Following the loss to WSU, UW dropped to 20th in the AP poll and 19th in the Coaches/ESPN poll. A two spot drop in both polls. If not for the other 12 or 13 teams in the Top 25 who lost I am almost certain we would have been out of the the Top 25, because face it, the polls hate the West Coast. Syracuse has lost 4 straight and they remain at 17 in the nation. Yes, they were the number 3 team before this string of loses, but to only drop 14 spots? We lose two games against the number 8 and 2 teams and dropped off the same amount. Where is the justice?
We also stayed at a 5 seed in the bracket predictions, but are considered "moving down." The current bracket by Joe Lunardi has a possible Championship game match up against WSU. Just throwing that out there.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Washington State University Review
Final Score UW-80 WSU-87
Another game in which the Dawgs had every reason and chance to win, but beat themselves into defeat. This was one of the sloppiest played games I have seen in quite some time and as it turned out the Huskies were much, much sloppier. UW finished with a season high 24 turnovers. 24. Wow...you will not win a game turning the ball over that often. WSU finished with only 12 turnovers.
The Huskies had a 44-28 rebound advantage at the games end and were destroying WSU on the second chance points. We simply could not shoot in the second half and we could not handle the ball at all. The Dawgs started off 1 for 9 in the second half and finished 37% on the night.
The Cougars ended up in a tough zone defense that forced the Huskies into taking half their shots from range (31 of 62 shots were for 3 points). The Huskies hit well in the first half, but like the rest of their shots they struggled in the second half, ending up 11-31 from 3 and 23 of 62 overall.
Isaiah Thomas shot horribly from the field (3-13), but he hit a pair of 3 pointers to quell the Cougars runs and went 11-12 from the free throw line. He could not hit his dribble drive and when he went in, rather than getting a foul, he turned it over. I.T. had only 5 assists and 7 turnovers on the night. That won't win you any ball games.
Klay Thompson finally got hot against the Huskies despite early foul trouble in the second half. The law of averages was on his side and he finished with 25 points.
Reggie Moore was the real star for the Cougars in my opinion. He had 18 points including 9-10 form the free throw line. He also had a team high 5 assist. He did the most damage to the Huskies, not Thompson. He was the X-factor the Cougars needed. Along with Faisal Aden off the bench, Moore was key in holding the Cougar lead while the usual Cougar stars rode the pine with foul trouble.
The Husky player of the night had to be Terrence Ross. He finished with 14 points including 4 of 8 from range. He was the lone Husky without a turnover.
Our biggest problem was ourselves and the fact that we could get no post production. The Cougars did a great job of double and triple teaming MBA and MBA forced up shots he had no reason to take. MBA also forced up shots from well outside what I would consider his range. He could not get an open shot and he could not score what he attempted.
UW did a fantastic job getting fouls on all the right players. DeAngelo Casto fouled out along with Abe Lodwick and Brock Motum, while Thompson finished with 4. They just couldn't get fouls on the drive and it killed us. With Isaiah either missing or turning it over on the drive the Dawgs really had no choice but to resort to outside shots.
The Huskies got down early in the second half when they couldn't make a shot, but made a slow and steady come back eventually cutting the lead to 80-74. The Huskies then made 4 straight defensive stops, but did not make One. Single. Basket. It was terrible offensive execution and in my mind was why we lost. The Cougars then came down on the next possession and Klay Thompson hit a dagger three pointer that sealed the game off.
If not for solid defense by our own players, this would have been a 20 to 30 point blowout. Sure we hit 11-3 pointers, but that doesn't matter when you give the ball up 24 times.
After a solid night from the line, MBA stunk up the free throw line, once again finishing 4-8. He also went 1-8 from the field. His one redeeming factor was the 11 rebounds he picked up.
While the refs certainly did not help our cause tonight, they were inconsistent on both ends and to blame them would be avoiding the real problem and truth to the game. The Huskies simply did not play their A-game basketball and allowed the Cougar's zone defense to really trouble them. Justin Holiday had 4 turnovers and at least 3, if not all 4, were completely dumb and senseless turnovers caused by soft, lazy passes through the middle of the key that were easily picked off. Scott Suggs had 5 turnovers as well and a majority of his as well were terrible passes that never should have been made.
What was Bad
Ball Handling
This lost us the game, plain and simple. We out rebounded the Cougars by 16. We had a decent number of assists with 12. We had 5 blocks and 8 steals. We hit 11 3 pointers. All great stats negated by the 24 turnovers the Huskies suffered. Lorenzo Romar has said 14 turnovers is their maximum. If they can stay under 14 they will win the game. What do you know? We went 10 over and lost by 7. Surprise, surprise. UW has got to get it under control on the road. The sloppy tempo got set early, but without Abdul Gaddy we really lack a leader who can come out and calm the team down to get them in the rhythm they need to be at.
Post Production
Our 3 bigs combined for 17 points, lead by Darnell Gant with 9. Gant actually had one of the better nights finishing with 7 rebounds as well. To be fair, Aziz only played 9 minutes and went 1-1 from the field and grabbed 5 rebounds. For only 9 minutes those are some pretty decent numbers. It really came down to MBA not being able to get a shot off and the Huskies not doing a great job of breaking down the zone to get him some open looks. On the other side of that, MBA did a terrible job when it came to shot selection and even had an airball from about 12 feet out when he attempted to hook shot the ball in.
What was Good
Rebounding
44-28. 14-5 in the offensive board category. This should have given us a commanding lead, but as I have said countless times by now; the turnovers absolutely demolished every positive thing we did. Justin Holiday led all players with 12 and had a double double tonight. MBA had 11 and Gant came off the bench to give us 7.
Free Throw Shooting
I am somewhat hesitant to put this here, but in all reality MBA was the only one who hurt our stats. The Huskies finished 23-29 with Holiday and I.T. combining for 17-19. Gant hit both of his shots. You make those 6 shots and suddenly it is a 1 point game and well within reach. You have to make your free throws if you want to win games.
Defense
Despite the final score, our defense was not why we lost. We forced 12 turnovers, a respectable number, and held WSU under 50% shooting. Whereas the Huskies could not hit contested shots, the Cougars couldn't miss. UW did a pretty good job of defending Thompson, but he finally found his groove against us and finished 9-18 including 3-6 from range. Hats off to him for stepping it up.
Player by Player Reviews
Venoy Overton
A bad night, not quite unexpected. He got in foul trouble early and played a team low 8 minutes tonight. He made his lone shot attempt, but managed to commit 3 turnovers in that short span of time and dished out 0 assists. He did pick up 2 rebounds and 1 steal, but those really don't justify the poor ball handling.
Grade: D
Justin Holiday
16 points and 12 rebounds is normally a successful evening, but when you take into consideration his 4-12 shooting from the field and the 4 turnovers versus only 2 assists, it really wasn't that fantastic of a night. He had 5 offensive boards, which helped the Huskies stay in the game, but had nearly as many turnovers that disrupted our offense and momentum several times.
Grade: B. Much like Isaiah, as I'll mention later, he kept us in as much as he kept us out.
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
If it weren't for his rebounds, MBA would be getting a D as well. He picked his shots poorly, he was poor at the free throw line, and he had a pair of turnovers. He picked up 2 blocks and 2 steals and only committed 2 fouls, but on the night we needed him the most to make smart decisions and score we just didn't get it. As I said, the Cougars did a good job preventing him from getting good shots, but he had not reason to force attempts that hadn't been falling all night. I would not go so far as to say he took a step back in his game play, but mentally he was not all there tonight for one reason or another.
Grade: C
Brendan Sherrer
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
Scott Suggs
Much like Holiday, this night could have been considered very successful if not for overall poor shooting and turnovers. Suggs had a pair of very nice pull up jumpers and finished with 12 points on 5-12 shooting, but he went 2-8 from range and committed 5 turnovers while only picking up 2 assists. He played defense on Thompson at times, but does not have the lateral quickness to keep up with him, leading to a few more open shots for Klay than I would ever like to see. Suggs also had 2 carrying calls tonight. He may have played point guard in high school, but after 3 years of not handling that duty at the college level has really shown. He does not handle the ball well enough yet to be a decent point guard option for the Huskies. This hurt us tonight with Overton in foul trouble.
Grade: C+
Darnell Gant
Definitely one of the few successful players tonight. His presence off the bench, along with Ross, was how we stayed in the game. He played 29 minutes, picked up 9 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, a block, and 2 turnovers. He shot 3-5 from the field, 1-2 from range, and hit both his free throws. He did not force up shots, he did a pretty good job of handling the ball, and found open teammates, something he normally does not do. Like Holiday and Suggs, Gant was guilty of poor passing that led to steals and turnovers.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
Bleh. What a poor night. Despite scoring a team high 19 points, Isaiah was one of the main reasons the Huskies lost this game. Isaiah played like he did his freshman year, over penetrating, selfish, forcing shots, and turning it over way too often. He hit some big 3 pointers in the second half, but started the game 0-9 or 0-10. His free throw shooting was what allowed him so many points. I believe he should have shot a few more, but that should not have mattered in this game. 5 assist and 7 turnovers. Not good at all. His 3 steals were all ineffective as well, as I do not remember a single steal that resulted in a made basket for the Huskies.
Grade: C to C-. As much as he hurt us, we wouldn't have been in this game without him.
Aziz N'Diaye
Aziz picked up 4 fouls in 9 minutes. The zone defense kills him and he commits fouls left and right against them. He was playing well to start the game and had a great rebound he put right back in off the glass. With 5 rebounds in 9 minutes it is not hard to say that the Huskies could really have used him tonight to help offset MBA getting over defended. Without Aziz in play the Cougars were able to pack the middle and were more than happy to let us continue firing blindly from range. Aziz still lacks the body and foul control we need him to display.
Grade: B-
Antoine Hosley
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
C.J. Wilcox
Did not play. Wilcox was out with a concussion suffered in practice after Aziz accidentally hit him in the head with an elbow off of a rebound. Could we have used him tonight? I'm not sure. We were hitting decently from range. Our bench had pretty good production. It was really our post play and ball handling that hurt us and C.J. is really not a factor in either of those as he does not handle any point guard or post duties. Our once amazing depth has really started to shrink up on us. Not good.
Grade: N/A
Terrence Ross
I am giving him MVP honors for the Huskies tonight. He didn't have a USC style game where he completely wowed everyone and put the team on his back, but he did damn well near it. 14 points off the bench in 22 minutes. He was by far the best shooting, hitting 50% overall and from range. His 4-3 pointers kept us in the ball game and he did it with a hand in his face on one or two occasions, something I'm not sure any other Husky tonight could say minus I.T., perhaps. His 0 turnovers is another big reason I am giving him props. He had one iffy pass to MBA that ended up getting stolen away, but that was more MBA not catching the ball well and the Cougars reading the pass.
Grade: A
Final Thoughts
So what can we take out of this game? We still are in first place, albeit tied with Arizona. We have a road series against the Oregon schools next week and Arizona will be facing off against the Bay area schools, California and Stanford, on the road. UW can not afford to let either of those games slip between their fingers. It did not really surprise me to have lost this game. WSU plays tough at home, its a rivalry game, UW had 4 straight wins over them, and it was a much bigger and important game to the Cougars than the Huskies. They wanted it more and they played much better, I'll give them that much. That being said, despite 24 turnovers and 37% shooting we were still in the game with 5 minutes to go. Down 4 with 4 defensive stops in a row should have put us in the lead by at least 2 if not 4. This is the second game we have been behind at half and we have lost both those games. We haven't yet shown the ability to come back and win a tough one. This could hurt us later, yet at the same time it is better to suffer this kind of loss now than late February or March.
The Huskies let the fans get in the game and in their heads. They couldn't get over the proverbial hump. Several times they cut down a double digit lead to get within 4 or 5 points only to turn the ball over and kill their momentum. Scott Suggs had a pretty good look at a 3 ball to cut the lead to 3, but like almost every other shot he took that night, it rimmed out.
I'm trying to stay positive, but this was a prime week for the Huskies to take a one game lead for first place, move up in the rankings, solidify their name in the national title race, and prove they can gut it out on the road in a very hostile environment. This is something that still holds us back. We are a fantastic team at home, but unlike the other great teams in the nation right now, we still struggle mightily on the road. The wins over USC and UCLA gave me hope, but the loss at Stanford and tonight versus the Cougars show a team still developing its road identity. Turnovers were the reason for losing both the road games. We have to control the ball if we want to win. The game against Arizona will be monstrous in terms of the title race, our seeding, and national perception of not only the team, but the league as well. I could very well see us losing at Arizona and finishing 15-3 on the season. What that means is no more slip ups and no more shooting ourselves in the foot. We have to hope this loss shows the Huskies how important their team play is and how important slowing the ball down sometimes can be. Don't rush the game when you aren't hitting shots.
Normally I would talk about hoping Arizona loses one this weekend in an upset, but when it comes down to it, it really shouldn't matter what the other teams do. So long as we win, we will succeed. So UW needs to sweep from here on out. Going into Tuscon with an 11-2 record will be very important as UW currently holds the tie breaker over Arizona.
So heads up Dawg fans, as bad as this loss may feel now it could do a load of good later on this season. We still have 9 conference games to go, 5 at home, including a rematch against WSU. Pack the House, bring it loud.
This review will be up on Montlake Madness shortly as well. Be sure to check them out. www.montlakemadness.com
Another game in which the Dawgs had every reason and chance to win, but beat themselves into defeat. This was one of the sloppiest played games I have seen in quite some time and as it turned out the Huskies were much, much sloppier. UW finished with a season high 24 turnovers. 24. Wow...you will not win a game turning the ball over that often. WSU finished with only 12 turnovers.
The Huskies had a 44-28 rebound advantage at the games end and were destroying WSU on the second chance points. We simply could not shoot in the second half and we could not handle the ball at all. The Dawgs started off 1 for 9 in the second half and finished 37% on the night.
The Cougars ended up in a tough zone defense that forced the Huskies into taking half their shots from range (31 of 62 shots were for 3 points). The Huskies hit well in the first half, but like the rest of their shots they struggled in the second half, ending up 11-31 from 3 and 23 of 62 overall.
Isaiah Thomas shot horribly from the field (3-13), but he hit a pair of 3 pointers to quell the Cougars runs and went 11-12 from the free throw line. He could not hit his dribble drive and when he went in, rather than getting a foul, he turned it over. I.T. had only 5 assists and 7 turnovers on the night. That won't win you any ball games.
Klay Thompson finally got hot against the Huskies despite early foul trouble in the second half. The law of averages was on his side and he finished with 25 points.
Reggie Moore was the real star for the Cougars in my opinion. He had 18 points including 9-10 form the free throw line. He also had a team high 5 assist. He did the most damage to the Huskies, not Thompson. He was the X-factor the Cougars needed. Along with Faisal Aden off the bench, Moore was key in holding the Cougar lead while the usual Cougar stars rode the pine with foul trouble.
The Husky player of the night had to be Terrence Ross. He finished with 14 points including 4 of 8 from range. He was the lone Husky without a turnover.
Our biggest problem was ourselves and the fact that we could get no post production. The Cougars did a great job of double and triple teaming MBA and MBA forced up shots he had no reason to take. MBA also forced up shots from well outside what I would consider his range. He could not get an open shot and he could not score what he attempted.
UW did a fantastic job getting fouls on all the right players. DeAngelo Casto fouled out along with Abe Lodwick and Brock Motum, while Thompson finished with 4. They just couldn't get fouls on the drive and it killed us. With Isaiah either missing or turning it over on the drive the Dawgs really had no choice but to resort to outside shots.
The Huskies got down early in the second half when they couldn't make a shot, but made a slow and steady come back eventually cutting the lead to 80-74. The Huskies then made 4 straight defensive stops, but did not make One. Single. Basket. It was terrible offensive execution and in my mind was why we lost. The Cougars then came down on the next possession and Klay Thompson hit a dagger three pointer that sealed the game off.
If not for solid defense by our own players, this would have been a 20 to 30 point blowout. Sure we hit 11-3 pointers, but that doesn't matter when you give the ball up 24 times.
After a solid night from the line, MBA stunk up the free throw line, once again finishing 4-8. He also went 1-8 from the field. His one redeeming factor was the 11 rebounds he picked up.
While the refs certainly did not help our cause tonight, they were inconsistent on both ends and to blame them would be avoiding the real problem and truth to the game. The Huskies simply did not play their A-game basketball and allowed the Cougar's zone defense to really trouble them. Justin Holiday had 4 turnovers and at least 3, if not all 4, were completely dumb and senseless turnovers caused by soft, lazy passes through the middle of the key that were easily picked off. Scott Suggs had 5 turnovers as well and a majority of his as well were terrible passes that never should have been made.
What was Bad
Ball Handling
This lost us the game, plain and simple. We out rebounded the Cougars by 16. We had a decent number of assists with 12. We had 5 blocks and 8 steals. We hit 11 3 pointers. All great stats negated by the 24 turnovers the Huskies suffered. Lorenzo Romar has said 14 turnovers is their maximum. If they can stay under 14 they will win the game. What do you know? We went 10 over and lost by 7. Surprise, surprise. UW has got to get it under control on the road. The sloppy tempo got set early, but without Abdul Gaddy we really lack a leader who can come out and calm the team down to get them in the rhythm they need to be at.
Post Production
Our 3 bigs combined for 17 points, lead by Darnell Gant with 9. Gant actually had one of the better nights finishing with 7 rebounds as well. To be fair, Aziz only played 9 minutes and went 1-1 from the field and grabbed 5 rebounds. For only 9 minutes those are some pretty decent numbers. It really came down to MBA not being able to get a shot off and the Huskies not doing a great job of breaking down the zone to get him some open looks. On the other side of that, MBA did a terrible job when it came to shot selection and even had an airball from about 12 feet out when he attempted to hook shot the ball in.
What was Good
Rebounding
44-28. 14-5 in the offensive board category. This should have given us a commanding lead, but as I have said countless times by now; the turnovers absolutely demolished every positive thing we did. Justin Holiday led all players with 12 and had a double double tonight. MBA had 11 and Gant came off the bench to give us 7.
Free Throw Shooting
I am somewhat hesitant to put this here, but in all reality MBA was the only one who hurt our stats. The Huskies finished 23-29 with Holiday and I.T. combining for 17-19. Gant hit both of his shots. You make those 6 shots and suddenly it is a 1 point game and well within reach. You have to make your free throws if you want to win games.
