Exhibition vs. Central: Some Observations

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.