by: Griffin Bennett
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’s offense consisted for shooting poor jump shots and staying away from the paint as if it were the plague. This is when the rebounding drill began for the Huskies. USC was 1 for 16 from three which is just incredible. Combine poor shooting with a lack of big men and you have a recipe for disaster. The Huskies absolutely dominated the boards, recording 52 total.
The Huskies, once again, played down to their opponents which wasn’t surprising but disappointing to see. It was a great opportunity for the Huskies to work on limiting their mistakes and and score effectively, but sloppy play seemed unavoidable at times. We’ll get into that later.
On the positive side, the Huskies used their deeper bench to run away with the game late which helped the final score look a little better. The Trojans seemed to either tire out or give up during the final 5 minutes and the Huskies aptly seized the opportunity.
Time to get critical:
Positives:
- The Bench – USC only has 6 scholarship players so using the Huskies fresh legs off the bench helped push the lead to 28 at the end. Wilcox, Kemp, ASJ, and Gant were highly effective in limited minutes. The Huskies finished with 29 bench points compared to USC’s 0.
- Darnell Gant – While I just mentioned him, he deserves his own shout out. He played fantastically and his new role of 6th man off the bench might just best suit him and this team. He finished with 8 points and 7 rebounds in only 21 minutes, which is more than the starter Desmond Simmons.
- Rebounding – This was just a destruction. 52-23 may be the largest winning margin that I have ever seen. As I said earlier, USC wasn’t even attempting to get in the paint and contest them.
- Aziz N’diaye – He took advantage of a smaller Trojan team and scored 9 points on the night. While his numbers weren’t that impressive, it’s his new found agility and skills at finishing (and catching) around the hoop which is great to see. He is definitely the most improved player so far.
- Tony Wroten – The kid can finish. With a team high 13 points, he added 8 assists, 6 rebounds (5 offensive), and only 1 turnover. Also a good sign, his free throw shooting seems to be improving as well.
- 3 Point Shooting – This game could really have been a destruction is the deep ball was falling for the Dawgs. What happened to Gaddy’s million shots he took over the summer? His shot looks worse than ever. He shot 4 early threes in the game, trying to get more aggressive as he promised, and it wasn’t falling. Wilcox and Ross also couldn’t figure it out as they each went 0-3.
- Turnovers – It’s killing this team. It kills all momentum and gets UW out of the high paced game that they prefer. With 17 on the night, the Huskies need to be more careful with the ball. If they just limit their poor passes, the number can become more manageable.
Overall:
I’m not sure what we learned about this Husky team in this game. This Trojan squad is really really REALLY bad.
Where does that leave us? The Huskies are still a game up on Cal and Colorado in the conference standings with a road trip to Oregon next week which hasn’t been kind in recent history.
Let’s go get us some more road wins! Bow Down.
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I dont see alot of negitives coming out of this game. Sure we did not shoot the 3 well, if we did we probably would have won by 50.
It was a game our guys let their guard down a bit, got some legs back by sitting out big streches and we even got some gametime experience for MB, Hakeem and the bench crew.
I will say everygame I am getting more and more impressed with our bigs. Aziz, Gant and Kemp have been looking pretty solid lately.
Kemp is getting into shape, raising off the ground as good as anyone now. Gant is stepping up into the leader we all hoped he would be and Aziz is actually a threat down low nowadays.
I am very interested in seeing how this team handles the Oregon game this thursday. Very hostile environment, good defensive team – it will not be easy.
On the other hand with 3-4 days of rest, we should be hitting on all cylinders. Man I hope the team that went down to Arizona shows up and not the one that went to Colorado.
One thing I would like to see turn around is Simmons?? Where did he go? He was a solid contributor 3 weeks ago.
Looking forward to your take on this Oregon team – they are a hard one to figure out. RPI wise and record they are almost the same team as Wash… but looking at the rosters, they are totally different.
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Looking forward to your take on this Oregon team – they are a hard one to figure out. RPI wise and record they are almost the same team as Wash… but looking at the rosters, they are totally different.
…………………………………dUh. That’s not a hard notion to figure out. Because Dana Altman is the SUPERIOR head coach than Romer! That’s all.
In other words, a Dana squad wouldn’t lose at HOME to TINY South Dakota St. lmao
By the way, it looks like the dude y’all Huskie fandom love to HATE ON, Joey Brackets, has the Arizona Wildcats in his latest edition of Bracketology.
So, turn PURPLE with bloody RAGE y’all Romer Lap Dawgs. Eh.
Bracketology – NCAA College Basketball Brackets and Predictions – http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology
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Mac,
Your really running out of ways to put down this team. Sucks when you have to strech to make a negitive point huh?
Hey – give me a big long post about how bad the UW lose was against Cal again… since it was like a month ago – you know the last time we lost a game.
And your right – that Oregon team lead by Dana is TOTALLY SUPERIOR – superior in everyway… during the 16point ass handing they got at Washington 6 weeks back, Dana totally out-coached Romar. You are right on about that Mac. Keep that awsome insite coming!