Defense
Despite the final score, our defense was not why we lost. We forced 12 turnovers, a respectable number, and held WSU under 50% shooting. Whereas the Huskies could not hit contested shots, the Cougars couldn't miss. UW did a pretty good job of defending Thompson, but he finally found his groove against us and finished 9-18 including 3-6 from range. Hats off to him for stepping it up.
Player by Player Reviews
Venoy Overton
A bad night, not quite unexpected. He got in foul trouble early and played a team low 8 minutes tonight. He made his lone shot attempt, but managed to commit 3 turnovers in that short span of time and dished out 0 assists. He did pick up 2 rebounds and 1 steal, but those really don't justify the poor ball handling.
Grade: D
Justin Holiday
16 points and 12 rebounds is normally a successful evening, but when you take into consideration his 4-12 shooting from the field and the 4 turnovers versus only 2 assists, it really wasn't that fantastic of a night. He had 5 offensive boards, which helped the Huskies stay in the game, but had nearly as many turnovers that disrupted our offense and momentum several times.
Grade: B. Much like Isaiah, as I'll mention later, he kept us in as much as he kept us out.
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
If it weren't for his rebounds, MBA would be getting a D as well. He picked his shots poorly, he was poor at the free throw line, and he had a pair of turnovers. He picked up 2 blocks and 2 steals and only committed 2 fouls, but on the night we needed him the most to make smart decisions and score we just didn't get it. As I said, the Cougars did a good job preventing him from getting good shots, but he had not reason to force attempts that hadn't been falling all night. I would not go so far as to say he took a step back in his game play, but mentally he was not all there tonight for one reason or another.
Grade: C
Brendan Sherrer
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
Scott Suggs
Much like Holiday, this night could have been considered very successful if not for overall poor shooting and turnovers. Suggs had a pair of very nice pull up jumpers and finished with 12 points on 5-12 shooting, but he went 2-8 from range and committed 5 turnovers while only picking up 2 assists. He played defense on Thompson at times, but does not have the lateral quickness to keep up with him, leading to a few more open shots for Klay than I would ever like to see. Suggs also had 2 carrying calls tonight. He may have played point guard in high school, but after 3 years of not handling that duty at the college level has really shown. He does not handle the ball well enough yet to be a decent point guard option for the Huskies. This hurt us tonight with Overton in foul trouble.
Grade: C+
Darnell Gant
Definitely one of the few successful players tonight. His presence off the bench, along with Ross, was how we stayed in the game. He played 29 minutes, picked up 9 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, a block, and 2 turnovers. He shot 3-5 from the field, 1-2 from range, and hit both his free throws. He did not force up shots, he did a pretty good job of handling the ball, and found open teammates, something he normally does not do. Like Holiday and Suggs, Gant was guilty of poor passing that led to steals and turnovers.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
Bleh. What a poor night. Despite scoring a team high 19 points, Isaiah was one of the main reasons the Huskies lost this game. Isaiah played like he did his freshman year, over penetrating, selfish, forcing shots, and turning it over way too often. He hit some big 3 pointers in the second half, but started the game 0-9 or 0-10. His free throw shooting was what allowed him so many points. I believe he should have shot a few more, but that should not have mattered in this game. 5 assist and 7 turnovers. Not good at all. His 3 steals were all ineffective as well, as I do not remember a single steal that resulted in a made basket for the Huskies.
Grade: C to C-. As much as he hurt us, we wouldn't have been in this game without him.
Aziz N'Diaye
Aziz picked up 4 fouls in 9 minutes. The zone defense kills him and he commits fouls left and right against them. He was playing well to start the game and had a great rebound he put right back in off the glass. With 5 rebounds in 9 minutes it is not hard to say that the Huskies could really have used him tonight to help offset MBA getting over defended. Without Aziz in play the Cougars were able to pack the middle and were more than happy to let us continue firing blindly from range. Aziz still lacks the body and foul control we need him to display.
Grade: B-
Antoine Hosley
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
C.J. Wilcox
Did not play. Wilcox was out with a concussion suffered in practice after Aziz accidentally hit him in the head with an elbow off of a rebound. Could we have used him tonight? I'm not sure. We were hitting decently from range. Our bench had pretty good production. It was really our post play and ball handling that hurt us and C.J. is really not a factor in either of those as he does not handle any point guard or post duties. Our once amazing depth has really started to shrink up on us. Not good.
Grade: N/A
Terrence Ross
I am giving him MVP honors for the Huskies tonight. He didn't have a USC style game where he completely wowed everyone and put the team on his back, but he did damn well near it. 14 points off the bench in 22 minutes. He was by far the best shooting, hitting 50% overall and from range. His 4-3 pointers kept us in the ball game and he did it with a hand in his face on one or two occasions, something I'm not sure any other Husky tonight could say minus I.T., perhaps. His 0 turnovers is another big reason I am giving him props. He had one iffy pass to MBA that ended up getting stolen away, but that was more MBA not catching the ball well and the Cougars reading the pass.
Grade: A
Final Thoughts
So what can we take out of this game? We still are in first place, albeit tied with Arizona. We have a road series against the Oregon schools next week and Arizona will be facing off against the Bay area schools, California and Stanford, on the road. UW can not afford to let either of those games slip between their fingers. It did not really surprise me to have lost this game. WSU plays tough at home, its a rivalry game, UW had 4 straight wins over them, and it was a much bigger and important game to the Cougars than the Huskies. They wanted it more and they played much better, I'll give them that much. That being said, despite 24 turnovers and 37% shooting we were still in the game with 5 minutes to go. Down 4 with 4 defensive stops in a row should have put us in the lead by at least 2 if not 4. This is the second game we have been behind at half and we have lost both those games. We haven't yet shown the ability to come back and win a tough one. This could hurt us later, yet at the same time it is better to suffer this kind of loss now than late February or March.
The Huskies let the fans get in the game and in their heads. They couldn't get over the proverbial hump. Several times they cut down a double digit lead to get within 4 or 5 points only to turn the ball over and kill their momentum. Scott Suggs had a pretty good look at a 3 ball to cut the lead to 3, but like almost every other shot he took that night, it rimmed out.
I'm trying to stay positive, but this was a prime week for the Huskies to take a one game lead for first place, move up in the rankings, solidify their name in the national title race, and prove they can gut it out on the road in a very hostile environment. This is something that still holds us back. We are a fantastic team at home, but unlike the other great teams in the nation right now, we still struggle mightily on the road. The wins over USC and UCLA gave me hope, but the loss at Stanford and tonight versus the Cougars show a team still developing its road identity. Turnovers were the reason for losing both the road games. We have to control the ball if we want to win. The game against Arizona will be monstrous in terms of the title race, our seeding, and national perception of not only the team, but the league as well. I could very well see us losing at Arizona and finishing 15-3 on the season. What that means is no more slip ups and no more shooting ourselves in the foot. We have to hope this loss shows the Huskies how important their team play is and how important slowing the ball down sometimes can be. Don't rush the game when you aren't hitting shots.
Normally I would talk about hoping Arizona loses one this weekend in an upset, but when it comes down to it, it really shouldn't matter what the other teams do. So long as we win, we will succeed. So UW needs to sweep from here on out. Going into Tuscon with an 11-2 record will be very important as UW currently holds the tie breaker over Arizona.
So heads up Dawg fans, as bad as this loss may feel now it could do a load of good later on this season. We still have 9 conference games to go, 5 at home, including a rematch against WSU. Pack the House, bring it loud.
This review will be up on Montlake Madness shortly as well. Be sure to check them out. www.montlakemadness.com
Friday, January 28, 2011
Washington State University Preview
My preview is up at Montlake Madness. The link is below. There is also a link to my statistical comparison of the two teams.
Montlake: http://www.montlakemadness.com/game-preview-wsu/
Statistics: http://uwbasketblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/uw-wsu-statistical-comparison.html
Montlake: http://www.montlakemadness.com/game-preview-wsu/
Statistics: http://uwbasketblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/uw-wsu-statistical-comparison.html
Thursday, January 27, 2011
SPD Investigation Completed
Alex Silverman of mynorthwest.com is reporting that Seattle Police Department has completed their investigation of the rape allegations made against a UW basketball players. A charging decision could be made as early as next week. What this means is the SPD will decide whether or not there is sufficient evidence supporting the allegations. If they believe the rape occurred and they have the evidence to prove it they will likely press charges. If they have found the incident did not occur as stated by the female then charges will not be pressed.
More later when I hear more.
More later when I hear more.
UW-WSU Statistical Comparison
First for the big numbers. The team stats. These are directly comparable because both teams play the full 40 minutes. Player stats need to be broken down into a per minute basis or per 40 basis to be compared.
Washington (Offensive) Washington State (Offensive)
PPG: 87.1 (3rd in the Nation) PPG: 75.3 (50th in the Nation)
RPG: 40.3 (14th in the Nation) RPG: 35.2 (182nd in the Nation)
APG: 17.7 (8th in the Nation) APG: 14.3 (96th in the Nation)
FG%: 48.8 (8th in the Nation) FG%: 47.7 (32nd in the Nation)
Washington (Defensive) Washington State (Defensive)
PPG: 68.1 (180th in the Nation) PPG: 64.3 (85th in the Nation)
RPG: 33.7 (131st in the Nation) RPG: 36.0 (243rd in the Nation)
APG: 10.0 (13th in the Nation) APG: 12.6 (151st in the Nation)
FG%: 40.3 (51st in the Nation) APG: 37.8 (5th in the Nation)
Washington (Difference) Washington State (Difference)
PPG: +19 PPG: +11
RPG: +6.6 RPG: -.8
APG: +7.7 APG: +1.7
FG%: +8.5 FG%: +9.9
So what do all these numbers tell us? The Huskies run a faster, more efficient offense and defense than the Cougars. The Dawgs score more points and have a larger scoring differential than the Cougars. The Huskies do much better on the boards, especially offensive, and this is a large part of why the Huskies have that larger scoring differential. If you keep your opponent from getting second chances and you get more second chances for your own team, 9 times out of 10 you will find success. If you aren't out rebounding your opponent you better hope you are shooting lights out.
I have seen a few Cougars on the ESPN boards say that our +12 points, but only +3 assists over the Cougars gives the Huskies a sketchy and more selfish offense than the Cougars. To this, I say nonsense. An assist at minimum is worth 2 points, possibly 3. That means those +3 assists are worth between 6 and 9 points. This gives us 3 to 6 points unassisted extra. 3 to 6 points can be made with 1 to 3 shots. This is by no means selfish or sketchy especially when one considers how many touches Matthew Bryan-Amaning gets and the rate at which he scores directly versus those he needs to make a move to get to the hoop. A prime example is the ASU game last Saturday. Several times Isaiah Thomas was able to get the ball inside to MBA and rather than having an open shot near the basket, MBA needed to take a dribble or two and perform some sort of post move to get the points. When that happens Isaiah does not get the assist. So to say that our offensive is sketchy for 3 extra, "self" made shots is just absurd.
Another important difference is the assist differential. Not only do the Huskies record 3 more assists a game than the Cougars, they also prevent nearly 3 fewer assists per game. UW does a better job of distributing the ball and a better job on defense of containing the ball.
Here are a few more defensive and offensive stats to look at.
Washington (Offensive) Washington State (Offensive)
3PT%: 39.4 (24th in the Nation) 3PT%: 38.1 (44th in the Nation)
TPG: 11.9 TPG: 12.5
T%: 16.2 (4th in the Nation) T%: 17.8 (41st in the Nation)
EFG%: 55.8 (8th in the Nation) EFG%: 54.5 (22nd in the Nation)
Washington (Defensive) Washington State (Defensive)
3PT%: 30.8 (44th in the Nation) 3PT%: 30.8 (42nd in the Nation)
TPG: 15.8 TPG: 15.3
T%: 22.0 (99th in the Nation) T%: 22.2 (94th in the Nation)
EFG%: 44.5 (26th in the Nation)EFG%: 44.0 (19th in the Nation)
Washington (Difference) Washington State (Differential)
3PT%: +8.6 3PT%: +7.3
TPG: -4.9 TPG: -2.8
T%: -5.8 T%: -4.6
EFG%: +11.3 EFG%: +10.5
Even in per possession stats as seen by percentages, the Huskies have better offense and defense. Sure the Cougars are better than the Dawgs at creating missed shots for their opponents, but they also make their own shots at a lower percentage. Overall the Huskies have a slight, .8%, effective field goal advantage.
One other important stat is tempo. The biggest problem with comparing pure points per game on both offensive and defense is the difference in tempo two teams will likely have. Take Stanford for example. They are currently posting the leagues "best" defense by allowing the lowest points per game. Stanford is also dead last in offensive points per game. Stanford simply plays less possessions per game by chewing up as much clock as possible, resulting in fewer opportunities for both teams. Right now the average offensive tempo in Division 1 basketball is 67.4. UW is 14th in the nation with 73.1. WSU is currently 83rd in the Nation at 69.2. This tempo difference leads to a new and more interesting stat called Adjusted Efficiency. This is basically a per possession break down of the above stats and how well the team per performs.
The Huskies are currently the 4th most efficient offense in the nation at 120.8. The Cougars are 57th at 109.2 (The National average is 100.9).
Defensively, UW is 22nd at 89.8 and WSU is 31st at 90.7, again using 100.9 as a reference point.
Knowing these two adjusted stats, one can see that defensively the two teams are very similar with UW holding the slight edge. On offense UW has a more commanding lead, hence the 12 point difference in the two teams scoring.
I think another important aspect of the game to look at is player possession percentage. By this I mean how much impact does a player have on a game? How much of the offense runs through them?
UW has two players who use about one fourth of the possessions or more. These two being, no surprises here, Isaiah Thomas and Matthew Bryan-Amaning. The Cougars have 3 players in the category. Two players use over 28% of the possessions, Klay Thompson and Faisal Aden. DeAngelo Casto is the 3rd.
To me personally, this gives WSU a much more 1 Dimensional game as they really have two offensive threats who are their go to guy. Much like Derrick Williams and Arizona, you don't necessarily have to shut down the big offensive threat to win the game. You just have to shut down their number 2 and 3 guys. Klay Thompson can have his 25 points as long as we get the W. I personally don't believe he will score more than 15, history has shown he has a poor chance of scoring more than 10. In the last, and only, 4 games against Washington Klay has scored a combined 29 points (5, 7, 8, 9). Justin Holiday has been a big part of this defensive stop.
To his credit, Thompson has been much more consistent in conference play than the last two years. So we may see a more effective and dangerous player than we have seen in his time against us.
On to the Player Comparisons!
For this I will compare the closest player opposite them in the starting line up. These are all per minutes stats, PPM = points per minute, etc.
Isaiah Thomas Reggie Moore
PPM: .56 PPM: .276
RPM: .129 RPM: .092
APM: .192 APM: .122
TPM: .079 TPM: .062
SPM: .046 SPM: .03
Edge: UW
Scott Suggs Marcus Capers
PPM: .41 PPM: .232
RPM: .126 RPM: .172
APM: .066 APM: .073
TPM: .054 TPM: .026
SPM: .018 SPM: .03
Edge: WSU
Justin Holiday Klay Thompson
PPM: .458 PPM: .649
RPM: .194 RPM: .161
APM: .07 APM: .129
TPM: .044 TPM: .096
SPM: .059 SPM: .056
Edge: Even. Klay scores and assists better, but Holiday rebounds and turns the ball over less. Both steal at approximately the same rate.
Matthew Bryan-Amaning Abe Lodwick
PPM: .609 PPM: .132
RPM: .289 RPM: .194
TPM: .064 TPM: .031
BPM: .053 BPM: .018
Edge: UW
Aziz N'Diaye DeAngelo Casto
PPM: .269 PPM: .408
RPM: .337 RPM: .236
TPM: .057 TPM: .086
BPM: .069 BPM: .071
Edge: Even. Aziz rebounds better and turns it over less. Casto scores more. Both block at approximately the same rate.
Both benches feature a few significant contributors. For WSU it'll be Faisal Aden and Brock Motum. Aden is an interesting case as he was suffering from knee pain against UA and played minimal time and did not start. If healthy, he will likely replace Capers in the starting line up. WSU also has Patrick Simmons and Dre' Winston Jr., but neither are significant players, only receiving 11 minutes or less. For UW we have Venoy Overton, Darnell Gant, Terrence Ross, and C.J. Wilcox. Both Ross and Wilcox have had 20+ point games. Gant has been rebounding between 4 and 6 boards per game since conference play has begun. Overton has always been a strong 6th man off the bench, starting nearly every game his freshman year and a few this season and last.
Edge: UW
As the stats show, UW outmatches WSU is nearly every aspect of the game. WSU does have 2 or 3 skilled players in Thompson, Aden, and Casto, but overall Klay is the go to guy and when he plays bad the Cougars generally follow suit. Holiday has shown to be a shut down defender and, along with Isaiah, have managed to shut Thompson down each and every time the two teams have faced off. What UW brings to the table is an array of players who can go off for major points at any time. Shutting down one player opens up another. Wilcox, Ross, Holiday, MBA, and I.T. have all had 20 point games. Aziz should have had a 20 point game against McNeese State, but he missed 12 free throws.
So there is some food for thought. I'll post a link to my more complete review from Montlake Madness tomorrow when it is up.
Washington (Offensive) Washington State (Offensive)
PPG: 87.1 (3rd in the Nation) PPG: 75.3 (50th in the Nation)
RPG: 40.3 (14th in the Nation) RPG: 35.2 (182nd in the Nation)
APG: 17.7 (8th in the Nation) APG: 14.3 (96th in the Nation)
FG%: 48.8 (8th in the Nation) FG%: 47.7 (32nd in the Nation)
Washington (Defensive) Washington State (Defensive)
PPG: 68.1 (180th in the Nation) PPG: 64.3 (85th in the Nation)
RPG: 33.7 (131st in the Nation) RPG: 36.0 (243rd in the Nation)
APG: 10.0 (13th in the Nation) APG: 12.6 (151st in the Nation)
FG%: 40.3 (51st in the Nation) APG: 37.8 (5th in the Nation)
Washington (Difference) Washington State (Difference)
PPG: +19 PPG: +11
RPG: +6.6 RPG: -.8
APG: +7.7 APG: +1.7
FG%: +8.5 FG%: +9.9
So what do all these numbers tell us? The Huskies run a faster, more efficient offense and defense than the Cougars. The Dawgs score more points and have a larger scoring differential than the Cougars. The Huskies do much better on the boards, especially offensive, and this is a large part of why the Huskies have that larger scoring differential. If you keep your opponent from getting second chances and you get more second chances for your own team, 9 times out of 10 you will find success. If you aren't out rebounding your opponent you better hope you are shooting lights out.
