Final Score UW-74 UCLA-63
Not as high scoring as I expected. Another game in which our outside shooting was poor, but we found success on the inside. The foul differential was closer (23-17 in favor of UCLA), but the FT differential is huge. UCLA attempted 36 free throws, while UW only attempted 15. UCLA made 25 and UW hit 12 for 80% shooting on the night including 5-6 by Matthew Bryan-Amaning and 6-7 by Isaiah Thomas. UW only had 3 attempts in the first half versus 19 for UCLA.
MBA finished with another double double, scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Aziz N'Diaye fouled out for the second game in a row going 3-3 from the field and grabbing 6 boards in his limited court time. Isaiah Thomas finished with 17 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers. Justin Holiday added 9 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, and 1 turnover. Both Gaddy and Overton were quiet tonight. C.J. Wilcox showed up for a few minutes and missed his lone three point attempt, but made a nice lay-in.
Ross looked good during his time on the court using his vicious cross over to open up some nice shots. Suggs made some nice assists including a beautiful pass from the baseline to Holiday who drained a 3 point shot. After the shot he looked at the UCLA bench and was called for a technical. Not sure what happened, but I didn't see him do anything wrong. The refs were just looking for fouls to call it seems like.
Reeves Nelson was tough as ever and with our bigs picking up so many fouls (Aziz-5, MBA-4, Gant-4) he was able to score at will for a majority of the game. He finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Josh Smith fouled out with 9 points and 7 boards. Tyler Honeycutt was shut down well in the first half with only 5 points going into break. He finished with 12 points and 2 rebounds.
Speaking of rebounds, UW nudged out UCLA on the glass with 34-33.
UW returned to its excellent passing ways, picking up 17 assists on 29 makes (50% shooting and 59% assist rate). They also managed to keep their turnovers from reaching double digits, finishing with 9. Their shooting is still far from where it started. UW went 4-15 from range with no player making more than one long ball. Darnell Gant, Justin Holiday, Isaiah Thomas, and Terrence Ross all hit one a piece. UW went 3-12 in the first half and 1-3 in the second.
The zone defense was utilized a few times in the first half and it was again effective. It was also used almost exclusively in the last 6 minutes after Aziz fouled out. It found great success and this bodes well should we find ourselves in similar situations again. It is also nice to see it worked well with smaller bodies on the court.
C.J. Wilcox, Terrence Ross, and Scott Suggs combined for 19 minutes and 9 points. Ross had 7 on 3-6 shooting.
What was Good
Post Presence
MBA definitely showed up to play today. He did well on the glass, pretty well on his shots (8-15), and defensively he was fairly solid as well. Nelson and Smith are tough, and strong (or in Smith's case, fat) who are/were able to muscle around defenders fairly easily. MBA was able to force them to pass out along with Aziz and Gant helping down low. Aziz played a good game offensively tonight, showing some good moves and was solid on the put backs. He grabbed 6 boards in 19 minutes. Not his best night, but he did well considering the foul situation. He picked up several of his fouls on defensive rebounds that resulted in over the back calls. Gant played good help defense especially tonight. Several times Smith or Nelson were open underneath and got passes, but Gant rolled over to get his hands up and help force either turnovers or passes back out to the perimeter. When Gant covered Nelson to start the second half, UW went on a 10-0 run. When he came out, Nelson went on a Roll and UCLA was able to get within 4.
Passing
Much better ball handling tonight and passing was excellent, especially by Isaiah who finished with a season high 9. He could have had several more if not for some misses on short jumpers. Gaddy had 2 assists and Overton had 1. Isaiah found many of his assists on great dump offs to MBA on drives. His drive and dish was excellent tonight. He was a tad greedy at times, putting up somewhat wild shots on the drive that, thankfully, drew foul calls.
Free Throw Shooting
I forgot to mention this in my preview, but free throws were going to be huge tonight. Much like the USC game, our free throw opportunities were limited. UW did a great job of capitalizing on their limited opportunity, missing only 3 attempts on the night and no one player missed more than one. Gant went 1-2. MBA was beautiful hitting 5-6, and Isaiah's new technique is working wonders, going 6-7 from the charity stripe. It's great to see IT continuing his success and MBA stepping up and starting to nail his attempts as well. Aziz, though he shot no free throws tonight or Wednesday against USC, has also done well on fixing his free throw problems that were oh so prominent in the opener against McNeese State. He has gone 12-19 since the 3-15 opener.
