post-game

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UW wrangles the Gauchos 87-80

December 17, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 4 comments

by: John Chase

DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Well that was a stressful win. That much is certain. UW had a 10 point lead with 4 minutes to go only to throw it away by giving up two straight 3-pointers and two lay-ins. All of a sudden it was tied at 77 in a span a hair longer than a minute. All this out of a timeout by UW. Where was the game plan? I can understand a 10-0 run, it happens, but not out of a timeout and not in the final minutes against a mid-major.

The refs started out decent enough in the first half. They were atrocious in the second. Between several very poor calls and misses as well as UW missing huge free throws at the end of the game kept this much closer than it should have been. Four straight free throws were missed with under a minute on the clock. Unacceptable.

Thankfully, Romar pulled Tony Wroten(who was playing out of his mind) after missing his third straight free throw in the closing minutes and put in Desmond Simmons who is an excellent free throw shooter. Wroten was 4-9 on the night. Not going to work. Not at all.

UW came out with a 4 guard line-up featuring Tony Wroten with Aziz N’Diaye on the sidelines due to his knee injury. UW came out in the second half with C.J. Wilcox on the bench and Desmond Simmons in the starting 5. This was a good move as Wilcox was cold tonight and we needed a big man in the post to shore up the defense. It paid off as UCSB had 26 points in the paint in the first half and only 10 in the second.

Tony Wroten. He is the best, most frustrating player I’ve ever seen. Yet he is the heart and soul of this team. We have been asking who’s this teams leader. I have an answer, Tony Wroten. Say all you want about the turnovers, as long as he keeps playing this way I am OK with it. Keep it to 5 and under, that is my limit. 27 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist (more on this later), 5 turnovers, and 1 steal. I’ll take that stat line. He could have had 30 if he made his free throws. He was visibly upset with himself after missing the last 3 free throws. This was great to see. It means he is starting to take the free throws seriously and understands what kind of impact free throws have on a game. He had a monster slam after juking out his defender with a sweet fake pass. I thought for sure it would be on SportCenter, but sadly it was not. His assist, however, was.

Terrence Ross. When can we get a full 40 out of you?? Yet again, it took a huge second half for Ross to break double digits. Ross had only 2 points in the first half. He tallied up 14 in the second half and finished with 5 rebounds, an assist, two steals, and just one turnover. Ross nabbed the number 2 spot on the Top Ten with another vicious jam courtesy of Tony Wroten. It would have been number 1 if not for a great 3/4 court shot that swished at the end of half. Hard to argue against that. Wroten lobbed up a beautiful assist that Ross turned into a full 360 jam. Absolutely monstrous. Ross went 4-4 from the charity stripe with all 4 coming in crunch time. He hit 2 of 4 from deep and shot 5 of 12 on the night. Wroten had 21 shots compared to a combined total of 17 for Wilcox and Ross. I like that Wroten is taking the initiative and getting to the rack, but Wilcox and Ross are our best shooters and need to have more opportunities.

Desmond Simmons had another stellar night and continues to impress me with his solid shot and great work effort. 9 points on 4-5 shooting including a dime from deep, 8 rebounds, and 2 steals. He did miss his lone free throw, which was infuriating simply because he is a solid player at the line. Simmons best plays often come defending in the post where he deflects passes left and right. Both of his steals came from deflecting passes and chasing down the loose ball. If Tony hadn’t willed this team to victory tonight I would be expecting Romar to throw Simmons in the starting 5 simply because of how much of an impact he has on the game. I think Simmons is one of the more underrated and valued players on the team and possibly in the Pac-12. Game in and game out he performs well.

Abdul Gaddy silently shot his way to 17 points. I didn’t even realize he did that well until I looked at the post-game stats. He only had 1 assist, but given the fact that the team only had 8 assist on the night it hard to expect him to get much more than that. Gaddy was 6-10 on the night and drilled 2 of his 3 3-pointers. He also tallied 2 boards and 0 turnovers. Not bad. He looked much more aggressive tonight and seems to be taking a page out of Wroten’s book.

