With Romar stating he would like to turn the 10 man rotation into a 9 man rotation in the near future and the injury of Scott Suggs, C.J. Wilcox and Terrence Ross have the perfect opportunity to step up and show to Romar that they belong in this rotation. Let's be honest here, Ross, Wilcox, and Suggs are the three that will be fighting for playing time. All play similar positions and have somewhat similar skill sets.
C.J. Wilcox sent a message to Romar on Tuesday that his measly 3 minutes against MSU was a mistake by Romar and an opportunity missed. Romar made a bold move to bring C.J. in so suddenly off the bench after not playing the entire game. For whatever reason, Romar seems to have forgotten about the shooting ace sitting on the bench. C.J. showed that his air ball against MSU was a mistake due to a cold arm from sitting for so long.
Romar gave C.J. 23 minutes to put on a show against LBSU and boy did he do a great job. 7 for 9 shooting including 6 for 8 from downtown to set a new career high of 20 points. The only blemish on his performance were the 4 turnovers. These can be excused due to his otherwise stellar offense and much improved defense. C.J. has shown great improvement on the defensive edge since the exhibition and opening game. He is quick on his feet, gets low on the ball and moves well around screens.
Terrence Ross is still struggling a bit offensively, but I like his willingness to pull up and shoot even under pressure. Once he finds his stroke and his shots start dropping we will see him take more minutes. He plays superb defense and it is because of his defense that he garners as many minutes as he does. He has the length and athleticism to make plays and shut down players. He plays like a taller version of Venoy in my opinion. Ross has prove he can score, he is just inconsistent. Against Virginia Ross went 4 for 7 from the field, all the makes came from his 4 for 5 shooting from range. Ross gets shots and makes shots because he cuts well off screens and puts himself into positions where he has a half step lead on his man, more than enough for him to elevate over the defender to get up the shot.
This is a slightly different approach than C.J. takes. C.J. tends to do more work moving around the perimeter and letting a collapse in the middle lead to him opening up.
Both Ross and C.J. are more than willing and more than capable of running the ball up the court and pulling up 20 feet out and popping off a shot almost immediately without running a set offense. This wasn't seen as much by C.J. in the LBSU game, but he pulled similar stunts against McNeese.
Scott Suggs looks to be riding the pine for most of the year yet again. A lot of people were hopeful that his statements of an improved offense and more complete game would mean some more minutes for the junior, but the fresh, young talent on the Husky team seems to be better prepared to take over than Suggs is. Suggs simply hasn't show the strength and athleticism to create his own shots and despite a few driving lay-ins this year, he has again fallen into the role of a shop up shooter. We don't need a spot up shooter this year, we have 7 other people on the team that have proven they can shoot the long ball. What we need are play makers and athlete who can influence the field of play on both ends of the court.
To me, the drop from 10 to 9 is not going to result in much change for the team. Everyone will be playing in a lot of games this year we are going to have several more blowouts before all is said and done, that is for sure. The Pac-10 has 4 good teams this year, 2 mediocre teams, and 4 bad teams. The bad and mediocre teams should offer no real resistance to the Huskies so long as they keep their heads and don't look past their opponents before the game has taken place. The change means more minutes for certain players and much less for others and in my opinion the minutes are in favor of Wilcox and Ross at the moment, leaving Suggs to prove himself in practice and garbage minutes to earn more time. However; we should not concern ourselves to much with this matter at the moment as Suggs is currently suffering from an injured MCL and will not be playing. It looks improbable that he will be recovered enough to try and pay Saturday against Texas Tech.
So what else did we learn from the LBSU game?
Our team as a whole is rebounding fairly well. We are averaging almost 41 boards a game, a lot of this is still due to the McNeese state game. This comes from the fact that we have 10 players grabbing 3 or more boards, 3 of those grabbing 6 or more. Those three are Justin Holiday, Aziz N'Diaye, and Matthew Bryan-Amaning. In order to take the next step from good overall rebounding to great overall rebounding, we need to pick up another 4 boards a game simple as that. Against LBSU we barely won the rebounding battle 36-30. We shot well for the game, so there were less board to go around, yet I really would like to see us out rebound these lesser caliber teams by 10+ boards on 40+ rebound nights. MBA had another subpar rebounding night, nabbing only 5 boards. Aziz was rendered inefficient as well, only grabbing 1 board in 13 minutes of play. This cannot happen to us against competitive teams.
So why are our post players have trouble cleaning the glass? A lot has to do with our post players mentality when it comes to what role they need to perform on the court. Both MBA and Aziz seems to be more focused on the shot block than boxing out. While I do enjoy swats, we are putting too many defenders on penetrating guards. Our big men need to focus on preventing their assignment from getting position on them and box out to get the board. If an open man is penetrating or our defender is going to be beat, instead of helping out, BOX OUT! Trust your teammates to alter the shot enough that it will clank around. Get the ball and take away some opportunities from our opponents.
