Final Score: UW-93 UP-63
Welcome back, Terrence Ross! On a night where the Huskies looked every bit as good as they were bad yesterday, Ross stole the show with lights out shooting and stellar play as the Huskies cruised to victory. The sophomore struggled in the first two games of the tournament, but came out tonight and dropped 24 points on 9-13 shooting, 6-8 from behind the arc. He couldn't miss and no one could stop him. Several times he had a defender in his face, but a smooth cross-over a la Brandon Roy was all it took for him to get a shot opportunity and a beautiful score.
The Huskies capitalized on Portland's turnovers and did what Romar talked about last night: They stepped on Portland's throats and did not let up. The bench was emptied and at the end of the game Brendan Sherrer got to the free throw line where he made both free throws and Alex Wegner drilled his only shot of the night, a 3-pointer.
Six Huskies hit double digits tonight. Ross led all players with 24, followed by C.J. Wilcox with 17, and Abdul Gaddy with 15. Aziz N'Diaye was close to another double-double with 11 points and 7 boards. N'Diaye also added a block, a steal, an assist, and 3 turnovers. He looked a much more finished offensively and the Huskies fed him throughout the game, especially in the second half. N'Diaye did take a bit of a scary foul after going up for a dunk and getting fouled. He quickly bounced back up and looked fine. N'Diaye is one solid performance away from averaging a double-double on the season. His averages are currently 9.4 points and 9 rebounds per game. If he can put up 12 points and 12 boards next week he should be averaging about 10 and 10 for the season.
C.J. Wilcox continued to shoot well, but his performance was overshadowed by Ross' absurd play of the day. Wilcox hit 3-5 from range, went 5-9 overall, and drilled all four of his free throws. He also racked up 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 2 steals, and 0 turnovers proving why he deserved the Tournament MVP awarded to him. For the tournament Wilcox averaged over 19 points, nearly 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, and close to 3 steals per game all while committing zero turnovers. That is an absurd stat-line. Oh, and can I add his very much appreciated 11-13 free throw shooting on the season, giving him an 85% average.
Darnell Gant came back tonight as well and looked every bit good tonight as he did on Saturday. He dropped in a very respectable 10 points, grabbed 6 boards, nabbed a steal, and turned out some very nice defense. I have to say, his shot looked mighty fine out on the court tonight. He didn't force bad shots, but did a great job of capitalizing on the opportunities he was given. He went 5 of 8 from the court tonight and maintained his season average of 10 points per game.
Tony Wroten Jr. shall hence forth be referred to as Jekyll and Hyde. He is an amazing talent on the court, but his free throw shooting is horrendous. Absolutely putrid. He went 1-7 from the charity stripe after missing his first 5 straight, bringing his season average down to 36%. He even changed up his form from the last game and shot with a softer touch, but could not find the bottom of the net with it. It was so ugly that when he finally made a shot, the crowd almost gave him a standing ovation. Other than that, Tony looked fantastic on the court. He slowed his game down half a tic and the improvement it made was immense. Wroten racked in 11 points on top of 6 assists and only 2 turnovers, including a very nice break away play with Terrence Ross. Ross knocked the ball loose and got into the open court with Wroten. Ross passed the ball to Wroten who dribbled up a bit and tossed up a lob for a beautiful and powerful two hand, half windmill jam. Wroten also did an amazing job feeding N'Diaye in the post with some slick passing.
Abdul Gaddy continued his slow and steady progression of running the floor, controlling his team, and orchestrating an efficient offense. 15 points on 6-8 shooting, 2-3 from 3 range, along with 5 assists and only 1 turnover. Just another night with Abdul Gaddy quietly showing why he was such a highly rated talent out of high school, picking up where he left off before his injury last season. I love watching Wroten sling passes around like some sort of Matrix agent, but if its a close game I want Gaddy running the offense. He is always composed and makes the smart decisions that Wroten will occasionally risk.
Martin Breunig and Hikeem Stewart were fairly quiet tonight. Breunig again committed 3 fouls and seems to be struggling with positioning on defense, which leads to said fouls. Stewart went 0-2 shooting, but did a nice job running the offense alongside Wroten in the final minutes.