Darnell Gant was all sorts tonight. His 2-7 shooting was sub par. He was 4-5 from the line and ended with 9 points and 8 boards, 4 of which were offensive. That was great to see, especially with N’Diaye out of the game. He also dished out an assist and had a steal, going without a turnover tonight.

C.J. Wilcox all but disappeared tonight. He took only 5 shots and hit just 2 of them. Wilcox had picked up 4 fouls with over 15 minutes to go in the second half, which in part contributed to his lack of opportunities. Wilcox needs to get aggressive and attack the hoop. He has a fantastic inside shot that is underused. He still seems to have the streaky mentality where is he cold he can’t get hot, if he is hot his shots just wont stop draining through the net.

What Needed Improvement:

  • Free Throws - 19-30 from the line is atrocious. I plan on writing an article on free throws in the next few days so I’ll try not to rant too much on this post. This mainly falls on Wroten who was 4-9 from the line. Gaddy was also a tad behind with a 3-5 night from the stripe and Kemp was 2-4 on the night. The rest of the team was nearly perfect.
  • Rebounding - UW got out rebounded 40-35. Three players had 7 or more boards. Usually I’d be ecstatic about this, especially considering the Dawgs were without N’Diaye. What upset me were the 14 offensive boards UCSB collected leading to 12 second chance points. We have got to get better at preventing these second chance opportunities.
  • Assists - We scorer nearly 90 points while only handing out 8 assists. I don’t even know how that is possible. While I like the fact that the team has enough players that can create their own opportunities, I like us dishing out 15+ assists much more. It shows movement and team unity.

What was Good:

  • Defensive Tenacity - The Huskies forced 17 turnovers (only committing 7 themselves) and had 8 steals. I’d like to see a count of how many tipped balls UW had because they were all over the place. I loved the group effort. I realize the Gauchos scored quite a bit today, but to be fair Orlando Johnson was on fire and could not miss. He kept UCSB in the game much longer than I thought was possible.
  • Inside Presence - I don’t mean our post players, I mean attacking the rim. Wroten highlighted it, but Ross had his fair share of nice inside shots in the second half. Gaddy was another force inside with a couple of nice drives. I still want to see Ross and Wilcox get to the hoop and earn some real free throws. Tonight, their shots came from late game fouls designed to slow us down and give UCSB a chance at an upset comeback.

Final Thoughts:

Giving up the 10 point lead in a matter of seconds was just plain ugly. I don’t know how Romar doesn’t use a time out after the back-to-back 3′s to rally the team and reorganize the offense. They need to keep the pedal to the metal.

Wroten could end up as the leading scorer for this team with the way he is going. Ross and Wilcox need to find their identity and get their game going for the full 40. A win is a win and hopefully this will inspire some great play. There is a lot of work to be done if they want to make the NCAA and it all starts here at Hec-Ed. No better place to do it than at home.
Go Dawgs!

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Huskies lose to #5 Duke at MSG 80-86

December 11, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 13 comments

by: John Chase

Well, at least it was close at the end. UW came back from another terrible first half to make the game somewhat competitive. After going down by up to 19 points several times, UW rallied at the end with a C.J. Wilcox 3-pointer at the end of regulation to make it a 6 point game. Unfortunately, the Huskies simply couldn’t put together enough stops to truly get back in the game as time dwindled.

Abdul Gaddy made it a 6 point game with a minute left and poor Duke free throw shooting kept the Huskies in the game. The night was off to an ominous start when Wilcox air-balled a his first 3-point attempt of the night (he went 2-7 from outside).

The end of the game was pretty strange. UW was without a post player due to Aziz N’Diaye leaving with some sort of knee injury (not sure if it’s a sprain or something worse, I’ll update when I hear more) and Darnell Gant fouling out. UW was also without its two star point guards and ended with Hikeem Stewart on the court for the final 30 seconds. Both Tony Wroten and Abdul Gaddy fouled out of the game.