On the offensive end things are a bit different. Our big guys need to open up the field with screens then roll back into the middle, looking for the open shot and if it isn't available, using the pick and roll to gain position on your defender so when the ball is finally shot you are in place to grab it for the put back.
MBA may not be the biggest post player around, but he has the size and strength to compete with most college level 5's, it's simply a matter of knowing how to get in position and using your strength to enforce your will on people. That is what Jon Brockman did, he may only be 6'7'', but he was strong and knew how to get to where the ball will be heading. He broke noses, he hurt feelings, but that man gave his all out there and out played guys much taller than he is. He is still doing that today in the NBA.
Aziz has the strength AND height to get 10+ boards a game. His quickness and lengthy body combined with his freakish strength should make him a superb rebounder. He is still learning positioning and with time he will improve his consistency on the glass. We need a big step up in his game, 8 or more boards a game would give us a huge advantage whether he starts or not. Getting both him and MBA to an 8+ board average would do wonders for our success.
Speaking of Aziz, I liked him starting. I think it keeps guards from getting in a rhythm early due to his immense presence in the center of the court. It makes MBA come off the bench with something to prove. It also means that if MBA can step up his offensive game against tougher opponents, we could be slightly better coming off the bench. We don't necessarily need Aziz to put up big offensive numbers, 6 to 8 a game would be great. Enough that the opposition has to put a few bodies on him down low to prevent easy baskets. He has the size to really use the old fashion sky hook effectively. It is a tool I would love to see him master, you'll be hard pressed to find a player who can defend against a 7 footer extending his arms to their maximum reach.
Something else Aziz need work on is softening his hands. Several turnovers were committed when Aziz couldn't handle a pass. Some were difficult passes he wasn't expecting, such as Holiday elevating and faking the shot to dump off the ball to Aziz. Once Aziz learns to expect these passes I think the problem will go away, but Romar should spend time working with Aziz on receiving hard passes from skilled guards.
Holiday continues to be one of the more consistent members of the squad. He had 0 first half points, but finished with double digit scoring. What he brings is more than just an offensive shot, he brings excellent defense, good court vision, high basketball IQ, and the heart and tenacity to pump up teammates and bring down opponents. If UW was to name an MVP right now, I might name Holiday simply for his consistent play game in, game out.
Darnell Gant has continued his somewhat surprising offensive performances. He has made 6 of the last 7 attempts from behind the arc and has put up 10+ points in the bast three games. He was one of the better players in Maui, especially against UK and MSU, getting open and creating shots for himself. Darnell isn't a greedy player by any means, all his shots have been good shots and he has done an amazing job of converting those shots into points. The better he plays on offense the more minutes he can expect to play. We know him as a great defender, but adding in this deadly offensive ability makes him that much more of a complete player. If he can continue to excel against tough competition we can expect to see him in the closing minutes of tight games. He has been a great starter once again, offering up stiff defense and shut down ability. What we need from him is rebounding. He has not been a great rebounder during his career at UW. If he can start grabbing 5 a game I'll be a happy clam.
Isaiah Thomas struggled mightily from range on Tuesday going 0 for 6, yet he still gets 19 points. Say what you will about the kid, but he finds a way to score. His driving ability has been under a bit of criticism after the UK and MSU game. The fact of the matter is UK and MSU offered up size and skill for the first time in the season for I.T. and the Dawgs in general. Going against players with size is a lot different and much more difficult when it comes to the slash and drive. He is rebounding very well for the Huskies, but his free throw shooting has been terrible. For a shooting guard he sure does need to work on the easy ones. Personally, it seems like an attitude thing. He spends too much time before the first shot talking with people rather than concentrating on the shot.
Venoy Overton seems slower than in years previous. This is probably due to his ham string injury preseason and his bruised tailbone from the Eastern Washington game. He still has problems turning the ball over, but it is slowly improving. Offensively he is about the same, a little more confident in his shots. Overton had an open three point attempt, but opted to dish it off to an open C.J. Wilcox who drained the shot. He is becoming an assist king, something that is very valuable especially on a team of scoring juggernauts.
So what does the LBSU game mean for UW? It was a good recovery game after two close, tough losses for UW. They did what any great team should do against an inferior opponent, they crushed them. They weren't perfect in every way, but they scored well and did a pretty good job on defense. It was a 27 point win, with 44 points off the bench and 58% of all shots made were assisted.
I'll get a post up about what we saw at Maui tomorrow along with a preview of the Texas Tech game.
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