I have seen a few Cougars on the ESPN boards say that our +12 points, but only +3 assists over the Cougars gives the Huskies a sketchy and more selfish offense than the Cougars. To this, I say nonsense. An assist at minimum is worth 2 points, possibly 3. That means those +3 assists are worth between 6 and 9 points. This gives us 3 to 6 points unassisted extra. 3 to 6 points can be made with 1 to 3 shots. This is by no means selfish or sketchy especially when one considers how many touches Matthew Bryan-Amaning gets and the rate at which he scores directly versus those he needs to make a move to get to the hoop. A prime example is the ASU game last Saturday. Several times Isaiah Thomas was able to get the ball inside to MBA and rather than having an open shot near the basket, MBA needed to take a dribble or two and perform some sort of post move to get the points. When that happens Isaiah does not get the assist. So to say that our offensive is sketchy for 3 extra, "self" made shots is just absurd.
Another important difference is the assist differential. Not only do the Huskies record 3 more assists a game than the Cougars, they also prevent nearly 3 fewer assists per game. UW does a better job of distributing the ball and a better job on defense of containing the ball.
Here are a few more defensive and offensive stats to look at.
Washington (Offensive) Washington State (Offensive)
3PT%: 39.4 (24th in the Nation) 3PT%: 38.1 (44th in the Nation)
TPG: 11.9 TPG: 12.5
T%: 16.2 (4th in the Nation) T%: 17.8 (41st in the Nation)
EFG%: 55.8 (8th in the Nation) EFG%: 54.5 (22nd in the Nation)
Washington (Defensive) Washington State (Defensive)
3PT%: 30.8 (44th in the Nation) 3PT%: 30.8 (42nd in the Nation)
TPG: 15.8 TPG: 15.3
T%: 22.0 (99th in the Nation) T%: 22.2 (94th in the Nation)
EFG%: 44.5 (26th in the Nation)EFG%: 44.0 (19th in the Nation)
Washington (Difference) Washington State (Differential)
3PT%: +8.6 3PT%: +7.3
TPG: -4.9 TPG: -2.8
T%: -5.8 T%: -4.6
EFG%: +11.3 EFG%: +10.5
Even in per possession stats as seen by percentages, the Huskies have better offense and defense. Sure the Cougars are better than the Dawgs at creating missed shots for their opponents, but they also make their own shots at a lower percentage. Overall the Huskies have a slight, .8%, effective field goal advantage.
One other important stat is tempo. The biggest problem with comparing pure points per game on both offensive and defense is the difference in tempo two teams will likely have. Take Stanford for example. They are currently posting the leagues "best" defense by allowing the lowest points per game. Stanford is also dead last in offensive points per game. Stanford simply plays less possessions per game by chewing up as much clock as possible, resulting in fewer opportunities for both teams. Right now the average offensive tempo in Division 1 basketball is 67.4. UW is 14th in the nation with 73.1. WSU is currently 83rd in the Nation at 69.2. This tempo difference leads to a new and more interesting stat called Adjusted Efficiency. This is basically a per possession break down of the above stats and how well the team per performs.
The Huskies are currently the 4th most efficient offense in the nation at 120.8. The Cougars are 57th at 109.2 (The National average is 100.9).
Defensively, UW is 22nd at 89.8 and WSU is 31st at 90.7, again using 100.9 as a reference point.
Knowing these two adjusted stats, one can see that defensively the two teams are very similar with UW holding the slight edge. On offense UW has a more commanding lead, hence the 12 point difference in the two teams scoring.
I think another important aspect of the game to look at is player possession percentage. By this I mean how much impact does a player have on a game? How much of the offense runs through them?
UW has two players who use about one fourth of the possessions or more. These two being, no surprises here, Isaiah Thomas and Matthew Bryan-Amaning. The Cougars have 3 players in the category. Two players use over 28% of the possessions, Klay Thompson and Faisal Aden. DeAngelo Casto is the 3rd.
To me personally, this gives WSU a much more 1 Dimensional game as they really have two offensive threats who are their go to guy. Much like Derrick Williams and Arizona, you don't necessarily have to shut down the big offensive threat to win the game. You just have to shut down their number 2 and 3 guys. Klay Thompson can have his 25 points as long as we get the W. I personally don't believe he will score more than 15, history has shown he has a poor chance of scoring more than 10. In the last, and only, 4 games against Washington Klay has scored a combined 29 points (5, 7, 8, 9). Justin Holiday has been a big part of this defensive stop.
To his credit, Thompson has been much more consistent in conference play than the last two years. So we may see a more effective and dangerous player than we have seen in his time against us.
On to the Player Comparisons!
For this I will compare the closest player opposite them in the starting line up. These are all per minutes stats, PPM = points per minute, etc.
Isaiah Thomas Reggie Moore
PPM: .56 PPM: .276
RPM: .129 RPM: .092
APM: .192 APM: .122
TPM: .079 TPM: .062
SPM: .046 SPM: .03
Edge: UW
Scott Suggs Marcus Capers
PPM: .41 PPM: .232
RPM: .126 RPM: .172
APM: .066 APM: .073
TPM: .054 TPM: .026
SPM: .018 SPM: .03
Edge: WSU
Justin Holiday Klay Thompson
PPM: .458 PPM: .649
RPM: .194 RPM: .161
APM: .07 APM: .129
TPM: .044 TPM: .096
SPM: .059 SPM: .056
Edge: Even. Klay scores and assists better, but Holiday rebounds and turns the ball over less. Both steal at approximately the same rate.
Matthew Bryan-Amaning Abe Lodwick
PPM: .609 PPM: .132
RPM: .289 RPM: .194
TPM: .064 TPM: .031
BPM: .053 BPM: .018
Edge: UW
Aziz N'Diaye DeAngelo Casto
PPM: .269 PPM: .408
RPM: .337 RPM: .236
TPM: .057 TPM: .086
BPM: .069 BPM: .071
Edge: Even. Aziz rebounds better and turns it over less. Casto scores more. Both block at approximately the same rate.
Both benches feature a few significant contributors. For WSU it'll be Faisal Aden and Brock Motum. Aden is an interesting case as he was suffering from knee pain against UA and played minimal time and did not start. If healthy, he will likely replace Capers in the starting line up. WSU also has Patrick Simmons and Dre' Winston Jr., but neither are significant players, only receiving 11 minutes or less. For UW we have Venoy Overton, Darnell Gant, Terrence Ross, and C.J. Wilcox. Both Ross and Wilcox have had 20+ point games. Gant has been rebounding between 4 and 6 boards per game since conference play has begun. Overton has always been a strong 6th man off the bench, starting nearly every game his freshman year and a few this season and last.
Edge: UW
As the stats show, UW outmatches WSU is nearly every aspect of the game. WSU does have 2 or 3 skilled players in Thompson, Aden, and Casto, but overall Klay is the go to guy and when he plays bad the Cougars generally follow suit. Holiday has shown to be a shut down defender and, along with Isaiah, have managed to shut Thompson down each and every time the two teams have faced off. What UW brings to the table is an array of players who can go off for major points at any time. Shutting down one player opens up another. Wilcox, Ross, Holiday, MBA, and I.T. have all had 20 point games. Aziz should have had a 20 point game against McNeese State, but he missed 12 free throws.
So there is some food for thought. I'll post a link to my more complete review from Montlake Madness tomorrow when it is up.
UW-WSU Preview coming
I'll have a break down of player statistics and per minute comparisons of the UW-WSU players up sometime Thursday if all goes well. My full preview will be up on Montlake Madness on Friday and I'll post a link to it here on my blog, likely at the bottom of Thursday's article.
I figure a big, rivalry game such as this deserves a solid break down a little more solid look at player comparisons and perhaps I'll throw in some implications of the game.
It's hard to believe that we are already hitting the halfway mark in conference and have played about two thirds of the season. It seems as though the season had just started a few days ago and with it my blog. Now I have close to 6,000 hits since I started it and have been asked to help contribute to Montlake Madness, a site I have been reading since I fell in love with Husky basketball 3 years ago. I even had my Virginia preview attached to a Virginia basketball blog and received some pretty solid traffic from that. Next step, getting paid ha ha. I don't know if I'll ever pursue sports journalism professionally, but this blog and helping at Montlake is something I plan on doing as often as possible, even after college and I have to start buying proper season tickets in the back rows. Maybe I'll be able to sneak in the Dawg Pack for a year or two after I graduate.
Get pumped Husky fans 'cause we could be seeing a record setting year for the Dawgs if they keep bringing the A-game they showed against Arizona last week.
I figure a big, rivalry game such as this deserves a solid break down a little more solid look at player comparisons and perhaps I'll throw in some implications of the game.
It's hard to believe that we are already hitting the halfway mark in conference and have played about two thirds of the season. It seems as though the season had just started a few days ago and with it my blog. Now I have close to 6,000 hits since I started it and have been asked to help contribute to Montlake Madness, a site I have been reading since I fell in love with Husky basketball 3 years ago. I even had my Virginia preview attached to a Virginia basketball blog and received some pretty solid traffic from that. Next step, getting paid ha ha. I don't know if I'll ever pursue sports journalism professionally, but this blog and helping at Montlake is something I plan on doing as often as possible, even after college and I have to start buying proper season tickets in the back rows. Maybe I'll be able to sneak in the Dawg Pack for a year or two after I graduate.
Get pumped Husky fans 'cause we could be seeing a record setting year for the Dawgs if they keep bringing the A-game they showed against Arizona last week.
Monday, January 24, 2011
UW Moving Back Up
UW moved up to 17th in the Coaches/ESPN poll and 18th in the AP poll. Arizona dropped to 27th in both polls following their split of the Washington Schools.
Joe Lunardi, the "expert" on bracketology, released his newest prediction of tournament teams. Somehow, UW remained at the 4 seed, while Arizona moved up to a 7 seed despite losing this week. UCLA also moved back into the bracket as a 12 seed and WSU is in the First Four Out category. Gonzaga remained in the bracket as a 10 seed despite losing to USF for the second straight year as well as posting a 3-2 conference record, 13-7 overall. He still has 11 Big East teams in the bracket. 11. I understand the east coast teams are pretty good, but that is just absurd especially considering the Big East hasn't sent a team to the National Championship game since 2004 and only one of the Big East teams made it to the Sweet 16 last year.
The East Coast Bias is still alive and strong. The "experts" try to correct this by over loving Gonzaga, UCLA, and Arizona to the point of ridiculousness as they consider those schools the cream of the crop regardless of how well they actually perform. Sure those schools have traditionally done well in the tournament, but their past season performances should have no actual bearing on their seeding for this year. While I am happy to see more Pac-10 schools being represented, it is sad to see UW posting a 7-1 conference record in a Power 6 conference and not receive more love. I am not expecting a 1 seed by any means, but you would think if we beat WSU on the road this Sunday we would move up to a 3 seed. An 8-1 record, 4-1 on the road, is very solid in any conference.
Isaiah Thomas won his second Pac-10 player of the Week award after averaging 20.5 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals against the Arizona schools. Tremendous stats and a well deserved award. You have to imagine Matthew Bryan-Amaning also received considerable thought from Romar towards nomination as he played well against both schools, averaging 24 points, 8 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks.
I believe I.T. was nominated by Romar because he is the catalyst that allows MBA to perform so well. I.T. does a fantastic job of drawing defenders and dishing the ball down low for MBA to finish at the hoop. MBA did his part by shooting well and making shots. MBA showed some great post moves and finished 8-8 from the free throw line against ASU, a place he normally struggles.
Both I.T. and MBA have made huge strides towards becoming more complete and dominate players when conference play began. It was fantastic to see, especially in light of Gaddy's injury. Holiday has also stepped up his play, though he is a tad more inconsistent.
Wilcox's slump continues, though Romar did play him 17 minutes off the bench. He looks as though his rhythm and form are coming back after the Staph infection in his hip. He moved much better and shot with more confidence.
This week we play the Cougars in Pullman to round out the first half of conference play. It will be a tough game, no doubt, as this rivalry always brings out the best in both teams. I'll be posting my preview over at montlakemadness.com and will put a link to the article here. The review for the game will also be posted on Montlake.
I will also have a first half review of our players' performances sometime after the WSU game. Right now I.T., MBA, and Holiday have been the best by far and Terrence Ross has surprised a few people with his explosive games against USC and Oregon. I am hoping for another great game from Ross this Sunday against WSU.
Angelo Chol, the best remaining big man in the 2011 class, is visiting Arizona this week and is scheduled to visit Washington on February 12th for the Stanford game. His commitment is crucial for the Dawgs as we lose MBA next year to graduation and we have yet to find a high scoring post player yet. Jernard Jerreau, a 6-10 power forward from New Orleans, is a bit undersized weight wise and has a ways to go in terms of bulking up to become a real scoring threat in the post. UW also has Kevin Davis, a possible 2011 commit that stands at 6-9 and also plays the power forward position. Davis is currently attending Tacoma Community College where he has been putting up decent numbers. Like Jerreau, Davis has some work to do before becoming a polished post player. This leaves Chol, who is by far, more developed and prepared to immediately impact the game. Missing out on Chol will be another huge miss, something Romar has been criticized for after missing out on Terrence Jones, Marvin Williams, and Charles Garcia (to be fair he did not meet grades). We also lost Breshers to an undisclosed medical issue. This has left us with a big hole in our frontcourt and it needs to be filled quickly.
All for now, more later this week.
*Edit*
Thank you to Scott for pointing this out to me. Austin Seferian-Jenkins, a 6-6 250lb football recruit for UW, has stated he would try out for the basketball team. At 250lbs you have to imagine he would play the 4. He is a bit undersized at 6-6, but as Jon Brockman showed, undersized means nothing if you are strong enough and determined enough. He could fill in nicely as Breshers did, a strong body to crash the boards and play tough defense. I have not heard about his skills on the basketball court, but I shall reserve any criticism, positive or negative, until I see him on the court.
Another dual sport athlete UW might acquire is 6-8 305lb Zach Banner out of Lakes High School in Washington. He is in the 2012 class and will not likely make a decision until late next season. He is on the ESPN 150 for football and the ESPN 60 for basketball juniors. To say the least he could bring a lot to both programs. He is said to be able to play any position on the basketball court due to his size, strength, speed, and agility.
Joe Lunardi, the "expert" on bracketology, released his newest prediction of tournament teams. Somehow, UW remained at the 4 seed, while Arizona moved up to a 7 seed despite losing this week. UCLA also moved back into the bracket as a 12 seed and WSU is in the First Four Out category. Gonzaga remained in the bracket as a 10 seed despite losing to USF for the second straight year as well as posting a 3-2 conference record, 13-7 overall. He still has 11 Big East teams in the bracket. 11. I understand the east coast teams are pretty good, but that is just absurd especially considering the Big East hasn't sent a team to the National Championship game since 2004 and only one of the Big East teams made it to the Sweet 16 last year.
The East Coast Bias is still alive and strong. The "experts" try to correct this by over loving Gonzaga, UCLA, and Arizona to the point of ridiculousness as they consider those schools the cream of the crop regardless of how well they actually perform. Sure those schools have traditionally done well in the tournament, but their past season performances should have no actual bearing on their seeding for this year. While I am happy to see more Pac-10 schools being represented, it is sad to see UW posting a 7-1 conference record in a Power 6 conference and not receive more love. I am not expecting a 1 seed by any means, but you would think if we beat WSU on the road this Sunday we would move up to a 3 seed. An 8-1 record, 4-1 on the road, is very solid in any conference.
Isaiah Thomas won his second Pac-10 player of the Week award after averaging 20.5 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals against the Arizona schools. Tremendous stats and a well deserved award. You have to imagine Matthew Bryan-Amaning also received considerable thought from Romar towards nomination as he played well against both schools, averaging 24 points, 8 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks.
I believe I.T. was nominated by Romar because he is the catalyst that allows MBA to perform so well. I.T. does a fantastic job of drawing defenders and dishing the ball down low for MBA to finish at the hoop. MBA did his part by shooting well and making shots. MBA showed some great post moves and finished 8-8 from the free throw line against ASU, a place he normally struggles.
Both I.T. and MBA have made huge strides towards becoming more complete and dominate players when conference play began. It was fantastic to see, especially in light of Gaddy's injury. Holiday has also stepped up his play, though he is a tad more inconsistent.
Wilcox's slump continues, though Romar did play him 17 minutes off the bench. He looks as though his rhythm and form are coming back after the Staph infection in his hip. He moved much better and shot with more confidence.
This week we play the Cougars in Pullman to round out the first half of conference play. It will be a tough game, no doubt, as this rivalry always brings out the best in both teams. I'll be posting my preview over at montlakemadness.com and will put a link to the article here. The review for the game will also be posted on Montlake.
I will also have a first half review of our players' performances sometime after the WSU game. Right now I.T., MBA, and Holiday have been the best by far and Terrence Ross has surprised a few people with his explosive games against USC and Oregon. I am hoping for another great game from Ross this Sunday against WSU.
Angelo Chol, the best remaining big man in the 2011 class, is visiting Arizona this week and is scheduled to visit Washington on February 12th for the Stanford game. His commitment is crucial for the Dawgs as we lose MBA next year to graduation and we have yet to find a high scoring post player yet. Jernard Jerreau, a 6-10 power forward from New Orleans, is a bit undersized weight wise and has a ways to go in terms of bulking up to become a real scoring threat in the post. UW also has Kevin Davis, a possible 2011 commit that stands at 6-9 and also plays the power forward position. Davis is currently attending Tacoma Community College where he has been putting up decent numbers. Like Jerreau, Davis has some work to do before becoming a polished post player. This leaves Chol, who is by far, more developed and prepared to immediately impact the game. Missing out on Chol will be another huge miss, something Romar has been criticized for after missing out on Terrence Jones, Marvin Williams, and Charles Garcia (to be fair he did not meet grades). We also lost Breshers to an undisclosed medical issue. This has left us with a big hole in our frontcourt and it needs to be filled quickly.