Speaking of Tony Wroten, he has gone from a pass first guard to an attack 2 guard. He was one of the few players to really attack the lanes and get to the line. He went 6-8 from the free throw line on the night, another marked improvements from the first games of the year. He finished with a game high 23 points, 0 assists (bleh….), and 5 turnovers (this is normal for him, I am not surprised). He went 8-12 from the field, but could have gone 10-12 if he could make the easy lay-ins by using his opposite hand like a true college player.

Abdul Gaddy played a very quiet game opposite Wroten. Only 7 points on 2-4 shooting (0-2 from range) and went 3-5 from the line, a stat he and the rest of the team need to drastically improve on. What he did well is what he always does, 7 assists to 1 turnover. He is the calm to Wroten’s chaos. I’d like him to attack the hoop more. Not necessarily take the shot, just drive to collapse the lanes and free up our shooters. He still looked slow on the court and hesitant at times. He did a much better job getting in towards the rim at the end of the game, but his efforts came too late.

C.J. Wilcox was excellent minus his outside shooting. He drove the lane hard throughout the final 20 minutes and consistently scored with a strange, yet beautiful leaping Superman-esque move to float the shot over the defenders. I don’t know how he does it. He did it a few times last season as well and it is becoming his signature move in a way. His 22 points and aggressive attack of the hoop were great to see and were definitely needed, but yet again did not attempt a single free throw. I’m only OK with that because he scored in bunches and made his shots inside.

Terrence Ross was off tonight. He still managed 16 points but it took 17 attempts. He missed his AND1 opportunity and that was the only action he saw at the charity stripe. He is still very tentative about getting inside the paint at times and it really holds him back from his true potential. If he starts attacking with authority more often he’ll average over 20 points a game just by getting to the free throw line. Ross did try to throw down a monster jam over Plumlee, but it rattled loose from the hoop.

Aziz N’Diaye looked solid tonight on the defensive end. He only had 4 points and 5 rebounds before injuring his knee. Hopefully nothing is torn and it is just a minor sprain allowing him to return quickly. We will miss his size in the paint and I imagine that UW might go with a 4 guard line up to start most games. This could put Tony Wroten in the starting 5. We may also see Martin Breunig or Desmond Simmons in the starting 5 if N’Diaye must sit out. He managed to contain Plumlee pretty effectively and moved well on the court. The defense as a whole rotated much better tonight.

As I write this, Kentucky just got beat by Indiana on a last second three. At least Karma is still punishing the wicked.

I also need to give Romar some credit. I’m going to pretend that he reads my articles and implemented the high post and full court pressure because I told him to. He finally used full court pressure with over 10 minutes on the clock and low and behold the game went from a 19 point deficit to 6 at the end of the game. The pressure forced Duke to take poor shots, turn the ball over, and it gave UW that many more opportunities. It worked just as I said it would. UW has terrific athletes who can run and gun all day. Full court pressure allows us many more chances at fast breaks and open lanes. The high post ran through Ross and Gant and led to the only good 3-point shots. UW was struggling to get their shooters open and when they were open, they missed. UW (and Duke) went 5-17 from deep. Well below the Huskies talent and potential.

What Needed Improvement:

  • Rebounding - The Huskies should have dominated this aspect of the game, but Duke came out on top 37-33. Many of the Duke rebounds came off long misses that the Blue Devils tipped out to their guards who were not blocked out and contained by the Huskies. Those long offensive boards also led to at least 2 of the Blue Devils 3-pointers, which is exactly what I said would happen in my pregame analysis. Ross led the Huskies with 7 boards and Simmons collected 6. N’Diaye only had 5 on the night in his 17 minutes of play.
  • Shooting - UW was not hitting the open baskets and missed several critical easy lay-ins that shut down whatever momentum the Dawgs had going. Our players need to knock down the open shots because they have been few and far between lately, it would seem. I know our guys can shoot and I know players have cold nights, but tonight it seemed like everyone was cold at once and that is absolutely killer.
  • Free Throw Shooting - 13-23…That is unacceptable. Thank the stars that Tony Wroten has been getting better and made 6-8 on the night. I’ll take 75% shooting from the Dawgs just about any night. No other player had more than 3 makes for the Dawgs. Wilcox and Ross, our two best free throw shooters, combined for only 1 free throw. That is unacceptable. These guys need to get the ball and take their man to the rack for some good old fashioned basketball.

