Final Score: UW-93 UP-63
Welcome back, Terrence Ross! On a night where the Huskies looked every bit as good as they were bad yesterday, Ross stole the show with lights out shooting and stellar play as the Huskies cruised to victory. The sophomore struggled in the first two games of the tournament, but came out tonight and dropped 24 points on 9-13 shooting, 6-8 from behind the arc. He couldn't miss and no one could stop him. Several times he had a defender in his face, but a smooth cross-over a la Brandon Roy was all it took for him to get a shot opportunity and a beautiful score.
The Huskies capitalized on Portland's turnovers and did what Romar talked about last night: They stepped on Portland's throats and did not let up. The bench was emptied and at the end of the game Brendan Sherrer got to the free throw line where he made both free throws and Alex Wegner drilled his only shot of the night, a 3-pointer.
Six Huskies hit double digits tonight. Ross led all players with 24, followed by C.J. Wilcox with 17, and Abdul Gaddy with 15. Aziz N'Diaye was close to another double-double with 11 points and 7 boards. N'Diaye also added a block, a steal, an assist, and 3 turnovers. He looked a much more finished offensively and the Huskies fed him throughout the game, especially in the second half. N'Diaye did take a bit of a scary foul after going up for a dunk and getting fouled. He quickly bounced back up and looked fine. N'Diaye is one solid performance away from averaging a double-double on the season. His averages are currently 9.4 points and 9 rebounds per game. If he can put up 12 points and 12 boards next week he should be averaging about 10 and 10 for the season.
C.J. Wilcox continued to shoot well, but his performance was overshadowed by Ross' absurd play of the day. Wilcox hit 3-5 from range, went 5-9 overall, and drilled all four of his free throws. He also racked up 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 2 steals, and 0 turnovers proving why he deserved the Tournament MVP awarded to him. For the tournament Wilcox averaged over 19 points, nearly 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, and close to 3 steals per game all while committing zero turnovers. That is an absurd stat-line. Oh, and can I add his very much appreciated 11-13 free throw shooting on the season, giving him an 85% average.
Darnell Gant came back tonight as well and looked every bit good tonight as he did on Saturday. He dropped in a very respectable 10 points, grabbed 6 boards, nabbed a steal, and turned out some very nice defense. I have to say, his shot looked mighty fine out on the court tonight. He didn't force bad shots, but did a great job of capitalizing on the opportunities he was given. He went 5 of 8 from the court tonight and maintained his season average of 10 points per game.
Tony Wroten Jr. shall hence forth be referred to as Jekyll and Hyde. He is an amazing talent on the court, but his free throw shooting is horrendous. Absolutely putrid. He went 1-7 from the charity stripe after missing his first 5 straight, bringing his season average down to 36%. He even changed up his form from the last game and shot with a softer touch, but could not find the bottom of the net with it. It was so ugly that when he finally made a shot, the crowd almost gave him a standing ovation. Other than that, Tony looked fantastic on the court. He slowed his game down half a tic and the improvement it made was immense. Wroten racked in 11 points on top of 6 assists and only 2 turnovers, including a very nice break away play with Terrence Ross. Ross knocked the ball loose and got into the open court with Wroten. Ross passed the ball to Wroten who dribbled up a bit and tossed up a lob for a beautiful and powerful two hand, half windmill jam. Wroten also did an amazing job feeding N'Diaye in the post with some slick passing.
Abdul Gaddy continued his slow and steady progression of running the floor, controlling his team, and orchestrating an efficient offense. 15 points on 6-8 shooting, 2-3 from 3 range, along with 5 assists and only 1 turnover. Just another night with Abdul Gaddy quietly showing why he was such a highly rated talent out of high school, picking up where he left off before his injury last season. I love watching Wroten sling passes around like some sort of Matrix agent, but if its a close game I want Gaddy running the offense. He is always composed and makes the smart decisions that Wroten will occasionally risk.
Martin Breunig and Hikeem Stewart were fairly quiet tonight. Breunig again committed 3 fouls and seems to be struggling with positioning on defense, which leads to said fouls. Stewart went 0-2 shooting, but did a nice job running the offense alongside Wroten in the final minutes.
Shawn Kemp and Desmond Simmons provided much needed rest time for Gant and N'Diaye, while also providing great defensive presence that contained the Portland bigs. Neither scored, but both 2 rebounds and combined for 3 of the teams 6 blocks.
What Needed Improvement:
Rebounding:
This went slightly unnoticed by me in the first half when the Huskies held only a 1 board advantage, but when the game ended, Portland finished with a 43-38 rebounding lead. The Huskies could not seem to box their men out and all too often a loose board would bobble its way into the hands of a Pilot player rather than the Huskies. Against a smaller team like the Pilots, getting out rebounded is not acceptable. While N'Diaye continued to perform well on the glass and one or two other players nabbed up 5 or 6 boards, the overall trend remains that we lack a second, consistent rebounder. Our guards are doing a decent job of getting 3-5 a night, but we need a second player getting 7 or 8 along side N'Diaye. Every extra board we grab is a 2 board swing in the final stats.
Tony Wroten's Free Throw Shooting:
To be fair, N'Diaye also struggled at the line with a 1-4 night, but N'Diaye is a 7 foot tall tank with far from soft hands, while Wroten is a 6-5 point guard who can pass like a Packer's fan with a gas problem. For having such deft hands one would think he could drop in his fair share of free throws. Hell, I'd settle for 60% from him right now, maybe even 50% if I was feeling desperate enough. When it comes down to it, one has to realize that free throws win close ball games and I can distinctly remember several very close games this past season where a single free throw could have made the difference. The number 1 game that comes to mind is the Pac-10 Championship game. UW missed every free throw in the second half. Just one made shot could have won us the game.
