like they will be effective against anybody and he should be a force to be reckoned with in the post. Stellar performance, stellar player. Look out Isaiah, if MBA keeps on like this he may grab Pac-10 player of the year honors.
Grade: A+
Brendan Sherrer
Played three minutes today, even managed to grab a rebound and foul someone. The Victory Cigar is still without a loss in game play. Let us hope he is smoking often. Not much else notable from the walk on today.
Grade: A for effort
Scott Suggs
A better, more rounded, offensive game this week. He scored 11 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots. He showed off his driving ability and had a few nice lay-ins and base line cuts. His range game was off tonight, going 2 for 7 beyond the arc. Highlight of the night for him has to be a nice reverse lay-in off of a great baseline drive. His defense was also improved today. He really got after it and got in the opponents faces, resulting in the above said two blocks. He still had some troubles getting stuck on screens, but seemed to have an easier time of breaking free than last week. He isn't big enough to be much of a rebounder so pulling in three is a good night for him. Overall a pretty good performance. Only thing to be improved were his shots. If he wants to play more minutes, his shots need to drop with more consistency. As I said before, when one player struggles another is shooting well, C.J. Wilcox in this case (more on him later).
Darnell Gant
Good to see the Birdman back in action. He looked healthy and didn't seem to be nursing his hamstring at all. Defensively he was a shut down player. P.J. Alawoya fouled out with only 2 points both of which came from free throws. Offensively he was pretty good. He didn't make either 3 point attempt, but went 3 for 3 from the free throw line. He also grabbed 5 rebounds, had 3 assists, and a block. He played the role he was meant to, a defense first player. His offensive game seems to be shaping up nicely. I saw flashes tonight of a dangerous player who should not be left open, who could drive and score with a little more practice. The four fouls is a little high, but give him another few games to avoid the sloppy fouls and things will really come together for him.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
The man was a beast today. He came out cocky, excited, and amped in every way possible. He saluted the Dawg Pack pregame and you could see the intensity in his eyes. He was feeling his shot tonight, raining threes down from the Heavens. He was excellent on defense as well. He did a great job of getting low and moving his feet. He took a couple nasty hits running into screens, including a moving screen that ended with the screener getting called for a foul that fired him and the Dawg Pack up. He showed the Pack the love and they loved him right back. A close second for game MVP. He had 3 assists and a steal to go along with his 1 rebound and 17 points. The only smudge on the night was his 1 for 3 from the line. For such a prolific shooter, you would think he could make free throws with a blind fold on. Definitely a part of his game he needs to work on. If he can be dangerous from the free throw line, it puts a lot of pressure on the defense to avoid fouling. Between last weeks game and this one, you can see the makings of a star player in him. With Venoy back and healthy, expect Isaiah to do more scoring as Overton and Gaddy allow I.T. to play his more fitting shooting guard position.
Abdul Gaddy
Yet another great performance for the McDonald's All American. He worked hard over the summer and it shows. His confidence is high, his shots are looking good, his moves break ankles, and his passes even confuse our team. Gaddy finished the night with 10 points coming off of a 3, a few nice drives, and an AND 1 free throw. He also dished out 5 assists and had a steal. He had one nice spin move into what should have been a lay-in that he opted to try to pass to Aziz who wasn't ready for it, leading to a turnover. He also had a sloppy pass when McNeese switched to a zone defense that caught him slightly off guard. Gaddy managed to pull in 2 rebounds of his own on both sides of the court. He is a fun player to watch and as the season progresses, look for him to impress even more.