What was Good:

  • Gut and Drive - After getting down early once more, the Huskies fought back and worked their asses off to get back in the game. After scoring only 26 in the first half, UW doubled their scoring with 54 in the second. If UW could have managed 35 or 40 in the first half, UW would have won with ease. Statistically the Huskies and Blue Devils were essentially identical outside of the poor shooting in the first 10 minutes. The tenacity displayed by Wilcox and Wroten was fantastic. These players are starting to feel the heat and are dying to get back to their winning ways.

Final Thoughts: 

Tough week in the Big Apple for the Dawgs. They needed a big win, but came up short in both match-ups. All said, they Huskies looked much better than the maligned efforts they displayed in St. Louis and Nevada. No one in the Pac-12 plays like Duke or Marquette, which gives me hope that the Huskies can pretty much run the slate come conference and finished with 14, maybe 15 wins.

If the Dawgs can win at least 13 and make the final game of the conference tournament, they should go into March with 22 wins or so and 9 or 10 losses. That should be enough for an NCAA bid, though it will be a low seed. The pieces are here, the will to win is coming into its own, and the Huskies are just a few mistakes away from being 6-2 or 7-1 even. Our team is young, but talented and can do a lot of damage when they get their heads in the right place. Let’s get it done, boys.

Go Dawgs!

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Improved Dawgs still lose against Marquette

December 6, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 14 comments

by: Griffin Bennett

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

I thought this game might be close but that was only because I am Husky biased. I didn’t recognize the team in purple tonight. The hustle, energy, and effort that the Huskies showed tonight was something new for this young team. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to overcome a few late mistakes as the Dawgs lose at Madison Square Garden to Marquette, 77-79.

Marquette is a good team. No, they are a really good team. There’s a reason that they are undefeated this year. I hate the typical “that was a good loss” sentiment but it’s hard to not like what you saw tonight.

Yes, there were a lot of head scratching mistakes and wall-punching moments but this team is young and still figuring out what it’s strengths are. I know that I’m sounding like a Husky apologist right now but after getting over the initial heart break, I really like what I saw tonight… except for the final minute.

I know that Husky Nation is coming down hard on Gaddy tonight, and he does deserve criticism, but Romar needs to call a timeout with roughly 6 seconds left after that three and draw SOMETHING up. It was 5 on 1 or 2 with a timeout in his pocket and he sat on it, again. Just like he did against Nevada. At call it and get it into Ross’ hands.

Sour grapes? Probably. On to the notes.

Positives:

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Huskies show up late in 64-77 loss

November 20, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 11 comments

by: John Chase

AP Photo/ Jeff Roberson

This game went the complete opposite way I saw it playing out. Saint Louis played out of their minds and were unstoppable on offense. To start the game they hit 8 of 12 from range and would not be denied. Washington, on the other hand, could not buy a basket, were impatient, and often took poor forced shots.

Saint Louis deserves a lot of credit for the effort they put out, but this is a team we should have been able to beat. You can say that the early start kept us from getting into our normal rhythm, but the Billkens had the early start as well and they were firing on all cylinders so the argument is hardly valid.

I think the most glaring statistic of the night is 0-9. Under Lorenzo Romar, the Huskies have not won a road opener at the opposing teams home court. I love Romar and will be sad when he finally retires, but the fact that not a single one of his teams has won their first road game of the season is terrible. He is not mentally preparing the players correctly and it shows on the court. I could handle 0-9 if we played a top 25 team for our openers the majority of those years, but its losing to teams like Portland or getting completely blown out of the water by SLU today that is unacceptable. It’s not as if our teams are untalented, we have gone to three straight NCAAs and made the Sweet Sixteen three times in Romar’s tenure.

