University of California Los Angeles Review 2

Final Score: UW-70 UCLA-63

After a bit of celebration I return you to your regularly scheduled readings.

In what was another sloppy night offensively for the majority of the Huskies, C.J. Wilcox shone bright in the night sky. After going scoreless on 0-2 shooting in the first half, C.J. Wilcox came out and hit the first 5 Husky points and went on to douse the Bruins with 24 points on 7-10 shooting (7-8 in the second half), including 4-7 from range and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. He put the team on his back.

Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Justin Holiday, and Isaiah Thomas combined for a miserable 7-34 from the field. MBA once again finished a terrible 3-11 from the field and continued to short change his shorts instead of shooting strong and letting the backboard do its job. I.T. was just as bad ending the night 3-12. Holiday was 1-8.

UW and UCLA battled back and forth on the glass and both teams ended with 40 a piece. UCLA was led by Josh Smith at 16 boards. MBA picked up 13 and Aziz N'Diaye added his own 8.

Holiday led with a game high 5 assists, followed by I.T. and Scott Suggs at 3 a piece. Reeves Nelson led UCLA with 3 assists.

The Huskies shooting struggles both from the field and free throw line continued tonight. Sadly, their defensive lapses hinder their overall defensive intensity and effectiveness. UW finished with 5 blocks, 5 steals, and 18 forced turnovers. They also finished 20-28 from the line and a horrifying 22-61 from the field. Wilcox had 4 of UW's 6 made 3 pointers on 15 attempts.

Terrence Ross did not play in the second half due to Overton and Wilcox playing terrific games and only played 4 minutes total and was scoreless, missing his lone attempt.

Suggs played a solid 18 minutes of basketball after returning from his MCL injury. He was 1-3 from the field and aced both his free throws. He added in 1 rebound, 3 assists, 1 awesome block, and 2 steals.

I.T. was miserable tonight. Between him and MBA I don't know whose shot was worse, but both of them should have joined Holiday in the auxiliary gym after the game for some work on their game. Props to Holiday for continuing his lonesome workouts and wanting to improve his game to help out his team as well as his future career.

UW had a few fantastic blocks on transition lay-in attempts by UCLA. To my recollection I counted 3. Each one of them as impressive as the others. UW's defensive effort tonight was impressive, too bad their offensive game couldn't have joined the party. This is the second straight game, at home at that, in which the Dawgs have struggled to find their rhythm. UW has C.J. Wilcox alone to thank for the win. He single-handedly took this team by the hand and brought back the W. He had 24 of UW's 46 points (18 of 34 when excluding free throws). UW must get their shot back in time for the post season.

Maybe someone who reads this blog can answer me this question? Why do people have such a problem with the Dawg Pack making fun of Josh Smith for being fat? One of the media heads told us we could do anything, including hold up McDonald's signs and other fast food paraphernalia, but making fat jokes was not OK. We couldn't use those jokes because they were personal comments. ALL THE DAWG PACK DOES IS MAKE PERSONAL COMMENTS!!!!!! He is fat, not crippled. He is a D1 athlete. His weight is a choice he makes just as much as his haircut or tattoos. We aren't criticizing his race or even religion for that matter (something else he chooses). Why is his fatness off limits?

Anyways, I digress. This was a frustrating game because if we hit the shots we should, this would have been a blowout early on and a 30 point win by nights end.

What was Good

C.J. Wilcox's Second Half

24 points. Enough said.

Rebounding

40-40 ain't too shabby, especially when one considers how strong UCLA's frontcourt is. UW had 18 offensive boards, led by MBA at 7.

Defensive Effort

Brilliant work on the defensive end. If you watch the game you will see the hustle, drive, and tenacity that at one time had them recognized as a legitimate National Title contender.

What Needed Improvement

Shooting

22-61 is not good. We are the number 2 offense in the nation. Let's act like it please. We need better shot selection and I.T. needs to drive instead of this fake in nonsense that has led to just terrible shooting. MBA needs to put some damn oomph behind his shot and hit the glass instead of trying to swish everything. It's not a 3 point shot, big man, throw it off the glass. It is there for your help and assistance.

Free Throw Shooting

I am sick of writing free throw shooting under needs improvement. How about we shoot our damn gimmes like a champ for once. UCLA went 12-13. WSU went 32-36. That is how you shoot free throws. Not 20-28. Wilcox knows how to make a free throw. He went 6-6, he was awesome.