Grade: A-
Aziz N'Diaye
Wow. A complete turn around from the subpar performance last week against St. Martin's. This big man picked up two fouls rather quickly, but found himself in control the rest of the game, not picking up a single foul after those first two. It only took him 7 minutes to grab 10 rebounds and he finished with a very impressive 15 on the night. Could we have a new Jon Brockman in the Sengal native? I don't know yet. Once he shows some consistency in his play, we will know for sure just what the 7 footer has to offer. His size and strength is going to be hard to match, even in Pac-10 play and the Maui invitational. He took up a lot of space on the inside and was somewhat under used due to our guards tight defense. Should his play continue at this high level, expect him to see 20 minutes a game, versus the 15 he played tonight. He shot was also looking great. He had a few nice lay-ins and a jump hook on top of his powerful dunks. He had a scary moment trying to dunk over a man. He came down hard and seemed to be in some pain before being helped to his feet. He didn't limp afterwards, but a big body like that coming down from that high up is bound to hurt. If he hadn't had his feet taken out from under him that dunk would have been on par if not better than MBA's facial of Andrew Zimmerman from Stanford. His emotion and dedication to rebounding was evident in how strong he would come down with the defensive boards, often yelling like a warrior. While his free throw shooting was atrocious tonight, he was a foul sponge on the block. Two of McNeese's big men fouled out mainly due to Aziz getting position. If he had made half his shots he would have had close to 20 points. Free throws need to be his concentration for the next few weeks. Without being able to shoot free throws well, the fouls will continue to come since a foul will be better than an open shot. However, I am all for him soaking up the fouls and taking hits if it means the opponent big men end up warming the seats. If we can get his percentage up to 50% I'll be quite happy. I'll be even happier if he gets above 50%. Would have been an A+ game if he shot the freebies with a little more consistency.
Grade: A
Antoine Hosley
Played two minutes and missed the only shot he took, a long range 3 ball that clanged around the rim. Nothing else to report on him, another day as The Victory Cigar's apprentice.
Grade: A for effort
Desmond Simmons
Did not play today and Romar confirmed after the game that Simmons would indeed be redshirting this season. I won't be posting on him any more unless there is notable news concerning injuries or what not.
Terrence Ross
A decent game tonight after what was a superb performance last week. He fouled out with 3 minutes left in the game on a nonsense foul called by the refs. He shots were off today, going 1 for 4 behind the arc and 2 for 7 overall. He scored 6 points, grabbed 5 boards, and had 1 assist. He didn't look as dangerous today, but his shots were close so once they start falling expect some double digit scoring nights to come on a regular basis. Defensively the kid was good. He gets real low and almost looks like Overton with his open mouthed, in your face defense. Still finding his role on the team and learning the fast paced nature of the Husky offense. Look for him to improve offensively and learn some more control to avoid fouls. 2 to 3 of his fouls were from lazy defense where he just grabbed at the ball as the guard ran by versus getting his body in front and playing the kind of defense he is capable of. I'm happy to see he maintained his rebounding efforts as it takes a lot of pressure off our big men, knowing there are others on the court that can snatch the long ones.
Grade: B
C.J. Wilcox
A much better shooting night for the redshirt freshman. He seems to have found his shot as he went 3 for 4 behind the arc and 4 for 6 over all. He shot 2 for 2 from the line giving him 13 points on the night. He also grabbed a very respectful 7 rebounds, with 6 coming on the defensive side. He even had 2 assists and a steal. A very good performance. Defensively he wasn't a stand out player, but he was no slouch as well. His 4 fouls could be a problem if they continue to accumulate as it takes him out of the game. Thankfully we have other shooters in Suggs, Ross, IT, Holiday, and even Overton when he finds his stroke. A pleasant look at what kind of skills he possesses. Hopefully Ross and Holiday can show him how to use his longer frame a little more effectively on the defensive end and mold him into a defensive threat as well. A very good night over all.
Grade: A
It was also Lorenzo Romar's birthday today and the Dawg Pack sang him a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday. He turned 52 today.
Here are some links to other reviews as well
http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/college_hoops_blog/20101113/Huskies-Roll-Over-McNeese-St.-118-~-64/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013428482_where_is_the_fi.html
http://www.montlakemadness.com/uw-routs-mcneese-st-game-wrap/
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