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Huskies shoot down Pilots 93-63

November 14, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 15 comments

by: Griffin Bennett

It doesn’t get much better than that, folks. After hearing about the less-than-perfect outing last night against FAU, I expected to see a work in progress from this Husky squad. Instead, we were treated to an offensive and defensive clinic. While it wasn’t all perfect, I wasn’t expecting anything close to what I saw out of those Dawgs tonight.

Portland seamed shell-shocked from the opening tip as the shooting ability and defense of the Huskies stymied them all night. They Pilots lack a true star player like they had in Sikma and it definitely showed on the court.

The game was never close and it was great to see the Huskies come out fired up at halftime and continue to extend their lead.

“I didn’t think anyone had their own agenda.  I thought we all just played Husky basketball and those were the results,” Romar said after the game.

That pretty much sums it up.

Positives:

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Dawgs win ugly against Owls 77-71

November 13, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 5 comments

by: John Chase

AARON JAFFE / THE SEATTLE TIMES

It was ugly, but a win is a win. The Huskies played a very sloppy game where the theme of the night was missed opportunities. UW shot an atrocious 38% from the field and committed 17 turnovers on the night, which allowed FAU to shoot themselves back into the game in the waning minutes. To highlight how terrible UW shot and how fortunate they were to win the game, FAU made more field goals and more 3-pointers, while UW attempted 10 more free throws and made 11 more than FAU.

The Huskies may have needed this humbling experience to remind them that they cannot play down to their opponents or risk an upset. Tony Wroten Jr. literally had to play down to his opponent as he often matched up against FAU’s 5-6 point guard, which led to Wroten racking up 4 fouls due to overplaying the ball and the man. The Owl point guard was also able to get away with hand checks and push offs due to his diminutive size as they did not have a noticeable effect on the defender. Just because he is small does not mean he cannot foul. Thankfully, the refs finally started calling the fouls in the final 3-5 minutes when the Owls were looking to slow the game down.

Abdul Gaddy showed why he starts over Tony Wroten once more. With 6 assists, only 3 turnovers and a very nice 15 points, Gaddy was much calmer, collected, and efficient than the flashy Wroten. Wroten racked up 4 assists, but also committed 5 turnovers and missed several lay-ins due to playing an extremely fast tempo that just doesn’t work at the collegiate level. Gaddy went 4-6 from the line, while Wroten went 3-7 (he shot 2-9 from the field).

Aziz N’Diaye had some nice looks today as well. While he again looked a little rough offensively, he showed signs of improving post moves and was a lot more effective at creating shot opportunities for himself on the block. He went 5-12 from the field and made 3 of his 5 free throw attempts. He also collected 12 rebounds (5 offensive) to pull in the double-double.

C.J. Wilcox again led all players in scoring with 19 to put his average in the tournament thus far at 20.5 points per game, a fantastic result. Wilcox, like most of the team, struggled on the easy inside shots. He went 5-13 from the field, 3-5 from range. His struggles were highlighted by an easy fast break lay-in opportunities that rolled out. In reality, he should have jammed the ball through the hoop to prevent exactly what happened. If you have an open opportunity and you can dunk, DO IT! It does not need to be a monster jam, just a simple two-handed dunk.

Four players made double digits in scoring today and all four were starters. Darnell Gant was the only starter not to hit double digits and finished the night with only 2 points on 1-4 shooting. He did have a 3-pointer taken away due to an offensive foul committed by Tony Wroten after he had dished it off. Gant played a very quiet 25 minutes only managing to pull down 5 boards.

One very concerning stat was the rebounding line. UW went into half holding a 26-16 lead in the rebounding column, but only finished with a 3 board advantage, 42-39. This was another big reason FAU was able to stay in the game. UW was not boxing out well or communicating, which led to at least 3 UW rebounds knocked away by our own players. Romar needed to use a timeout or two to calm the players down as it seemed the close score line was causing our line-up to play overly anxiously.

