Stanford Univeristy Review 2

Final Score UW-87 Stanford-76

Interesting game tonight. The crowd was in it to start and died out during the game. The Huskies were up 84-64 with about 4 minutes to go before letting garbage time play turn into a too late run from the Cardinals.

The Huskies scored well, passed fairly well, defended well, and overall played a much more successful game than the last meeting. Terrence Ross had two monster dunks. One off the baseline and another off a put back from an MBA miss. The only weak point tonight was the rebounding. Free throw shooting wasn't great either.

Isaiah Thomas had a somewhat uncharacteristic night. He scored 22 points, but only had 1 assist and 5 turnovers. Venoy Overton on the other hands had one of his best nights of the season. 12 points, 4 assists, 0 turnovers. Brilliant.

Isaiah had a bit of a tough time shutting down Green tonight who was simply shooting over him. Sometimes I.T. can pull it off, tonight was not that night. Aziz N'Diaye also had some defensive problems early shutting down the baseline and allowing his man to get the inside lane and score the easy lay in.

The refs were loving the technical fouls tonight. 3 were called. All were legitimate. Stanford coach, Johnny Dawkins, picked one up for talking to the refs. A Stanford player picked one up for elbowing C.J. Wilcox in the face. Aziz picked one up for hanging on the rim after a monster jam. MBA nearly picked up a technical for elbowing, but did not make contact.

Scott Suggs fouled out tonight. Kind of odd. Not something I ever thought I would write. MBA had 4 and Aziz's lone foul was the technical. UW actually had the foul and free throw advantage tonight. Excellent.

I.T. was scoreless in the first 17:23 of the game then went on to score 14 points in the final two and a half minutes, hitting 4 3 pointers including 2 back to back that were about 30 feet out. After the final shot with 6 seconds to go in the half he pointed to the ground and yelled at his teammates "This is my house! This is our house!"

MBA and Ross had a vicious block on a driving Cardinal. Ross then brought the ball up and handed off to MBA for a great lay in. Got to love those kind of hustle plays. Always rewarding. C.J. Wilcox had a big block on Jeremy Green. Wilcox finished with 10 on 3-8 shooting, 2-7 from range. Not his normal production level, but he played some solid defense.

Justin Holiday was also low on the offensive end tonight, but his defense was excellent and he made some good hustle plays.

Aziz N'Diaye was finally aggressive on offense and was looking and begging for the ball. He wanted to score and ended with 9 points and 6 boards. 4-4 shooting, but only 1-5 from the free throw line. Someone get Rick Barry in the building. Aziz needs a new technique.

Ross was all over tonight. His defense is improving as is his court vision. His athleticism is off the charts. He picked up 6 boards as well, tonight, and dished out 3 assists. He only scored the 4 points off the dunks, but man were they impressive points.

A couple of strange things happened tonight. I'll start with what everyone watching the game saw. Half the lights in the arena went out during the first media timeout. There was an additional timeout added on as the lights warmed back up and the coaches agreed to playing in the lower light settings. The lights dimmed once more during half time. The second strange thing was Antoine Hosley playing 4 minutes while Brendan Sherrer rode the pine the entire game. Maybe he was hurt? Tired? Not sure. The final strange thing was something Percy Allen coined as "Fangate." A girl in the Dawg Pack was wearing a UW hat, but a Stanford sweatshirt and T-shirt. She was pointed out and booed until the ushers came and removed her. She was evidently a med student here, but did undergraduate work at Stanford. There is a rule that all members of the Dawg Pack have to wear UW school colors. This occurred after a game against Arizona where a UA fan was disguised as a Dawg Pack member revealed themselves and earned a lot of harassment. She returned later, crying, and a member of the media crew brought her a purple shirt to wear. Not sure why she thought that would be OK, nor am I sure why her friends thought it would be OK. You never wear opposing colors in the student section. Ever. If this was Oregon and she was an Oregon State fan, she would have been pushed around no doubt. Luckily, the Dawg Pack is much classier and is satisfied by substantial booing and removal.

What Needed Improvement

Rebounding

Stanford had the edge on the glass tonight and did a much better job getting the long rebounds and second chance opportunities from offensive boards. 36-33 in favor of Stanford. MBA, Aziz, and Ross all grabbed 6 boards, and Gant had 5 (excellent). All 4 did a good job, just needed a little more support from the other players. We shot 29 3 pointers tonight, which resulted in a lot of long rebounds that the Cardinals got their hands on.