Hey also, thanks for letting me know about Bracketology on ESPN – is that something new they are doing? Us Husky fans didn’t even know ESPN had a website – thanks for posting the link dude – you are on it! Mac, your links really are the best – so full of inside info!
This post is to Mac – he is on it everyone! Hell ya Mac. Good job buddy. DANA is a superior coach and ESPN has a website!! whoo.
Now I know a big long post is coming back at me… I will not read it – seriously don’t waist your time – 85% of readers on this blog will not read it. Come on man, don’t do it… seriously? really? ok, here is comes… leaving the site now.
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Agree Aziz is coming on strong now, hands improving, confidence rising. What a hustle guy as well diving all over the place.
Gaddy doesn’t seem to like the extra minutes he’s playing. It could be a reason for his poor shooting, but he did that early in the game, not late. So, it’s just bad!
I don’t think this game is quite the momentum builder for the Oregon trip that most 28 point wins would be. We probably need to fear both Oregon schools a bit. Go Dawgs.
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You know what i find very interesting about the huskies compared to the rest of the pac 12? is that romar brings in very few transfers, i guess it is a testament to his recruiting style and desire to develope players over multiple years and even red shirt to do so (which very few other pac 12 schools utitlize) but i honestly cannot recall the last transfer to join this team. even from jc ranks garcia and kevin davis did not make it in, aziz was technically a jc transfer but it was understood that at that idaho cc players were there to get eligible and transfer to bigger programs so i see that as more of prep school type scenario, can anyone enlighten me on the last d i transfer? was it appebly? but honestly if you look at teams like arizona state usc or especially oregon some of them live off of transfers
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Like I harped on previously Huskie minion- that’s for dPUPPY specifically-, y’all better prey tale that Romer’s team wins out. Or at least ONLY lose one more game during conference action. Eh.
Because the OFFICIAL N.C.A.A. RPI came out today. Yes, the RPI which the N.C.A.A. suits USES to select the precious field of 68.
And lo and behold, the Arizona Wildcats are MILES BEYOND the Huskies in this most IMPORTANT RPI related matter.
So, peruse it and turn Purple with RAGING ANGER, again.
CAL- 48
ARIZONA WILDCATS- 62
COLORADO- 73
Team from murky, DENSE Seattle- 76
OREGON-83
By the way Huskie fanhood. Your team de jure DROPPED in the OFFICIAL N.C.A.A. RPI this week. Go bloody figures. LMAO
Again, that HOME lose to TINY South Dakota St. MAY come back to haunt Washington. Get the freak outta’ here, moron.
Or then again, those two WEAK PAC-12 losses to both Cal and Colorado may be Romer’s teams bloody Purple WATERLOO. Yes, well bloody maybe.
Other than Joey Brackets, which is the Bible of Bracketology, bloody AU CONTRAIRE to what Huskie bUBBa chose to believe.
Several Bracket PROJECTION sites in the cyber realm ONLY have CAL and Arizona in their particular brackets. Again, go bloody figure.
Nonetheless, I don’t pay attention to those OTHER Bracket forcast sites. Simply because the ONE y’all Huskie fanhood HATE on has three PAC-12 squads in for now.
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dPUPPY and like-minded Huskie henchmen. I absolutly uderstand your collective HATE for the Arizona Wildcat mens basketball program. Seriously I do.
I guess it’s because Arizona gets ALL that national major college hoopdom LOVE from the PUNDITRY of college basketball. Yes. Well bloody yes, naturally.
Finally, I had a chuckle, when Washington fan posted in the Seattle Times, about a POSSIBLE 4 straight seasons in the Tournament that matters the most.
A possible FOUR consecutive N.C.A.A. appearances… Now, that’s something to be mighty proud about, Romer apologists. LOL
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RE: Transfers
1. Wasn’t Jamal Williams [medium tall, wide body post up guy who only turned down one shot during his career, otherwise he shot it every single time he got the ball in the post, seriously] a tranfer from New Mexico or something?
2. There was a biochemistry major who transferred in because he got a better deal here on a hoops scholarship than another school where he was on a biochemistry scholarship. Folks, help me out, what was his name? About 6’7″….
3. Along with Appleby that’s about it. There were several under Bob Bender, but not so much under Romar. -
The last transfer was Tim Morris from Stanford. That was a pretty unique situation, in that he only came for one year–a season in which the Huskies were not good–and he was Lorenzo’s cousin.
So I guess he doesn’t really count as a Williams or Appleby type transfer. It also seems like transferring has become a lot more popular over the years. Just look at teams like UCLA, USC, and Oregon.
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Yes Jamal Williams did transfer from New Mexico, and Hakeem Rollins is the name you are looking for, but I do not know if he transfered in.
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Rollins was a JC transfer like Tre Simmons, Aziz N’Diaye and Charles Garcia. Apps transferred from Florida and Tim Morris came in from Stanford.
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Good show tonight on “Talkin’ Hoops” on the Oregon schools match-ups:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nwsportsradio/2012/02/07/talkin-hoops-with-jim-basnight
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