Player by Player Reviews

Justin Holiday

Defensively amazing performance. He held Honeycutt to 6 points, all off of free throws. Honeycutt was 0-6 from the field. Offensively he left a lot to be desired. 1-8 shooting, 1-2 from the arc, is well below his standards. Holiday hit the gym after the game and for that I give him two thumbs up. His 6 boards, 5 assists, and block help make up for his 3 turnovers.
Grade: B-

Matthew Bryan-Amaning

3-11 shooting. Horrible. 13 boards. Nice. 1-2 free throws. Meh. 1 assist, 1 turnover, 1 steal. Not bad. Overall MBA was a mess, but I appreciate the glass work. Where has his shot gone? He had done such good work improving his numbers only to have gone a combined 6-22 the past 2 games. Not good to see at all. With Aziz still developing offensively, MBA remains our lone post threat. He needs to step up his game and finish strong at the hoop.
Grade: B-

Venoy Overton

Brought the fire and old V.O. out tonight. 3-3 from the field and a below average 4-7 from the charity line. 0 assists and 2 turnovers. Got called for a bogus "block" call that was clearly a second offensive push off. The refs of the Pac-10 are terrible and they are lucky Overton and Anderson didn't start pushing, shoving, and punching. Ran the transition game extremely well tonight. He is extremely quick and did a nice job staying in front of the quick UCLA guards as well as pushing the tempo of the game.
Grade: B+

Brendan Sherrer

Did not play.
Grade: N/A

Darnell Gant

A quieter night then I would like from him, but some pretty decent shots overall. He continues to be more aggressive and is looking to take shots instead of always passing the responsibility off to someone else. 5 points on 2-6 shooting, only 2 boards, and 1 very sweet block.
Grade: B

Scott Suggs

Suggs had a fairly solid return. For 18 minutes of play his numbers were pretty good especially in context of an MCL strain. I am beginning to feel more confident in his ability to run the team and offense, something he should not have to do his senior senior with Abdul Gaddy, Tony Wroten, and presumably Isaiah Thomas on the squad. He will not likely return to the starting role he had assumed until next season. Overton will start Saturday on senior night and Romar will likely keep C.J. in the starting role to preserve the chemistry that has been working fairly well thus far. I could be wrong.
Grade: B

Isaiah Thomas

Not a good night. 9 points, 3 from the line. He did not score until there were less than 4 minutes remaining in the game. Only 3 assists and 4 boards. He did add 2 steals to help offset his 3 turnovers. His shooting and shot selection must improve and return to the A-game level he showed during the first few weeks of Abdul's absence.
Grade: C

Aziz N'Diaye

I blame Scott Alspach for Aziz's bobbled dunk. He had a dream about it and whenever he dreams this kind of thing, it happens. Aziz needs to get some new hands. His are too tough and incapable of receiving sweet passes right now. The fact he was 2-7 is a testament to his new aggressive style of play and it is only a matter of time before he starts hitting consistently. He had 5 offensive boards tonight.
Grade: B

Antoine Hosley

Did not play.
Grade: N/A

Terrence Ross

Hard to grade a 4 minute performance. So I won't.
Grade: N/A

C.J. Wilcox

Beast MODE! His first half was forgettable, but his second half was the stuff of legends. He could not and would not miss. He put da team on his back. All the way. Cross the plane. Touchdown. His jumper is so sweet and that fouled AND1 near the arc was just ridiculous. It was a testament to how well his night had been going. MVP by far. No doubt. He won this game by himself. He will likely surrender his starting spot temporarily to Overton for senior night before taking it back for the Pac-10 tournament. This night is yours C.J., enjoy it.
Grade: A++++++++++++++++

Final Thoughts

A fairly nice pick me up after a sobering loss to WSU at home. Not a great offensive night, but the defensive effort was everything you could ask from a team. Hustle plays win games (and free throws). The game at USC is extremely important. If UW wins and UCLA loses, UW will have the 2 seed in the Pac-10 tournament and will play one of the 7-10 seeds who play an extra game the day before. If UW wins and UCLA wins then UCLA will take second at least and UW will remain in 3rd regardless. UCLA needs Arizona to lose for them to have a shot at part of the title.

*EDIT*

Thank you Romar for finally running a damn press early in the game. Even soft on ball pressure made their offense a little more sketchy. 18 turnover, 5 blocks, 5 steals. You can't tell me that wasn't because we pressed hard.