Category Archives: Huskies Basketball

Posts dealing with Huskies basketball

by Matthew | February 14, 2010 · 2:20 pm

Huskies Plus/Minus

Here are Plus/Minus numbers for the Huskies this season. From what I can tell, they’re only up-to-date for Jan. 27th, so that’s about 6 games missing. Taken from www.basketball-statistics.com. First column is total, 2nd is net offensive, 3rd is net defensive.

Isaiah Thomas  13.7 6.8 -6.9
Scott Suggs  9.3 5.8 -3.5
Quincy Pondexter  8.9 4.3 -4.6
Matthew Bryan-Amaning  8.6 1.3 -7.3
Venoy Overton  6.3 1.9 -4.4
Justin Holiday  2.3 3.0 0.7
Clarence Trent  -3.3 4.4 7.7
Darnell Gant  -4.8 0.2 5.0
Elston Turner  -6.8 -5.0 1.9
Abdul Gaddy  -16.2 -7.5 8.7
Tyreese Breshers  -18.1 -11.3 6.8

There is of course lots going on with these numbers, because there are always four other players on the court and they depend greatly on the opponent, but they’re interesting anyway. If anyone can find more current numbers, that’d be great.

Matthew

2 Comments

Filed under Huskies Basketball

by Andrew Long | February 14, 2010 · 2:09 pm

Why the Huskies COULD Win Out

There seems to be at least a little interest in this topic so I thought I’d try to explain. Joe, Dan, and me seem to be in agreement that the Huskies very well could win the rest of their regular season games (I haven’t talked to Matthew about this but I think he probably feels the same). We know that the Huskies have 3 more road games. We know that they’ve only won one road game out of eight. We know they are as inconsistent as Pac-10 refs. But I’ll explain why we think this.

When I was young I played basketball and baseball. My dad was my coach and I loved playing these sports to say the least. I would practice and practice, not because I was supposed to but because I wanted to. But no matter how much I practiced dad would tell me that sports were 50% physical and 50% mental. You could have all the physical skills in the world, but without the right mindset (the mindset that you would make a shot, throw it where you’re supposed to, and that you’re going to win) you wouldn’t be a good player. All year the Huskies have had this mental problem in which they couldn’t play anywhere near their potential on the road. Now, they finally won a road game and maybe that problem is gone. Maybe not, but the Huskies are clearly a better team than their 1-7 road record and now that they’ve got the monkey off their back. Their mindset might be in the right place now.

So lets take a look at the next 5 games:

Feb. 18th, home against USC- This game scares me. I know the Huskies play like a top 15 team at home but, for whatever reason, it seems like we never match up with them. They are pretty athletic and completely dominated us when we played them at home. I think we win this game but not that easily.

Feb. 20th, home against UCLA- We should win this game for many reasons. UCLA is not very good, it’s senior day, national TV, sold out arena, college gameday is there, and we should’ve beat UCLA on the road. Count this one as a win.

Feb. 27th, @WSU- It’s hard to win on your rivals home floor and this is probably our toughest road game left. WSU has had these 2nd half collapses and it would seem like they’d play a complete game sometime but I think their young team is tired. This game is a toss-up for me. We match up pretty well with them but it’s their last home game, which makes for a pretty hostile environment.

Mar. 4th, @Oregon- Since beating the Huskies at Hec Ed. Oregon has lost 8 of it’s last 10 games. The Ducks suck but if they’re going to be fired up and ready to win a game it’ll be this one. Oregon fans don’t like UW (much like we don’t like them) and they will make it a tough place to play. Even with this I think the Huskies will avenge their only home loss of the season and win this game.

Mar. 6th, @OSU- Oregon State is not a tough place to play. The Beavers can take people by surprise though with their quirky schemes. On paper we should have no trouble with Oregon State but that’s why they play the game. OSU is bad and we should win this game but we have to be ready to go and can’t take it easy this game.

If the Huskies have really turned a corner with this road win then they could very well win the rest of their games. Unfortunately, that’s a big if. If the Dawgs win out they should lock down a spot in the tournament, if not they’ll have to do some work in the pac-10 tournament. Regardless of what happens, it makes for an interesting 3 weeks. I hope they’ve turned the corner. As one of my favorite bands writes “Just hoping makes me better for it.”

Andrew

1 Comment

Filed under Huskies Basketball

by Joe Loughery | February 13, 2010 · 10:26 pm

UW beats Stanford, 800 pound gorilla leaves the room

See ya...

The Huskies finally got the giant gorilla off their backs by defeating Stanford tonight 78-61. I am very pleased with this win, for a lot of reasons. One, the team bounced back after a tough, hard fought loss at Cal, showing grit and determination by defeating a team that was 5-0 at home in the conference. Second, Darnell Gant finally played, and played well. He was all over the glass, played good defense, and generally didn’t make a fool of himself on offense, unlike MBA or Breshers (I like both guys, but Breshers is a walking personal foul, and MBA thinks he is Olajuwon, which he is not…). I am trying to find some stats to back up my claim, but if basketball had a +/- like hockey, Gant’s would be off the charts good. When he was on the floor, the

Tree! Thanks for losing!!

