Game 5: Montana
by thecassino on Nov 29, 2009 3:30 PM PST
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PrintConference: Big Sky
Record: 4-1
Pomeroy Rankings: 59th Overall, 191st Offense, 16th Defense
Best Win: 68-55 @Oregon
Coach: Wayne Tinkle, 52-44, 4th season
Key Players:
Anthony Johnson: 6-3 Guard, Senior. 22 PPG (121.2 ORating), 69.3 FTRate, 4 APG
Brian Qvale: 6-11 Center, Junior. 11.6 PPG (150.6 ORating), 7.6 RPG, 2 BPG (7.5 BLK%)
Jack McGillis: 6-6 Forward, Senior. 7.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG
Scouting Montana:
The Grizz have been inconsistent this year, beating lesser teams and even upsetting Oregon, yet also losing on the road to lowly Denver. They play a slow pace (62.8 Adjusted Tempo, 321st) and grind it out on defense. One of those teams. Their philosophy on defense is to play position and force a shot, then seal out and get the defensive rebound, which contrasts directly with the Huskies' rebounding style of crashing the boards. Montana's offense is much like their defense in that second chance points are few and far between. They shoot the ball decently from the field, but struggle mightily behind the arc.
How to Beat Them:
Whichever team shakes off the cobwebs first is going to have the upper hand. The Huskies haven't played in 9 days, and the Grizzlies haven't played in 6. If one team comes out sluggish they'll likely dig themselves an early hole. The Huskies need to play interior defense and force the Grizzlies to shoot the 3, forcing some long rebounds off of which the Huskies can get out and run to create some quick and easy baskets. The Dawgs also need to use their offensive rebounding style to overpower Montana's defensive rebounding style.
Prediction:
The Huskies need to play sound basketball to win comfortably, and coming off of 9 days without game action, that can be hard to do. The first half might be a little bit disjointed, but by the second half Washington should be able to play as they're capable. As long as Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter are the best players on the court Montana shouldn't pose a serious threat.
Huskies win: 82 - 67
Vegas: UW -19.5
Viewing: 6:00 FSN, Bank of America Arena
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If the Huskies hang on
There’s good chance they’ll be ranked in the top 10 next poll with Michigan State, Tennessee, Butler, North Carolina and UConn all losing.
Gaddy and Breshers starting
Over Overton and Gant. Both a little surprising considering Breshers’ conditioning and Venoys play thus far.
by thecassino on Nov 29, 2009 6:15 PM PST via mobile reply actions
Don't know what Romar is doing with the rotation
Pondexter and Thomas have both been on the bench for about 3 minutes
We need to speed up the tempo.
Playing Montana’s pace is not helping.
As ugly as we're playing I'm surprised we are only down by single digits
Q and IT need to assert themselves.
Two observations
1) Montana has a great chance to complete this upset because Johnson hasn’t even gotten going yet.
2) Your home uniforms look like the inside of my 5 month old’s diaper.
Pondexter has yet to do anything either.
But I agree this game is going to be close too close for my liking if the Huskies keep playing this bad.
I'm really surprised they haven't tried harde to get the ball into him in the high post
Weaver used to kill people from up there against that zone — Pondexter’s a similar triple threat (although obviously not the same kind of passer)
He's gotten a couple looks from there
Made a nice pass or two and got hammered once. No call though.
Do you think the Gaddy starting experiment will continue in future games?
He got yanked pretty fast.
You're probably going to end up saying that a lot this year.
As we’ll be saying about Aron Baynes. You just don’t find that kind of rebounding very often.
Whoever it was that said he wanted the game sped up
Is getting his wish. Not sure that’s a good thing.
I think IT initiated the contact there...
But I’ll take what I can get.
MissBrickAirball?
The man needs to stop dribbling so much.
THEY ARE TRYING TO GIVE US THE GAME MAKE FREE THROWS
by stupidquestions on Nov 29, 2009 7:38 PM PST reply actions
Regardless of the final score both teams are losers today.
This is some pretty bad basketball.
The last five minutes by Montana might be the worst basketball I've ever seen
and I saw UW’s first half tonight.
by stupidquestions on Nov 29, 2009 7:43 PM PST reply actions
Wow
This got exciting!
So Im thinking top 10 after the nard demonstration tonight if they pull this off.
I think I just pooped your pants...
What a lucky break there.
no 3-pt play.
by stupidquestions on Nov 29, 2009 8:02 PM PST reply actions
Don't feel too bad
Montana is a pretty good Big Sky team. They already beat Oregon in Eugene. Any win is a good win.
The Cougs barely beat Alaska-Anchorage and Nichols State, and then destroyed a pretty decent San Diego team. As long as you avoid bad losses, that’s all that really matters.
This was a good win
We aren’t going to blow every team out…and accept the fact the team is still learning.
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