What Was Good:
Offensive Movement:
UW moved the ball very well tonight and found the open man quite often. With 18 assists on 36 makes and only 11 turnovers (mostly committed on rebounds if you ask me) the Husky offense looked a thousand times better than Sunday night against the Owls. The shooting was drastically improved with 55% from the field and 60% from range. As tough as it is to say this, my friend Scott raised a very valid and fast approaching point: Where are Scott Suggs' minutes going to come from? Ross and Wilcox have been out of their minds averaging 16.4 and 19.4 points respectively. Wroten and Gaddy are both averaging over 10 points and 4 assists per games. Really his minutes will come from the little time Hikeem Stewart has been playing and possibly from the four spot as guys like Gant and Breunig rotate around.
Post Play:
This was not the most impressive or highlight filled night in the paint, but it was certainly a very polished and effective night on the block. Players finished their lay-ins, they feed our bigs, they took some base line jumpers and short shots.
Defensive Pressure:
Not a night where we see 20+ turnovers and 10+ steals, but the Huskies flexed their muscles and forced the Pilots in 15 turnovers and had 9 steals (led by Wroten with 3) all while holding Portland to 34% shooting and 21% from range. Our players were able to extend out to the perimeters with our frontcourt playing tough inside which made it hard for the Portland guards to create opportunities for themselves.
Final Thoughts:
If the Huskies can play like this throughout the season it'll be tough to find a team that can beat them. The rebounding still leaves a bit to be desired, but given the amount of young talent in the frontcourt it is not that surprising. Our backcourt is shoring up the rebounding margin as much as possible, but they cannot commit fully to rebounding without losing out on the transition style of basketball that the Huskies are famous for. All in all this weekend revealed where our strengths and weaknesses are, while also showing us how dynamic and exciting this team can be even after the vast amount of talent and experience we lost this past year. While it seemed as if fatigue played a part in Sunday's sub par performance, tonight proved otherwise. The Dawgs rallied together, fought hard throughout the game, and absolutely demolished the Pilots as they should have done to all three teams this weekend. The Huskies will have a much tougher match-up this weekend in Saint Louis. While I am hopeful Suggs will be able to return and play in his home town, the outlook is not great. The Huskies will do themselves a huge favor by picking up this early road win and earn some votes in the polls and much further down the road when it comes to NCAA Selection Sunday. All for now. Check in later this week for a preview on the Saint Louis Billikens.
Go Dawgs!
Showing posts with label University of Portland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University of Portland. Show all posts
Monday, November 14, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
University of Portland Game Preview
The Pilots return to Hec-Ed once more following a 20-12 season, 7-7 in the West Coast Conference. Last season UW beat Portland 94-72 with Justin Holiday and Isaiah Thomas leading all scorers with 20 points. MBA added 15 and Scott Suggs dropped in 13 of his own. Nemanja Mitrovic led the Pilots with 15, followed closely by departed senior Luke Sikma with 14.
It'll be two very different line-ups taking the court this coming Monday as the game's top four scorers for the Huskies and two of the top three scorers for the Pilots have either graduated or are injured. Sikma had dominated the glass as well with 16 rebounds accounting for nearly 60% of his teams rebounds, four times as much as his next teammate and twice as much as anyone on the UW squad.
Coming into the 2011-2012 season, Portland looks to be rebuilding their frontcourt. Losing 3 starters from last years squad is tough enough, but the Pilots lose their top two rebounders in Luke Sikma and Kramer Knutson who were responsible for almost 50% of the teams total rebounds. That is even tougher to overcome and 6-11 freshman Thomas van der Mars will be asked to help fill that void. Luckily for Portland, their backcourt seems stable and skilled, which will help alleviate the absence of experienced talent in the post.
Nemanja Mitrovic is one of the top 3-point shooters in the nation, hitting 93 shots on 201 attempts last year, slightly better than highly touted 3-point shooter Jared Stohl who graduated this past season. He returns as the Pilots leading scorer after averaging just under 14 points a game. At 6-5 and 200lbs Mitrovic matches up well against the UW defense and will definitely be able to compete. The Dawgs will need to throw their top defenders at Mitrovic to keep him contained.
Another returning (semi)starter for the Pilots is 5-10 160lb Tim Douglas. Douglas led the team in assists last season, but also led in the turnover category. Portland also brings back a starter in Eric Waterford, 6-1 180lb, who had the best assist to turnover ratio at 1.9.
UP posts some decent size with Riley Barker at 6-10 and van der Mars at 6-11. Both have a lot of work to do before they can match the productivity of Knutson or Sikma, but it'll have to happen if the Pilots want to compete this season.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups:
Portland:
Tim Douglas 5-10 160lb
Eric Waterford 6-1 180lb
Nemanja Mitrovic 6-5 200lb
Ryan Nicolas 6-7 235lb
Riley Barker 6-10 225lb
Washington:
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 185lb
C.J. Wilcox 6-5 190lb
Terrence Ross 6-6 195lb
Darnell Gant 6-8 230lb
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260lb
Keys to the Game:
Rebounding:
Just like the past two reviews, and the rest of the season, I will continue to stress the importance of rebounding. Alongside free throws, nothing decides games more than how a team attacks the glass. With the loss of two extremely proficient rebounders, the Pilots will be looking for new players to fill the rebound column. UW can take advantage of this by using their more experienced rebounders to dominate the glass on both ends of the court. By boxing out their men in both the paint and the perimeter, UW can prevent missed shots turning into extra opportunities for the Portland sharpshooters.
Perimeter Pressure:
With a vast majority of Portland's talent coming from their backcourt, UW will need to push their defensive efforts out. I would be vastly surprised to see UW run a zone defense as that type of defense is prone to 3 point attacks. Man-to-Man is the way to go and it is where the Huskies always excel. Portland matches-up much better against the Dawgs than the other two teams in the tournament and as such, the Huskies should expect a much better performance out of the Pilots than the other two squads.