All for now, more later this week.
*Edit*
Thank you to Scott for pointing this out to me. Austin Seferian-Jenkins, a 6-6 250lb football recruit for UW, has stated he would try out for the basketball team. At 250lbs you have to imagine he would play the 4. He is a bit undersized at 6-6, but as Jon Brockman showed, undersized means nothing if you are strong enough and determined enough. He could fill in nicely as Breshers did, a strong body to crash the boards and play tough defense. I have not heard about his skills on the basketball court, but I shall reserve any criticism, positive or negative, until I see him on the court.
Another dual sport athlete UW might acquire is 6-8 305lb Zach Banner out of Lakes High School in Washington. He is in the 2012 class and will not likely make a decision until late next season. He is on the ESPN 150 for football and the ESPN 60 for basketball juniors. To say the least he could bring a lot to both programs. He is said to be able to play any position on the basketball court due to his size, strength, speed, and agility.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Arizona State University Review
Final Score UW-88 ASU-75
ASU shot very well from range as Trent Lockett, Rihards Kuksiks, and Ty Abbott just couldn't seem to miss, shooting 9-15. UDub on the other hand, couldn't seem to hit much of anything and finished 6-20 from behind the arc.
Matthew Bryan-Amaning went into beast mode and with the help of Isaiah Thomas, put the team on his back. MBA finished with 30 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal, and a turnover. The most impressive stat for MBA? 8-8 from the free throw line. That's how you do it big man.
I.T. finished with 19 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 4 turnovers. He had some sloppy passes into two or three defenders, trying too hard to get the ball into the post. He had another beautiful alley oop to MBA who one hand tomahawked it home.
Speaking of vicious dunks, MBA almost had a huge one over a taller defender, but the ball got a little free and racked off the back of the rim and the catapulted out to a waiting Justin Holiday near the 3 point line.
Scott Suggs was the only other Husky in double digits, finishing with 10. This included a huge 3 pointer late in the game that helped seal our lead.
C.J. Wilcox hit a nice 3 and showed signs of getting out of his slump, but his shot was still a tad off.
Aziz N'Diaye had an extremely unproductive night, managing only 4 points and 1 board. He also managed a nice steal and a block that ended up being negated due to a charge call.
Our ball handling was lackadaisical, to say the least, in the first half. We had 7 turnovers going into break, but finished with 10 on the night. UW forced ASU into 15 turnovers and had 10 steals on the night.
UW did a good job of keeping ASU off the boards, finishing 33-25.
Give ASU credit, they played a hard, tough game and did a great job of putting hands in our shooters' faces and using its 3-2 zone quite effectively. UW simply could not hit their shots, but thanks to great free throw shooting by MBA and I.T. (who finished 8-10) the Huskies found victory again.
The UW bench combined for 20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, and 2 turnovers. Effectively the stat line for Isaiah. There was not much bench production to say the least.
UW had some troubles on defense, experimenting between a man and a zone, trying to stop ASU's shooting and Trent Lockett's out of control drives that were rewarded far too often with foul shots rather than travels and charges.
What Needed Improvement
First Half Ball Handling
This is the second straight game UW has had a slow, sloppy first half. Sure they turn it around in the second, but these early mistakes cannot be afforded in big games and tournament play. Better control and tighter play is needed to keep our play up to par.
Bench Production
Once more we found ourselves lacking a really solid bench player. Venoy did a good job handling the rock and dishing out the ball, finishing with 5 assists and only 1 turnover. He was the lone highlight on an otherwise quiet bench night.
Outside Shooting
Not sure what has happened that our outside shot has dropped off so much, but without the shooting ability of Wilcox it seems as though the Huskies have really lacked a constant rhythm. Terrence Ross and Scott Suggs both hit 2 and that was as good as it got.
What Was Good
MBA
He has taken his game to the level so many of us have imagined and dreamed of. He did it all and was the big key in our win. He narrowly missed another double double.
Second Half Defense
Much better than the first half. I.T. shut down Abbott, holding him to only two shots after he took over the defensive effort.
Passing
Minus the sloppy play in the first half, UW passed well. I.T. and Venoy combined for 13 and Holiday added in 3.
Player by Player Review
Venoy Overton
5 points, 5 assists, 2 blocks, 1 rebound, 1 steal, and only 1 turnover. Overton was the lone spark off the bench for the Dawgs. His 5 assists really contributed to the game and gave I.T. a well deserved break. The duo spent less time together on the court than in other, earlier conference games when Overton was not completing the assists as well as he did tonight. Venoy looked much better, healthier, and tenacious on defense than he has in a while. He got up and personal in ASU's face. He swatted at the ball and drove the lane at times. He found MBA down low a few times and did a good job moving the ball and avoiding turnovers.
Grade: A-
Justin Holiday
A slow offensive night for Holiday. He only had 5 points on the night, but picked up 5 big boards. He was also the only non guard to have assists, finishing with 3. Holiday was fairly effective on defense and I remember distinctly, several plays where an ASU player was looking open and about to take a shot when Holiday raced over and put a hand up causing the Sun Devil to second guess the shot and move the ball around a bit more. He was 0-4 from range and like most of the Husky team, could not find his shot rhythm against the tough ASU defense.
Grade: B
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
MBA was an absolutely dominate force on the floor tonight. MVP of the game. His presence down low and ability to make shots and create opportunities for himself was huge. He went 11-16 from the field and 8-8 from the free throw line, a gorgeous sight. He posted up, did some spins, and threw down a monster tomahawk. The only thing he didn't do was take a jump shot. Though he had the opportunity a few times, he opted to dribble a bit, make a move inside and lay it in and it worked almost every time. He was one board short of a double double, ending with 9, 7 defensive, to top off his 30 point outing, a career high.
Grade: A+
Brendan Sherrer
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
Darnell Gant
After several strong outings, Gant was bound to take a step back eventually. Tonight was that night unfortunately. He played 10 minutes, the lowest on the team for the night, and only managed 4 points on 2-3 shooting. He grabbed 2 offensive boards, a nice stat, but that was about it. One of the pair of shots was a great play after a poorly called foul on the other end. It was an in your face to the ref.
Grade: B, only because he played low minutes
Scott Suggs
A nice night for the new starter. He went 2-3 from range and 4-5 from the field. He was the most successful shooter outside MBA. He ended with 10 points. He put down a dagger 3 pointer with about a minute left to seal the lead at 8. He still is not a good choice at point guard. He had a sloppy turnover near mid court when he was double teamed. He does not possess the composure or skill yet to bring the ball up under pressure. This could be a problem later in the season if I.T. and Overton get into foul trouble. To me, Ross seems like a better PG option as he is much more comfortable with the ball in his hand and has the confidence to move and shoot with it under pressure.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
Thomas finished with an unusually high number of turnovers tonight. He made some poor choices in the face of a different defense than normal. He forced several passes into multiple "coverage" down low that were stolen easily. On the other hand, I.T. was great once more. His points and effort were quieter than the past few games, but he did finish with 19 points and only two assists short of a third double double in a row. He picked up 6 rebounds for the second straight game and added in 3 steals to help negate his silly mistakes. His alley oop to MBA should make the Top 10 again, hopefully higher than number 9 this time.
Grade: A-
Aziz N'Diaye
Poor, poor play from the big man tonight. The zone really shut him down and he couldn't do anything very effectively. He went 2-4 from the free throw line and had one other basket to have 4 on the night. In his 18 minutes he only managed 1 rebound. 1. Not good and highly unusual. Even on bad nights, Aziz can usually get 3 or 4. Oh well, he is effectively a freshman in my eyes and freshman tend to have their ups and down. Thursday was up, Saturday was down.
Grade: D
Antoine Hosley
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
C.J. Wilcox
His shooting slump is looking to wear off a bit. He sank one 3 pointer and a nice jump shot from around the free throw line. Wilcox's shot looked a tad better and his confidence maybe a bit higher, but he still isn't performing at the level we saw at the onset of the season. He needs to correct whatever is going wrong as the Huskies badly need a consistent shooting threat once more. Holiday has been good, but Wilcox is supposed to be the specialist.
Grade: B-
Terrence Ross
Not a terrible night, but far from amazing. 2-4 from range and 2 rebounds in 17 minutes. He was above average on defense, but he had one silly foul after getting beat. I am waiting to see another USC or Oregon type performance from him. All the skills are there, he just needs to find a rhythm to unleash it with.
Grade: B
Final Thoughts
ASU played a tough game and we played the standard let down game after playing in such a huge game just a pair of nights before. UW did a good job holding off the ASU run and finished fairly strong. They have a week to prepare for WSU who is doing battle today with Arizona. An upset win by WSU would do wonders for our standings. Regardless of how other teams do, we need only to win to secure our spot at the top.
Links:
Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gySnv0LzKo0&feature=feedu
Montlake: http://www.montlakemadness.com/dawgs-ward-off-sun-devils-88-75/
Gohuskies: http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/012211aaa.html
ESPN:http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310220264
ASU shot very well from range as Trent Lockett, Rihards Kuksiks, and Ty Abbott just couldn't seem to miss, shooting 9-15. UDub on the other hand, couldn't seem to hit much of anything and finished 6-20 from behind the arc.
Matthew Bryan-Amaning went into beast mode and with the help of Isaiah Thomas, put the team on his back. MBA finished with 30 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal, and a turnover. The most impressive stat for MBA? 8-8 from the free throw line. That's how you do it big man.
I.T. finished with 19 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 4 turnovers. He had some sloppy passes into two or three defenders, trying too hard to get the ball into the post. He had another beautiful alley oop to MBA who one hand tomahawked it home.
Speaking of vicious dunks, MBA almost had a huge one over a taller defender, but the ball got a little free and racked off the back of the rim and the catapulted out to a waiting Justin Holiday near the 3 point line.
Scott Suggs was the only other Husky in double digits, finishing with 10. This included a huge 3 pointer late in the game that helped seal our lead.
C.J. Wilcox hit a nice 3 and showed signs of getting out of his slump, but his shot was still a tad off.
Aziz N'Diaye had an extremely unproductive night, managing only 4 points and 1 board. He also managed a nice steal and a block that ended up being negated due to a charge call.
Our ball handling was lackadaisical, to say the least, in the first half. We had 7 turnovers going into break, but finished with 10 on the night. UW forced ASU into 15 turnovers and had 10 steals on the night.
UW did a good job of keeping ASU off the boards, finishing 33-25.
Give ASU credit, they played a hard, tough game and did a great job of putting hands in our shooters' faces and using its 3-2 zone quite effectively. UW simply could not hit their shots, but thanks to great free throw shooting by MBA and I.T. (who finished 8-10) the Huskies found victory again.
The UW bench combined for 20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, and 2 turnovers. Effectively the stat line for Isaiah. There was not much bench production to say the least.
UW had some troubles on defense, experimenting between a man and a zone, trying to stop ASU's shooting and Trent Lockett's out of control drives that were rewarded far too often with foul shots rather than travels and charges.
What Needed Improvement
First Half Ball Handling
This is the second straight game UW has had a slow, sloppy first half. Sure they turn it around in the second, but these early mistakes cannot be afforded in big games and tournament play. Better control and tighter play is needed to keep our play up to par.
Bench Production
Once more we found ourselves lacking a really solid bench player. Venoy did a good job handling the rock and dishing out the ball, finishing with 5 assists and only 1 turnover. He was the lone highlight on an otherwise quiet bench night.
Outside Shooting
Not sure what has happened that our outside shot has dropped off so much, but without the shooting ability of Wilcox it seems as though the Huskies have really lacked a constant rhythm. Terrence Ross and Scott Suggs both hit 2 and that was as good as it got.
What Was Good
MBA
He has taken his game to the level so many of us have imagined and dreamed of. He did it all and was the big key in our win. He narrowly missed another double double.
Second Half Defense
Much better than the first half. I.T. shut down Abbott, holding him to only two shots after he took over the defensive effort.
Passing
Minus the sloppy play in the first half, UW passed well. I.T. and Venoy combined for 13 and Holiday added in 3.
Player by Player Review
Venoy Overton
5 points, 5 assists, 2 blocks, 1 rebound, 1 steal, and only 1 turnover. Overton was the lone spark off the bench for the Dawgs. His 5 assists really contributed to the game and gave I.T. a well deserved break. The duo spent less time together on the court than in other, earlier conference games when Overton was not completing the assists as well as he did tonight. Venoy looked much better, healthier, and tenacious on defense than he has in a while. He got up and personal in ASU's face. He swatted at the ball and drove the lane at times. He found MBA down low a few times and did a good job moving the ball and avoiding turnovers.
Grade: A-
Justin Holiday
A slow offensive night for Holiday. He only had 5 points on the night, but picked up 5 big boards. He was also the only non guard to have assists, finishing with 3. Holiday was fairly effective on defense and I remember distinctly, several plays where an ASU player was looking open and about to take a shot when Holiday raced over and put a hand up causing the Sun Devil to second guess the shot and move the ball around a bit more. He was 0-4 from range and like most of the Husky team, could not find his shot rhythm against the tough ASU defense.
Grade: B
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
MBA was an absolutely dominate force on the floor tonight. MVP of the game. His presence down low and ability to make shots and create opportunities for himself was huge. He went 11-16 from the field and 8-8 from the free throw line, a gorgeous sight. He posted up, did some spins, and threw down a monster tomahawk. The only thing he didn't do was take a jump shot. Though he had the opportunity a few times, he opted to dribble a bit, make a move inside and lay it in and it worked almost every time. He was one board short of a double double, ending with 9, 7 defensive, to top off his 30 point outing, a career high.
Grade: A+
Brendan Sherrer
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
Darnell Gant
After several strong outings, Gant was bound to take a step back eventually. Tonight was that night unfortunately. He played 10 minutes, the lowest on the team for the night, and only managed 4 points on 2-3 shooting. He grabbed 2 offensive boards, a nice stat, but that was about it. One of the pair of shots was a great play after a poorly called foul on the other end. It was an in your face to the ref.
Grade: B, only because he played low minutes
Scott Suggs
A nice night for the new starter. He went 2-3 from range and 4-5 from the field. He was the most successful shooter outside MBA. He ended with 10 points. He put down a dagger 3 pointer with about a minute left to seal the lead at 8. He still is not a good choice at point guard. He had a sloppy turnover near mid court when he was double teamed. He does not possess the composure or skill yet to bring the ball up under pressure. This could be a problem later in the season if I.T. and Overton get into foul trouble. To me, Ross seems like a better PG option as he is much more comfortable with the ball in his hand and has the confidence to move and shoot with it under pressure.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
Thomas finished with an unusually high number of turnovers tonight. He made some poor choices in the face of a different defense than normal. He forced several passes into multiple "coverage" down low that were stolen easily. On the other hand, I.T. was great once more. His points and effort were quieter than the past few games, but he did finish with 19 points and only two assists short of a third double double in a row. He picked up 6 rebounds for the second straight game and added in 3 steals to help negate his silly mistakes. His alley oop to MBA should make the Top 10 again, hopefully higher than number 9 this time.
Grade: A-
Aziz N'Diaye
Poor, poor play from the big man tonight. The zone really shut him down and he couldn't do anything very effectively. He went 2-4 from the free throw line and had one other basket to have 4 on the night. In his 18 minutes he only managed 1 rebound. 1. Not good and highly unusual. Even on bad nights, Aziz can usually get 3 or 4. Oh well, he is effectively a freshman in my eyes and freshman tend to have their ups and down. Thursday was up, Saturday was down.
Grade: D
Antoine Hosley
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
C.J. Wilcox
His shooting slump is looking to wear off a bit. He sank one 3 pointer and a nice jump shot from around the free throw line. Wilcox's shot looked a tad better and his confidence maybe a bit higher, but he still isn't performing at the level we saw at the onset of the season. He needs to correct whatever is going wrong as the Huskies badly need a consistent shooting threat once more. Holiday has been good, but Wilcox is supposed to be the specialist.
Grade: B-
Terrence Ross
Not a terrible night, but far from amazing. 2-4 from range and 2 rebounds in 17 minutes. He was above average on defense, but he had one silly foul after getting beat. I am waiting to see another USC or Oregon type performance from him. All the skills are there, he just needs to find a rhythm to unleash it with.
Grade: B
Final Thoughts
ASU played a tough game and we played the standard let down game after playing in such a huge game just a pair of nights before. UW did a good job holding off the ASU run and finished fairly strong. They have a week to prepare for WSU who is doing battle today with Arizona. An upset win by WSU would do wonders for our standings. Regardless of how other teams do, we need only to win to secure our spot at the top.
Links:
Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gySnv0LzKo0&feature=feedu
Montlake: http://www.montlakemadness.com/dawgs-ward-off-sun-devils-88-75/
Gohuskies: http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/012211aaa.html
ESPN:http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310220264
Friday, January 21, 2011
Arizona State University Preview
Arizona State is 9-9 on the year and 1-5 in conference with their lone win coming over Oregon on the road. The most recently lost to WSU by 17 in a 78-61 game.
ASU only has 3 players who have competed in all 18 games this year, a little strange considering a team needs 5 players on the court to start the game (yes this is not always true, but for college it essentially is). Those 3 players are Rihards Kuksiks, Kyle Cain, and Ruslan Pateev.
ASU is led in scoring by Ty Abbott with 13.5 points per game, followed closely by Trent Lockett with 13.3 points per game. Kuksiks is the only other major point contributor with 9.4 per game. ASU is a low scoring team, averaging 63 per game and only 58 in conference.
ASU does not rebound extremely well either, averaging only 33 per game. Kyle Cain is picking up 6.2 per game and Lockett adds 5.6 boards per match up. To say the least, this is a big opportunity for our bigs to put up some big rebounding numbers as ASU lacks a strong post player with rebounding talents.
Both Abbott and Kuksiks are strong outside shooters. Kuksiks really took it to the Dawgs last time, if my memory serves me well. Both are shooting around 40% from range. Abbott is 48 of 120, while Kuksiks has made 43 of 112 attempts from range.
Thankfully, ASU is a terrible free throw shooting team as well, with only two players near or above 75% on the year. Kuksiks leads the team with 81% and Carrick Felix is 74% on the season.
