UW/Montana Recap
by thecassino on Nov 30, 2009 9:00 AM PST
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Final Score: 63-59, Husky win (5-0)
Four Factors:
The two Husky hallmarks recently have been offensive rebounding and getting to the free throw line. Those two things were evident against Montana and were critical in overcoming the Huskies' piss poor shooting effort. For the fourth straight game the Huskies were over 40% (47.3% to be exact) in OR%, which makes for a ton of second chances. Unfortunately the shooting was so horrible that often the rebounder was not able to make the second chance basket. The Huskies also destroyed the Griz at the free throw line, and to be honest, the margin should have been wider. There were countless plays, mostly in the first half, when a UW shooter was hammered and no foul was called. The Huskies played sloppy at times, but Montana played sloppy for nearly the entire game.
Summary:
When you play almost 40 games in a season, inevitably you are going to have some where you just play poorly. When you're a bad team, you end up getting killed in those games. But the Huskies showed their mettle by playing hard the entire game and overcoming their 35.4 eFG%. I mentioned in the preview that the 9 day layoff between games may factor in, and I don't think there's any doubt that it did. The rust was evident. The Huskies were able to penetrate the zone at times and get offensive rebounds but just couldn't put the ball in the basket for about 30 minutes. Even though the shots weren't falling Romar's squad stayed committed to defense, kept Montana from pulling away and stayed close until they were able to take control. Isaiah Thomas got it going late and made several big shots in the last few minutes, while Venoy Overton also played big at the end of the game, hitting 3/4 free throws and blocking what would have been a game tying 3 pointer.
Player of the Game:
For whatever reason, Darnell Gant did not play until the second half. This is a guy who started every game this year, and all games last season except for one. Clearly there was a reason for that because as soon as he checked into the game there was a noticeable momentum shift. He didn't even make a shot from the field, but he hit both of his free throws, took a charge, pulled down 4 offensive rebounds, played top notch defense and made several plays that won't show up in the box score. It wasn't a stat stuffing game, but Gant has always been a beyond-the-box-score type of player.
Honorable mention to Venoy Overton, who scored 10 points (50 eFG&) with 4 assists for a 165 ORating. He added 3 rebounds and had a huge blocked shot.
Stat of the Game:
13: The number of non-steal turnovers committed by Montana. A huge number.
Other Observations:
Again Romar played all 11 players. It's too many. The players seem out of sync way too often and a big reason is that the rotation hasn't been solidified yet.
Abdul Gaddy got his first start (Venoy Overton was late to shootaround), but he really looks his age out there. He doesn't do much for the team against a zone because he's not a very good shooter yet.
Of the Suggs/Holiday/Turner trio, Suggs and Holiday looked terrible, while Turner had his best game of the season going 4/8 for 11 points.
Quincy Pondexter played his worst game in a long time. He just couldn't get shots to fall, and quite honestly was getting pounded in the first half but the refs wouldn't give him call. I think that got him off his game further and frustrated him. He'll bounce back. This game was an aberration.
A Note About UW Versus Zones Going Forward:
A lot is being made about UW's inability to break zones. I don't think it's that big a deal. The Huskies are turning out to be a decent shooting team with Thomas, Turner and Suggs all being guys who can knock them down with regularity, and even Venoy Overton seems to have improved his shot from range. If you exclude Abdul Gaddy, every Husky shot 33% or better from deep last night.
The biggest factor working in the Huskies favor going against a zone is that zones give up a lot of offensive rebounding opportunites because defenders don't have a man they're assigned to box out. Giving a Lorenzo Romar coached team on edge on the offensive glass is not a wise move, and the Huskies will always capitalize on that. While the Huskies may suffer a little by being forced to shoot outside more than they'd like, it will be neutralized by their advantage on the offensive glass.
The problem last night wasn't that the Huskies played against a zone, it was that they played terribly.
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I'm not worried, because of this game at all...
With normal reffing, IT goes to the line for 6-8 more FT attempts.
We probably won’t shoot that bad again this year, aside from less fouls being called on our close ones, we missed more than we will. Lots of tough luck bounces that just missed.
The good: Our defense and our rebounding were absolutely great, and that continues the trend we’ve seen all year thus far.
I can’t wait to see other teams try to zone against us. With IT and Turner on the outside and our big guys fighting for rebounds, I think we have a chance to keep a 40%+ OR%, even against Pac-10 teams, if they try to zone.
