University of Nevada-Reno Review

Final Score: UW-90 UNR-60

Overton was sat out today with a hyper-extended knee he suffered on Monday. Coach said he could have played, but they decided he would be better off resting.

In the final home non conference game of the year the Huskies dominated once again. The shooting was once more subpar over all, but Holiday and Suggs looked great from range. C.J. struggled going 1-4 from range and 1-7 overall including a few open shots he should have nailed without a problem. Isaiah went 4-10 from range and 9-19 over all, but scored a season high 24 points with 8 rebounds. Washington had 4 players with double doubles or close to it. MBA had 16 points and 11 rebounds with 8 defensive boards. Aziz N'Diaye had 11 points and 10 rebounds including 5 offensive boards. IT led the team in scoring with 24 and had 8 boards. Holiday filled the stat sheet once again before leaving the game with a sprained ankle Romar said did not appear serious and Holiday should be ready by next their next game against USC. Holiday had 12 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, and 1 block. What a beast. UW won the rebounding battle quite solidly finishing 56-42. UW led at half by only one board at 22-21.

So what did we see out there tonight? We saw us play how we should be playing every game. We were able to score down low and rebound (27 points and 21 boards from our bigs, finally!) Our shooting, while not up to our usual standards was not completely terrible. We shot 46% from range in the first half, but only 31% in the second. Overall the Dawgs went 35-83 from the field, 42%. Not great, but could be worse. The Huskies had 18 assists on the night led by Adbul Gaddy who had 5 assists and 0 turnovers, but played a forgettable game otherwise going 1-6 from the field and picking up 4 fouls, including tw quick back to back fouls for numbers 3 and 4. Our defense was absolutely crippling as the Huskies held UNR to 28.3% shooting on the night including 16.7% from range (2-12). The Huskies had 7 steals and 7 blocks and forced 11 turnovers on the night. Not quite the 20 or so I expected, but limiting our own to 5 once again was brilliant. Gant, Ross, and Suggs did a great job for the Huskies off the bench. Both Gant and Ross picked up 4 boards. The three combined for 23 points, including a very emphatic jam by Ross off a beautiful alley oop by IT.

What Was OK

Shooting

Not our best night by any means. Two players missing 10 shots a piece is normally a rough night, yet we still managed to score 90 points due to great rebounding. Almost all of  MBA's misses were off of lay-ins and break-aways. He put most of them right back in, padding his rebounding stats. On one particular play he had an easy lay-in opportunity in transition that bounced back out, but Aziz was trailing nicely and jammed it home.

C.J. once against struggled to find a rhythm and made his only shot as time expired in the first half. One would hope he can regain his shooting prowess before next Wednesday against USC. We need his shot to be hot as USC has a lot of size down low that will make MBA and Aziz's day a lot harder. The opportunities inside may not be there that we had today.

Holiday and Suggs were the best shooters for the Huskies tonight. Sure IT led the team in scoring, but he missed 10 shots and took some bold 3 point shots he probably shouldn't have. Ross shot fairly well going 3-7 from the field. He is still shooting with too much power and needs to either arc the ball more or take some gas off his shot.

IT was a monster on the drive, faking behind the back passes, driving through three and four players with ease, dropping off passes, pulling up and shooting. He did it all. The only part of his game that really wasn't up to par was his outside shot. 4-10 isn't bad, but he has done much better and is capable of much better.

Fouling

UNR attempted 33 free throws and made 24, while UW made 9 of 15 (MBA was 4-9, bleh...). Three players attempted 7 or more free throws. We cannot let teams get to the line that often. This is how the 08-09 team did so well. They drew tons of fouls and converted them to points, which allowed them to win close games. USC is turning into a solid team and if we let them take 30+ free throws we will be in a much tighter situation than we want.

What Was Good

Defense

UW dominated defensively tonight. 11 turnovers including 7 steals is very nice. Add in the 7 blocks and holding UNR to 17-60 from the field and you have yourself one heck of a defensive effort. The Huskies also picked up 35 defensive boards and limited UNR to 13 offensive boards. A nice job in taking away second chance opportunities. MBA had 4 blocks tonight and Justin Holiday led the team with 3 steals. MBA and Ross split the remaining 4 steals with 2 a piece. UW also held UNR to 0 assists in the first half. 0. Excellent. UNR ended the night with 5 assists, the same number as UW had turnovers on the game. Kevin Panzer, one of the starting 5 for UNR, played 23 minutes and missed his only field goal attempt as well as his only free throw attempt and was held scoreless. Nice job Holiday.