ASU does not have any stand out players except for Rihards Kuksiks and he is only mildly impressive. Much like Jorge Guitierrez of Cal, Kuksiks is good because he has to be. At least that is how I see it. He shoot well from outside, but doesn't do much more.
Jamelle McMillian is a fairly good point guard, averaging 4.2 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game. He only scores 6.2 points per game.
Starting Line Ups
Arizona State
Jamelle McMillian 6-2 180lb G
Ty Abbott 6-3 205lb G
Trent Lockett 6-3 210lb G
Rihards Kuksiks 6-6 206lb G/F
Ruslan Pateev 7-0 249lb C
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185lb G
Scott Suggs 6-6 195lb G
Justin Holiday 6-6 185lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240lb F
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260lb C
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
As usual, rebounding will be key. Unlike the Arizona game, ASU does not have a dominate rebounding force, nor are they a highly competitive team for UW. Regardless, more rebounds = more chances for us and less for ASU. Personally, I would love to see a 15 board advantage by games end including 10+ for both MBA and Aziz. I think it is very plausible for both as Aziz was able to play 27 minutes by avoiding foul trouble. He and MBA combined for 15 boards last game against a strong Arizona frontcourt. Pateev, despite being 7 feet tall, only picks up 2.3 boards per game.
Outside Defense
This is one of the few places ASU could hurt us. As I stated earlier, Kuksiks was on fire from range last time the teams met and along with Abbott there could be a closer game if they are hitting. Strong outside, man to man defense will be key in preventing this. I think putting Suggs in the starting 5 will help prevent this as he is a taller defender and can get his hand up higher.
Push the Middle
This has been working extremely well for the Huskies as I.T. has really stepped up his passing game, creating hell for the opposition. With UW having a big size advantage inside there is a big opportunity for MBA and/or Aziz to put up major numbers. Once our bigs get going or I.T. is slashing the court up, ASU will be forced to double up on the defenders or resort to a zone, giving out shooters space to put up their shots.
Outside Shooting
Once the middle is strong we need to take advantage by abusing ASU from range. Holiday has been shooting well and I.T. as well. Hopefully C.J. Wilcox can break out of his slump and move his way back up the rotation. Let it rain, Dawgs.
Free Throw Shooting
Thank goodness Thursday's game was not a close one or our FT shooting would have killed us. I.T. had a now unusual off night and MBA continued to shoot around 50%. Holiday and Ross were very solid. Let's hope I.T. corrects his mistakes and the rest of the team can hit well.
A quick side note for those who missed the game Thursday. MBA was fouled hard on a break away and had an eye problem. He went to the sideline to get it checked out. The refs did not call a medical timeout and I.T. stepped to the line and for whatever reason the refs gave him the ball. I.T. shot it and missed, then told the refs I'm not the shooter. The refs were pissed I.T. was making them look bad. MBA got fixed up and hit both free throws. Hilarious.
Ball Handling
UW had some early miscues and mishandles early in the UA game and it kept UA in it til late. In the second half they cleaned up their play and, no surprise, they dominated. Handling the ball well will mean a blow out on Saturday as UW is statistically superior in every way.
Final Thoughts
This should be an easy game for UW, but they cannot afford to over look ASU. As long as they play with the toughness and tenacity they brought against UA, the Dawgs will not have any problems handling ASU. We will likely see big numbers from I.T., MBA, and Holiday again and I think we could see some solid numbers from Aziz and either Ross or Suggs. I think Wilcox is having some confidence issues that aren't quite dealt with yet and it may take another few games of slow, steady progress to get back to where he was. He is a freshman and has plenty of time to reemerge as a dominant, offensive threat. With good passing, strong post play, and some decent outside shooting the Huskies should have this one in the bag big and early. I think this is another Pac-10 team we could drop 100 on. ASU does not have a lot of size, experience, or talent. They are rebuilding after losing Derrick Glasser and the other ASU seniors.
Final Score UW-104 ASU-66
Links
Dirt: http://tinyurl.com/DPD-ASU
ASU only has 3 players who have competed in all 18 games this year, a little strange considering a team needs 5 players on the court to start the game (yes this is not always true, but for college it essentially is). Those 3 players are Rihards Kuksiks, Kyle Cain, and Ruslan Pateev.
ASU is led in scoring by Ty Abbott with 13.5 points per game, followed closely by Trent Lockett with 13.3 points per game. Kuksiks is the only other major point contributor with 9.4 per game. ASU is a low scoring team, averaging 63 per game and only 58 in conference.
ASU does not rebound extremely well either, averaging only 33 per game. Kyle Cain is picking up 6.2 per game and Lockett adds 5.6 boards per match up. To say the least, this is a big opportunity for our bigs to put up some big rebounding numbers as ASU lacks a strong post player with rebounding talents.
Both Abbott and Kuksiks are strong outside shooters. Kuksiks really took it to the Dawgs last time, if my memory serves me well. Both are shooting around 40% from range. Abbott is 48 of 120, while Kuksiks has made 43 of 112 attempts from range.
Thankfully, ASU is a terrible free throw shooting team as well, with only two players near or above 75% on the year. Kuksiks leads the team with 81% and Carrick Felix is 74% on the season.
ASU does not have any stand out players except for Rihards Kuksiks and he is only mildly impressive. Much like Jorge Guitierrez of Cal, Kuksiks is good because he has to be. At least that is how I see it. He shoot well from outside, but doesn't do much more.
Jamelle McMillian is a fairly good point guard, averaging 4.2 assists and 1.5 turnovers per game. He only scores 6.2 points per game.
Starting Line Ups
Arizona State
Jamelle McMillian 6-2 180lb G
Ty Abbott 6-3 205lb G
Trent Lockett 6-3 210lb G
Rihards Kuksiks 6-6 206lb G/F
Ruslan Pateev 7-0 249lb C
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185lb G
Scott Suggs 6-6 195lb G
Justin Holiday 6-6 185lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240lb F
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260lb C
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
As usual, rebounding will be key. Unlike the Arizona game, ASU does not have a dominate rebounding force, nor are they a highly competitive team for UW. Regardless, more rebounds = more chances for us and less for ASU. Personally, I would love to see a 15 board advantage by games end including 10+ for both MBA and Aziz. I think it is very plausible for both as Aziz was able to play 27 minutes by avoiding foul trouble. He and MBA combined for 15 boards last game against a strong Arizona frontcourt. Pateev, despite being 7 feet tall, only picks up 2.3 boards per game.
Outside Defense
This is one of the few places ASU could hurt us. As I stated earlier, Kuksiks was on fire from range last time the teams met and along with Abbott there could be a closer game if they are hitting. Strong outside, man to man defense will be key in preventing this. I think putting Suggs in the starting 5 will help prevent this as he is a taller defender and can get his hand up higher.
Push the Middle
This has been working extremely well for the Huskies as I.T. has really stepped up his passing game, creating hell for the opposition. With UW having a big size advantage inside there is a big opportunity for MBA and/or Aziz to put up major numbers. Once our bigs get going or I.T. is slashing the court up, ASU will be forced to double up on the defenders or resort to a zone, giving out shooters space to put up their shots.
Outside Shooting
Once the middle is strong we need to take advantage by abusing ASU from range. Holiday has been shooting well and I.T. as well. Hopefully C.J. Wilcox can break out of his slump and move his way back up the rotation. Let it rain, Dawgs.
Free Throw Shooting
Thank goodness Thursday's game was not a close one or our FT shooting would have killed us. I.T. had a now unusual off night and MBA continued to shoot around 50%. Holiday and Ross were very solid. Let's hope I.T. corrects his mistakes and the rest of the team can hit well.
A quick side note for those who missed the game Thursday. MBA was fouled hard on a break away and had an eye problem. He went to the sideline to get it checked out. The refs did not call a medical timeout and I.T. stepped to the line and for whatever reason the refs gave him the ball. I.T. shot it and missed, then told the refs I'm not the shooter. The refs were pissed I.T. was making them look bad. MBA got fixed up and hit both free throws. Hilarious.
Ball Handling
UW had some early miscues and mishandles early in the UA game and it kept UA in it til late. In the second half they cleaned up their play and, no surprise, they dominated. Handling the ball well will mean a blow out on Saturday as UW is statistically superior in every way.
Final Thoughts
This should be an easy game for UW, but they cannot afford to over look ASU. As long as they play with the toughness and tenacity they brought against UA, the Dawgs will not have any problems handling ASU. We will likely see big numbers from I.T., MBA, and Holiday again and I think we could see some solid numbers from Aziz and either Ross or Suggs. I think Wilcox is having some confidence issues that aren't quite dealt with yet and it may take another few games of slow, steady progress to get back to where he was. He is a freshman and has plenty of time to reemerge as a dominant, offensive threat. With good passing, strong post play, and some decent outside shooting the Huskies should have this one in the bag big and early. I think this is another Pac-10 team we could drop 100 on. ASU does not have a lot of size, experience, or talent. They are rebuilding after losing Derrick Glasser and the other ASU seniors.
Final Score UW-104 ASU-66
Links
Dirt: http://tinyurl.com/DPD-ASU
Thursday, January 20, 2011
University of Arizona Review
Final Score: UW-85 UA-68
What a battle. That was a great game, a ton of fun to be at and it has big implications for the remainder of the season. The Huskies did a terrific job of shutting down Derrick Williams in the first half with a combination of defensive efforts from Aziz, MBA, and a zone. Even Gant posted up on him a few times. Williams, being the great player he is, came out storming the second half. Williams eventually picked up 4 fouls and Sean Miller subbed him in and out on offense/defense. Williams finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Like I said he can have his 20 and 10, we got the win. We also had 2-20+ point scorers ourselves.
Isaiah Thomas led the way again with his second straight double, scoring 22 and dishing out 10 assists. He had a rough night at the free throw line, but limited his turnovers and was a floor general once more. Justin Holiday also added 22 points, 3 assists, 2 boards, 2 steals, a huge block, and one turnover. MBA added 18 points and 7 boards, 4 offensive.
Aziz led the team in rebounding tonight with 8, 6 defensive. He played great on defense and did not pick up a single foul until the second half. He only scored 2 points, but did exactly what we needed him to. He clogged the lane, forced Williams to look elsewhere, shut him down in the first half, and rebounded well.
Darnell Gant showed up huge off the bench once more, grabbing 6 boards. He had a bad turnover, but blocked the shot, IT recovered it and brought it up the floor. Darnell was waiting in the corner where he nailed a 3 pointer. Beautiful.
Speaking of beautiful, two of IT's assists led to monstrous alley oops. The first was to...Venoy Overton. Sweet Jesus it was absurd. 5-9 to 6-0. Boom. The second was a little floater on a drive to MBA who came flying in from the side to jam it home. BOOM!
Terrence Ross was fairly solid off the bench, scoring 8 on 1-4 shooting and 5-6 from them line. He also had 3 rebounds.
What Needed Improvement
Free Throw Shooting
After several great games, Isaiah started off 1-4. He finished 6-10. MBA was 4-8. Ross was 5-6 and Holiday was 4-5, those are good numbers.
Turnovers
MBA had 5. Bleh. Other than him, no one had more than 2. Isaiah finished with 1 turnover. That gives him a 10/1 assist to turnover ratio. 23/6 over the last two game, approximately 4/1. Damn that's sexy.
What Was Good
The Big Trio
IT, Holiday, and MBA. In today's game they combined for 62 points. In the Cal game they combined for 72. That's 134 points in 2 game. Also, a good stat, IT was a part of 57 points in the Cal game, not sure how many tonight. It is close to 45 or 50 I would imagine. Absurd.
Rebounding
After being down 21-18 in the first, the Dawgs finished strong and won the battle 41-35. Aziz, MBA, and Gant were great and with the help of the rest of the team they pulled off a tough task. I.T. even pulled out 6.
Defense
UW shut Williams down the first half and also kept UA well below their FG average. They also limited their fouling and for the first time in quite a number of games the Huskies shot more free throws than their opponent.
Player by Player Reviews
Venoy Overton
Damn solid night for Venoy Overton. He caught an alley oop for a dunk, dished out 3 assists, and finished with 7 points including a pair of tricky lay-ins, one that was a granny shot. He did pick up 4 fouls as well as 4 boards. His 2 turnovers somewhat dampen his performance, but he was key in picking up the game tempo.
Grade: B+
Justin Holiday
Another solid stat line. 22 points, 3 assists, 2 boards, 2 steals, 1 block, and 1 turnover. He found MBA a few times down low and had a great AND1 basket with about 13 left to quell an Arizona run. He played well on defense and his block was tremendous. It prevented a great scoring opportunity for UA. His second straight 20+ point game.
Grade: A
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
MBA continues to impress. Another night with high scoring a solid rebounding numbers, only a few boards short of a double double. His 5 turnovers were unusual, but its his horrid free throw shooting that concerns me more. He really needs to take a step up in that department. Other than that he had a fantastic night. Several emphatic dunks, most dumped to him by I.T. The alley oop was ridiculous and the reverse was brilliant. Great offense tonight and tight defense.
Grade: A-
Brendan Sherrer
Did not play
Grade: N/A
Scott Suggs
Suggs is a fairly good starter, but he still makes too many mistakes as a point guard. He is too timid and often turns it over under pressure defense. 3 points in 14 minutes. Not too exciting
Grade: C+
Darnell Gant
In my opinion, the 6th Man of the game once again. 6 boards and only 3 points. Those 3 came off of a beautiful 3 pointer given to him by Isaiah. His defensive effort was much needed and his boards even more.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
MVP of the game. 22 points, 10 assists, 6 boards, 1 steal, 1 turnover. He is playing out of his mind as of late. To say the least, he wants that POY award. If he keeps averaging near 10 assists per game on top of 18+ points he will get it. He drove, he scored, he passed, he hustled. What a player. Minus his poor free throw shooting it was a brilliant night.
Grade: A+
Aziz N'Diaye
A great game for the big man. 8 boards in 27 minutes as well as a block or two. Only a pair of points, but that's not what he is there for. His points came off a nice put back. His defense was the best aspect of his game and was crucial in shutting down Williams. He finished with only 2 fouls and showed a lot more body control and poise to avoid those silly fouls.
Grade: B+
Antoine Hosley
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
C.J. Wilcox
Something just isn't clicking how it was. Wilcox was again scoreless and just can't seem to get the rhythm he had. Something needs to change. Someone needs to get his shot back and get him some confidence. Only 8 minutes.
Grade: C-
Terrence Ross
A pretty good night for Ross. He forced fouls, took shots, and rebounded a bit. He got beat a few times on D getting back and was forced to foul himself. He is still improving, but like a stick off dynamite can go off any time for huge numbers.
Grade: B
Final Thoughts
It was close for a bit, but Arizona is a tad too one dimensional to hang with UW. We played great D, shot fairly well, and did the things we needed to win. A 17 point win is fairly decisive, especially when you consider we missed 11 free throws. That's a possible 28 point blowout. The game was physical and the refs let it play out for the most part which was nice to see. This win will go a long ways toward winning the title.
Ernie Kent was not doing color commentary today, Kim Grinolds lied. He is here on Saturday and it is his birthday. Romar requested we not bring up any "ghosts". No promises. Sorry, coach.
UW now has a 1.5 game lead on second place. A nice cushion we need to build on.
Links
Highlights : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMriDGDNaWU&feature=feedu
More Highlights : http://www.athletixnation.com/video/757168437001
Percy Allen : http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013992868_sean_miller_on.html
Montlake : http://www.montlakemadness.com/dawgs-make-it-rain-on-cats/
What a battle. That was a great game, a ton of fun to be at and it has big implications for the remainder of the season. The Huskies did a terrific job of shutting down Derrick Williams in the first half with a combination of defensive efforts from Aziz, MBA, and a zone. Even Gant posted up on him a few times. Williams, being the great player he is, came out storming the second half. Williams eventually picked up 4 fouls and Sean Miller subbed him in and out on offense/defense. Williams finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Like I said he can have his 20 and 10, we got the win. We also had 2-20+ point scorers ourselves.
Isaiah Thomas led the way again with his second straight double, scoring 22 and dishing out 10 assists. He had a rough night at the free throw line, but limited his turnovers and was a floor general once more. Justin Holiday also added 22 points, 3 assists, 2 boards, 2 steals, a huge block, and one turnover. MBA added 18 points and 7 boards, 4 offensive.
Aziz led the team in rebounding tonight with 8, 6 defensive. He played great on defense and did not pick up a single foul until the second half. He only scored 2 points, but did exactly what we needed him to. He clogged the lane, forced Williams to look elsewhere, shut him down in the first half, and rebounded well.
Darnell Gant showed up huge off the bench once more, grabbing 6 boards. He had a bad turnover, but blocked the shot, IT recovered it and brought it up the floor. Darnell was waiting in the corner where he nailed a 3 pointer. Beautiful.
Speaking of beautiful, two of IT's assists led to monstrous alley oops. The first was to...Venoy Overton. Sweet Jesus it was absurd. 5-9 to 6-0. Boom. The second was a little floater on a drive to MBA who came flying in from the side to jam it home. BOOM!
Terrence Ross was fairly solid off the bench, scoring 8 on 1-4 shooting and 5-6 from them line. He also had 3 rebounds.
What Needed Improvement
Free Throw Shooting
After several great games, Isaiah started off 1-4. He finished 6-10. MBA was 4-8. Ross was 5-6 and Holiday was 4-5, those are good numbers.
Turnovers
MBA had 5. Bleh. Other than him, no one had more than 2. Isaiah finished with 1 turnover. That gives him a 10/1 assist to turnover ratio. 23/6 over the last two game, approximately 4/1. Damn that's sexy.
What Was Good
The Big Trio
IT, Holiday, and MBA. In today's game they combined for 62 points. In the Cal game they combined for 72. That's 134 points in 2 game. Also, a good stat, IT was a part of 57 points in the Cal game, not sure how many tonight. It is close to 45 or 50 I would imagine. Absurd.
Rebounding
After being down 21-18 in the first, the Dawgs finished strong and won the battle 41-35. Aziz, MBA, and Gant were great and with the help of the rest of the team they pulled off a tough task. I.T. even pulled out 6.
Defense
UW shut Williams down the first half and also kept UA well below their FG average. They also limited their fouling and for the first time in quite a number of games the Huskies shot more free throws than their opponent.