Get in the Paint:
The Dawgs face another inexperienced frontcourt, making them susceptible to sloppy fouls and easy buckets. By getting our tall guards and wings to pressure the lanes, we can open up a lot of opportunities for the smooth shooting of guys like C.J. Wilcox on the perimeter. This is a great chance for our big men to play against players with a little more height, though the strength aspect still appears to be less tested. N'Diaye should have a solid 40 pounds on his defender and can use his weight to back down his man for the easy lay-in or dunk.
Final Score Prediction:
UW-90 UP-70
While the Pilots have more talent than either Georgia State or Florida Atlantic, they do not possess the scoring talent and rebounding ability to compete with the Huskies. UW should take over fairly quickly with an aggressive rebounding attack to maximize second shot chances as well as preventing those for the Pilots. Mitrovic will likely have some success from range and the Huskies need to limit these shots as much as possible. If I am Romar, Wilcox is my go to man for the defensive assignment in this game. He has great athletic abilities that allows him to block shots with authority. In my mind, Wilcox has shown the ability to change shots on the perimeter nearly as effectively as N'Diaye does in the paint. All in all, UW should find themselves with another comfortable game in which Romar can learn a bit more about his team and which players really have chemistry together on the court.
It'll be two very different line-ups taking the court this coming Monday as the game's top four scorers for the Huskies and two of the top three scorers for the Pilots have either graduated or are injured. Sikma had dominated the glass as well with 16 rebounds accounting for nearly 60% of his teams rebounds, four times as much as his next teammate and twice as much as anyone on the UW squad.
Coming into the 2011-2012 season, Portland looks to be rebuilding their frontcourt. Losing 3 starters from last years squad is tough enough, but the Pilots lose their top two rebounders in Luke Sikma and Kramer Knutson who were responsible for almost 50% of the teams total rebounds. That is even tougher to overcome and 6-11 freshman Thomas van der Mars will be asked to help fill that void. Luckily for Portland, their backcourt seems stable and skilled, which will help alleviate the absence of experienced talent in the post.
Nemanja Mitrovic is one of the top 3-point shooters in the nation, hitting 93 shots on 201 attempts last year, slightly better than highly touted 3-point shooter Jared Stohl who graduated this past season. He returns as the Pilots leading scorer after averaging just under 14 points a game. At 6-5 and 200lbs Mitrovic matches up well against the UW defense and will definitely be able to compete. The Dawgs will need to throw their top defenders at Mitrovic to keep him contained.
Another returning (semi)starter for the Pilots is 5-10 160lb Tim Douglas. Douglas led the team in assists last season, but also led in the turnover category. Portland also brings back a starter in Eric Waterford, 6-1 180lb, who had the best assist to turnover ratio at 1.9.
UP posts some decent size with Riley Barker at 6-10 and van der Mars at 6-11. Both have a lot of work to do before they can match the productivity of Knutson or Sikma, but it'll have to happen if the Pilots want to compete this season.
Predicted Starting Line-Ups:
Portland:
Tim Douglas 5-10 160lb
Eric Waterford 6-1 180lb
Nemanja Mitrovic 6-5 200lb
Ryan Nicolas 6-7 235lb
Riley Barker 6-10 225lb
Washington:
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 185lb
C.J. Wilcox 6-5 190lb
Terrence Ross 6-6 195lb
Darnell Gant 6-8 230lb
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260lb
Keys to the Game:
Rebounding:
Just like the past two reviews, and the rest of the season, I will continue to stress the importance of rebounding. Alongside free throws, nothing decides games more than how a team attacks the glass. With the loss of two extremely proficient rebounders, the Pilots will be looking for new players to fill the rebound column. UW can take advantage of this by using their more experienced rebounders to dominate the glass on both ends of the court. By boxing out their men in both the paint and the perimeter, UW can prevent missed shots turning into extra opportunities for the Portland sharpshooters.
Perimeter Pressure:
With a vast majority of Portland's talent coming from their backcourt, UW will need to push their defensive efforts out. I would be vastly surprised to see UW run a zone defense as that type of defense is prone to 3 point attacks. Man-to-Man is the way to go and it is where the Huskies always excel. Portland matches-up much better against the Dawgs than the other two teams in the tournament and as such, the Huskies should expect a much better performance out of the Pilots than the other two squads.
Get in the Paint:
The Dawgs face another inexperienced frontcourt, making them susceptible to sloppy fouls and easy buckets. By getting our tall guards and wings to pressure the lanes, we can open up a lot of opportunities for the smooth shooting of guys like C.J. Wilcox on the perimeter. This is a great chance for our big men to play against players with a little more height, though the strength aspect still appears to be less tested. N'Diaye should have a solid 40 pounds on his defender and can use his weight to back down his man for the easy lay-in or dunk.
Final Score Prediction:
UW-90 UP-70
While the Pilots have more talent than either Georgia State or Florida Atlantic, they do not possess the scoring talent and rebounding ability to compete with the Huskies. UW should take over fairly quickly with an aggressive rebounding attack to maximize second shot chances as well as preventing those for the Pilots. Mitrovic will likely have some success from range and the Huskies need to limit these shots as much as possible. If I am Romar, Wilcox is my go to man for the defensive assignment in this game. He has great athletic abilities that allows him to block shots with authority. In my mind, Wilcox has shown the ability to change shots on the perimeter nearly as effectively as N'Diaye does in the paint. All in all, UW should find themselves with another comfortable game in which Romar can learn a bit more about his team and which players really have chemistry together on the court.