Passing

18 assists on 35 makes. Once again, above a 50% assist rate. Our unselfishness showed itself in one particular play quite splendidly. MBA had a steal near center court. He passed to a leading Holiday who dropped the ball down low to C.J. who had a bad shot under the basket and instead passed out to Suggs who dropped in the tre. Completely unselfish, team basketball at its finest. Find the open man and work it around until you get the best shot. Isaiah had a number of great passes to Aziz and MBA, finishing with 4 assists. Isaiah could have had close to 8 had MBA not dinked so many close and easy baskets.

The Bigs

All three, MBA, Aziz, and Gant, had pretty solid nights. MBA was somewhat of a mess offensively on his shots, but still managed 16 points. His free throw shooting still leaves me shaking my head, but I'll take what I can get. His 11 boards gives him 20 over the last two games. He appears to be peaking at the right time.

Along that same vein, Aziz is really coming into his own over the last week of play. 20 points and 15 boards including his double double tonight in his last two outings. This new line up with MBA at the 4 and Aziz at the 5 is doing wonders for our team offensively and approaches more of a "traditional" NBA line up. Aziz is finally throwing down instead of putting up softies. He is also using some nice post moves that have developed into useful tools. Only one block tonight. He could have had more if our guards had moved out of the way and let him do his thing. Regardless, he was a big part of why the Wolfpack struggled to shoot tonight as once again his size is a shot and game changer.

Gant picked up 4 boards, all offensive, in his 14 minutes of play. He did a great job while he was in, especially in the last 10 minutes or so when he started to score a bit as well. If he can continue to get 4 boards in 15 minutes or 6 in 20 we will be feeling much more comfortable, especially with MBA and Aziz picking up close to 10, if not more, a piece.

Player by Player Reviews

Venoy Overton

Sat out with a hyper-extended knee. Should be good to go by next week. Has been plagues by injuries this year. Too bad, especially since it is his senior season. We wish he the best and a speedy recovery, though it sounds like he could have played today had we needed him.
Grade: N/A

Matthew Bryan-Amaning

Sloppy offensively, but put up nice numbers. His sloppy offensive padded his rebounding numbers, but he still did a nice job picking up 8 defensive boards. His 4 blocks only begin to tell his defensive efforts on the night. I wouldn't call him the MVP defensively, but he was pretty solid on the court tonight. He is working really well with Aziz and they don't seem to negatively impact each others' games at all. If anything their games have dramatically improved the more they have played together. MBA needs to make the close and easy ones. In the highlight vid of the game, link below, you can see an example of one of his close misses. Thankfully Aziz was trailing to clean it up. 6-16 from the field with 0-0 from range is not good. The short ones should be dropping in no problem. 4-9 from the FT line is not a good number either. He needs to be hitting 6 or 7 of 9. He may never be an 80% FT shooter, but he needs to get to at least 70%.
Grade: A-

Justin Holiday

I give Justin the MVP of the night. He must think he is a Thanksgiving chef, because he just crams and stuffs the stats sheets full of numbers game in and game out. 12,9,3,2,1. What a line. Only 1 foul as well and he played 28 minutes. Who would have thought at the beginning of last season Holiday would be putting up double digits almost every game this year and that any night he didn't would be considered an off night? Last season if Holiday had scored 8 or 12 points we would have been saying "wow, what a game for Holiday!" Instead we are now going "man, Holiday only got 10. What was wrong with his shot?" What a blessing to have Holiday develop into such a prolific offensive weapon to round out his already stifling defensive abilities. He left with an ankle sprain that the x-rays showed to not be serous, according to Romar. He should be healthy by next week.
Grade: A+

Darnell Gant

Only 14 minutes of play for Gant, but he used it very well. 4 offensive boards and 8 points on 2-5 shooting isn't bad at all. His limited minutes were likely due to his 4 fouls he picked up. He played much tougher and much more aggressive on the glass than I have seen him play this year. Maybe the A&M game woke him up to the fact that he needs to box out and help on the glass, snatching as many boards as he can. It really helps our team when our post sub player can come in and grab rebounds as well. His outside shot is still looking good and he is not taking bad shots. I like this a lot.
Grade: B

Scott Suggs

Once again, Suggs came off the bench to offer up some nice shots and some good range. He went 3-6 from the field and hit 2 long balls. He got knocked around a bit on defense, but was otherwise pretty good. If he can put on some more muscle, he looks to be a star next season or even later this season. Not his best game, but it was a good effort for 19 minutes of play. Nailing that shot assisted by C.J. was huge. He has been making the open shots where C.J. has been missing as of late.
Grade: B

Brendan Sherrer

No points tonight in his two minutes. He supposedly had a turnover, but I didn't see it. Either way, it was another night a the Victory Cigar.
Grade: A for effort