Player by Player Reviews
Venoy Overton
Damn solid night for Venoy Overton. He caught an alley oop for a dunk, dished out 3 assists, and finished with 7 points including a pair of tricky lay-ins, one that was a granny shot. He did pick up 4 fouls as well as 4 boards. His 2 turnovers somewhat dampen his performance, but he was key in picking up the game tempo.
Grade: B+
Justin Holiday
Another solid stat line. 22 points, 3 assists, 2 boards, 2 steals, 1 block, and 1 turnover. He found MBA a few times down low and had a great AND1 basket with about 13 left to quell an Arizona run. He played well on defense and his block was tremendous. It prevented a great scoring opportunity for UA. His second straight 20+ point game.
Grade: A
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
MBA continues to impress. Another night with high scoring a solid rebounding numbers, only a few boards short of a double double. His 5 turnovers were unusual, but its his horrid free throw shooting that concerns me more. He really needs to take a step up in that department. Other than that he had a fantastic night. Several emphatic dunks, most dumped to him by I.T. The alley oop was ridiculous and the reverse was brilliant. Great offense tonight and tight defense.
Grade: A-
Brendan Sherrer
Did not play
Grade: N/A
Scott Suggs
Suggs is a fairly good starter, but he still makes too many mistakes as a point guard. He is too timid and often turns it over under pressure defense. 3 points in 14 minutes. Not too exciting
Grade: C+
Darnell Gant
In my opinion, the 6th Man of the game once again. 6 boards and only 3 points. Those 3 came off of a beautiful 3 pointer given to him by Isaiah. His defensive effort was much needed and his boards even more.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
MVP of the game. 22 points, 10 assists, 6 boards, 1 steal, 1 turnover. He is playing out of his mind as of late. To say the least, he wants that POY award. If he keeps averaging near 10 assists per game on top of 18+ points he will get it. He drove, he scored, he passed, he hustled. What a player. Minus his poor free throw shooting it was a brilliant night.
Grade: A+
Aziz N'Diaye
A great game for the big man. 8 boards in 27 minutes as well as a block or two. Only a pair of points, but that's not what he is there for. His points came off a nice put back. His defense was the best aspect of his game and was crucial in shutting down Williams. He finished with only 2 fouls and showed a lot more body control and poise to avoid those silly fouls.
Grade: B+
Antoine Hosley
Did not play.
Grade: N/A
C.J. Wilcox
Something just isn't clicking how it was. Wilcox was again scoreless and just can't seem to get the rhythm he had. Something needs to change. Someone needs to get his shot back and get him some confidence. Only 8 minutes.
Grade: C-
Terrence Ross
A pretty good night for Ross. He forced fouls, took shots, and rebounded a bit. He got beat a few times on D getting back and was forced to foul himself. He is still improving, but like a stick off dynamite can go off any time for huge numbers.
Grade: B
Final Thoughts
It was close for a bit, but Arizona is a tad too one dimensional to hang with UW. We played great D, shot fairly well, and did the things we needed to win. A 17 point win is fairly decisive, especially when you consider we missed 11 free throws. That's a possible 28 point blowout. The game was physical and the refs let it play out for the most part which was nice to see. This win will go a long ways toward winning the title.
Ernie Kent was not doing color commentary today, Kim Grinolds lied. He is here on Saturday and it is his birthday. Romar requested we not bring up any "ghosts". No promises. Sorry, coach.
UW now has a 1.5 game lead on second place. A nice cushion we need to build on.
Links
Highlights : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMriDGDNaWU&feature=feedu
More Highlights : http://www.athletixnation.com/video/757168437001
Percy Allen : http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013992868_sean_miller_on.html
Montlake : http://www.montlakemadness.com/dawgs-make-it-rain-on-cats/
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
University of Arizona Preview
In what is arguably the most important conference game this season, UW hosts Arizona, recently ranked number 25 in the ESPN/Coaches Poll. This will likely be the lone game this Pac-10 season where two ranked teams play one another. Whoever wins will stay in the polls while the loser will drop out. This game will be broadcast as the FSN national game. So to say the least, it is a big deal.
Arizona is 15-3 on the year and 4-1 in conference, having lost to Oregon State and most recently beat their rival, ASU, 80-69. The OSU game was lost technically by 1, but only because UA managed to make a 3 pointer at the end of regulation.
When Arizona comes to mind there is one player who everyone knows of and that is Derrick Williams, a favorite for Pac-10 Player of the Year and possible candidate for National Player of the Year. Derrick Williams is a 6-8 241lb F who can shoot from anywhere on the court. He leads the Wildcats in scoring with 19.7 points per game as well as a team high 7.3 rebounds per game. The next highest scorer is Solomon Hill at 8.5 ppg. Solomon is also second on the team in rebounding at 4.7 rpg. To say the Wildcats depend on Williams is a bit of an understatement. He is their core and main option. He has scored more than 14 points in every game this year and has two 31 point games, including Arizona's lone game this past week against Arizona State University.
Williams is shooting 65.8% from the field and 70.8% from beyond the arc, connecting on 17 of 24 shots. Last season Williams only attempted 16 shots, making 4. He has made considerable improvement in that aspect of his game. The biggest way Williams scores is by getting to the line. Not to knock on the guy, he is a hard worker, but it seems as though if someone sneezes on him he will be shooting two. Derrick Williams is like Isaiah Thomas his freshman year, he shoots a lot of free throws. Williams is a solid free throw shooter as well, making 77% of his shots. Against ASU he went 15-16 and at home against Cal he went 16-22. This game, more than any, will need to see our big men avoid foul trouble.
Williams is also rated as the number 1 player in the nation in effective offense by KenPom.
UA runs a 10 man rotation with no player receiving less 12 minutes per game. There are 5 players that contribute significant amounts of points (~8 ppg or more) and 4 of them are starters. The bench for Arizona, while deep, is not extremely talented. Jamelle Horne is UA's 6th man and scores 7.6 ppg in 19 minutes of play. He is also third in rebounding at 4.3 rpg.
Where UW will be able to take the biggest advantage is our senior backcourt. Arizona is somewhat turnover prone, averaging 14 per game, led by Williams at 2.4 per game and Lamont Jones at 2.2 per game.
Arizona is a tall team with their shortest player coming in at 6-0. They have a 7-0 player, but he has only played in a few games and averages 6 minutes per game.
Starting Line Ups
Arizona
Lamont Jones 6-0 196lb G
Kyle Fogg 6-3 180lb G
Solomon Hill 6-6 226lb F
Jesse Perry 6-7 210lb F
Derrick Williams 6-8 241lb F
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185lb G
Scott Suggs 6-6 195lb G
Justin Holiday 6-6 185lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240lb F
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260lb C
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
Washington has done a great job of late out rebounding opponents and rates second in the conference in rebounding margin, narrowly behind Arizona. Williams will get his boards no doubt, Washington needs to capitalize on boxing out as best they can to maximize their opportunities. Williams can have his 9 or 10 boards as long as we win the game and battle of the boards. We rebound very well by committee. If Darnell Gant and Terrence Ross can continue to pick up a combined 10+ boards off the bench we will be in good shape. This could be a high scoring game and second chance opportunities will have a profound effect on the outcome of the game.
Free Throw Shooting
Arizona is a great FT shooting team. They are currently shooting 75.7%, while the Huskies are shooting a miserable 65.2%. There have been marked improvements by the team in their free throw shooting, especially Isaiah Thomas who I talked about in my last post. This will likely be a close game and free throws will be extremely important. We cannot afford to miss our shots because Arizona won't that is for sure.
Passing/Ball Control
After Isaiah's brilliant performance with 13 assists it seems as though he is unstoppable. He had 5 turnovers, but those were negated by his assists, rebounds, and steals. With Arizona having a young backcourt, UW is in prime position to get in transition by forcing turnovers. We need to first pass well on offense and keep control of the ball. Limiting our turnovers means less touches for Arizona and Derrick Williams.
Push the Middle
Williams is a good defender, but a better offensive threat. The biggest and best way to negate his presence is not by trying to double team him, rather make him foul. Isaiah can lead the way by driving the lane and dishing out, forcing Williams out of position and hopefully picking up a few fouls. MBA and Aziz need to see the ball often, especially MBA as he has the talents to pick up fouls better than Aziz.
Fouling
In the same vein as the last, we need to limit our fouling as Williams will kill us at the line. Even with the home court advantage that usually occurs with foul calls, Williams will still see 8+ shots at the free throw line.
Outside Shooting
Arizona is shooting 38.9% from range. They can drain the ball. UW can drain it better. Against Cal, our 3 point shooting showed up as it had earlier in the year and it paid off in dividends. If we can shoot that well again, as we usually do at home, we will be feeling much better.
Final Thoughts
This will be a tough battle, no doubt about it. Could we win by double digits? Yes we can, it all depends on how well our post players show up. Williams is going to score and rebound. He is a great player and is near impossible to stop. It is up to our post players to negate his effort by putting up great numbers themselves. Get him fouls and keep the ball from getting to him. That's how you stop Williams. Arizona will need big games from someone other than Williams to pull off the upset, in my mind. MBA, IT, and Holiday have been playing great the past week and I hope they have the same, if not more intense mentality, coming into this game. Is this make or break for winning the Pac-10 title? I don't think so, but it will be a contributing factor. The key to winning the title is win all the home games and at least split all the road trips. So far UW has picked up two big road wins in LA, something Arizona has not had to do yet. Montlake Madness has a good article on this that I will post a link to at the bottom.
Final Score Prediction
UW-83 UA-77
I think the Huskies will be able to win this, it'll be tough, but at home we have a great advantage. The crowd needs to come rocking. If we do manage to shut down Williams one way or another this game could get to be a bit of a blowout. We shall wait and see. I think Suggs will start to avoid a big size differential. Overton does really well off the bench and offers good support for Isaiah when he needs it. Suggs also gives us a better outside shooter to start the game.
Ernie Kent will be doing Color Commentary for the game tomorrow. Bring your sombreros, Dawg Pack. Ole!
Links
Montlake http://www.montlakemadness.com/how-big-is-the-zona-game/
For Dawg Pack Members: New Chant Reminder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggl6VG0zUTw
Dirt: http://tinyurl.com/DawgPackDirtUA
Arizona is 15-3 on the year and 4-1 in conference, having lost to Oregon State and most recently beat their rival, ASU, 80-69. The OSU game was lost technically by 1, but only because UA managed to make a 3 pointer at the end of regulation.
When Arizona comes to mind there is one player who everyone knows of and that is Derrick Williams, a favorite for Pac-10 Player of the Year and possible candidate for National Player of the Year. Derrick Williams is a 6-8 241lb F who can shoot from anywhere on the court. He leads the Wildcats in scoring with 19.7 points per game as well as a team high 7.3 rebounds per game. The next highest scorer is Solomon Hill at 8.5 ppg. Solomon is also second on the team in rebounding at 4.7 rpg. To say the Wildcats depend on Williams is a bit of an understatement. He is their core and main option. He has scored more than 14 points in every game this year and has two 31 point games, including Arizona's lone game this past week against Arizona State University.
Williams is shooting 65.8% from the field and 70.8% from beyond the arc, connecting on 17 of 24 shots. Last season Williams only attempted 16 shots, making 4. He has made considerable improvement in that aspect of his game. The biggest way Williams scores is by getting to the line. Not to knock on the guy, he is a hard worker, but it seems as though if someone sneezes on him he will be shooting two. Derrick Williams is like Isaiah Thomas his freshman year, he shoots a lot of free throws. Williams is a solid free throw shooter as well, making 77% of his shots. Against ASU he went 15-16 and at home against Cal he went 16-22. This game, more than any, will need to see our big men avoid foul trouble.
Williams is also rated as the number 1 player in the nation in effective offense by KenPom.
UA runs a 10 man rotation with no player receiving less 12 minutes per game. There are 5 players that contribute significant amounts of points (~8 ppg or more) and 4 of them are starters. The bench for Arizona, while deep, is not extremely talented. Jamelle Horne is UA's 6th man and scores 7.6 ppg in 19 minutes of play. He is also third in rebounding at 4.3 rpg.
Where UW will be able to take the biggest advantage is our senior backcourt. Arizona is somewhat turnover prone, averaging 14 per game, led by Williams at 2.4 per game and Lamont Jones at 2.2 per game.
Arizona is a tall team with their shortest player coming in at 6-0. They have a 7-0 player, but he has only played in a few games and averages 6 minutes per game.
Starting Line Ups
Arizona
Lamont Jones 6-0 196lb G
Kyle Fogg 6-3 180lb G
Solomon Hill 6-6 226lb F
Jesse Perry 6-7 210lb F
Derrick Williams 6-8 241lb F
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185lb G
Scott Suggs 6-6 195lb G
Justin Holiday 6-6 185lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240lb F
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260lb C
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
Washington has done a great job of late out rebounding opponents and rates second in the conference in rebounding margin, narrowly behind Arizona. Williams will get his boards no doubt, Washington needs to capitalize on boxing out as best they can to maximize their opportunities. Williams can have his 9 or 10 boards as long as we win the game and battle of the boards. We rebound very well by committee. If Darnell Gant and Terrence Ross can continue to pick up a combined 10+ boards off the bench we will be in good shape. This could be a high scoring game and second chance opportunities will have a profound effect on the outcome of the game.
Free Throw Shooting
Arizona is a great FT shooting team. They are currently shooting 75.7%, while the Huskies are shooting a miserable 65.2%. There have been marked improvements by the team in their free throw shooting, especially Isaiah Thomas who I talked about in my last post. This will likely be a close game and free throws will be extremely important. We cannot afford to miss our shots because Arizona won't that is for sure.
Passing/Ball Control
After Isaiah's brilliant performance with 13 assists it seems as though he is unstoppable. He had 5 turnovers, but those were negated by his assists, rebounds, and steals. With Arizona having a young backcourt, UW is in prime position to get in transition by forcing turnovers. We need to first pass well on offense and keep control of the ball. Limiting our turnovers means less touches for Arizona and Derrick Williams.
Push the Middle
Williams is a good defender, but a better offensive threat. The biggest and best way to negate his presence is not by trying to double team him, rather make him foul. Isaiah can lead the way by driving the lane and dishing out, forcing Williams out of position and hopefully picking up a few fouls. MBA and Aziz need to see the ball often, especially MBA as he has the talents to pick up fouls better than Aziz.
Fouling
In the same vein as the last, we need to limit our fouling as Williams will kill us at the line. Even with the home court advantage that usually occurs with foul calls, Williams will still see 8+ shots at the free throw line.
Outside Shooting
Arizona is shooting 38.9% from range. They can drain the ball. UW can drain it better. Against Cal, our 3 point shooting showed up as it had earlier in the year and it paid off in dividends. If we can shoot that well again, as we usually do at home, we will be feeling much better.
Final Thoughts
This will be a tough battle, no doubt about it. Could we win by double digits? Yes we can, it all depends on how well our post players show up. Williams is going to score and rebound. He is a great player and is near impossible to stop. It is up to our post players to negate his effort by putting up great numbers themselves. Get him fouls and keep the ball from getting to him. That's how you stop Williams. Arizona will need big games from someone other than Williams to pull off the upset, in my mind. MBA, IT, and Holiday have been playing great the past week and I hope they have the same, if not more intense mentality, coming into this game. Is this make or break for winning the Pac-10 title? I don't think so, but it will be a contributing factor. The key to winning the title is win all the home games and at least split all the road trips. So far UW has picked up two big road wins in LA, something Arizona has not had to do yet. Montlake Madness has a good article on this that I will post a link to at the bottom.
Final Score Prediction
UW-83 UA-77
I think the Huskies will be able to win this, it'll be tough, but at home we have a great advantage. The crowd needs to come rocking. If we do manage to shut down Williams one way or another this game could get to be a bit of a blowout. We shall wait and see. I think Suggs will start to avoid a big size differential. Overton does really well off the bench and offers good support for Isaiah when he needs it. Suggs also gives us a better outside shooter to start the game.
Ernie Kent will be doing Color Commentary for the game tomorrow. Bring your sombreros, Dawg Pack. Ole!
Links
Montlake http://www.montlakemadness.com/how-big-is-the-zona-game/
For Dawg Pack Members: New Chant Reminder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggl6VG0zUTw
Dirt: http://tinyurl.com/DawgPackDirtUA
Monday, January 17, 2011
Isaiah Thomas's Free Throw Percentage
After going 8-8 from the line in his last game, Isaiah has really shown just how hard work and the willingness to tweak traditions can turn a player's game up a notch. I first noticed his new free throw motion in the home game against San Fransisco, but I believe he also used it during the Texas A&M game. I was too busy stressing about other parts of our game to really appreciate the 16-16 effort our team had from the free throw line.
Here are a few stats.
Isaiah is currently shooting 80.5% since changing his form (not including A&M). 33/41
Isaiah is shooting 83.7% including the A&M game. 41/49
Before changing his motion, Isaiah was shooting 61.7% (not including A&M). 29/47
Including A&M he was shooting 67.3%. 37/55
His percentage jumped up nearly 15% by adding a four second count after his dribbles instead of shooting straight off the dribble. Those extra few seconds allow him to concentrate on the shot and the significance is easily seen.
So to Isaiah, I say, thank you for making me a believer again. I criticized your free throw shooting early in the year and you have turned it around and are shooting great from the line. Keep it up.
Here are a few stats.
Isaiah is currently shooting 80.5% since changing his form (not including A&M). 33/41
Isaiah is shooting 83.7% including the A&M game. 41/49
Before changing his motion, Isaiah was shooting 61.7% (not including A&M). 29/47
Including A&M he was shooting 67.3%. 37/55
His percentage jumped up nearly 15% by adding a four second count after his dribbles instead of shooting straight off the dribble. Those extra few seconds allow him to concentrate on the shot and the significance is easily seen.
So to Isaiah, I say, thank you for making me a believer again. I criticized your free throw shooting early in the year and you have turned it around and are shooting great from the line. Keep it up.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
University of California-Berkeley Review
Final Score UW-92 Cal-71
What a bounce back after one of the worst performances of the season on Thursday. The extra day on the road didn't seem to affect the Huskies at all, if anything they got that much better. The Huskies shot really well going 52.3% from the field and 44.8% from range (34-65 and 13-29). They rebounded well, winning that battle 43-27. They defended well, finishing with 6 steals and 3 blocks as well as forcing 12 turnovers. They passed well, by they I mean Isaiah who finished with 13 of the 20 assists.