Martin Breunig played only 9 minutes, but was a perfect 2-2 from the field. His limited time was largely due to his high foul count and ended the night with 5 points and 3 rebounds. Simple freshmen mistakes were a big part of why he picked up the fouls he did.

Hikeem Stewart only came in for a quick 2 minute burst while Romar rested his starting guards and tallied 1 rebound.

Shawn Kemp did not play today and Jernard Jarreau confirmed last night at the press conference that he would indeed be red-shirting (Jarreau, not Kemp).

Terrence Ross had another sub-par shooting night going 4-14 from the field, 1-5 from range. He did shoot a very nice 5-6 from the charity stripe and for that I give him an A+.

What Needed Improvement:

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Huskies beat the Panthers 91-74

November 12, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 5 comments

by: John Chase

Dean Rutz - Seattle Times

Solid night for the Huskies as C.J. Wilcox led the way with a game high 22 points on 8-12 shooting, 5-8 outside the arc. Wilcox also added in 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 0 turnovers. It was a stellar performance that helped make up for Terrence Ross‘ somewhat quiet night.

Tony Wroten Jr. and Darnell Gant each dropped 18 on the board. Gant had 10 of UW’s first 13 points and shot 7-8 from the field, 2-3 from range. 18 is a career high and Wroten’s performance has to be one of the best career starts for a freshman in UW history. Wroten again showed how good he can be with some nice assists, but he also showed how risky his gameplay can be with 4 turnovers. Wroten had a very nice block on a GSU break away that ended with the Panther player suffering what looked like a broken arm or wrist. Tough break, no pun intended, if the GSU player does indeed have a broken bone as this was the first game of the season.

Aziz N’Diaye had a dominating defensive effort tonight and showed why he is such an important player to our team. He had a game high 8 rebounds and tied his career high with 5 blocks. N’Diaye had a devastating block as a GSU player tried to drive the baseline. N’Diaye stepped across the key, jumped straight up and smashed the ball and player to the ground. N’Diaye later got T’ed up after throwing a ball into the oppositions face. The other player was T’ed as well for pushing N’Diaye.

Abdul Gaddy had a game high 6 assists and an uncommon 4 turnovers. He shot decently on the night scoring 7 points on 3-9 shooting. Gaddy played a team high 32 minutes and was one of the few seasoned players on the court at the end of the game.

Other notable highlights from the night include Alex Wegner, the new walk-on from Vashon Island, hitting his first points as Husky with a nice 3 pointer. He went 1-3 overall, 1-2 from the 3-point line. Brendan Sherrer nearly scored as well but threw up a rather ugly shot. It looked as if he wanted to dunk, but was too far out and had to try for a bank shot instead.

Rashaad Richardson of GSU hit 7 3-pointers and was one of the few Panther players with any real offensive rhythm throughout the game. Josh Micheaux had 8 rebounds for the Panthers and added 9 points.

What Needed Improvement:

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Dawgs fall to Trojans

March 6, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 12 comments

by John Chase

AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

Final Score: UW-60 USC-62

A terrible way to end the season as well as senior night. Justin Holiday went scoreless the entire game, while Venoy Overton did everything in his power to will this team to a victory.

Rebounding and free throws killed us tonight. USC out rebounded UW 36-25. UW missed 6 free throws including a few huge ones down the stretch when the Dawgs were trying to fight back from 12 down.

UW handled the ball well, only turning the ball over 7 times. They dished out 8 assists on 21 makes. UW also had 6 blocks and steals on top of 11 forced turnovers. Overton was a Venoying machine out there and was critical down the stretch. At one point Romar pulled Overton out and Holiday told Romar “We need him.” Romar then chewed him out. I’m on Holiday’s side. Overton was the reason we came back. He made 4-6 from the field and 7-9 from the line.