Huskies played great defense, and the offense seemed to flow better, probably because the black hole know as MBA was not in there. The Dawgs were down 8-2, Romar puts Overton and Gant in there, and boom, a 14-0 run. Same thing at the end of the game. Gant and Overton in there, and they close the door. Look, it’s do or die. Gaddy and Breshers will be fine players in a year or two, but right now, the Dawgs must go with the hot hands, and Overton and Gant played so well tonight, I expect them to see significant minutes from here on out. Of course, Pondexter played well, he was strong, as was Thomas, he has some nice assists. He certainly has a shooters mentality, sometimes for the good, and times for the bad. Holiday played flat out lockdown defense on Fields. Turner did his thing, knocking down a couple big three’s. Not to completely trash MBA, he did end up with 11 points, but my goodness, when he gets the ball on the block, it’s gut-wrenching! I really think Romar did a fine job tonight tightening up his rotation, and staying with the hot hands. I commend him for doing that. Let’s hope this philosophy stays intact over the next few weeks.

No more Twitter for Isaiah, holla!

The expectation for this team is to win out in the regular season. USC is the best team they face that is left on their schedule, and that game is at home, along with UCLA. Those are must wins, and expected wins. And then, three road games to end it, all against inferior opponents: Cougs, Ducks and Beavs. Maybe I am drinking way too much kool aid, but I really see this team winning out the rest of the regular season, assuming of course they keep the defensive intensity at a high.

With all the nay-sayers out there, someone has to play the contrarian, why not me? All in all, a good night for the Huskies.

-Joe

4 Comments

Filed under Huskies Basketball

Tagged as Stanford, Washington Huskies

by Andrew Long | February 13, 2010 · 9:14 pm

Finally!

We won a road game! UW beats Stanford 78-61. I’m not going to give a recap, that might come later by someone, but I just thought this blog should express some excitement! It’s great to get this “can’t win a road game” thought out of our heads. If the Dawgs somehow make this a year to remember the play of the year will be Quincy diving a quarter of the way across the court, beating all pac-10 forward Landry Fields to the ball and then passing it to Darnell Gant for a game-clinching dunk. That’s the kind of play Jon Brockman made. That’s the kind of play you want from your captain and that play showed how much Quincy wants it. We have a long ways to go in a short amount of time but that might be the kind of play that turns around a season. (Knock on wood for me, thank you.)

Andrew

2 Comments

Filed under Huskies Basketball

by Andrew Long | February 13, 2010 · 11:14 am

A Little More on the Possible Pac-10 Expansion

(Authors note: Ted Miller has a good post about this same topic in his blog on espn also.)

Dan did a nice job of summing up the possibility of the Pac-10 expanding to the Pac-12. I am not a big fan of this idea because I don’t think the teams that could be added don’t bring a lot to the conference and I don’t like what this could to conferencing scheduling. But I think there could be a way to make me like this move more.

I had thought that if there was an expansion then the pac-10 would split into two divisions, north and south. Competing in the south division would be USC, UCLA, Arizona, ASU, Cal, and Stanford (Cal and Stanford could be in the north). That makes for a north division of Colorado, Utah, Oregon, OSU, WSU and UW. If this were to happen the dawgs would play the 5 teams in their division every year. They would then cycle through the teams in the south, playing 3 or 4 of those teams in one season. If this were to happen the north division would miss out on recruiting. Oregon and UW, who recruit southern California actively, would miss out on playing USC and UCLA some years and thus, would miss out on the exposure those games bring.

But what if the expansion was set up differently? Lets forget about the north and south divisions and set them up differently:

Division 1: Arizona, USC, Cal, Oregon State, WSU, and Colorado.

Division 2: Arizona State, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, UW, and Utah.

Each team would play their whole division, that sets up 5 games. Then all the natural rivals (UW vs. WSU, UO vs. OSU, etc.) would play every year. That leaves two games to cycle through teams in the other division. I say 2 because then the pac has a chance to load up on non-conference games and has a better opportunity to make it to bowl games (like the SEC does now). The conference would have to set up these divisions correctly; having rivals like Oregon and UW in the same division would be vital. The winners of the division would go on to play in the conference championship game with an automatic BCS bid to the Rose Bowl at stake. Like Dan said, the expansion would increase the chance of having multiple pac-10 teams in BCS bowls.

I don’t know how serious the talk of this expansion is. It might be as serious as they let on but it could also be to take the attention off of the penalties that are about to come down on USC. If it does happen I hope the commissioner realizes that north-south divisions would hurt several teams in the pac.

Andrew (Go dawgs, time for a road win!)

1 Comment

Filed under Huskies Basketball, Huskies Football, Uncategorized

by Andrew Long | February 12, 2010 · 2:57 pm

A few Husky/random thoughts.