Monday, December 6, 2010
University of Portland Review
Final Score UW-94 UP-72
Well, it wasn't quite the blow out I was expecting and the Pilots can thank Nemanja Mitrovic for that, 15 points all from 3's, kept them in the game and helped them make a run at the Huskies. Again, UW was slow coming out of the gates in the second half, which turned their 16 point lead into 6 after a run by the Pilots. The Dawgs started their own 11-0 run after that and never looked back. Scott Suggs played a huge part in that effort and was rewarded for his consistent play. It looks like Romar has decided to start Suggs over Ross. Scott seems to have better decision making abilities and his inside game is looking much better. I like what I am seeing out of him and it looks like all his work is really starting to pay off. This means Ross will likely play limited minutes and will be used to create opportunities with his athletic ability. C.J. was fairly limited in his minutes as well, while Holiday and IT both played 30 minutes.
Holiday and Isaiah led UW with 20 points a piece followed by MBA with 15 and Suggs with 13. IT was the leading rebounder with 7 boards while MBA and Holiday came in with 6 and Aziz grabbed 5 in his 12 minutes. Gaddy had 6 assists and 1 turnover, Isaiah and Venoy both had 4 assists. The Huskies had 20 assists on 31 makes, an insane number. Holiday shot a BEAUTIFUL 7 for 8 from the free throw line. IT went 5 for 9, MBA went 5 for 8 and Suggs was a perfect 2 for 2. UW barely won the rebounding battle 36-32 and shot 13 for 23 from range, led by Holiday making 3 of 4. Sikma had 14 points and 16 rebounds for Portland, what an athlete.
What Needs Improvement
Rebounding
I may just leave this as a permanent fixture in both the preview and review. We just aren't doing the rebounding we should be, simple as that. I don't have much to add that I haven't said in the previous reviews. IT and Holiday continue to put up bigger numbers than one might expect, Aziz does well with his limited times getting 7 last game and 5 this game playing only 12 minutes. MBA still struggles to get position and boards. The good thing for our team is that our team as a whole gets after the boards, which limits touches by the opposition.
Perimeter Defense
Holiday and others got caught a few times on screens that led to Portland 3 pointers. Mitrovic, for Portland, was shooting well and was the only Pilot getting hot from outside. UW did a good job of neutralizing Stohl, but at the cost of leaving Mitrovic wide open all too often. It's still a work in progress, but things are looking better and better. As a whole we are coming off screens better.
What Was Good
Perimeter Shooting
Holiday went 3 for 4, Suggs went 3 for 6, Gaddy went 2 for 3, CJ went 2 for 4, IT went 1 for 2, and both Gant and Ross went 1 for 1. We did a good job of spreading out the shots and not limiting it to one person. This marks the second night in a row Holiday has had a hot start and led the team in scoring. He is beginning a UW style senior campaign highlighted by high scoring and stat sheet stuffing efforts.
Passing
An assist rate of near 70% is excellent and will lead to many great things for our team. We continue to be excellent passers with a keen eye for finding the open man. Not much to add to this as I have stated this almost every game review.
Driving Ability
IT was able to penetrate at will and really took advantage of our hot outside shooting. I love the way he has played the last two games. We will need him to show up big against A&M. With how he and Holiday have been playing along with MBA coming off the bench (something that looks to be a permanent change until further notice), I am feeling great about our success.
Not going to be able to do a Player by Player Review tonight, but I'll highlight a few good things that I saw and some weak points players need to improve.
Aziz is looking great defensively. Guards don't dare come at him. His rebounding and hands looked much better tonight, pulling down balls with more authority and strength so he doesn't get stripped. He had one bad moment after which Romar immediately pulled him. He had a wide open shot off a tipped ball. He tried laying it in and bounced it off the front of the rim. He easily could have jumped a tad higher and jammed the ball in. He is 7 feet tall for goodness sakes, dunk it. No need to be soft about it, use MBA as your role model, Aziz. Dunk it every chance you get, the crowd will love it, you will love it, your stats will love it, and its a much higher percentage shot.
Holiday knows how to get open and get the ball to him. He has been so hot especially at the start of games. For whatever reason, the opposition doesn't seem to take him seriously until he has already racked up 10 or so points. His defense continues to be excellent and a key part of our success. He did well covering the much heavier Sikma along side Gant.
Isaiah seems to know the outside shot is not his. He will be hot some nights and should take the shots, but with perimeter shooters like Holiday and CJ on the team he doesn't need to take the deep shots. He did great penetrating and dishing when he needed to. Wasn't as good at the line as he was last game. Still needs to work on that shot. He looked much calmer and collected than he has been when shooting FT's.
Suggs is playing like a very experienced player. He dribbled well, he made smart passes, he took good shots, he made his open shots. He is earning his minutes for sure.
Final Thoughts
A solid win. Our team show much better composure as Portland made a run at them. They collected themselves, went on a big run of their own and never looked back. Our 3 shots continue to fall at home, I'm interested to see how we fair on the road against Texas A&M. We continue to force lots of turnovers while limiting our own. Our rebounding game is still developing, but our transition game allows us to play it closer than I would like. Got to keep this momentum going into the weekend and throughout the rest of non-conference. I'll have a preview for A&M up on Friday sometime.
Links
http://www.montlakemadness.com/huskies-shoot-down-pilots-94-72/
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=303400264
http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/120710aab.html
Edit: Looks like Ross was limited by a nervous stress reaction in his leg. Not sure what that means, but he is not expected to miss practices or games because of it.