From watching the game, I’m not sure last time I’ve seen the team miss so many open looks at the basket. It wasn’t so much a case of the Grizzlies forcing the Huskies into bad shots – they just couldn’t get the ball to go down. Maybe the time off was a factor in that, I don’t know. I doubt we’ll see the Huskies collectively miss that many open looks at the basket again this season.
Missed open looks don't bother me, it's not like that's going to turn into a problem.
Just bad luck, we missed a ton of open looks against Montana, but it doesn’t mean we will miss more open looks in the future.
Huskies are still the best team in the Pac-10 and a top-10 team nationwide. WOOF WOOF
To suggest that the refs
were unfair to the Huskies is absurd. It is like suggesting that Tinker Bell built the Space Needle. The refs called 26 fouls on the Grizzles and only 15 on the Huskies. The Grizzlies shot only 8 foul shots; the Huskies shot 26.
The only team that’s justified in complaining about the reffing is the Grizzlies. If the game had been called in a professional way, they’d have won.
So in your mind
The only way for a game to be properly officiated is for the fouls to be called evenly regardless of how the teams play? You can’t look at the box score and say that because one team got more fouls called or shot more free throws that one team was favored over the other. I’m not saying that the refs missed calls for Montana, just that there were a number of times where a Husky player was clearly fouled yet no whistle was blown.
Remember when Isaiah Thomas made that driving shot late in the game and pumped his fist in frustration? He doesn’t do that just because he thought he was fouled on that play. He does that because he was being fouled regularly and hardly got any calls.
A play where Quincy Pondexter had the ball about 8 feet from the hoop, went to shoot and one side of his body left the ground while the other side was held down by a players arm comes to mind as well.
There were several plays where a Husky player got a rebound under the rim, went for a putback and all of a sudden he’s shooting from behind the backboard. That’s a foul.
Just because the Huskies got to the line more than Montana did doesn’t mean that differential shouldn’t have been larger.
Sorry, but that’s ridiculous. Your contention seems to be either that teams always commit an equal number of fouls, or it’s the responsibility of refs to call an equal number of fouls regardless of what actually happens. Both ideas are completely false. If you watched the game, you saw an awful lot of hacking of the Huskies by the Grizzlies that went uncalled. Just because the refs called more fouls on the Grizzlies doesn’t mean that they didn’t deserve even more.
Furthermore
Because Montana turned the ball over more and UW got more offensive rebounds, that creates more opportunities for the Huskies to draw fouls, especially since offensive rebounds generally happen closer to the basket where the majority of fouls occur.
Of course the officials don’t have to call fouls evenly. The goal is to be consistent at both ends of the floor. (I’m a former basketball referee on the high school level, by the way). The officials missed some fouls committed by the Grizzlies; they missed a lot more fouls committed by the Huskies. They also called a lot of “phantom” offensive fouls on the Griz. The Grizzly coach wasn’t really complaining after the game (he did during the game to the refs) as he knows that’s how it often goes on the home court. The Huskies have a good team, but when they go on the road, the refs won’t be nearly as friendly as they were in that game, that’s for sure.
A lot of shots that just missed.
I fully expect more of those to fall in the future. I love how so far, even without Brock, this team has annihilated the boards. Keep it going!
by stupidquestions on Nov 30, 2009 9:19 PM PST reply actions
Team still finding itself
The team is still finding itself. I suspect the rotation of so many players is to give some gametime experience and see what we got. I suspect when we get to Pac 10 play it will settle to 9 regular players, but we’ll see.
by Fighting Husky on Nov 30, 2009 10:01 PM PST reply actions
If you have access to a tape
of the game, watch the 4th foul called on Qvale—that’s one of the “phantom” fouls. The replay showed Qvale was the one who had position, and he was the one who was fouled—not the other way around. When he was charged with the foul, it changed the Grizzly game plan for the final ten minutes of the game. He had to sit out most of those minutes, at a time when he was playing dominating ball, and the Huskies were awarded 2 foul shots.
Qvale wasn't fouled. If anything it was a no call.
But for that foul that was called on him, go back and count the number that weren’t. I can think of two off the top of my head where he hacked Thomas and the whistles were quiet.
At this point you’re picking nits.
In addition to earlier comments about offensive board possessions, the free throw discrepancy can also be attributed to style of play.
From what I saw Montana was settling for a lot of jumpshots in the second half. Not sure why you want your 7 footer settling for 3’s but that was part of the problem for them.
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