Scroll down for the Portland game preview.
Not much to add to this, but Percy Allen reports that I.T. received a concussion in the Georgetown game. He sat out practice Monday and Tuesday, but is clear to play tomorrow.
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Tags: Isaiah Thomas
Watching last week’s game against San Jose State, it’s apparent that the Huskies are going to see a lot of zone defense this season. I’m a little concerned about how effective the Spartan defense, employed by clearly less talented players, was so effective in keeping the Dawgs’ offense leashed last night.
Zone defenses will neutralize one of the things the Huskies do best: an up-tempo attack with plenty of guard penetration, and it will force them into more outside shooting, still a question mark for the team.
The good news is that this idea of teams trying to beat the Dawgs with a zone has been apparent since training camp, and the Huskies have been preparing for it. Coach Lorenzo Romar mentioned yesterday that Quincy Pondexter quickly becomes scoring option #1 when teams drop out of man-to-man defense. Quincy’s big game last night (including the first 13 Husky points of the second half, all against a zone) was a big part of the reason San Jose State’s upset dreams never came closer to fruition.
While Quincy will continue to find success working out of the high post against the zone, Isaiah may have his difficulties at times, particularly if his jumper isn’t falling.
In my opinion, there is a lineup the Huskies can employ that’ll be set up for dismantling the zone. However, it will at times require Lorenzo Romar to shorten his bench and take a leap of faith with his three best defensive players (Overton, Holiday, and Gant) all on the bench for certain stretches.
The “Zonebuster” squad looks like this: Abdul Gaddy, with his precision passing and more controlled tempo is necessary when the Huskies find themselves playing against a defense that neutralizes their athletic advantage. Isaiah Thomas is too good not to find a way to be successful against the zone, but will need to temper his urge to drive, and look more to dish once the defense has collapsed on him. Elston Turner is the perfect wing to receive these passes. Clearly more comfortable without a defender in his face, Turner could shoot 40%-45% from deep if most of his shots were the open ones often earned against the zone. Quincy Pondexter moving freely between the high post, or making back door cuts along the baseline, gives the Huskies a zonebusting specialist. And, Tyreese Breshers, who can receive the ball and get a shot up even against double coverage, rounds out my Zonebusters lineup. Breshers is enough of a presence not to get swallowed up even when outnumbered in the post.
What do you think? What will the Huskies do to combat the zone this season? Are you concerned? Let me know below, and thanks for coming.
Loading ...Tags: Abdul Gaddy, chalk talk, Elston Turner, Isaiah Thomas, Lorenzo Romar, poll, Quincy Pondexter, Tyreese Breshers, Zone defense
It wouldn’t have been possible for the excitement of this week to match that of last week, when the Huskies played three games in three nights to start their season.
This week, though, had its share of fun too, and most importantly left the Huskies still unbeaten:
Yo Adrian, how rocky did you leave things at UW!?: The Huskies defeated San Jose State, 80-70, in a mostly uninspired effort on Friday night. Quincy Pondexter, though, played like a man on fire, and let us all in on some of the dirty laundry left over from when Spartan guard Adrian Oliver transferred away from UW.
Jinx whut?: Isaiah Thomas made the cover of Sports Illustrated. There were six regional covers, and I.T. and the Dawgs were the only west coast team represented, and the cover distributed (as far as I can tell) throughout all of the Pac-10 areas.
A great pleasure this week was buying my copy from a newsstand at Oakland airport, and thinking about all of the Cal fans who must be tickled to walk in and buy their issue of SI with Isaiah’s mug on the cover. Buy an 11″ x 14″ print of the cover here.
The underappreciated superstar: We did this piece about how Isaiah Thomas looks like a better ballplayer this season, despite having such a strong freshman campaign last year. Percy Allen also pointed to this marked improvement and wrote this piece for the Times.
Big Josh signs and T.J. waiting: Josh Smith signed his letter of intent to play ball at UCLA on Tuesday, after announcing his decision last week. Here’s our post, which many readers disagreed with, listing three good things about not getting Josh. And, just as news of one recruiting drama was being put to bed, Terrence Jones decided to wait until the spring period to sign, likely meaning many more months of speculating about where he’ll end up.
