Dawgs Lose a Tough One in “Salty 16″

Staff Writer Craig Yamada takes one more look at the Huskies’ loss on Thursday night.

by Craig Yamada – Staff Writer

Off goes Romar’s Jacket, and down go the Dawgs in the NCAA tourney. A bittersweet ending to a great season for UW Thursday as the Huskies fell to the West Virginia Mountaineers, 69-56.

Any Dawg fan who saw the game could go on at length about the many bad calls and non-calls against UW today, but in the end, the Huskies exited thedance today for one reason: They beat themselves.

22 turnovers + 0 second chance points + crucial missed free throws does not equal Elite 8.

Game Snapshot:

Much to the dismay of every UW fan, the Dawgs were bullied and outperformed in every facet of today’s game. Reminiscent of their shortcomings against Georgetown and USC, the Dawgs were outsized and outmatched by a talented Mountaineer squad. By combining carelessness with the ball and a terrible showing on the glass, the Dawgs sealed their own fate today.

Both teams stumbled out the gate as the game was sloppy from the opening tip. The teams combined for 26 turnovers in the first half, and while the half-court offense was getting little done, UW’s defense seemed to be in high gear. They stole the ball and forced WVU into bad passes leading to a bunch of transition buckets.

WVU extended their man-to-man defense far outside the perimeter to disrupt our passing lanes and shot opportunities. Our guards were unable to establish any kind of fluidity or ball movement for the entire game, and our bigs rarely got the ball in a good spot to do much. West Virginia definitely read the scouting report on UW as they took the three-point arc away as an offensive weapon for the Dawgs.  This left UW’s players to force shots in the middle of the key, only to be contested each time by WVU’s seemingly endless supply of 6’8″ or 6’9″ long-armed athletes.

Quincy Pondexter found himself in early foul trouble in the first half and wasout of sync the entire game. The Huskies were able to keep their lead through most of the first half on the back of Justin Holiday, the lone bright spot for UW. Justin played great defense all game as he forced four steals, garnered three blocks and held the highly touted Da’Sean Butler to four points in the first half. IT was the only other player for the Dawgs able to convert against WVU’s bigs in the paint as he continued to take the ball strong to the cup throughout the game.

WVU leaned heavily on their bench in the first half which garnered over a third of their offensive production. Deniz Kilicli, the 6-9 Turkish forward, seemed unstoppable in the post as he got any shot he wanted against our frontline. He also dominated the offensive glass when he was in the game during the first half.

After trailing by two at the half, West Virginia took full control in the second half as UW could not stop the relentless onslaught of 2^nd chance points and clutch three pointers. Butler got going early with five straight points to open the second half, eventually finishing the game with 14 points (on 5-15 shooting). Quincy countered in the second half with four quick points. But, the man UW had no real answer for was Kevin Jones. Jones erupted for a game high 18 points in the game. He pumped in two huge three-balls in the second half to help break the backbones of the Dawgs.

Turnovers told the story of the Dawgs in the second half as our guards tried to lob all their passes over their lengthy defenders. More often than not, these resulted in tipped steals or balls knocked out of bounds. UW’s free throw shooting was abysmal as well as they shot 64% from the stripe, preventing them from ever gaining ground on WVU.

Lorenzo Romar was the recipient of a rare technical foul in an attempt to fire up his squad following a bad blocking call on Justin Holiday. The Dawgs found themselves down by 12 afterward and that four-point possession proved to be deadly for UW.

IT hit a clutch three with five minutes left in the game and momentum seemed to be returning in time for one last run. It was all for naught, though, as UW made two turnovers on consecutive possessions off the hands of their spark plug, Venoy Overton.

That spelled the end of the game for UW who let the time wind down and conceded to the Mountaineers in the closing minutes.

The Negatives

VO, the walking TO– Venoy had an elongated lapse of judgment as he forgot that the Dawgs were not wearing white uniforms today. He completely lost his head in the second half (six turnovers). So has been the story most of the year, Venoy forced circus shots and drives when UW had no numbers. These resulted in turnovers and essentially killed any momentum UW could possibly muster in this game.

22 team turnovers – Way too many lob passes today. The fundamental bounce passes completely escaped our players as an option today.

ET never got going – Elston Turner, along with most of the team, was shut down from the arc today and was forced to attack the basket. Not his game.

Not-So-Farewell for Quincy – Definitely not the kind of game that Quincy wanted to end his UW career as he was nonexistent in this game.  WVU kept him on the pine as they got him in early foul trouble.

Free Throw Shooting – For the first time this tourney the ESPN analysts made an accurate assessment as they warned our fans of UW’s free throw woes. Missing the first of several one-and-one opportunities paralyzed our comeback efforts.

What can we salvage?

Justin Holiday, the new hope? – Justin Holiday was easily our player of the game as he did everything humanly possible to keep us competitive today. He scored, rebounded and blocked shots today better than anyone else on the team. He fought to the bitter end and we all applaud his efforts today. With a little off-season help from Ryan Appleby this summer, he could really blossom for UW next year as not only the  defensive stopper, but perhaps as a third scoring option too?

The core returns – During the 10 minutes that Quincy was out in the first half, we got a brief glimpse into next year’s squad. They definitely held their own in Quincy’s absence on the shoulders of IT and Justin Holiday. Although there have been rumors about MBA testing NBA waters, today should have put those discussions to rest.  MBA should be back for a strong senior campaign next year.

Defense – The Dawgs still looked effective on defense today, despite their rebounding deficiencies. They did what they sought out to do by cutting off passing lanes and forcing turnovers. We should see more of the same from our upperclassmen next year as our best defenders (IT, Holiday and MBA) all return.

Final Thoughts

Today was hard to swallow for all of Dawg Nation, but you have to tip your hat to the Mountaineers. They played a great game and proved why they were Big East Tourney Champs. Our team had a great year and extended an almost disappointing season into an unthinkable Pac 10 Tournament championship and Sweet 16 appearance.

If some of our highly touted recruits fall our way in April, we definitely can make a return trip here next year, and perhaps get this “Salty 16″ monkey off of our backs.

Thank you Huskies, and thank you Dawg fans.

Thanks for coming!