by: John Chase
Don Ryan / AP
The Huskies struggled through another poor shooting night both from the field and at the line, but the Dawgs got it done down the stretch making shots, converting free throws, and playing tough defense. Foul calls put both teams at the line a lot and, thankfully, OSU was just as terrible at the line as the Dawgs. The big difference from past games was how often C.J. Wilcox and Terrence Ross got to the line. Ross went 6 for 7 and Wilcox was 7 of 9. Desmond Simmons stepped back up and converted all 4 of his shots, including a clutch pair with a minute on the clock. The majority of the misses came from the usual suspects, Tony Wroten and Aziz N’Diaye, who were a combined 6 of 13 at the stripe.
Abdul Gaddy made his presence felt down the stretch with a pair of 3-pointers. Outside of those shots, Gaddy was unable to really score as seen by his 3 of 10 field goal stat. Gaddy had 4 assists tonight and only 1 turnover, a performance much more characteristic of him. Gaddy also picked up a pair of steals, which helped the Dawgs pick up their 9 fast break points. I think Gaddy played with a much better attitude tonight and it showed.
Aziz N’Diaye found himself in an interesting position tonight. After picking up his 4th foul (CBS Sports says 3, which is what I had thought) with 13 minutes remaining, Romar left him in the game for several more minutes and remained in even when Darnell Gant picked up his 4th and immediately came out. Not sure Romar’s reasoning behind it as Shawn Kemp had been playing pretty good basketball tonight. N’Diaye was doing a good job closing down the middle, but had a few lapses throughout the night. N’Diaye had a decent night in terms of production with 6 points, but his 3 rebounds were far below his 8 per game average. Thankfully the team was able to find rebounds elsewhere. N’Diaye had a monstrous dunk that nearly pull the whole hoop down. That type of throw down is what he needs to do all the time. Lay-ins are nice, but huge dunks send a message.
Desmond Simmons returned to his early season form. Simmons was 0 of 1 from the field, but made all of his foul shots and raked in an impressive 9 rebounds, second only to Ross. Simmons had a rough night in terms of ball control, committing 4 turnovers with only 1 assist. Not sure how they all racked up, I didn’t recall him throwing the ball away that many times.
Well Thursday was ugly. That’s all I have to say about that. I’m doing my best to forget that game and hope the team is doing the same.
It was over before I even got my pint of Manny’s delivered to me. The Dawgs went down 0-8 after the first 1:49 of the game and they immediately began to fall apart. Someone pressed the panic button and the team began to launch poor threes and desperation jumpers while forgetting every single defensive fundamental. Before my least-favorite friend could shout “Fire Romar!” it was 28-13 and we were doomed.
As 
We’re down to the home stretch of the Pac 12 season and the Huskies are alone on top of the league at 9-2. The Dawgs have 7 games left and 5 of them are on the road. Road games: Oregon, Oregon State, WSU, USC, and UCLA. Home games: Arizona, ASU.
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There are ugly games and then there was last night’s game against USC. I’m not sure if I’ve seen a worse Pac-12/10 team in the last decade than that Trojans team I witnessed last night. The Huskies kept roughly a 10 point lead for most of the game and that seemed like an insurmountable deficit for a USC team that almost looked as if they didn’t want to be there.
USC enters this game with a miserable 6-17 record highlighted by a 1-8 conference record. If not for the miraculous blowout of Utah, USC would be 0-9 in conference and on an 11 game losing streak. Instead the Trojans enter Saturday’s game on a 1 loss streak, losing by 7 to WSU on the road. Not bad for a team with only 6 scholarship players available. Five different USC players have suffered season ending injuries, leaving USC heavily undermanned. Maurice Jones is so important to this team that USC Coach Kevin O’Neil stated before the season that “if Maurice Jones gets hurt, don’t come to our games.” Rough talk, but an honest statement. Maybe not one I would make publicly as a coach, but perhaps it needed to be said to fire up the team. Last week O’Neil was also quoted saying something about a van falling on his head would not be unexpected.
This is how UCLA’s year has gone.