Isaiah Thomas and Matthew Bryan-Amaning continued to struggle with their shooting. MBA was 5-11 and I.T. was 5-13. Holiday was 0-6, 0-3 from range. Our shooting woes were another reason we lost this game. 39% shooting on the night and 2-16 from outside is not going to win a game when compounded with the free throw and rebounding issues. Scott Suggs shot well on the other hand. 6-8, 2-3 behind the arc. C.J. Wilcox collapsed again. 1-7 from the field, 0-5 from range. Ugly.

Terrence Ross did not play tonight. Not sure the reason yet. This is extremely puzzling especially when one considers he was the reason we beat USC on the road at the onset of the Pac-10 season. Aziz played a team low 12 minutes and was hardly used in the second half. Aziz had 0 shots attempted, 0 rebounds, 1 steal, and 2 fouls. Useless tonight. He was just plain outclassed by the extremely strong duo of Alex Stephenson and Nikola Vucevic who combined for 24 boards and 30 points.

The crowd was dead tonight. I don’t know what has been going on, but the general fan base has been extremely apathetic and it kills me that it continued into Senior Night. Yes, I know the Huskies got down early, but being quiet is only supporting the opposing team.

 

What Needed Improvement

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Huskies tame the Bruins 70-63

March 3, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 20 comments

by: Griffin Bennett

We can all agree that we owe this win to the man wearing number 23, C.J. Wilcox. Romar even said in his post-game interview that Wilcox’s second half was “one of the greatest performances in the history of the program.” From the first tip, the Huskies defense looked inspired and it was a complete turn around from their flat performance on Sunday against WSU. On the Bruin’s first possession the Huskies showed their “soft” 3/4 zone pressure which gave UCLA fits. Romar mixed it up with man, 2-3 zone, full court press, and possibly even more strategies. It was one of his best coaching efforts in recent memory as it earned him a 70-63 victory.

While holding UCLA to 25 points and 37% field goal shooting in the first half, the Husky offense looked even worse. It looked like the WSU hangover had not ended as they finished the half with only 24 points while shooting 7 of 33 (21%). When the Huskies get in their offensive funk, lay ups seem like half court shots. The Bruins defense was playing step-for-step with the Dawgs as Nelson and Smith really made it hard to score in the paint.

The second half was another story, and that story belonged to C.J. Wilcox. He scored 24 of the Huskies 46 second half points. Taking out all free throws, Wilcox scored 18 of the Huskies 26 second half points. If it wasn’t for Wilcox, I think we would all be looking at how this team’s once prolific offense has escaped them. Not to rain on tonight’s parade, but there are still some concerns on the offensive end to deal with between now and mid-March. Now to the grades.

Positives:

  • C.J. Wilcox – He’s the obvious game MVP and posted one of the greatest single half performances ever. He finished with  24 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 2 blocks. I think it’s time for a group brain storming session. We need to figure out what the C. and the J. stand for: Clean Jumper? Christ, Jesus? Post your ideas in the comments.
  • Venoy Overton – He really brought the defensive intensity and it spread from him to the rest of the team. If it wasn’t for some TERRIBLE calls on his defensive pressure, he could have had one of his signature games as a Husky. It’s too bad that some refs are incompetent at recognizing defensive genius. He finished with only 10 points no steals or blocks, but if you watched that game you know what I’m talking about. He also only played 15 minutes.
  • Rebounds – Battling against the big line up of the Bruins was a tough task. The Huskies managed a 40-40 tie in the rebounding margin on the night, but they did grab an impressive 18 offensive boards. I’ll take a rebounding wash against UCLA every time.
  • MBA – He finished with only 7 points but did gather 13 rebounds. Hear me out on this one. Neither Aziz nor the referees gave him any help all night. Aziz’ lack of offensive game and inability be any sort of a factor allowed UCLA to double team him with Nelson and Smith which is one huge wall of man. The refs were their standard terrible Pac-10 self and called 2 terrible fouls on him early. Keeping both of those in mind, his stat line in still impressive while only playing 26 minutes.
  • Team Defense – The Huskies must have found Charlie Sheen’s supply of tiger blood between Sunday and Thursday night. #Winning.