Well, it wasn't quite the blow out I was expecting and the Pilots can thank Nemanja Mitrovic for that, 15 points all from 3's, kept them in the game and helped them make a run at the Huskies. Again, UW was slow coming out of the gates in the second half, which turned their 16 point lead into 6 after a run by the Pilots. The Dawgs started their own 11-0 run after that and never looked back. Scott Suggs played a huge part in that effort and was rewarded for his consistent play. It looks like Romar has decided to start Suggs over Ross. Scott seems to have better decision making abilities and his inside game is looking much better. I like what I am seeing out of him and it looks like all his work is really starting to pay off. This means Ross will likely play limited minutes and will be used to create opportunities with his athletic ability. C.J. was fairly limited in his minutes as well, while Holiday and IT both played 30 minutes.
Holiday and Isaiah led UW with 20 points a piece followed by MBA with 15 and Suggs with 13. IT was the leading rebounder with 7 boards while MBA and Holiday came in with 6 and Aziz grabbed 5 in his 12 minutes. Gaddy had 6 assists and 1 turnover, Isaiah and Venoy both had 4 assists. The Huskies had 20 assists on 31 makes, an insane number. Holiday shot a BEAUTIFUL 7 for 8 from the free throw line. IT went 5 for 9, MBA went 5 for 8 and Suggs was a perfect 2 for 2. UW barely won the rebounding battle 36-32 and shot 13 for 23 from range, led by Holiday making 3 of 4. Sikma had 14 points and 16 rebounds for Portland, what an athlete.
What Needs Improvement
Rebounding
I may just leave this as a permanent fixture in both the preview and review. We just aren't doing the rebounding we should be, simple as that. I don't have much to add that I haven't said in the previous reviews. IT and Holiday continue to put up bigger numbers than one might expect, Aziz does well with his limited times getting 7 last game and 5 this game playing only 12 minutes. MBA still struggles to get position and boards. The good thing for our team is that our team as a whole gets after the boards, which limits touches by the opposition.
Perimeter Defense
Holiday and others got caught a few times on screens that led to Portland 3 pointers. Mitrovic, for Portland, was shooting well and was the only Pilot getting hot from outside. UW did a good job of neutralizing Stohl, but at the cost of leaving Mitrovic wide open all too often. It's still a work in progress, but things are looking better and better. As a whole we are coming off screens better.
What Was Good
Perimeter Shooting
Holiday went 3 for 4, Suggs went 3 for 6, Gaddy went 2 for 3, CJ went 2 for 4, IT went 1 for 2, and both Gant and Ross went 1 for 1. We did a good job of spreading out the shots and not limiting it to one person. This marks the second night in a row Holiday has had a hot start and led the team in scoring. He is beginning a UW style senior campaign highlighted by high scoring and stat sheet stuffing efforts.
Passing
An assist rate of near 70% is excellent and will lead to many great things for our team. We continue to be excellent passers with a keen eye for finding the open man. Not much to add to this as I have stated this almost every game review.
Driving Ability
IT was able to penetrate at will and really took advantage of our hot outside shooting. I love the way he has played the last two games. We will need him to show up big against A&M. With how he and Holiday have been playing along with MBA coming off the bench (something that looks to be a permanent change until further notice), I am feeling great about our success.
Not going to be able to do a Player by Player Review tonight, but I'll highlight a few good things that I saw and some weak points players need to improve.
Aziz is looking great defensively. Guards don't dare come at him. His rebounding and hands looked much better tonight, pulling down balls with more authority and strength so he doesn't get stripped. He had one bad moment after which Romar immediately pulled him. He had a wide open shot off a tipped ball. He tried laying it in and bounced it off the front of the rim. He easily could have jumped a tad higher and jammed the ball in. He is 7 feet tall for goodness sakes, dunk it. No need to be soft about it, use MBA as your role model, Aziz. Dunk it every chance you get, the crowd will love it, you will love it, your stats will love it, and its a much higher percentage shot.
Holiday knows how to get open and get the ball to him. He has been so hot especially at the start of games. For whatever reason, the opposition doesn't seem to take him seriously until he has already racked up 10 or so points. His defense continues to be excellent and a key part of our success. He did well covering the much heavier Sikma along side Gant.
Isaiah seems to know the outside shot is not his. He will be hot some nights and should take the shots, but with perimeter shooters like Holiday and CJ on the team he doesn't need to take the deep shots. He did great penetrating and dishing when he needed to. Wasn't as good at the line as he was last game. Still needs to work on that shot. He looked much calmer and collected than he has been when shooting FT's.
Suggs is playing like a very experienced player. He dribbled well, he made smart passes, he took good shots, he made his open shots. He is earning his minutes for sure.
Final Thoughts
A solid win. Our team show much better composure as Portland made a run at them. They collected themselves, went on a big run of their own and never looked back. Our 3 shots continue to fall at home, I'm interested to see how we fair on the road against Texas A&M. We continue to force lots of turnovers while limiting our own. Our rebounding game is still developing, but our transition game allows us to play it closer than I would like. Got to keep this momentum going into the weekend and throughout the rest of non-conference. I'll have a preview for A&M up on Friday sometime.
Links
http://www.montlakemadness.com/huskies-shoot-down-pilots-94-72/
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=303400264
http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/120710aab.html
Edit: Looks like Ross was limited by a nervous stress reaction in his leg. Not sure what that means, but he is not expected to miss practices or games because of it.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
University of Portland Preview
Portland comes out of the West Coast Conference (WCC) alongside the likes of Loyola Marymount, St. Mary's, and Gonzaga. They are currently 7-2 on the year. Their two losses are a 31 point loss to Kentucky (79-48) and a 16 point loss to WSU (74-68). They are coming off a 58-54 win over Montana on the road. They are not a great offensive team as can be seen by their losses to upper tier opponents in UK and WSU. Against teams ranked 154 or lower they are winning by 13+ points. They average 69.8 points per game, UW is averaging 95.7 after Saturday's game. Their offense only averages 70 points a game due to good performances against weak basketball programs. Kenpom currently has Portland ranked at 92, as a comparison Texas Tech was 84. Their one plus is their 3 point shooting. UW is currently number 2 in the nation in 3 point percentage at 46.3% while Portland comes in at number 4 (45.4%). Portland also shoots free throws fairly well at 75.6%, good for 30th in the nation.