Pac-10 floundering: No school in the conference has played more than four games, and only four teams remain unbeaten. Without a quality win yet, and several very bad losses (cue up the Sacramento State fight song!), the Pac-10 is looking more and more to be fulfilling the “down year” label it received from mcuh of the national media.
Thanks for coming!
Tags: Isaiah Thomas, Josh Smith, Percy Allen, Quincy Pondexter, Sports Illustrated, Terrence Jones, Week in Review
Ryan Petitt / UDubSports.com
The Huskies defeated Wright State tonight, 74-69, at Bank of America Arena in the opener to the 2009/2010 season.
The least you should know:
The night belonged to Isaiah Thomas, who scored 30 points, including 18 in the first half. Had he not been so single-handedly dominant early on, the crowd might’ve seen a true nail-biter tonight.
Tags: Isaiah Thomas, Post-game story, Wright State
The Dawgs held a closed scrimmage with the St. Mary’s Gaels on Sunday. No official word from on what went down, but I thought I’d share some of the player’s Tweets made during their trip back to Seattle.
In case you were wondering, a closed scrimmage is generally an exhibition game played behind closed doors (no fans, no media), so teams can assess how they function as a full unit after playing only against themselves in practice up to this point.
Sounds to me, based on the Tweets below, like the scrimmage was hardly a cake walk for the Huskies. But, hopefully it was a learning experience. I’m not going to read too much into what the players report on Twitter, or get too concerned about anything (other than injuries) that happens so early on in the preseason. But, just for fun, here’s what the players had to say on their Twitter pages:
Tyreese Breshers:
Just landed …. watchin film wit Coach the whole flight … learned a lot of stuff … I got a lot to work on
Just got done wat our scrimmage … We figured a lot of things about ourselves and I figured out a lot about me. . .
Abdul Gaddy:
On way to airport!! Learned a lot about our team!! Time to get back n the lab and improve on weaknesses…
Isaiah Thomas:
We gotta take what we did wrong 2 heart and build on it and get better plain and simple. We good, still early I aint worried at all. Go time. . .
On the bus headed to the airport.. We played horrible the 1st 20min but after that we played like Washington basketball suppose to play!
NOV 13th 1st regular season game. We gon be ready, mark my words! We was alil rusty today playin wit each other bcuz we basically had 2 days…of practice where we had enough guys to go up and down and scrimmage alil bit. So were good we jus gotta get some chemistry! That’s all!
Matthew Bryan-Amaning:
ok so on the way bk 2 the 206…the trip as a learning curve we’ll see in practice if we leant anything!!
Thanks for coming!
Tags: Abdul Gaddy, Isaiah Thomas, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, St. Mary's, Twitter, Tyreese Breshers
Now that the college basketball preseason is getting into full swing, we’re going to start summing up the past week in Husky basketball each Sunday*. And what better week to start than with such an eventful one? Here were the major stories in Husky Hoops from October 19th through October 25th.
Big Foot not pregnant with coach’s baby: In a little bit of Northwest basketball drama, Washington proposed a series of games to Gonzaga, all taking place at Key Arena, and alerted the media. Gonzaga fired back, saying “not so fast,” first through its athletic director, then with some tough talk from coach Mark Few, who seems to have given more thought to the idea of sasquatch/human copulation than may be healthy.
Dawgfluenza: More than half of the Husky roster came down with the flu, starting with Darnell Gant shortly after the team’s Midnight Madness event on October 16th. While it’s likely the afflicted players put in an impressive amount of virtual court time on NBA 2K10, the illnesses preventing the team from starting their real practice regimen until late in the week. Here’s our post on the outbreak, and here’s the wire story from the AP (national coverage!) picked up by ESPN.
LoRo wants you!: The flu bug seemed to trigger Coach to reconsider his reluctance to add a walk-on or two to this year’s squad, likely to warm the bench during games, but push players in practice (and, ensure enough healthy bodies to run a full-court scrimmage). Eight players showed up to Thursday’s walk-on tryouts, and Coach planned to call any lucky winners on Friday. No word in this recap from The Times as to whether one of the contestants was UW tight end, Kavario Middleton.