Ehhhh: Read the rest of this entry »

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Dawgs Get Neutered by Cougs

February 27, 2011 in Uncategorized by Themod | 15 comments

by Craig Yamada 

WSU took care of the Huskies on Sunday night, 80-69 . Who’s to blame? The refs? Nope. This one is all on the guys wearing gold tonight.

At what seemed to be an emotionally charged Husky team coming into this game, came out shooting duds in the first half as they were able to muster a season low 17 points in the first half. The lid on the rim never seemed to lift until about 6 minutes to go in the second half. The Huskies were able to scrap in the first half and keep WSU to scoring just 24 points. However, the second half was another story altogether. WSU got to every loose ball and helped extend their time of possession and keep the Huskies out of their up and down game.

Klay Thompson went off for 26 points, 13 of which came from the stripe. Klay sunk three from downtown and was able to keep the momentum with WSU most of this game. DeAngelo Casto also had himself a good game with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Casto went 8 for 8 from the free throw line as well.

The Huskies on the other hand have a laundry list of problems after losing tonight’s game. The Pac-10 title had to have been on their minds tonight having seen the events of the Pac-10 games this weekend. But UW can now kiss those hopes good bye. Now it’s a question of whether the NCAA committee will have it in their hearts to keep our hopes alive as a bubble team. At 19-9, UW will have to win both home games against UCLA and USC and make a solid run in the Pac-1o tourney. Getting to 23 wins is ultimately the goal and they are trying to achieve. But they are flirting with NIT chants given the events of tonight.

Somewhat Positives:

  • Defense in the first half: keeping WSU to just 24 points in the first half went over looked due to the fact that Dawgs could only get 17 points. However, the defense was forcing turnovers in the first half and got several stops.
  • Venoy Overton: You have to tip your hat to VO tonight as he gave it his all on both sides of the floor. Though statistically it wasn’t his best, his energy and efforts were second to none on UW’s side of the ball tonight. He pushed the ball and was able to create turnovers on defense.
  • IT: IT managed to salvage a good scoring night tonight toward the end of the game as he finished with 21 points and managed to garner 5 assists.

The Ok:

  • MBA: Rough start from the London native tonight as he saw several double teams which took him out of his rhythm offensively. MBA tallied 3 turnovers tonight and never got his low post game started until it was way too late. Golf clap to him for sinking 8 of 9 from the stripe.

 

The Ugly:

  • Terrence Ross: Ross truly played like a freshman tonight. He was getting burned left and right on his defensive assignments and could not stick or close out his man. He also had difficulty establishing any kind of rhythm offensively as he went 0-5 shooting and had zero points.
  • 2nd Half Defense: Reggie Moore penetrated and the ceiling came down on the Dawgs on D tonight. Back door cuts and defensive lapses led to a lot easy buckets for Casto tonight.
  • Loose Balls: Any time the Huskies were able to force a bad shot from WSU, they were unable to get the rebound in the second half. This led to a barrage of second chance points led by their star, Klay Thompson.
  • FG Percentage: 34% is not going to get it done on any night. Easily one of the worst shooting nights in recent memory for these Dawgs.
  • Free Throws: 63% won’t get it done down the stretch. IT shot 33% from the stripe. Can someone tell me why he is shooting the technical free throws when Wilcox is in the game?
  • Turnovers: 16 on the night. Can’t win with careless mistakes.
  • Aziz’s Hands: It still amazes me how uncoordinated he is in the post when a guard drops a dime to him. Although he showed some signs of a post game tonight, he missed so many easy chip shots that UW desperately needed. If he is our lone big man next year, UW will be in serious trouble.

Is there hope left? Of course there is. But night’s like tonight make it hard. It should be interesting how UW rebounds on Thursday against UCLA.

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