Isaiah Thomas

Another candidate for MVP of the game. His 24 points and 8 rebounds were brilliant. This type of break out game right before conference play begins will be huge to his momentum going into next week. It only takes one game to get a player going and this could have been that game. UNR had some decent size that IT had to combat, including a defensive assignment on a guy 7 inches taller and 40lbs heavier in Malik Story, who IT helped hold to 5-12 shooting. While he may have missed a bunch of shots, 9-19 and 4-10 from range, he drove like a wild animal. He looks back in form in that sense. His passing is still excelling, with 4 assists. I think his best play was either the fake behind the back pass to a lay-in or the alley oop to Terrence Ross who threw down a gnarly dunk.
Grade: A

Abdul Gaddy

Off night for the sophomore guard. He went 1-6 from the field and didn't score until the second half. He had 4 fouls which limited his play in the second half. He did manage to once again commit 0 turnovers and put up 5 assists. He is a magnificent passing machine. He had a beautiful pass line drive where he did a crazy spin move to go around his defender. The pass made its way out to Ross, who sadly missed the long ball. If Ross had made the shot, the play would have been on the ESPN top 10, I guarantee it. Let's hope he can mentally move on and prepare for next week's opener against USC. We need him to be at the top of his game.
Grade: B-

Aziz N'Diaye

Another fantastic night for Aziz. His second double double of the year, posting 11 points and 10 rebounds. It's hard to describe effectively just how much of a turn around we have seen from him the last two games. He has gone from a 4 to 5 point a game scorer to someone who could and should be posting double digits and maybe even double doubles, every night. He may not be as fancy as MBA, but with his size and length he doesn't need to be. He has the muscle to work the ball down low. He just needs to add some face up moves to get a clearer shot at the hoop. I am glad to see he is beginning to dunk the ball first and foremost on the put backs and passes rather than going for the bank shot. He picked up two fouls tonight, but the second one was complete nonsense. He had position, he was outside the invisible arc, his feet were set. A perfect charge situation, yet somehow the ref manages to call it a block. Whatever....give Aziz credit for knowing how to behave defensively to avoid foul trouble.
Grade: A

C.J. Wilcox

Man, I don't know what is up with Wilcox, but his shot has just been OFF. It pains me to see him struggle and only score three on the night when we know and have seen him put up points like no other. Maybe it has just been a rough week and he will recover in LA. All I know is that we need him to be hitting come next Wednesday. He did have 2 assists and 3 rebounds, but this hardly qualifies as a good night for such a normally outstanding player. Get it together C.J., we need you.
Grade: C

Terrence Ross

What an athlete. If that alley-oop dunk doesn't convince you of that, maybe his cross over to create space will. Just watch that highlight vid and see it at work. That isn't even the first time that has worked so beautifully. He looks like B-Roy out there. Sure, he "only" managed 9 points, but he also grabbed 4 boards and had 2 steals in 19 minutes of play. Pretty solid night for sure. This kid is going to start breaking out real soon. Once he gets the rust out of his long ball, look out, he will be lighting it up for 15 a night. He is a confident shooter, which I love, and has the ball handling to make his own shots and space.
Grade: B+

Antoine Hosley

No points tonight. He did take a shot, but it air balled. He will jack up at least one shot every time he enters the game, usually a 3 pointer. I don't blame him. I would totally do the same thing if I was a walk on for a division 1 team. You only get so many minutes, try to score. His shot is still wonky as ever, but that's OK we love him regardless.
Grade: A for effort

Final Thoughts

Tonight was a solid victory and a great dominant performance to get us rolling into conference play. If we can rebound as efficiently against USC and put up a dominant performance, we may manage to find ourselves in the top 25 again as USC has beaten two ranked teams. Personally, I don't care too much about the "top 25", I just want the win. I would prefer to see us come out and just crush USC, but I would take a close, 5 to 10 point, game.While UNR's size may not have been the strongest or most talented it was a bit of a preview for next weeks battle against USC who has two tough forwards. A week of rest and practice should have us up and ready for another road test. We should come away from LA with a 2-0 start to the season, but it will be no gimme. The Huskies will likely have two tough battles to fight, but in the end our bench depth and overall talent should see us through.

Also, it is important to note that the USC-UW game will not be televised. FSN, the bums, are showing WSU-UCLA as their national game at 8pm, thus the local networks cannot show any games during that time. The USC-UW game is scheduled to tip off at 7:30pm and USC has refused to reschedule to 6pm to gain television coverage for whatever convoluted reason they seem to deem reasonable. I know there have been several viewing parties schedules as many Husky fans will be in the area rooting on the Football team in the Holiday Bowl. FSN and USC are really screwing the pooch big time on this one. Oh well, time to bust out the old radio once more.

Links:

Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsJSnqCK5uw&feature=player_embedded 
Percy Allen: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013744757_isaiah_thomas_t_1.html 
Montlake Madness: http://www.montlakemadness.com/huskies-dominate-nevada-90-60/