The team was lead by three players. Isaiah Thomas, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, and Justin Holiday. Just take a look at these stat lines. Justin Holiday: 23 points, 1 steals, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 turnovers. Matthew Bryan-Amaning: 22 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal, 0 turnovers. Isaiah Thomas: 27 points, 13 assists (!), 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 5 turnovers. I, for one, am completely OK with 5 turnovers when you dish out 13 assists and score 27 points (and of course win).
Cal offered little resistance as UW went into half leading by 15 (48-33). Harper Kamp had 20 points and 7 boards, while Allen Crabbe had 16 points and 6 boards. Richard Solomon came off the bench and added 14 for the Bears.
Scott Suggs got the start today instead of Venoy Overton. Personally, I think it is a smart move as it gives us a solid point guard off the bench. Though neither Overton nor Suggs contributed much in terms of stats, their presence allowed I.T. to play some shooting guard and opened him up for a few more scoring opportunities.
Aziz N'Diaye struggled again, finishing with 1 point on split free throws and 3 boards. He did do a great job of taking space on defense and drawing pressure on offense. He fouled out with 8:24 left to play.
What Was Good
Shooting
For the first time in a while the Huskies found their rhythm from range. Holiday lead the way going 5 for 8 from downtown. I.T. added 3 on 9 attempts. Darnell Gant, Terrence Ross, C.J. Wilcox, Overton, and Suggs each added 1. MBA was 10-15. I.T. was 8-16. Holiday was 9-14. C.J. missed his first pair of shots, but drained the third, hopefully signaling the end of his slump. Holiday opened the half receiving 2 passes from I.T. and draining both 3 pointers back to back.
Passing
While I.T. obviously led the way with his 13 assists, the rest of the team did a good job of opening themselves up and moving the ball around. They were able to get it inside with easy, which allowed MBA to take over. Highlight pass has to be I.T. going behind the back to Holiday, who drained the 3.
Rebounding
MBA continued to dominate the boards in conference play, finishing with 11. Gant came off the bench and grabbed 6, a great performance by him. Suggs, Ross, and I.T. all added 4. A +16 margin on a Pac-10 team is fantastic.
I would have liked to have seen us get more offensive boards, finishing only with 9. Usually, Aziz grabs offensive boards at a high rate, but he was fairly ineffective today. We did hold Cal to 6 offensive boards, so that is one positive.
Free Throws
I am mainly talking about I.T. who went 8-8 from the line tonight. He continues to show off the new free throw motion and it continues to be working great for him. I'll have to look at which game he changed and his stats since then. MBA went 2-3, Aziz split his pair, and Ross missed both of his shots.
What Needed Improvement
Fouling
Our bigs found themselves in some foul trouble again, especially Aziz who tends to foul out almost every game. He has not been able to get the position he needs to avoid fouling. Gant also fouled out late in the game. MBA had 3 and I.T. picked up a somewhat surprising 4 fouls, including a charge. Cal got to the line twice as much as us, taking 30 attempts to our 15. With Derrick Williams coming into town Thursday our bigs need to avoid fouling. It seems as though anytime Williams is touched he gets to shoot free throws. I believe he had back to back games where he attempted 22 free throws and finished the nights with 30 and 31 points. While Sherrer may be able to play with some of the Pac-10 frontcourt, Williams would have his way down low if Sherrer was forced to come in.
Player by Player Reviews
Venoy Overton
After starting the few games since Abdul Gaddy's injury, Overton was put back on the bench in favor of Suggs. I agree with the decision. Overton is a solid point guard and coming off the bench allows us to sub out I.T. or Suggs if necessary and not drop off in terms of execution ability. He only scored 3 points on the night and had 2 rebounds on top of an assist and a steal. It was an average night, but with Isaiah stealing the show, its no wonder Overton has not had the best of stats. He did only play 14 minutes. Overall I didn't see anything bad about his game, it just wasn't an outstanding night.
Grade: B
Justin Holiday
Man, what a game for Holiday. He continued the hot streak he found in the second half against Stanford and scored a career high 23 points. He shot extremely well and was the beneficiary of several I.T. dimes. His long range shots meant he was further from the basket and as such he didn't have the chance to grab rebounds like he normally does. Thankfully Gant has toughened up considerably and took over where Holiday left off. Holiday did some nice passing of his own and helped take some of the load off I.T. It was great to see his shot falling again after having had a few sub par shooting nights the last week or two.
Grade: A
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
22 points and 11 rebounds. Another double double for the big Brit. He got his 19th and 20th points along with his 10th rebound in a great put back. He shot 66% from the field and made some nice post moves to get his points. He played one of his better games of the season thanks to I.T. giving him shots left and right. If not for I.T. he would have MVP of the game honors. It is also no surprise that went MBA is shooting and scoring, we are scoring more and winning. Inside-out basketball is the way to play. MBA showed up strong allowing our perimeter play to open up. The big question now is: How will MBA fair Thursday against arguably the best post player in the Pac-10, Derrick Williams? If MBA can be an impacting force on either offense and match Williams' output or on defense by shutting Williams down it should be considered a successful night. If he can do both, it'll be fantastic. If he does neither, I won't be terribly surprised, though I would be a bit disappointed.
Grade: A+
Brendan Sherrer
Saw only a few minutes at the end of the game, despite the foul trouble in the frontcourt. No stats today.
Grade: A for effort
Scott Suggs
Suggs started his first official collegiate game. He did start the exhibition game against St. Martin's, but sadly that game does not count in the record books. Suggs finished on 1 of 3 shooting with 3 points, adding 4 boards, an assist, a steal, and a turnover. He did play 24 minutes and ran the plays a bit at point guard. It's good to see he can run the point when necessary, though his ball handling is a little lower quality than I would like to see. Give him more time and I am sure it will improve.
Grade: B
Darnell Gant
A pretty solid night for the 6-8 junior. Though he only added 5 points and fouled out, he grabbed 6 rebounds. That is a solid stat coming off the bench. If he can continue to perform like that throughout the season he will put up a strong argument for replacing MBA in the starting 5 next season after MBA has graduated. Gant hit a sweet 3 from the top of the key. Good to see his shot is still solid from outside the arc.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
MVP of the night. Sure, he had 5 turnovers, but he finished with an assist/turnover ratio of 2.6 That is damn impressive. I.T. scored 18 of his 27 points in the first half. 13 assists. Man, I am still amazed. He drove the line, he shot from range, he passed behind his back. He was a BEAST on the court. He played fairly well against Stanford, but this was absurd. I.T. had a great floater over 6-10 Richard Soloman. He "pushed it down" after sinking a nice 3 pointer. He was 3 points shy of his career high set last season against Wright State.
Grade: A+
Aziz N'Diaye
A lack luster night for the 7 footer. He continues to take up space well on defense and prevents the drive that way, but other than that he didn't do terribly much. After showing so much promise in the fouling category, he has fallen back a bit and has fouled out in almost every conference game thus far. If he wants to get more time and put more stats in the book he will need to learn to position himself better and avoid silly fouls.
Grade: C
Antoine Hosley
No stats for the other walk-on either. *EDIT* Hosley did grab a long rebound in the last minute.
Grade: A for effort
C.J. Wilcox
Only 6 minutes, but he did manage 5 points on 2-6 shooting. C.J. still seems to be in a little bit of a slump. His shot does look better though, minus the first airball. Hopefully he is close to being fully healed after his Staph infection. Still not where he was earlier in the season, but that happens with freshmen.
Grade: C+
Terrence Ross
Ross saw the most minutes off the bench, with 17. He finished with 3 points on 1-3 shooting (1-2 from range, 0-2 from the FT line). He rebounded well and handled the ball pretty well. He did have a pair of sloppy turnovers, including one on a drive where he went to dish and lost control of the ball. Ross also added 2 assists. Not a great shooting night, but the one he did hit was an in your face shot that was pretty filthy.
Grade: B-
Final Thoughts
A great way to bounce back after a bad game. They showed great concentration and appeared to be having much more fun with their game. MBA, IT, and Holiday took over and as such no other player scored in double digits and the next closest had 5 (Wilcox and Ross). In games like this, you don't always need bench production in terms of points. The bench did do a good job of rebounding and avoiding turnovers. Sitting at 5-1 with Arizona coming in Thursday at 4-1 gives the game huge implications for the conference title. If UW beats UA, they will be 6-1 with a 1.5 game lead on Arizona while losing gives Arizona a .5 game lead. UW has played extremely well at home this year and hopefully the Dawgs can carry this momentum home with them and build on it with the support of the home crowd.
Video Highlights: http://www.athletixnation.com/video/753288543001
What a bounce back after one of the worst performances of the season on Thursday. The extra day on the road didn't seem to affect the Huskies at all, if anything they got that much better. The Huskies shot really well going 52.3% from the field and 44.8% from range (34-65 and 13-29). They rebounded well, winning that battle 43-27. They defended well, finishing with 6 steals and 3 blocks as well as forcing 12 turnovers. They passed well, by they I mean Isaiah who finished with 13 of the 20 assists.
The team was lead by three players. Isaiah Thomas, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, and Justin Holiday. Just take a look at these stat lines. Justin Holiday: 23 points, 1 steals, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 turnovers. Matthew Bryan-Amaning: 22 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal, 0 turnovers. Isaiah Thomas: 27 points, 13 assists (!), 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 5 turnovers. I, for one, am completely OK with 5 turnovers when you dish out 13 assists and score 27 points (and of course win).
Cal offered little resistance as UW went into half leading by 15 (48-33). Harper Kamp had 20 points and 7 boards, while Allen Crabbe had 16 points and 6 boards. Richard Solomon came off the bench and added 14 for the Bears.
Scott Suggs got the start today instead of Venoy Overton. Personally, I think it is a smart move as it gives us a solid point guard off the bench. Though neither Overton nor Suggs contributed much in terms of stats, their presence allowed I.T. to play some shooting guard and opened him up for a few more scoring opportunities.
Aziz N'Diaye struggled again, finishing with 1 point on split free throws and 3 boards. He did do a great job of taking space on defense and drawing pressure on offense. He fouled out with 8:24 left to play.
What Was Good
Shooting
For the first time in a while the Huskies found their rhythm from range. Holiday lead the way going 5 for 8 from downtown. I.T. added 3 on 9 attempts. Darnell Gant, Terrence Ross, C.J. Wilcox, Overton, and Suggs each added 1. MBA was 10-15. I.T. was 8-16. Holiday was 9-14. C.J. missed his first pair of shots, but drained the third, hopefully signaling the end of his slump. Holiday opened the half receiving 2 passes from I.T. and draining both 3 pointers back to back.
Passing
While I.T. obviously led the way with his 13 assists, the rest of the team did a good job of opening themselves up and moving the ball around. They were able to get it inside with easy, which allowed MBA to take over. Highlight pass has to be I.T. going behind the back to Holiday, who drained the 3.
Rebounding
MBA continued to dominate the boards in conference play, finishing with 11. Gant came off the bench and grabbed 6, a great performance by him. Suggs, Ross, and I.T. all added 4. A +16 margin on a Pac-10 team is fantastic.
I would have liked to have seen us get more offensive boards, finishing only with 9. Usually, Aziz grabs offensive boards at a high rate, but he was fairly ineffective today. We did hold Cal to 6 offensive boards, so that is one positive.
Free Throws
I am mainly talking about I.T. who went 8-8 from the line tonight. He continues to show off the new free throw motion and it continues to be working great for him. I'll have to look at which game he changed and his stats since then. MBA went 2-3, Aziz split his pair, and Ross missed both of his shots.
What Needed Improvement
Fouling
Our bigs found themselves in some foul trouble again, especially Aziz who tends to foul out almost every game. He has not been able to get the position he needs to avoid fouling. Gant also fouled out late in the game. MBA had 3 and I.T. picked up a somewhat surprising 4 fouls, including a charge. Cal got to the line twice as much as us, taking 30 attempts to our 15. With Derrick Williams coming into town Thursday our bigs need to avoid fouling. It seems as though anytime Williams is touched he gets to shoot free throws. I believe he had back to back games where he attempted 22 free throws and finished the nights with 30 and 31 points. While Sherrer may be able to play with some of the Pac-10 frontcourt, Williams would have his way down low if Sherrer was forced to come in.
Player by Player Reviews
Venoy Overton
After starting the few games since Abdul Gaddy's injury, Overton was put back on the bench in favor of Suggs. I agree with the decision. Overton is a solid point guard and coming off the bench allows us to sub out I.T. or Suggs if necessary and not drop off in terms of execution ability. He only scored 3 points on the night and had 2 rebounds on top of an assist and a steal. It was an average night, but with Isaiah stealing the show, its no wonder Overton has not had the best of stats. He did only play 14 minutes. Overall I didn't see anything bad about his game, it just wasn't an outstanding night.
Grade: B
Justin Holiday
Man, what a game for Holiday. He continued the hot streak he found in the second half against Stanford and scored a career high 23 points. He shot extremely well and was the beneficiary of several I.T. dimes. His long range shots meant he was further from the basket and as such he didn't have the chance to grab rebounds like he normally does. Thankfully Gant has toughened up considerably and took over where Holiday left off. Holiday did some nice passing of his own and helped take some of the load off I.T. It was great to see his shot falling again after having had a few sub par shooting nights the last week or two.
Grade: A
Matthew Bryan-Amaning
22 points and 11 rebounds. Another double double for the big Brit. He got his 19th and 20th points along with his 10th rebound in a great put back. He shot 66% from the field and made some nice post moves to get his points. He played one of his better games of the season thanks to I.T. giving him shots left and right. If not for I.T. he would have MVP of the game honors. It is also no surprise that went MBA is shooting and scoring, we are scoring more and winning. Inside-out basketball is the way to play. MBA showed up strong allowing our perimeter play to open up. The big question now is: How will MBA fair Thursday against arguably the best post player in the Pac-10, Derrick Williams? If MBA can be an impacting force on either offense and match Williams' output or on defense by shutting Williams down it should be considered a successful night. If he can do both, it'll be fantastic. If he does neither, I won't be terribly surprised, though I would be a bit disappointed.
Grade: A+
Brendan Sherrer
Saw only a few minutes at the end of the game, despite the foul trouble in the frontcourt. No stats today.
Grade: A for effort
Scott Suggs
Suggs started his first official collegiate game. He did start the exhibition game against St. Martin's, but sadly that game does not count in the record books. Suggs finished on 1 of 3 shooting with 3 points, adding 4 boards, an assist, a steal, and a turnover. He did play 24 minutes and ran the plays a bit at point guard. It's good to see he can run the point when necessary, though his ball handling is a little lower quality than I would like to see. Give him more time and I am sure it will improve.
Grade: B
Darnell Gant
A pretty solid night for the 6-8 junior. Though he only added 5 points and fouled out, he grabbed 6 rebounds. That is a solid stat coming off the bench. If he can continue to perform like that throughout the season he will put up a strong argument for replacing MBA in the starting 5 next season after MBA has graduated. Gant hit a sweet 3 from the top of the key. Good to see his shot is still solid from outside the arc.
Grade: B+
Isaiah Thomas
MVP of the night. Sure, he had 5 turnovers, but he finished with an assist/turnover ratio of 2.6 That is damn impressive. I.T. scored 18 of his 27 points in the first half. 13 assists. Man, I am still amazed. He drove the line, he shot from range, he passed behind his back. He was a BEAST on the court. He played fairly well against Stanford, but this was absurd. I.T. had a great floater over 6-10 Richard Soloman. He "pushed it down" after sinking a nice 3 pointer. He was 3 points shy of his career high set last season against Wright State.
Grade: A+
Aziz N'Diaye
A lack luster night for the 7 footer. He continues to take up space well on defense and prevents the drive that way, but other than that he didn't do terribly much. After showing so much promise in the fouling category, he has fallen back a bit and has fouled out in almost every conference game thus far. If he wants to get more time and put more stats in the book he will need to learn to position himself better and avoid silly fouls.
Grade: C
Antoine Hosley
No stats for the other walk-on either. *EDIT* Hosley did grab a long rebound in the last minute.
Grade: A for effort
C.J. Wilcox
Only 6 minutes, but he did manage 5 points on 2-6 shooting. C.J. still seems to be in a little bit of a slump. His shot does look better though, minus the first airball. Hopefully he is close to being fully healed after his Staph infection. Still not where he was earlier in the season, but that happens with freshmen.
Grade: C+
Terrence Ross
Ross saw the most minutes off the bench, with 17. He finished with 3 points on 1-3 shooting (1-2 from range, 0-2 from the FT line). He rebounded well and handled the ball pretty well. He did have a pair of sloppy turnovers, including one on a drive where he went to dish and lost control of the ball. Ross also added 2 assists. Not a great shooting night, but the one he did hit was an in your face shot that was pretty filthy.
Grade: B-
Final Thoughts
A great way to bounce back after a bad game. They showed great concentration and appeared to be having much more fun with their game. MBA, IT, and Holiday took over and as such no other player scored in double digits and the next closest had 5 (Wilcox and Ross). In games like this, you don't always need bench production in terms of points. The bench did do a good job of rebounding and avoiding turnovers. Sitting at 5-1 with Arizona coming in Thursday at 4-1 gives the game huge implications for the conference title. If UW beats UA, they will be 6-1 with a 1.5 game lead on Arizona while losing gives Arizona a .5 game lead. UW has played extremely well at home this year and hopefully the Dawgs can carry this momentum home with them and build on it with the support of the home crowd.
Video Highlights: http://www.athletixnation.com/video/753288543001
Saturday, January 15, 2011
University of California-Berkeley Preview
After a disappointing loss to Stanford, UW is looking to split the Bay area trip with a win over California who is coming off a 7 point win in overtime against WSU. Cal is 9-7 on the year and 2-2 in conference.
Cal is a solid team despite some lack luster performances this year including a 5 point first half against Notre Dame. I am certain, that in 20 minutes, I could put up 5 points.
Cal is lead in scoring by Harper Kamp at 13.4 points per game. Jorge Guitierrez is second with 12.7 points per game. Two other Cal players are scoring 10+ a game. Allen Crabbe is scoring 10.8 per game. Markhuri Sanders-Frision comes in at 10.3 points per game.
