Arizona State University Review 2

UW-79 ASU-62

A great start to a critical weekend. UW had a 21 point lead before subbing in Antoine Hosley and entering garbage time. MBA had another dominate performance over ASU, finishing with a double double (22 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 assists, and only 1 turnover). 4 Huskies finished with double digit scoring. C.J. Wilcox had 16, Isaiah Thomas had 11, and Venoy Overton finished with 10.

Scott Suggs left early in the game after a tumble that resulted in a sprained MCL. He will likely not be available until the WSU game. *Update* Reports indicate 2-3 weeks for recovery, so WSU game is a maybe at best. More likely he won't return until the Pac-10 tournament.

Brendan Sherrer did not travel with the team this weekends as he is currently dealing with a Staph infection in his arm.

UW won the rebounding battle 41-38 led by MBA at 12, followed by Overton and Wilcox with 8 a piece. Keala King led ASU with 8 off the bench. ASU picked up a lot of rebounds from long misses by both UW and themselves. UW shot a measly 8-26 from range, led by Wilcox going 4-9. I.T.'s shot was off and missed his first 8 shots including 6 from deep. He finished 4-12 over all, 2-8 from outside.

Overall the free throws were very solid. MBA elevated his game by not only going 7-11 from the field, but 8-11 from the charity stripe. On the other side, normally constant Overton was 5-9 from the free throw line and constituted a majority of the misses. UW finished 21-30 from the line, while ASU went 6-19. Only due to the fouling at the end of the game did UW have the foul advantage 23-22. ASU was shooting one and ones only 4 minutes into the game and Holiday picked up 3 rather quickly, all on rather weak fouls.

UW played strong defense today. Despite only forcing 9 turnovers, the Dawgs hosted another block party with 10 on the night. MBA led with his 4 with both Aziz N'Diaye and Wilcox added in two of their own. UW also stole the ball twice.

To add onto the strong defense, UW handled the ball extremely well, only committing 9 turnovers themselves and dishing out 21 assists to ASU's 14. I.T. led the team with 6 assists and was followed closely by Overton who had 5, while both MBA and Wilcox added 3 a piece.

Terrence Ross struggled to find his shot tonight, going 0-5 from the field and 0-3 from outside. He picked up 2 points off a pair of free throws, had 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 rebound, 1 block, and 2 silly turnovers. He played 24 minutes tonight because he played tough defense and moved well around the court.

I was most impressed with C.J. Wilcox. He has resurfaced and brought back with him that sweet, sweet shot and the quick release. With Scott Suggs out for at least the next 2, if not 3, games there is a starting spot open and I believe it will go to either Terrence Ross or C.J. Wilcox to prevent mismatches at point guard for Isaiah. Ross has been having some statement games, but C.J. argued his case well tonight. If it was up to me, I'd go with Ross. He has been better overall as of late. Also, bringing C.J. in gives us some instant firepower from the bench.

The refs, perhaps inspired by the Stanford Teabag Theme, held their own T party tonight. An ASU player ran over Isaiah when there was no reason to be near him. I.T. got up the court and said "Hey, don't do that." No swearing, no contact, no nothing. I.T. got T'ed up by the refs. After review by the refs, the ASU player was also issued a technical. Shortly after, the ASU bench picked up another technical as the ASU assistant coach blew his top. None of those T's should have happened, the refs needed to step in early and issue warnings.

I was most impressed with our composure during the game. UW started off shooting slow and got down by 8 quickly. They went on a run and finished the half up 10. Tough defense and a will to win, not to mention making their free throws, was what enabled them to make the run.

What Needed Improvement

Boxing Out

While UW rebounded well, so did the Devil. We only had a 3 rebound margin. This won't cut it against UA on Saturday. We need to do a better job of boxing out, especially the guards on the long rebounds. There were flashes of strong boxing out, but overall it was lacking on the perimeter.

Fouling

This was not entirely the players fault, but players need to adjust their game. The refs were calling weak sauce fouls all over the place. While the second half was much better we still need to avoid the sloppy ones right off the bat. We have had more stressful games in terms of foul trouble, but no need to start again.

Outside Shooting

Everyone but C.J. seemed to struggle. Thomas was 2-8, Holiday was 1-3, Ross was 0-3, Gant was 0-1, and Venoy was fairly solid at 1-2.  They weren't necessarily bad shots, they just weren't hitting the open ones like they should, I.T. especially.

What was Good

Rebounding

As I said above, our rebounding was good enough, we just need to defend against it a little better. 41 boards is nothing to turn your nose up at. MBA was very solid and Overton and Wilcox surprised me with their solid play. Aziz didn't pick up many, but he usually struggles a bit against the zone. Ross and Gant were also a little below their averages, but their slack was picked up by the above mentioned.

Defense

Looked pretty solid for a majority of the night. ASU made a short run at the start of the second and the very end of the game (as expected), but that was about it. If not for the poor shooting to start the game and heavy fouling, UW would not have trailed at all this game. At one point UW had 6 points, 7 fouls. Ridiculous.

Ball Control/Passing

As I said earlier, we did a fantastic job holding onto and distributing the ball tonight. Players outside the point guard position were handling and distributing the ball well. I.T. only had 1 turnover to his 6 assists, which was great to see after his 1 assist 5 turnover game last week. Overton has been very solid as well and is returning to his prime level of play on both ends of the court.