Zone Defense
Our normal man to man worked pretty well for most of the game, but at times we used a 2-3 zone defense that was extremely effective against UCLA's post. It also held their outside shot to 2-11 and overall UCLA went 18-51 (35.3%) from the field.
Toughness and Grit
We didn't need it as much this game as on Wednesday, but UW withstood a strong run from UCLA that reduced UW's17 point lead down to 4. With our three bigs again in serious foul trouble, they had to be calm and careful on defense to avoid fouling out. Once Aziz picked up his fifth on a screen it was back to the zone. MBA and Gant avoided picking up their fifths during the final 6 minutes. If MBA or Gant had fouled out I would imagine Ross would have entered the game and UW would have continued its 2-3 zone with the smaller line up.
Senior Leadership
Between MBA, Holiday, and IT, yes he is a junior and no I don't care, the Huskies were able to hold off a strong UCLA run as well as creating their own to start the second half. The Huskies have been notorious this year for starting the second half slowly. This time they came out with some fire and extended a 7 point half time lead to 17 that ended with a nice put back by Aziz N'Diaye. MBA scored and rebounded extremely well. Holiday played stellar defense on Honeycutt. Isaiah scored, found players, and created opportunities.
What Needed Improvement
Outside Shooting
I don't know what has happened, but the last 4 games have been poor shooting nights for the Huskies from range. I am not expecting 12+ three's a night, but after several games of high percentage outside shooting I would imagine we could hit 5 or 6 per game when we put up 15 attempts. With C.J. still limited in play, only 4 minutes against UCLA, we don't quite have the same presence from range. Once C.J. gets healthy again I expect our shooting to perk back up. With him on the court our other shooters are able to find open shots as well. This means more opportunities around.
Fouling
Once more we found ourselves suffering from a thin frontcourt and lots of fouls. Our big men need to learn better control to avoid foul trouble. It is not good to have MBA, Aziz, as well as Gant in foul trouble with one or more per game fouling out. This is something that needs to change. Keep in mind the Huskies picked up 50 fouls in two games and 85 minutes of play. That is extremely high and at home the foul numbers tend to be better for the home team. On the road we need to find a way to avoid the silly fouls for our bigs. By silly I mean over the back, offensive screening fouls, and the like. Our guards, especially Overton have done really well to avoid picking up reach in fouls.
Player by Player Reviews
Venoy Overton
A quiet night for Overton. He was good on defense and had limited offensive opportunities, but he flourished when he did shoot. He received a nice pass for an open and athletic lay-in. He also had a beautiful drive for a finger tip roll shot that dropped right in. He only managed 1 assist, but had no turnovers in his 19 minutes. He does a great job of running the team and that is something you don't always see in the stats. Can't expect him to play like an MVP game in and game out. Not a bad night, just not great.
Grade: B-
Justin Holiday
Holiday hit a killer three and got called for a technical. Still unsure what transpired, but from what we saw on TV he looked at the bench after he sunk the shot. Maybe he said something. I am not sure. All I know is last season Reggie Moore flexed at our bench and nothing happened. This is the second technical Holiday has picked up and also the second that was completely absurd to call a technical. He wasn't chesting up against a Bruin. He wasn't being overly vocal. Oh well, he still managed another solid stat line with his 9 points and 8 boards leading the way. He played crushing defense on Honeycutt who picked up 2 fouls early in the first half and was held to 5 points at the break. Solid, solid performance once more. I think his foot was feeling pretty good this weekend.
Grade: A- for defense and rebounding
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
MBA wrapped up an already solid 18 and 8 outing against USC with an even better 21 and 10 night against UCLA. Finishing the weekend with a 19.5 ppg and 9 rpg average is fantastic. Those are the types of numbers people have been clamoring for all season long. If he keeps up this type of play he could be a dark horse for Pac-10 player of the year. His performances were also critical as UW struggled to find hot shooters from outside the arc this weekend. Its great to see that MBA was able to step up when his team needed him most. He still has some problems with little bunny shots that keep him from have 25 point nights and IT from having 10+ assist games. All in good time though. I will take 8-15 shooting and 5-6 from the line from MBA any night. He is playing much stronger and much more purposed. I don't know what clicked for him, but I like it. If he can have these types of performances against the two strongest frontcourts in the Pac-10, I can only imagine what he might do this next weekend at home against Oregon and Oregon State. MBA also had a powerful dunk that looked very similar to last season's vicious throw down over Andrew Zimmerman of Stanford, only without a person to teabag.
Grade: A
Brendan Sherrer
Despite the bad foul situation again, Brendan did not play.