Cal rebounds pretty well and are second in the nation at defending against the offensive rebounding, only allowing opponents to grab 23% of their offensive misses. MSF leads Cal with 8.3 boards per game. Kamp is picking up 5.5 and Crabbe is grabbing 5.4 boards per game.
Cal is averaging 14.9 assists and turnovers per game. Jorge Guitierrez is leading Cal in both categories with 4 assists and 3 turnovers per outing. The starting guards for Cal average 6.5 turnovers and 9.2 assists per game.
Cal runs a 9 to 10 man rotation with 7 players getting 15+ minutes per game and 5 significant point contributors (8+ pts per game).
Frision is an undersized center at 6-7, but he weighs 265lbs. Much like Jon Brockman, Frision is able to get position and use his strength to get the boards. At 8.3 rebounds per game he is a threat MBA and Aziz will have to deal with.
Guitierrez has had to step up his game after Cal lost 4 of their 5 starters and something like 90% of their scoring. He went from 5.5 points to 12.7 by necessity and opportunity. Recently he was switched from point guard to shooting guard as he was unsuccessful at the 1. Brandon Smith has stepped in as the starting point guard.
3 players on Cal's team have made 20 or more 3 pointers this season. Jorge Guitierrez is leading in percentage at 20 of 48. Crabbe has the most makes at 29 of 81 attempts. Gary Franklin has made 24 of 82. *Edit* Gary Franklin has transferred to Baylor.
Starting Line Ups
California
Brandon Smith 5-11 185lb PG
Jorge Guitierrez 6-3 195lb SG
Allen Crabbe 6-4 205lb G
Harper Kamp 6-8 245lb F
Markhuri Sanders-Frision 6-7 265lb C
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185lb G
Venoy Overton 6-0 185lb G
Justin Holiday 6-6 185lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240lb F
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260lb C
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
Good rebounding against Stanford kept the game manageable as UW won the battle of the boards 33-26. This will be a big factor again as Cal rebounds slightly better than Stanford and is much better on the defensive end. If Aziz and MBA can pick up a bunch of rebounds again, it will be a good starting place for the Dawgs to build off of.
Perimeter Defense
UW did a good job of shutting down Stanford's outside shot, holding them to 2-11. Cal shoots much better from range and has 3 legitimate threats from outside the arc and UW will have its hands full trying to keep a hand in their face. Shutting down the outside shot will force Cal to look inside where our size should give us an advantage.
Ball Handling
UW did a poor job of handling the ball against Stanford, committing 14 turnovers and only completing 11 assists. It seemed as if anytime UW made a great defensive stop or steal they would turn the ball over or miss an easy lay-in. The USC game was the first win where we had more turnovers than assists. When we pass well, we play well and we win. Limiting turnovers is the name of the game.
Force the Middle
I don't mean make unnecessary drives or taking bad shots. I mean get the ball down low to the post players and give them some looks. MBA only took one shot in the second half due to tough defense by Stanford. Without TV coverage it is hard to tell if UW was simply unable to get him and Aziz the ball or if they didn't look to them. Holiday was shooting well, but that doesn't mean ignore MBA who had scored on the first three possessions. With so much extra size on our side down low, UW needs to take advantage of the mismatch and get the big boys rolling.
Bench Production
UW had no production from our bench, though Suggs did hit a pair of big three points including the tying shot with about 1 minute to go. We need Ross, Suggs, or Wilcox to get going and get going early. Without an outside shot presence coming off the bench we lack a good scoring option like we have thrived on in the first half of the year. Even Gant getting some points would be great for the team. Either way we need our bench players to help the starters get points on the board. Cal allows their opponents 66.6 a game and scores 67.6 points per game. UW scores 86.8 and allows 67.4 points per game. The difference in scoring is our bench production. Without our bench, Cal will be right in this game.
Free Throw Shooting
UW went 6-12 from the line. Stanford went 14-21. If UW had matched Stanford percentage (66%) the game would have been tied. Make 75% and UW wins by 1. Overton missed the front end of a 1 and 1. Personally that should count as 2 misses because you can't make what you don't get. Holiday missed the front end of his free throws at the end of the game, forcing him to intentionally miss the second. MBA went 2-4. With him alone we tie the game. 6 missed points, any two of which could have tied it up. UW has struggled with free throws all year and something needs to change if they want to win the close ones.
Final Thoughts
The loss at Stanford hopefully woke the team up a bit and made them realize just how hard they need to work to win games in the Pac-10. No matter how favored they are, UW cannot let up. The Pac-10 teams are by no means slackers, down year or not. Cal could pull the upset if UW doesn't bring their A-game. Get the ball to MBA, let him score. Get hot on the shot. Rebound well.
Final Score Prediction
After the loss to Stanford its hard for me to judge where this game will go. I think UW will show up with a little more intensity and emotion than the last. I'll call it UW over Cal 80-69.
Cal is a solid team despite some lack luster performances this year including a 5 point first half against Notre Dame. I am certain, that in 20 minutes, I could put up 5 points.
Cal is lead in scoring by Harper Kamp at 13.4 points per game. Jorge Guitierrez is second with 12.7 points per game. Two other Cal players are scoring 10+ a game. Allen Crabbe is scoring 10.8 per game. Markhuri Sanders-Frision comes in at 10.3 points per game.
Cal rebounds pretty well and are second in the nation at defending against the offensive rebounding, only allowing opponents to grab 23% of their offensive misses. MSF leads Cal with 8.3 boards per game. Kamp is picking up 5.5 and Crabbe is grabbing 5.4 boards per game.
Cal is averaging 14.9 assists and turnovers per game. Jorge Guitierrez is leading Cal in both categories with 4 assists and 3 turnovers per outing. The starting guards for Cal average 6.5 turnovers and 9.2 assists per game.
Cal runs a 9 to 10 man rotation with 7 players getting 15+ minutes per game and 5 significant point contributors (8+ pts per game).
Frision is an undersized center at 6-7, but he weighs 265lbs. Much like Jon Brockman, Frision is able to get position and use his strength to get the boards. At 8.3 rebounds per game he is a threat MBA and Aziz will have to deal with.
Guitierrez has had to step up his game after Cal lost 4 of their 5 starters and something like 90% of their scoring. He went from 5.5 points to 12.7 by necessity and opportunity. Recently he was switched from point guard to shooting guard as he was unsuccessful at the 1. Brandon Smith has stepped in as the starting point guard.
3 players on Cal's team have made 20 or more 3 pointers this season. Jorge Guitierrez is leading in percentage at 20 of 48. Crabbe has the most makes at 29 of 81 attempts. Gary Franklin has made 24 of 82. *Edit* Gary Franklin has transferred to Baylor.
Starting Line Ups
California
Brandon Smith 5-11 185lb PG
Jorge Guitierrez 6-3 195lb SG
Allen Crabbe 6-4 205lb G
Harper Kamp 6-8 245lb F
Markhuri Sanders-Frision 6-7 265lb C
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185lb G
Venoy Overton 6-0 185lb G
Justin Holiday 6-6 185lb F
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 6-9 240lb F
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260lb C
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
Good rebounding against Stanford kept the game manageable as UW won the battle of the boards 33-26. This will be a big factor again as Cal rebounds slightly better than Stanford and is much better on the defensive end. If Aziz and MBA can pick up a bunch of rebounds again, it will be a good starting place for the Dawgs to build off of.
Perimeter Defense
UW did a good job of shutting down Stanford's outside shot, holding them to 2-11. Cal shoots much better from range and has 3 legitimate threats from outside the arc and UW will have its hands full trying to keep a hand in their face. Shutting down the outside shot will force Cal to look inside where our size should give us an advantage.
Ball Handling
UW did a poor job of handling the ball against Stanford, committing 14 turnovers and only completing 11 assists. It seemed as if anytime UW made a great defensive stop or steal they would turn the ball over or miss an easy lay-in. The USC game was the first win where we had more turnovers than assists. When we pass well, we play well and we win. Limiting turnovers is the name of the game.
Force the Middle
I don't mean make unnecessary drives or taking bad shots. I mean get the ball down low to the post players and give them some looks. MBA only took one shot in the second half due to tough defense by Stanford. Without TV coverage it is hard to tell if UW was simply unable to get him and Aziz the ball or if they didn't look to them. Holiday was shooting well, but that doesn't mean ignore MBA who had scored on the first three possessions. With so much extra size on our side down low, UW needs to take advantage of the mismatch and get the big boys rolling.
Bench Production
UW had no production from our bench, though Suggs did hit a pair of big three points including the tying shot with about 1 minute to go. We need Ross, Suggs, or Wilcox to get going and get going early. Without an outside shot presence coming off the bench we lack a good scoring option like we have thrived on in the first half of the year. Even Gant getting some points would be great for the team. Either way we need our bench players to help the starters get points on the board. Cal allows their opponents 66.6 a game and scores 67.6 points per game. UW scores 86.8 and allows 67.4 points per game. The difference in scoring is our bench production. Without our bench, Cal will be right in this game.
Free Throw Shooting
UW went 6-12 from the line. Stanford went 14-21. If UW had matched Stanford percentage (66%) the game would have been tied. Make 75% and UW wins by 1. Overton missed the front end of a 1 and 1. Personally that should count as 2 misses because you can't make what you don't get. Holiday missed the front end of his free throws at the end of the game, forcing him to intentionally miss the second. MBA went 2-4. With him alone we tie the game. 6 missed points, any two of which could have tied it up. UW has struggled with free throws all year and something needs to change if they want to win the close ones.
Final Thoughts
The loss at Stanford hopefully woke the team up a bit and made them realize just how hard they need to work to win games in the Pac-10. No matter how favored they are, UW cannot let up. The Pac-10 teams are by no means slackers, down year or not. Cal could pull the upset if UW doesn't bring their A-game. Get the ball to MBA, let him score. Get hot on the shot. Rebound well.
Final Score Prediction
After the loss to Stanford its hard for me to judge where this game will go. I think UW will show up with a little more intensity and emotion than the last. I'll call it UW over Cal 80-69.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Stanford Univeristy Review Part 2
Now that I have had some time to reflect and try to take in exactly what happened I can offer a little more review of the game.
This was probably our poorest performance of the year. We shot 36% from the field. That is horrendous. MBA only attempted one shot in the second half and blew it. It was a point blank, 3 footer that should go in 100% of the time. Aziz is also guilty of missing a close and easy shot.
What killed us was free throw shooting. Free throws win close ball games. Free throws win close ball games. Free throws win close ball games. What happened? Holiday missed his free throw. He was not the only one. MBA went 2-4. Overton missed the front end of a 1 and 1. I.T. missed one. Right there you miss out for sure on 3 points and if Overton converts the front end you have 5 missed points. Make your free throws, win games. Simple.
We rebounded great. By we I mean Aziz and MBA. Holiday had a few clutch boards as did Suggs. Ross added 4. 33-26 is a good night normally, but when you can't make a shot to save your life it doesn't do a whole lot of good. They also missed out on several key defensive boards that led to Stanford put backs and tip ins including the game winner.
What happened to our bench? Sure Suggs hit a huge 3 pointer, but he led the bench with 6 points. I'm not expecting 10+ point performances from everyone, but scoring more than 13 points between the 4 of them would be nice.
Our bigs are still fouling like no other. Darnell Gant had 3, MBA had 3, Aziz had 4. The first half they did a pretty good job of not fouling. They second half they picked up a ton. This gave Stanford 21 attempts to our 12. They hit 8 more free throws than we did. Take away two of those and its a tie game. Stanford made their free throws, they won the game. (66% vs 50%, neither number is great, but the higher percentage won out. Surprising....)
Holiday lit it up the second half after going 0-5 in the first. As a senior, he should have made those free throws or at least the front end to give us a chance. Sure it worked out in a way that he missed and we had another shot, but a free throw is a high percentage shot. Holiday was shooting at an 80% clip. He is a senior. He may not come in to mind immediately as the clutch free throw shooter, but he shoots 80% so why not. Disappointing way to end the game.
We were terrible handling the ball. I don't know how many times I heard us pass away the ball or fail to convert on a nice pass and easy basket. 14 turnovers to 11 assists is not how the Huskies play. They let Stanford control the pace and fell into their hands.
No point in doing player reviews as Aziz, Holiday, IT, and maybe MBA were the only players who had decent games. Aziz did exactly what he was supposed to. Rebound, rebound, rebound, and rebound. He scored a few points and missed one easy shot, but he did his job. Holiday, while he had a terrible first half, was critical in us taking an 11 point lead that we proceeded to blow. He missed his last second free throws and shot attempt, but you can't blame one player for a lost game, especially when there were so many open opportunities that were blown. IT had 7 assists and should have had at least two more if not for missed lay-ins and easy conversions. He had 4 turnovers as well, but like I said when you factor in his assists and how many he should have had it is easy to ignore. Say he finished with 10 assists instead of 7, an A/T ratio of 2.5 is great. Other than IT, no one added more than 1 assist. MBA scored 8 and had 7 rebounds, but attempting only one shot in the second half and blowing it is terrible. Its hard to tell if he was getting the ball (Thanks FSN...), but if he was he needs to create more opportunities. After averaging a double double in the first 4 conference games he should be getting shots and making them. The rebounding was nice, but we needed more production from him.
So what does this mean for the Huskies? In the long run, hopefully not much. They can still go 17-1, which is fantastic. Sunday's game is a sort of must win for the Huskies as we play second ranked Arizona at home next week. Arizona is a half game back at 3-1, while we are at 4-1. Losing to Cal puts them up half a game if I have done my calculations correctly. On the plus side, we didn't surprise a fair amount of people by losing this one. We have only won twice in the last 17 years at Stanford and those both came in the last two seasons. Cal is always a tough road game as well, but the Dawgs need to take this loss to heart and realize they have to play their best each and every game. Down year or not the Pac-10 is always tough and being the only ranked team and favorite to win the conference puts a big target on your back.
By no means does this loss mean we need to win the Pac-10 tournament to go to the NCAA, but it does not help our seeding. If we can get the split by winning Sunday we should see our seeding remain level and probably our ranking move a spot or two either way depending on who wins and loses. I don't really care about the ranking, but its nice to have and is great for getting recruits.
Heads up Dawgs. Get focused. Get the wins.
This was probably our poorest performance of the year. We shot 36% from the field. That is horrendous. MBA only attempted one shot in the second half and blew it. It was a point blank, 3 footer that should go in 100% of the time. Aziz is also guilty of missing a close and easy shot.
What killed us was free throw shooting. Free throws win close ball games. Free throws win close ball games. Free throws win close ball games. What happened? Holiday missed his free throw. He was not the only one. MBA went 2-4. Overton missed the front end of a 1 and 1. I.T. missed one. Right there you miss out for sure on 3 points and if Overton converts the front end you have 5 missed points. Make your free throws, win games. Simple.
We rebounded great. By we I mean Aziz and MBA. Holiday had a few clutch boards as did Suggs. Ross added 4. 33-26 is a good night normally, but when you can't make a shot to save your life it doesn't do a whole lot of good. They also missed out on several key defensive boards that led to Stanford put backs and tip ins including the game winner.
What happened to our bench? Sure Suggs hit a huge 3 pointer, but he led the bench with 6 points. I'm not expecting 10+ point performances from everyone, but scoring more than 13 points between the 4 of them would be nice.
Our bigs are still fouling like no other. Darnell Gant had 3, MBA had 3, Aziz had 4. The first half they did a pretty good job of not fouling. They second half they picked up a ton. This gave Stanford 21 attempts to our 12. They hit 8 more free throws than we did. Take away two of those and its a tie game. Stanford made their free throws, they won the game. (66% vs 50%, neither number is great, but the higher percentage won out. Surprising....)
Holiday lit it up the second half after going 0-5 in the first. As a senior, he should have made those free throws or at least the front end to give us a chance. Sure it worked out in a way that he missed and we had another shot, but a free throw is a high percentage shot. Holiday was shooting at an 80% clip. He is a senior. He may not come in to mind immediately as the clutch free throw shooter, but he shoots 80% so why not. Disappointing way to end the game.
We were terrible handling the ball. I don't know how many times I heard us pass away the ball or fail to convert on a nice pass and easy basket. 14 turnovers to 11 assists is not how the Huskies play. They let Stanford control the pace and fell into their hands.
No point in doing player reviews as Aziz, Holiday, IT, and maybe MBA were the only players who had decent games. Aziz did exactly what he was supposed to. Rebound, rebound, rebound, and rebound. He scored a few points and missed one easy shot, but he did his job. Holiday, while he had a terrible first half, was critical in us taking an 11 point lead that we proceeded to blow. He missed his last second free throws and shot attempt, but you can't blame one player for a lost game, especially when there were so many open opportunities that were blown. IT had 7 assists and should have had at least two more if not for missed lay-ins and easy conversions. He had 4 turnovers as well, but like I said when you factor in his assists and how many he should have had it is easy to ignore. Say he finished with 10 assists instead of 7, an A/T ratio of 2.5 is great. Other than IT, no one added more than 1 assist. MBA scored 8 and had 7 rebounds, but attempting only one shot in the second half and blowing it is terrible. Its hard to tell if he was getting the ball (Thanks FSN...), but if he was he needs to create more opportunities. After averaging a double double in the first 4 conference games he should be getting shots and making them. The rebounding was nice, but we needed more production from him.
So what does this mean for the Huskies? In the long run, hopefully not much. They can still go 17-1, which is fantastic. Sunday's game is a sort of must win for the Huskies as we play second ranked Arizona at home next week. Arizona is a half game back at 3-1, while we are at 4-1. Losing to Cal puts them up half a game if I have done my calculations correctly. On the plus side, we didn't surprise a fair amount of people by losing this one. We have only won twice in the last 17 years at Stanford and those both came in the last two seasons. Cal is always a tough road game as well, but the Dawgs need to take this loss to heart and realize they have to play their best each and every game. Down year or not the Pac-10 is always tough and being the only ranked team and favorite to win the conference puts a big target on your back.
By no means does this loss mean we need to win the Pac-10 tournament to go to the NCAA, but it does not help our seeding. If we can get the split by winning Sunday we should see our seeding remain level and probably our ranking move a spot or two either way depending on who wins and loses. I don't really care about the ranking, but its nice to have and is great for getting recruits.
Heads up Dawgs. Get focused. Get the wins.
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