Exhibition vs. Central: Some Observations
by thecassino on Nov 5, 2009 1:00 PM PST
7 comments
It's tough to take a lot from a game like this. The Huskies are better than the Wildcats in every single imaginable way, and it showed on the court. It goes without saying that guys like Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter dominated last night, because they're simply too good at basketball to not have their way with a D-II team, so it doesn't merit much talk. However, there are a few things of note and areas of concern.
- Three point shooting was not good. 5 of 21 will not get it done against quality opponents and it's perhaps the team's biggest concern coming into the season. Central went to a 2-3 zone in this game, and it briefly stymied the UW offense. Neither Elston Turner or C.J. Wilcox made a shot. If someone doesn't step forward as a sharpshooter we're going to be looking at a lot of zone this year. Encouraging though, was that Overton and Pondexter both went 1 for 3. If Overton can hit about that percent for the season it would be a huge improvement.
- Matthew Bryan-Amaning was the guy on the glass. But here we are again with him stepping up against an inferior opponent. Can he keep it up? He wasn't an effective offensive player, and looked outclassed in that area by two freshmen, Tyreese Breshers and Clarence Trent.
- Free throw shooting wasn't good either. This is an area that causes everybody to tear their hair out. Free throws. Free. Make them.
- Darnell Gant's added muscle has already paid dividends. He pulled down 10 boards.
- Scott Suggs looks like a Pac-10 player this year. He definitely used the offseason to get bigger. He's still slim, but not like he was last season. However, he still isn't playing like a Pac-10 player.
- Tyreese Breshers might be this team's best big man once he gets healthy. He simply owns the paint when he's down there, and though he's not yet 100% he was the best offensive post player on the team last night.
- The defense could be scary this year. When Justin Holiday comes back, this might be the best defensive team in the conference.
- Abdul Gaddy is still catching up to college defense. He played a lot of defense with his hands rather than his feet, and it got him into foul trouble. This might be the reason Overton started, and may be the reason Overton continues to start (if he does) until Abdul gets up to speed.
- Abdul Gaddy gets college offense. He lead the team in assists, including a highlight reel alley-oop to Quincy Pondexter. He displayed the kind of vision at the point this program hasn't seen since Will Conroy. And he's only going to get better as he gets more experience.
- The shooting as a whole wasn't good. The team shot under 40%, but it's hard for a team to get into an offensive rhythm with as much subbing as there was. Romar was bouncing players in and out, experimenting with different cominations of players and it likely affected the players' consistency.
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If Q and Venoy are taking that many threes between them
… then our three shooting is going to suck. We want Turner, Suggs, Wilcox and a little IT taking those shots. The other guys taking them are just wasting our possessions.
Damn, my eyeball tastes good.
Well Suggs and Wilcox probably won't be playing
Thomas hasn’t shown that he’s any better a shooter than Venoy and Quincy, as both of those guys have worked on their stroke over the offseason. The three point shooting is suspect, and if at least one or two of Pondexter/Overton/Holiday/Gaddy doesn’t step up the team is going to be very limited.
Be patient with these guys. If Venoy is hitting 1/3 a night that’s an improvement, and not a bad shot at all. Same with Q-Pon. Calling it a waste of a possession is a bit of an overreaction. Somebody has to take the shots.
I disagree
… Thomas will need to hoist a few in order to make sure his man plays him close – this will enable his strength which is getting to the hoop with the ball in his hands.
…I can’t imagine us going long stretches without one of our three shooters out there to keep the lane loose and keep the opposition out of the zone. If Suggs/Wilcox can’t earn rotation time, we’ll have a hard time scoring. Venoy and QPon are who they are this late into their careers. Venoy needs to be distributing and QPon needs to be slashing.
Damn, my eyeball tastes good.
I'm guessing by 3 shooters you're talking abou Turner, Suggs and Wilcox
And again, the only one of those guys who’ll be getting minutes is Turner. Wilcox has a strong chance of redshirting and Suggs is still not the player that the other guards on the team are. Turner will probably be getting around 20 minutes a game, so that’s going to leave an entire half of the game where there’s a shooting void for the Huskies. So somebody who IS going to get minutes is going to have to take some threes, and Overton and Pondexter are two people who fit that description. You don’t think that two 21 year olds can improve their game? That’s a pretty pessimistic way of thinking. It’s also wrong.
Wow, that posted before I meant it to, sorry...
There’s no reason to worry about one game’s shooting, on a team or individual level. Let’s get more than a couple threes thrown up per person before we make any judgments.
No Worries
The Huskies never start off the season playing their best basketball, They lost their first game to Portland last year. Dentmon was 1 for 7 from three point land and the team’s three point percentage was 18.8%. This is exactly why they play teams like central to start the season. Their shooting will get better.
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