Shawn Kemp and Desmond Simmons provided much needed rest time for Gant and N'Diaye, while also providing great defensive presence that contained the Portland bigs. Neither scored, but both 2 rebounds and combined for 3 of the teams 6 blocks.
What Needed Improvement:
Rebounding:
This went slightly unnoticed by me in the first half when the Huskies held only a 1 board advantage, but when the game ended, Portland finished with a 43-38 rebounding lead. The Huskies could not seem to box their men out and all too often a loose board would bobble its way into the hands of a Pilot player rather than the Huskies. Against a smaller team like the Pilots, getting out rebounded is not acceptable. While N'Diaye continued to perform well on the glass and one or two other players nabbed up 5 or 6 boards, the overall trend remains that we lack a second, consistent rebounder. Our guards are doing a decent job of getting 3-5 a night, but we need a second player getting 7 or 8 along side N'Diaye. Every extra board we grab is a 2 board swing in the final stats.
Tony Wroten's Free Throw Shooting:
To be fair, N'Diaye also struggled at the line with a 1-4 night, but N'Diaye is a 7 foot tall tank with far from soft hands, while Wroten is a 6-5 point guard who can pass like a Packer's fan with a gas problem. For having such deft hands one would think he could drop in his fair share of free throws. Hell, I'd settle for 60% from him right now, maybe even 50% if I was feeling desperate enough. When it comes down to it, one has to realize that free throws win close ball games and I can distinctly remember several very close games this past season where a single free throw could have made the difference. The number 1 game that comes to mind is the Pac-10 Championship game. UW missed every free throw in the second half. Just one made shot could have won us the game.
What Was Good:
Offensive Movement:
UW moved the ball very well tonight and found the open man quite often. With 18 assists on 36 makes and only 11 turnovers (mostly committed on rebounds if you ask me) the Husky offense looked a thousand times better than Sunday night against the Owls. The shooting was drastically improved with 55% from the field and 60% from range. As tough as it is to say this, my friend Scott raised a very valid and fast approaching point: Where are Scott Suggs' minutes going to come from? Ross and Wilcox have been out of their minds averaging 16.4 and 19.4 points respectively. Wroten and Gaddy are both averaging over 10 points and 4 assists per games. Really his minutes will come from the little time Hikeem Stewart has been playing and possibly from the four spot as guys like Gant and Breunig rotate around.
Post Play:
This was not the most impressive or highlight filled night in the paint, but it was certainly a very polished and effective night on the block. Players finished their lay-ins, they feed our bigs, they took some base line jumpers and short shots.
Defensive Pressure:
Not a night where we see 20+ turnovers and 10+ steals, but the Huskies flexed their muscles and forced the Pilots in 15 turnovers and had 9 steals (led by Wroten with 3) all while holding Portland to 34% shooting and 21% from range. Our players were able to extend out to the perimeters with our frontcourt playing tough inside which made it hard for the Portland guards to create opportunities for themselves.
Final Thoughts:
If the Huskies can play like this throughout the season it'll be tough to find a team that can beat them. The rebounding still leaves a bit to be desired, but given the amount of young talent in the frontcourt it is not that surprising. Our backcourt is shoring up the rebounding margin as much as possible, but they cannot commit fully to rebounding without losing out on the transition style of basketball that the Huskies are famous for. All in all this weekend revealed where our strengths and weaknesses are, while also showing us how dynamic and exciting this team can be even after the vast amount of talent and experience we lost this past year. While it seemed as if fatigue played a part in Sunday's sub par performance, tonight proved otherwise. The Dawgs rallied together, fought hard throughout the game, and absolutely demolished the Pilots as they should have done to all three teams this weekend. The Huskies will have a much tougher match-up this weekend in Saint Louis. While I am hopeful Suggs will be able to return and play in his home town, the outlook is not great. The Huskies will do themselves a huge favor by picking up this early road win and earn some votes in the polls and much further down the road when it comes to NCAA Selection Sunday. All for now. Check in later this week for a preview on the Saint Louis Billikens.
Go Dawgs!
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