Sports Illustrated <Hearts> the Huskies!: CNNSI picked the Husky backcourt as the sixth best in the nation, but left out Scott Suggs when they listed the Dawg’s guards. Montlake Madness is channeling Shaq and suggesting the nickname “The Big Oversight” for Suggs this season. We also sincerely hope Scott makes Luke Winn feel stupid by season’s end. (Cal was picked fifth.)
Sports Illustrated <Hearts> the Huskies!, part II: CNNSI also picked Isaiah Thomas as the ninth most exciting player in the country, ranked ahead of Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas and NCAA Tournament opponent, Jarvis Varnado, but behind Willie Warren, and number-one pick, Greivis Vasquez of Maryland.
In case you missed it: We caught up with Husky legend Jon Brockman to talk about his NBA experience so far. . . We spoke to Abdul Gaddy. . . And, check out Doug Haller’s blog. He covers Arizona State for The Arizona Republic, but often does a good rundown of what’s going on around the Pac-10. . . And, here’s another great college hoops blog as well, called March Madness All Season.
Thanks so much for coming!
*We may move these to Mondays once the season gets going, so they can cover the weekend’s games as well.
Tags: Abdul Gaddy, Darnell Gant, Doug Haller, Flu, Greivis Vasquez, Isaiah Thomas, Jarvis Varnado, Jon Brockman, Kalin Lucas, Kavario Middleton, Lorenzo Romar, Luke Winn, March Madness All Season, NBA 2K10, Scott Suggs, Sports Illustrated, Washington Gonzaga controversy, Washington Gonzaga feud, Washington Gonzaga proposal, Week in Review
Wanted to share some video I took before and during the event. I had a great time, and wanted to give anyone who wasn’t there a little taste of what went down, and give even those of you who were there a little look behind-the-scenes.
Here are a few videos (mostly dunks) of the team warming up while they waited for the UW/UCLA volleyball game to end:
Watch the background of this video for a nice slam by Abdul Gaddy.
A series of dunks and dunk attempts.
A little shooting contest between Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Scott Suggs.
A couple of nice dunks by MBA.
And, here’s a windmill dunk by Tyreese Breshers, who didn’t participate in the Slam Dunk contest.
Slam Dunk Contest:
Here’s one long clip from the Dunk Contest.
Thanks for coming!
Tags: Abdul Gaddy, C.J. Wilcox, Clarence Trent, Darnell Gant, Elston Turner, Isaiah Thomas, Justin Holiday, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Midnight Madness, Quincy Pondexter, Scott Suggs, Tyreese Breshers, Venoy Overton, video clips
In the fan’s first look at this season’s UW Husky Basketball Team, the PurpleDawgs defeated the GoldDawgs, 35-20, at Bank of America Arena on Friday night.
The Basics:
The PurpleDawgs team consisted of Abdul Gaddy, Quincy Pondexter, Darnell Gant, Tyreese Breshers, Elston Turner, and C.J. Wilcox.
The GoldDawgs Team consisted of Scott Suggs, Venoy Overton, Isaiah Thomas, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, and Clarence Trent.
Hec Ed was crowded, but not full. Our women’s volleyball team is very, very talented. Anytime you have the opportunity to see the 3rd-ranked team in any sport, it’s worth the time.
The scrimmage was only 10 minutes long, played with a running clock that only stopped for free throws.
Here’s an (unofficial) box score I put together based on my notes, and consulting a couple of other stories, all which seem to disagree on the scoring:
Impressions and Extras:
Poised Purple and Go-go-Gold: Not sure how the teams were chosen, but there was a clear contrast in styles between the PurpleDawgs poised, structured attack, and the run-and-gun effort by the GoldDawgs. The more controlled team won, but the lopsided-ness was due mostly to the best guy on the court playing for the PurpleDawgs.
Elston Turner: Sure, it was only a scrimmage, but Elston Turner looks good. Real good. Turner, Gaddy and Pondexter kept the ball moving at midseason form, finding the open man and taking advantage of Elston’s hot shooting (he went either 5-6 or 5-7 from the field, with three three-pointers). Based on the small hints Coach Romar gave during his Media Day press conference, I have to believe Elston Turner may contend for a starting role on this team (likely with two smaller guards, Quincy Pondexter, and one traditional big man).