Portland's leading scorer is 6-2 guard Jared Stohl at 15.0 points per game. Two other starters are averaging double digit scoring per game. Luke Sikma is scoring 12.1 ppg and 11.7 rebounds per game, and is in my opinion their best player. Nemanja Mitrovic drops in 11.1 ppg.
Jared Stohl is shooting 52.5% from range on 31 for 59 from range. Stohl has only missed 1 free throw out of his 27 attempts thus far this season. Nemanja is also efficient from range making 20 shots on 42 attempts (47.6%). Sikma is an absolute beast on the boards, picking up rebounding totals of 12, 12, 13, 18, and 19, which came against FAU. Luke is a 6-8 235 lb forward. Expect Gant/Holiday to pick up the assignment. If they do as good of a job on Sikma as they did on Singletary we will be in good hands.
Portland has one of the more balanced team in terms of minutes played that the UW has faced in a while. The 5 starters average 24+ minutes with 2 players averaging 30 minutes a piece. 4 bench players play 10+ minutes a game. The Portland bench brings in about 17 points per game (24.2%). UW's bench is averaging 35 ppg (36.5%).
Portland runs a very slow offense with an adjusted tempo of 65.6, while UW is running one of the faster offenses at 75.0 (6th in the nation). It'll be key for UW to control the tempo of the game and not let Portland run the reins.
Portland upset the Dawgs in 2008 80-74. UW avenged the loss last season against a similarly skilled Portland team 89-54. Seeing as the Pilots are not any better or worse than last year and UW is much better than last year, this should be another 100+ point performance and 30+ point blowout.
Portland has some good size; 2 players at 6-10, 1 at 6-9, and 2 at 6-8.
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
Sikma is a rebounding expert. With a near 12 rpg average and two games just under 20 boards, he is a threat to contend with. He had a similar build to Darnell Gant, but a bit more muscle. Darnell will need to be at his best to contain Sikma, look for Holiday to possibly pick up the assignment as well as he faired very well against the much larger Singletary on Saturday. MBA and/or Aziz will also need to step up their game to help box out Sikma and their own man to get the boards we need. Letting Portland win the rebounding battle will allow them to keep the game much closer than it should be. We must limit second chance points game in and game out. We are keeping our opponents around 32 or 33 boards a game, not bad, but not great when our average is only 39 to 40. We are still lacking a dominant, consistent post rebounder. Neither MBA nor Aziz have stepped up to show they can fill this role yet. Until then, Holiday and the rest of the squad need to continue to spread the boards around and keep the edge on our side. I'm still confident we can get 44 to 45 boards a game and hold our opponents to 30 a game. Two years later we are still missing Jon Brockman's presence down low. If MBA wants a career in the NBA he needs to step it up on the glass.
Perimeter Defense
With two skilled three ball shooters on the team, it is highly important our backcourt defense is on its A-game. Limiting the number of quality shots Stohl and Mitrovic get off will help push the game beyond the Pilots best efforts. Alongside Sikma, the trio form a deadly group who UW needs to focus on shutting down. All three could post big numbers, all three could hurt our progress. I would much rather see us shut down the two outside threats and give up a 20 point 10 rebound game to Sikma than see Stohl and Mitrovic combine for 35 or more points. I also think our backcourt defense is much stronger than our frontcourt. Gaddy will most likely be assigned 6-2 Jared Stohl, while Holiday draws the 6-5 Mitrovic. Overton stated after Saturday's game that he is about 80% right now and is still recovering from his hamstring and tailbone injuries. I'd like to see his minutes limited to get him healed up for A&M where we will need him more, but I think his presence will be important Monday against the Pilots as well.
Inside Presence
Sikma looks to be a tough challenge for MBA and Aziz, putting up big numbers on a more consistent rate than either of UW's bigs. We may see Aziz draw the start again to wear on Sikma so MBA can come in and work the post. We need to establish an inside game through the post and develop our play out from there. Getting either MBA or Aziz rolling along with driving efforts from our backcourt will let C.J., Ross, Holiday, Gant, etc. get open for outside shot attempts. If MBA plays anything like he did on Saturday (though I'd like to see more rebounds) we should be fine. He received a lot of nice transition passes that led to a majority of his points, but he had some good post moves that looked promising. Gant looks to be an X-factor in not only this game, but the season. If he can draw out some of the size from the middle and open the lanes we will be looking good.
Outside Shooting
When we start dropping three's, the game is in our bag. We have struggled so far in games where we aren't hitting the long ball. Saturday's game was our only game with less than 12 made threes in a win. To me this is an improvement as it shows less dependency on the 3 ball and an ability to work the middle. If any of our shooters, especially C.J., can get hot, we need to feed them the ball. On Saturday, it was Holiday and C.J., on Monday it could be a number of people.
Starting Line Up Predictions
Portland
Eric Waterford 6-1 180 lb G
Jared Stohl 6-2 165 lb G
Nemanja Mitrovic 6-5 200 lb G
Luke Sikma 6-8 235 lb F
Kramer Knutson 6-9 220 lb C
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185 lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185 lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260 lb C
What We Should See
Portland keeps it close for the first few minutes per usual with UW pulling away about 6 or 7 minutes into the first half. With Portland having an adjusted defensive efficiency of 99.2 and UW sitting pretty at an adjusted offensive efficiency of 117.2 we should have no problem doing what we want on offense. We continue to force 20 turnovers a game at a rate of 1 in 4 possessions resulting in a turnover for the opposition. 10 of those turnovers are steals. Against the Raiders we converted those 20 turnovers into 28 points, a huge and important number. We need to continue to convert turnovers into points. Another great stat is the over 40% offensive rebounding rate, meaning 4 out of every 10 missed shots on offensive is picked up by our team for second chance opportunities. Defensively, we are picking up over 65% of the boards, another solid number. Sikma will most likely snatch 9 boards or more with Holiday and Ross grabbing a majority for us. Aziz may face another zone defense from the Pilots. If this is the case we will most likely need to rely on MBA to do more work in the post. If we find ourselves in a man to man situation, Aziz could have a great day against a smaller post in 6-9 220 lb Kramer Knutson. 6-10 270 lb Jasonn Hannibal is only averaging 7 minutes a game so don't expect UW to be outsized much, if at all, this game.
