Some thoughts on the team as we near Pac-10 play

Montlake Madness has a good article up, polling Husky fans out what they think of our team thus far.

Link Here: http://www.montlakemadness.com/taking-your-pulse/

Here's what I wrote in response to it, though you don't need to see the poll to understand my comment.

I want to believe we will have 0 losses on the year in Pac-10 play, but I imagine we will drop one or two. Every team has an off night where they aren’t at their best and the other team is. I just hope our team has the resilience to bounce back right away, fix the mistake that were made, and move on to the next game. I really do feel as thought the only team that can truly compete with us is UA and that is only because of Derrick Williams. Without Williams, UA would be another team to suffer at our hands. He will keep them in the game with rebounding and offensive prowess. WSU could play well against us, it depends a lot on how Klay Thompson responds to Holiday in his face, and how Reggie Moore reacts to Aziz smashing away his shots. As long as our team keeps its composure and does not panic under pressure we will be fine.
When our game is being played, there isn’t a team in the nation that can compete with us, not UK nor MSU or Duke.
In Maui, we panicked, we didn’t play our game, we let their defense affect our game much more than it should have. We showed how good we can be against Virginia, a team that since our man handling of them has stepped up and won some big games.
Maui made me concerned that we could fall into the trap of not being able to finish big games under pressure. We have gone into half EVERY GAME with the lead. We gave up that lead (1 for UK, 10 for MSU) due to our slow starts to the second half.We saw it again against Portland, but instead of panicking we went on our own run and put the game away for good. Whatever changes between the end of the first and the start of the second needs to change, no more slow starts. Good teams will take advantage of that and swing momentum in their favor.
I gave the team a 10 in how I feel about them because as good as they have been, there is still room for improvement and Romar is known for having his teams peak in February and March (just look at last years squad). A big win this weekend against a tough Texas A&M team will be huge not only for our rankings in the Poll (we are still getting screwed by the East Coast Bias), but also for our moral and momentum heading into Pac-10 play. After A&M we have two games that should be in the bag, #225 San Francisco and #208 Nevada, then we are over to SoCal to face USC and UCLA (while the football team battles Nebraska again). Sweeping the rest of non-conference will have us heading into Pac-10 play with 6 straight wins and 9 overall. Thats a damn good start.
We could be a 5 loss or less team heading into the NCAA with a 2 or 3 seed being very feasible. We could even be a 1 seed depending on how things work out. We are that good. I know a lot of people are shying away from Final Four talk after having their heart strings pulled at last year. I’m not going to avoid it, we are contenders for the National Title, any analyst who watches us play can tell you that. Our depth, experience, and talent allow us to be right there with the “big boys.” Number 1 in scoring, number 1 in 3 pt pct., number 2 in assists, 7th in FG pct., and 45th in rebounding. Huge numbers that when added into our defensive stats, 25+% turnover rate for the opposing team, 10 steals and 5 blocks per game while forcing 20+ turnovers, bode well for a great season.
Our team can be great and I believe they will be. They have the heart and the coaching staff to take them there. If they take it one game at a time and do it the right way, we will be singing Bow Down to Washington in Houston come March.
There are two X-Factors to making this happen. Aziz N’Diaye in the post to pick up 7 to 10 boards in his 15 minutes of play (damn impressive if you ask me) and MBA stepping up against bigger and better teams.
He is performing extremely well off the bench and I hope he has the team mentality not to shut down because he isn’t starting. Like Overton, he does the most damage coming off the bench, allowing us to be a completely dominant team on both sides of the court.
Gant is beginning to be an unforeseen addition to our offensive repertoire. I know I wasn’t expecting him to dump in 8+ points a game, including his 6 for 7 from range?! He made what? Like 3 long balls all season last year? We an array of players who can shoot the 3. C.J., Holiday, and Suggs excel game in and game out. I.T., Gaddy, and Gant have shown great promise and make their shots. Ross, Overton, and MBA are all right there (how bout that 12 footer by MBA against Portland? Pretty Sweet). The only player who gets significant minutes who can’t drop from range is Aziz. 9 players, 9. Absurd.
3 players with 6+ boards a game, 5 with 2 a game, 2 with 3 and 4 boards.
3 players averaging 4+ assists a game. 5 players averaging 1 or more steals a game.
As a Husky fan you can’t help but get amped up about this season and what could be. I’m very excited, as you can probably tell from my long rant here. I want to see us go deep, play well, fight hard, and wipe out everyone we play. I don’t want the roller coaster again. I want pure, dominate, consistent play game in and game out.
I want the banner.


Post your responses and thoughts here and on Montlake. Get some conversation going. We have an exciting team, let's show it.