Player by Player Reviews

Justin Holiday

Another quiet night for the senior. 9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 0 turnovers. A fairly solid line for 22 minutes. It only seems so quiet because he sat a bit with foul trouble. We have also become spoiled when it comes to his 15 to 20 point games so hearing he only put up 9 seems like an off night now-a-days. 3-7 from the field and a very nice 3 pointer to keep the momentum going our way off a sweet pass by C.J. Wilcox.
Grade: B

Venoy Overton


Can I say the Venoyance is back? I feel like I can. He was strong on defense, harassing people all night, he only had 1 foul, picked up 8 huge rebounds (7 defensive), and despite poor free throw shooting still managed to hit double digits with 10 points. He only had 1 steal, but he did much more than the stats show. He did a great job running the team after Suggs left with his injury and played a team high 30 minutes. Like I.T., Venoy only had 1 turnover on the night. Fantastic.
Grade: A- (make your free throws and its an A kind of day)

Matthew Bryan-Amaning

MVP of the game tonight. This season MBA has averaged 26 points and 10.5 rebounds against ASU. Brilliant numbers. His 22 and 12 with 4 added blocks was tremendous. To do so while only picking up 2 fouls and even handing out 3 assists is beautiful. He was fantastic receiving it down low, faking in and then dishing out to our waiting guards and wings for the 3 ball. Some strong dunks tonight, including a great alley oop dish in transition. We will need this kind of performance against UA this weekend.
Grade: A+

Brendan Sherrer

Did not play.
Grade: N/A

Scott Suggs

Can't say a whole lot. He only played 3 minutes before the tumble and won't play for another few weeks. We wish you quick healing and a magnificent return.
Grade: A for effort

Darnell Gant

Not as strong tonight as he was against the Bay Area schools, but a decent game as is. 4 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 turnovers. He played defense well and worked in the zone to shut down the ASU outside shot. He will be important as well on Saturday, working in turns to contain Derek Williams.
Grade: B

Isaiah Thomas

Fairly quiet tonight. He missed a lot of shots, including 2 open 3 pointer he should have nailed. It wasn't until late in the first that he found his shot again and didn't miss any more shots until games end. He passed well and dished out of the drive more often, which was great to see. That's the kind of play we needed from him tonight as our post was having its way all game long.
Grade: B+

Aziz N'Diaye

Picked up 4 fouls and went 2-4 from the field, 1-2 from the free throw line. 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 turnover. Not bad, but not great for 21 minutes. The 3-2 zone really gives him troubles as he is still learning how to box out and rebound properly against the zone defense. It'll come with time, no worries there. He had a brilliant dunk, ramming it home on a nice pass by Overton. Big boy needs to go up that strong and with authority more often. He crumpled one ASU player tonight, but drew the foul rather than just a pure block.
Grade: B

Antoine Hosley

Played 4 minutes tonight. The only stat to report is a lone turnover that occurred to his O button smashing. If you don't get the reference, visit seattlesportsnet.com and look up the Human Victory Blunt. Hilarious article by Alex Akita.
Grade: A for effort

Terrence Ross

After 2 solid performances last week, Ross was quiet today. It happens with freshmen and against the zone it is much harder to pull off those fancy, athletic moves. Let's hope he shows up strong against Arizona on Saturday. I'm picking him as my starter until I hear otherwise from Romar or see it in the game.
Grade: B for defensive effort and overall tenacity

C.J. Wilcox

He has returned at last, ladies and gentlemen. After passing on his Staph to poor Brendan, his swag and shot are back in action. While not quite at his 50%+ level we saw at the start of the season, 4-9 is pretty damn sweet. His release is just fantastic. Watch Ray Allen, who recently set the NBA record for 3 pointers, and you will see a similar shot style. Elbows up, elevate, quick release. Its a thing of beauty. His defense is also looking very solid as evident by his 2 blocks, which were not just tips, but full on rejections. He gets an honorable mention for MVP tonight.
Grade: A

Final Thoughts

This was a great way to start the road trip. Get some confidence, shoot well enough, hit our free throws, defend the ball, and control the rock. We need to carry our momentum through Saturday and pick up the sweep. WSU lost a game against UA that was never really in question, but fairly close at times. Klay Thompson had something like 30 points for the Cougars, but had no additional support to pull off the upset. It is up to us to start a losing trend for Arizona. The game on Saturday will be the biggest of the year, by far. Playing #12/13 on the road on ESPN, essentially for the title in many ways. We pick up that win and we sit only a half game back with 3 home games to finish off the conference season. A great time and place to win the title if you ask me. Sure we need UA to drop one more after that, but it can happen. UA finishes with UCLA, USC, UO, and OSU all of whom would beat UA on any given day. My bet is on UCLA or OSU. Both teams have played well against Arizona in the past. UO is a dark horse for the upset. The Trojans haven't played well enough as of late for me to have confidence in them pulling the upset, but it could happen. Before worrying too much about what Arizona does, we need to take care of ourselves first. Win out and the title is ours. Lose on Saturday and aim for second. That is pretty much what it comes down to. This is it. This is our time. Let's get it done. Go Dawgs.