Portland is going to be simply outclassed like every opponent that has visited Hec Ed thus far. Only Eastern Washington escaped from the 100 point line due to kindness from Romar (finished with 98 and had the ball with 33 seconds on the clock). We have shown we can play with the best, we need to continue to prove this and show we can finish by demolishing a lesser opponent once again. It can't be fun to be on the other end of a 30 point loss, but we need to keep our rhythm and flow regardless of who we are playing. Upsets occur when big teams play to the level of their competition, rather than the level they are capable of. Thus far we are not sinking to that level, though arguably we allowed ourselves to sink a bit against UK and MSU. At home are a very confident team and securing this win will be great for our momentum and moral going into a tough road match against Texas A&M.
I'm giving Aziz the start due to MBA's success off the bench and Aziz's ability to pick up boards. His size should help control the post and limit not only Knutson's touches, but Sikma's as well.
Scott Suggs is still recovering from a strained MCL and will likely play limited minutes against Portland. I'm impressed by what I saw from him in an injured state. I still stand by what I said when I believe the order off the bench should be Wilcox, then Ross, then Suggs.
Isaiah will likely be able to muscle his way inside. Gaddy should be able to pass around the defense and our wings should put up strong offensive performances.
This could get ugly fast and end up much rougher on the Pilots than the Raiders.
Final Score Prediction
UW-104 Portland-64
So far we have been giving up points near the opposition average, hence the Portland score. Our ppg average was hurt by our subpar performances in Maui, so against a faster team I would predict more points, but Portland runs a slower offense that will limit possessions. We could get up to 110 points if we can really get after the Pilot guards and force 20 to 25 turnovers. I have consistently been under predicting the UW final score so I could be off by as many as 6 to 8 points. Absolutely cannot drop this game, we need to come out guns blazing, pedal to the metal the entire way. No Mercy.
An interesting fact: Portland has scored 628 points in 9 games, UW has scored 670 in 7 games. Just throwing that out there.
Links
Dawg Pack Dirt http://freepdfhosting.com/adbbd8c12d.pdf
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013608898_scouting_report_9.html
http://www.montlakemadness.com/game-preview-portland/
Portland's leading scorer is 6-2 guard Jared Stohl at 15.0 points per game. Two other starters are averaging double digit scoring per game. Luke Sikma is scoring 12.1 ppg and 11.7 rebounds per game, and is in my opinion their best player. Nemanja Mitrovic drops in 11.1 ppg.
Jared Stohl is shooting 52.5% from range on 31 for 59 from range. Stohl has only missed 1 free throw out of his 27 attempts thus far this season. Nemanja is also efficient from range making 20 shots on 42 attempts (47.6%). Sikma is an absolute beast on the boards, picking up rebounding totals of 12, 12, 13, 18, and 19, which came against FAU. Luke is a 6-8 235 lb forward. Expect Gant/Holiday to pick up the assignment. If they do as good of a job on Sikma as they did on Singletary we will be in good hands.
Portland has one of the more balanced team in terms of minutes played that the UW has faced in a while. The 5 starters average 24+ minutes with 2 players averaging 30 minutes a piece. 4 bench players play 10+ minutes a game. The Portland bench brings in about 17 points per game (24.2%). UW's bench is averaging 35 ppg (36.5%).
Portland runs a very slow offense with an adjusted tempo of 65.6, while UW is running one of the faster offenses at 75.0 (6th in the nation). It'll be key for UW to control the tempo of the game and not let Portland run the reins.
Portland upset the Dawgs in 2008 80-74. UW avenged the loss last season against a similarly skilled Portland team 89-54. Seeing as the Pilots are not any better or worse than last year and UW is much better than last year, this should be another 100+ point performance and 30+ point blowout.
Portland has some good size; 2 players at 6-10, 1 at 6-9, and 2 at 6-8.
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
Sikma is a rebounding expert. With a near 12 rpg average and two games just under 20 boards, he is a threat to contend with. He had a similar build to Darnell Gant, but a bit more muscle. Darnell will need to be at his best to contain Sikma, look for Holiday to possibly pick up the assignment as well as he faired very well against the much larger Singletary on Saturday. MBA and/or Aziz will also need to step up their game to help box out Sikma and their own man to get the boards we need. Letting Portland win the rebounding battle will allow them to keep the game much closer than it should be. We must limit second chance points game in and game out. We are keeping our opponents around 32 or 33 boards a game, not bad, but not great when our average is only 39 to 40. We are still lacking a dominant, consistent post rebounder. Neither MBA nor Aziz have stepped up to show they can fill this role yet. Until then, Holiday and the rest of the squad need to continue to spread the boards around and keep the edge on our side. I'm still confident we can get 44 to 45 boards a game and hold our opponents to 30 a game. Two years later we are still missing Jon Brockman's presence down low. If MBA wants a career in the NBA he needs to step it up on the glass.
