Central Washington

Couldn’t get everything into my game story, which you can read in its entirety at UDubSports.com, so I wanted to post a few more of my observations from the game.

All in all, a better showing than it could have been if we’d played a stronger opponent. Here’s some more of what I saw:

• This was my first time sitting on press row, and being a part of the post-game press conference, and writing a story right after a game, etc. Really good time, and plenty of details about the experience that I’m looking forward to sharing in a post soon.
• Walk-on Brendan Sherrer was in street clothes, even though it was announced this week that he’d be added to the roster and would be dressing for games. He’s long, but not particularly stocky.
• The Central Washington kids looked very happy and excited in pre-game warmups, and I was thinking about how this exhibition may be the biggest game some of these guys ever play in. They certainly didn’t look happy, though, once the game began and even getting the ball up the court became so difficult.
• Venoy Overton said that he’d worked on his shooting a lot over the summer. He played very well tonight, and only turned the ball over once, which was huge for him. But, I was a little concerned to see him launch three three-pointers (he hit one).  Quincy also shot three threes, hitting one as well. The Dawgs went 5-21 from beyond the arc on the night.
• Isaiah definitely put on some muscle this summer.
• Scott Suggs just doesn’t look like an assertive ballplayer out there. He’s too content to swing the ball around when it comes to him and got beat a few times on defense. He had every chance to distinguish himself tonight, playing 15 minutes, but didn’t.
• If there’s one Husky who needs most to get off to a good start, it’s MBA. He went 1-6 from the field and missed all three of his free throws. The 10 rebounds were nice, but based on tonight, I’m worried if we think MBA is our third scoring option.
• The first 12 minutes of the game we UGLY. The teams combined to shoot 9-40 during the game’s opening stretch.
• Abdul Gaddy’s defense needs work. He’s trying, but the dropoff between him and Venoy is ridiculous.
• Central Washington guard Austin Dunn is a dead ringer for Jesse Plemons, the dude who plays Landry on “Friday Night Lights.” Dead. Ringer.
• We only won the second half by four points. Sure, Coach was messing with the rotation, (we even had Scott Suggs, C.J. Wilcox and Elston Turner out on the floor together for a little bit), but any five of our guys should’ve been able to outscore Central by more than four over 20 minutes.
• Here’s where everyone rated against my expectations coming in:

Abdul Gaddy: performed slightly worse than I expected, but only because his defense was not strong.

Venoy Overtain: way better what I expected.

Isaiah Thomas: exactly as expected.

Scott Suggs: worse than I expected. Can’t see him getting minutes on this team right now.

C.J. Wilcox: about what I expected. He shot 0-3 from deep, but that’s going to happen. If Elston Turner plays well, I think C.J. will be used sparingly.

Elston Turner: worse than expected. He really didn’t look good tonight, missing all four of his shots, and being generally uninvolved in the action.

Quincy Pondexter: maybe a tiny bit worse than expected, if only because I didn’t see him take control much on the offensive end in a few spots where he could’ve.

Clarence Trent: a little better than expected. Six points, five boards, three out of four from the field. He operated well in the post last night and in transition.

Darnell Gant: exactly what I expected. Stronger, and more aggressive on the boards, with about 15 extra pounds of muscle.

Matthew Bryan-Amaning: worse than expected, particularly on offense.

Tyreese Breshers: SO much better than expected. Visions of Brockman danced in my head watching him in the post.

Thanks for coming!!