Free Throws

60% overall tonight. MBA went 3-7 and Aziz was 1-5. I.T. went 6-7, his miss was the front end of a 1 and 1, and Venoy went 5-7. Wilcox nailed both his free throws after the technical. Got to work on our big men and their free throw shooting. Post players get to the line quite often so they need to make shots to benefit us.

Ball Control

MBA had 6 turnovers and I.T. had 5. These two guys are normally much better at handling the rock, but tonight they struggled. Those kind of numbers are only acceptable because we won, yet they still need to be looked at and corrected.

What Was Good

Defense

UW forced 19 turnovers tonight, had 6 blocks, and 6 steals. The Dawgs also drew several charges, a 5 second call, and nearly 2 over and backs. Minus a few slips here and there and the garbage time nonsense, UW played a solid defensive game. Green was the only Cardinal to do what he wanted regardless of defender.

Role Player Production

Aziz, Overton, and Wilcox all put up solid numbers tonight, something they haven't done a ton this season. It is always great to see normally quiet offensive players get aggressive and score.

Player by Player Reviews

Justin Holiday

Quiet offensively, 2-5 shooting, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 assist. Quiet overall. He was a real hustle player though, and did well defensively containing his man. Not a whole ton else to say about him, sadly.
Grade: B-

Matthew Bryan-Amaning

15 points, 6 boards, 6 turnovers. 6-10 shooting and 3-7 from the free throw line. Not his best night, but he did well moving in transition and drawing fouls. I was really hoping for a huge teabag dunk, but every opportunity resulted in a hard foul, including one intentional foul called against Stanford.
Grade: B-

Venoy Overton

Venoy picks up the MVP tonight, in my opinion. His 3-8 shooting was not impressive, but the 12 points and 4 assists with 0 turnovers were great. Fantastic performance tonight. His fire, drive, and talent is slowly returning as his injuries heal and confidence returns. Great passing work finding the open men down low and around the perimeter.
Grade: A-

Brendan Sherrer

Did not play.
Grade: N/A

Darnell Gant

No points tonight, 0-3 shooting, but he did grab 5 boards, dished out 2 assists, and snatched the ball out of the Cardinal hands once for a steal. Fairly solid numbers for only 17 minutes of play time. He is really shaping nicely into a good rebounder and with a little more weight and work, he could serve as a fill in for MBA if for whatever reason we do not land Angelo Chol.
Grade: B+

Scott Suggs

Despite fouling out and the somewhat lower point total, Suggs looked great shooting tonight. He went 3-5 over all and 1-1 from range. He took some nice fake pumps, dribbled in a step and knocked in the jumper.  He is polishing his game nicely and is doing well to be more than just a catch and shoot player. 7 points, 2 assists, 1 turnover. Not terrible by any means.
Grade: B

Isaiah Thomas

Interesting play from Isaiah tonight. He scored in bunches and barely picked up an assist. His shot was hot to end the first half, but relatively cold the rest. He took a poke to the eye from teammate, Darnell Gant, and went to the training room to get looked at. He returned later after icing.  Not sure why the assists were accumulating tonight, but it is what it is. I'll take 22 points.
Grade: B

Aziz N'Diaye

Loved the aggression offensively tonight. That technical was worth it. What a jam. Aziz needs to cherry pick at least once this season. I want to see an absurd dunk from him. His defense was not as good tonight, but he rebounded well still. Only 18 minutes tonight, likely due to the defensive issues.
Grade: B

Antoine Hosley

Played 4 minutes tonight. Scored 2 points off a nice jumper. Missed his 3 point shot.
Grade: A for effort

C.J. Wilcox

The shot aggressiveness is returning and so are his talents. He has a beautiful touch at the free throw line, a great, quick release. Drains every time. His long rage shot is still rattling around a bit during the game, but in warm ups it was looking sweet as candy. He drilled one shot from beyond NBA range.
Grade: B+

Terrence Ross

This kid is going to be a star, mark my words. All the pieces are there and starting to fall together. Bit by bit he is becoming more consistent, smarter with his shot choices, and improving his court vision His put back jam was vicious and his baseline dunk was just plain nasty. I'll post the highlight video once it is up on Youtube. Loved the rebounding and passing effort he put out tonight. He plays with confidence and never looks scared. He also handles the ball much better than Suggs or Wilcox in my opinion.
Grade: A-

Final Thoughts

Strange game, but a win none the less. UW led by 20 before garbage time. Won by 11. Got to carry this weeks momentum into the desert of Arizona. Two huge games coming up. Both are must wins. Lose to ASU and title aspirations all but disappear. Lose to UA and see them rise beyond our reach. Keep it going boys.

Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgArTX3JWzU&feature=feedu Starts with the Ross Baseline Dunk