The Venoy/Gaddy Matchup: This was the marquee one-on-one battle of the evening, and, if only for the final score, the slight edge goes to Abdul Gaddy tonight. Venoy had one nice steal which started a fast break, ending with a redonkulous dunk by Clarence Trent. Otherwise, though, Abdul controlled the tempo and was able to run the offense despite Venoy’s pesky D.
Gaddy had one jaw-dropping, thread-the-needle pass out of traffic from right under the basket to a wide-open Quincy Pondexter.
Clarence Trent: Trent is very active, but doesn’t look as big as I’d expected. Maybe it’s seeing him next to Breshers, Gant and MBA that’s throwing me off. Time will tell, but his frame, and his game, are reading more to me like a small forward’s than a big man’s.
Scott Suggs: I’m hoping we’ll get early evidence that Scott Suggs is going to be more aggressive and take control of whatever minutes he’s given on the court. It didn’t happen tonight, but hopefully tomorrow when real practices begin, a terrific sophomore year will start to take shape for Suggs.
Justin Holiday: Justin didn’t compete in the scrimmage, the dunk contest, or the three-point shootout, as he’s still recovering from hernia surgery. However, I did see him warming up in the gym before the event, and he’s moving pretty well.
Overheard after Tyreese Breshers missed two free throws: “Maybe he’s taking those Jon Brockman comparisons too far.”
The Dunk Contest: Isaiah took the slam dunk event, despite some tough competition from MBA and Venoy. According to Assistant Coach, Raphael Chillious, this was the first time he’d ever seen Clarence Trent lose a dunk contest.
The Three-Point Shootout: C.J. Wilcox defeated Elston Turner, but each was paired with a UW student as a teammate. I watched C.J. shoot for a bit in the gym beforehand, and his form is just so consistent. It’ll be interesting to see whether he can create his own shot this season though, or whether he’ll need some seasoning before he can show off his stellar form consistently in games.
ESPN2′s coverage: ESPN2 did a couple of minutes on the program as part of their 30-minute Midnight Madness show. They highlighted Coach Romar, (calling him a “rising star”) and the Huskies perimeter players. ESPNU isn’t available in my area, so I have no idea how much of the two-hour show was devoted to the Dawgs.
Coach Chillious on what ESPN choosing UW for its Midnight Madness program means to the team: “I think what it does is validate the successful season we had last year. And, hopefully, it gives us momentum moving forward. We know that’s not what’s going to make us a good team. And, y’know, the rest of the nation doesn’t get to see the teams in the Pacific Northwest that often, so this is just a jumpstart.”
Terrence Jones and Tony Wroten: Both stud recruits were there. Jones was on his official visit and sat on the Husky bench. He didn’t look too enthused, but I’m not going to read much into the facial expressions of a 17-year-old kid.
Real Practice Starts Saturday at 1 PM: With 31 days until the regular season opener at home against Wright State, the Huskies get back to full practices tomorrow afternoon.
Tags: Abdul Gaddy, C.J. Wilcox, Clarence Trent, Darnell Gant, Elston Turner, Isaiah Thomas, Lorenzo Romar, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Midnight Madness, Quincy Pondexter, Scott Suggs, Terrence Jones, Tony Wroten, Tyreese Breshers, Venoy Overton
A few quick notes tonight. The first of my interviews from Media Day will be up in the morning, and I hope to see 10,000 of you tomorrow night at Hec Ed for Montlake Madness. Here’s our 5 reasons why you need to be there, and here’s the school’s official blog post on the event.
I chatted with Terrence Jones last night and confirmed that he did visit Oklahoma last weekend, and he said that the visit was “good.” He also confirmed that he’ll be in attendance tomorrow night for Midnight Madness at UW.
Isaiah Thomas talked a little more about jumping to the NBA at Media Day yesterday and also about possibly going out for Sark’s football team.
Here’s what Isaiah told us about the NBA about a month ago. I really don’t know what to think about this. It’s obviously going to come up with a player of Isaiah’s talent, but I still net out on him needing at least a season as a full-time, straight-up point guard to give himself the best shot of success in the League. Here’s my post on the “Anderson Hunt corallary” as it pertains to I.T.
Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn has a Q&A with Isaiah Thomas today on CNNSI.com. More haircut discussion along with IT naming his “college dream team.”
Thanks for coming!
Tags: Isaiah Thomas
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