Grade: N/A
Scott Suggs
Another slow night for Suggs. He did do a lot of things right while on the court. He only played 6 minutes, but had a fantastic assist to Justin Holiday and a big offensive rebound. He stumbled off a screen, but luckily UCLA missed the shot. His defense is getting better. His work in the paint is some of his most improved talents and is great to see. Not sure why the trio of Ross, Suggs, and Wilcox (Wilcox is still hampered by a Staph infection) played so limited today, but the line up we had on the court seemed to be working. Why fix something if it isn't broken? Just looking at the stat sheet you might assume he had a poor night, but I liked what I saw.
Grade: B
Darnell Gant
Terrific night defensively and not bad offensively. He hit his lone three point shot and went 2-4 from the field. He picked up 2 rebounds as well during his 20 minutes. His most valuable impact in the game was the excellent shut down defense he had on Nelson to start the second half. His three point shot was the nail in the coffin as it put UW up 68-59 with 3:24 remaining. He is still rebounding lower than I would like, but with Aziz playing more minutes, MBA stepping up his game on the glass, and Holiday continuing to excel the Huskies are in pretty good shape when it comes to rebounding. If it is for the team's benefit that he stays more outside so be it.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
MVP of the night. 17 points on top of 9 assists and 3 boards. Fantastic performance. He forced a few drives and was bailed out with fouls, but IT is known to draw fouls on some of those circus shots. He had some great lay-ins regardless of his sometimes cringe worthy plays. Getting 9 assists to go along with that many points is hard to do. He was one missed shot away from a double double. The biggest miss was a nice dump off to MBA who, instead of dunking it, attempted a lay-in and was fouled, missing the shot. IT created many of the scoring opportunities MBA excelled on. He led the team extremely well and played 36 of the 40 minutes. His leadership is a huge asset to the team. After a somewhat slow game against USC it was refreshing to see him command the court once more. Isaiah also helped foul out Josh Smith by using his speed to force block calls.
Grade: A+
Aziz N'Diaye
The big man just couldn't seem to avoid the fouls this weekend. Sure the refs were a tad whistle happy, but Aziz needs to do more on his part to avoid the over the back calls that led to several whistles against him. He shot very well tonight, going 3-3 with a pair of nice put backs and one great post move. He did well containing Smith, who outweighs Aziz by 40lbs, for the most part. Its hard to give up that much weight, but he managed by using his height and speed advantage. 6 rebounds in 19 minutes and 6 points. Good performance, but not quite where we need him to be.
Grade: B
Abdul Gaddy
The slow streak continues for Gaddy, who again struggled to get in a rhythm offensively. He only managed 2 assists on the night. He did have 2 rebounds and a steal in addition to his 2 points that came off a nice driving bank shot. Not a great night. Isaiah did a much better job running the team tonight than Gaddy, which is a bit unusual.
Grade: C+
Antoine Hosley
Did not play today.
Grade: N/A
C.J. Wilcox
C.J. only played 4 minutes today in a somewhat surprising appearance. He is currently dealing with a Staph infection on his hip and was not expected to play today. He took one long shot, missed, and had a nice lay-in off a great pass. Hard to grade him when he barely played. His defense looked fine for the little time he spent guarding his man.
Grade: B
Terrence Ross
Only 9 minutes tonight after what was an exciting performance against USC. He went 1-4 from range tonight and added in a nice cross over jumper to finish 3-6 on the night. His 7 points led the bench, which was very quiet this game. Romar must have decided we needed our starting 5 plus Gant and Overton to beat UCLA as he left out the three head monster for a large chunk of the game. He wasn't as impressive as he was against 'SC, but still played a solid game.
Grade: B
Final Thoughts
The Huskies had a much easier time against UCLA than they did USC. They played a much better game and made the game work to their tempo despite the foul calls. They passed, they executed, they played great defense. They may not have shown the scoring ability we are so used to, but the Pac-10 teams are much better defenders than most of our opponents this season. This is a great start to the season and goes a long ways towards a successful season. This is likely to be the toughest road trip we will take until tournament time. Arizona and Wazzu will be tough games, but our post players, especially MBA, have shown they can play big against tough frontcourts. If our guards and forwards can begin to find some shooting success from range against Pac-10 teams we will be looking good. Many people were predicting a 1-1 record leaving LA this weekend. Instead we leave 2-0 from a pair of tough match ups. Great job, Huskies. You deserve a great New Years and I look forward to seeing the success continue on the 6th at home against Oregon.
Wrong!
ReplyDeleteBrendan = A+++++.