Perimeter Defense
With two skilled three ball shooters on the team, it is highly important our backcourt defense is on its A-game. Limiting the number of quality shots Stohl and Mitrovic get off will help push the game beyond the Pilots best efforts. Alongside Sikma, the trio form a deadly group who UW needs to focus on shutting down. All three could post big numbers, all three could hurt our progress. I would much rather see us shut down the two outside threats and give up a 20 point 10 rebound game to Sikma than see Stohl and Mitrovic combine for 35 or more points. I also think our backcourt defense is much stronger than our frontcourt. Gaddy will most likely be assigned 6-2 Jared Stohl, while Holiday draws the 6-5 Mitrovic. Overton stated after Saturday's game that he is about 80% right now and is still recovering from his hamstring and tailbone injuries. I'd like to see his minutes limited to get him healed up for A&M where we will need him more, but I think his presence will be important Monday against the Pilots as well.
Inside Presence
Sikma looks to be a tough challenge for MBA and Aziz, putting up big numbers on a more consistent rate than either of UW's bigs. We may see Aziz draw the start again to wear on Sikma so MBA can come in and work the post. We need to establish an inside game through the post and develop our play out from there. Getting either MBA or Aziz rolling along with driving efforts from our backcourt will let C.J., Ross, Holiday, Gant, etc. get open for outside shot attempts. If MBA plays anything like he did on Saturday (though I'd like to see more rebounds) we should be fine. He received a lot of nice transition passes that led to a majority of his points, but he had some good post moves that looked promising. Gant looks to be an X-factor in not only this game, but the season. If he can draw out some of the size from the middle and open the lanes we will be looking good.
Outside Shooting
When we start dropping three's, the game is in our bag. We have struggled so far in games where we aren't hitting the long ball. Saturday's game was our only game with less than 12 made threes in a win. To me this is an improvement as it shows less dependency on the 3 ball and an ability to work the middle. If any of our shooters, especially C.J., can get hot, we need to feed them the ball. On Saturday, it was Holiday and C.J., on Monday it could be a number of people.
Starting Line Up Predictions
Portland
Eric Waterford 6-1 180 lb G
Jared Stohl 6-2 165 lb G
Nemanja Mitrovic 6-5 200 lb G
Luke Sikma 6-8 235 lb F
Kramer Knutson 6-9 220 lb C
Washington
Isaiah Thomas 5-9 185 lb SG
Abdul Gaddy 6-3 195 lb PG
Justin Holiday 6-6 185 lb F
Darnell Gant 6-8 225 lb F
Aziz N'Diaye 7-0 260 lb C
What We Should See
Portland keeps it close for the first few minutes per usual with UW pulling away about 6 or 7 minutes into the first half. With Portland having an adjusted defensive efficiency of 99.2 and UW sitting pretty at an adjusted offensive efficiency of 117.2 we should have no problem doing what we want on offense. We continue to force 20 turnovers a game at a rate of 1 in 4 possessions resulting in a turnover for the opposition. 10 of those turnovers are steals. Against the Raiders we converted those 20 turnovers into 28 points, a huge and important number. We need to continue to convert turnovers into points. Another great stat is the over 40% offensive rebounding rate, meaning 4 out of every 10 missed shots on offensive is picked up by our team for second chance opportunities. Defensively, we are picking up over 65% of the boards, another solid number. Sikma will most likely snatch 9 boards or more with Holiday and Ross grabbing a majority for us. Aziz may face another zone defense from the Pilots. If this is the case we will most likely need to rely on MBA to do more work in the post. If we find ourselves in a man to man situation, Aziz could have a great day against a smaller post in 6-9 220 lb Kramer Knutson. 6-10 270 lb Jasonn Hannibal is only averaging 7 minutes a game so don't expect UW to be outsized much, if at all, this game.
Portland is going to be simply outclassed like every opponent that has visited Hec Ed thus far. Only Eastern Washington escaped from the 100 point line due to kindness from Romar (finished with 98 and had the ball with 33 seconds on the clock). We have shown we can play with the best, we need to continue to prove this and show we can finish by demolishing a lesser opponent once again. It can't be fun to be on the other end of a 30 point loss, but we need to keep our rhythm and flow regardless of who we are playing. Upsets occur when big teams play to the level of their competition, rather than the level they are capable of. Thus far we are not sinking to that level, though arguably we allowed ourselves to sink a bit against UK and MSU. At home are a very confident team and securing this win will be great for our momentum and moral going into a tough road match against Texas A&M.
I'm giving Aziz the start due to MBA's success off the bench and Aziz's ability to pick up boards. His size should help control the post and limit not only Knutson's touches, but Sikma's as well.
Scott Suggs is still recovering from a strained MCL and will likely play limited minutes against Portland. I'm impressed by what I saw from him in an injured state. I still stand by what I said when I believe the order off the bench should be Wilcox, then Ross, then Suggs.
Isaiah will likely be able to muscle his way inside. Gaddy should be able to pass around the defense and our wings should put up strong offensive performances.
This could get ugly fast and end up much rougher on the Pilots than the Raiders.
Final Score Prediction
UW-104 Portland-64
So far we have been giving up points near the opposition average, hence the Portland score. Our ppg average was hurt by our subpar performances in Maui, so against a faster team I would predict more points, but Portland runs a slower offense that will limit possessions. We could get up to 110 points if we can really get after the Pilot guards and force 20 to 25 turnovers. I have consistently been under predicting the UW final score so I could be off by as many as 6 to 8 points. Absolutely cannot drop this game, we need to come out guns blazing, pedal to the metal the entire way. No Mercy.
An interesting fact: Portland has scored 628 points in 9 games, UW has scored 670 in 7 games. Just throwing that out there.
Links
Dawg Pack Dirt http://freepdfhosting.com/adbbd8c12d.pdf
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2013608898_scouting_report_9.html
http://www.montlakemadness.com/game-preview-portland/
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