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/