Happy Friday to you all and thank you for a great first week on the blog. We’ve got some ideas that we’re excited to write about coming up soon. Anyway, here are some thoughts to kick off a three day weekend:

I’m as disappointed as anyone that the Huskies lost last night. Really, I would’ve given my right foot’s pinky toe to win that game but I wasn’t that upset afterwards. First of all, I expected to lose. This isn’t exactly a good thing but a win just never seemed likely to me. Secondly, the dawgs didn’t play that bad. Cal was simply on fire. Did you see some of the things Jerome Randle did last night? When a player gets going like that there’s not much you can do. Even when falling behind by 18 the Huskies fought. That’s more than we can say about any of their other pac-10 road games (save UCLA). I truly believe that if we were playing any other pac-10 team we would’ve won last night, Cal was just ready to go. One other thought on the game and then we can put it to rest. The Huskies had just cut the lead to 8 and Randle dribbled the ball down the court. Gutierrez shoves Thomas right into Overton, they knock each other down and then Randle hits a 3. Maybe it’s just me but shouldn’t there be a foul called there. It’s hard to tell how much Thomas flopped but it seemed pretty evident that he was pushed. I’ll stop now before I start on a rant about Pac-10 refs.
Tomorrow’s game is huge. If the Huskies play like they did yesterday I really think they’ll win, but the last few times they’ve got beat on Thursday they’ve come out flat on Saturday. Stanford sucks but they’re also 5-0 at home. If the Huskies lose this game an at-large bid to the tournament seems highly unlikely. A few suggestions to make the
Elston Turner?

Dawgs’ feel more at home. Purple-shaded sports goggles– Can you imagine Venoy wearing these? Elston Turner dresses up as the Husky mascot Harry– Lets be honest, Turner isn’t doing us any good. If he were to dawn Harry’s costume it would give the team a reminder of home. Plus, if we somehow blew the Cardinal out we could put him in and how cool would it be to see Harry on the court? Give them the special drink Bugs Bunny uses in Space Jam- I love Space Jam.

A few more sports thoughts:

I really don’t like Geoff Baker(Seattle Times Mariners beat writer). He comes back from his vacation and his first blog post is a sarcastic apology to players he’s made fun of over the years. A day earlier Steve Kelley wrote a column apologizing to Erik Bedard for his poor treatment by the media (it was a nice idea but poorly executed). I didn’t like Baker to begin with but this post sent me over the edge. I admit, I’ll be the first to make a Carlos Silva fat joke but I’m also not a professional journalist. Baker is good at what he does but he comes off very arrogant to me and doesn’t seem like a very nice guy.
I wonder if there are online classes I could take to become a certified pac-10 ref, it seems like that’s all it takes.
Maybe it’s time to sit Abdul Gaddy. I like him and think he’ll be a very good player in time but he’s just not helping the team right now. I know he needs time to develop, but I think that Overton, Thomas, and Suggs all need to play more minutes than he does. Breshers also seems like he’s worn down and is getting outplayed by MBA. When you’re getting outplayed by MBA you know things are bad.
There’s a girl named Hooch Fagaly on the Huskies softball team. Really??! That poor girl. Oh, and Danielle Lawrie threw a perfect game in the first game of the season.
A few happy thoughts to enter the weekend. Pete Carroll is no longer coach of USC, Paul Wulff is still coach of WSU, Cliff Lee is a Mariner, and Space Jam is at your local Blockbuster just waiting for you to rent it.

Andrew

1 Comment

Filed under Huskies Basketball, Mariners

by Joe Loughery | February 11, 2010 · 12:50 am

UW vs. Cal – Pac-10 Lead and Tourney Birth at Stake

Oski - The Creepiest Mascot in Sports.

At 6pm, Washington and California rumble in Berkeley for the Pac-10 lead. Some may scoff and say that leading the Pac-10 isn’t much to celebrate, but I beg to differ. We can all look at, and study, the RPI to death, but I usually like to judge teams based on how they actually look on the court, and then compare them to other teams across the nation. Cal and Washington are the two most talented teams in the Pac-10, no question. Cal has been consistent at home and away, with their only bad loss being the blowout at HecEd. The UW, on the other hand, has been dominant at home, 16-1 (how they lost to the Ducks is beyond me, lucky win by Ernie’s crew? Maybe…), and flat out bad on the road. In fact, they have regressed in many ways. Texas Tech and Georgetown were competitive games, on the whole, while their four conference road games have been clunkers.

The key, in my mind, to this game will be Jerome Randle. In the game at HecEd, Randle was lost. Literally. He could not pass, had no idea where his man was on defense, and Coach Montgomery noticed, benching him for long periods of time. He ended the game going 2-9 from the field. It was by far his worst game of the year. If Randle just has an average game Thursday (19.1 pts), things will be very different. Patrick Christopher had a big game that day. 28 pts, 8 boards, 14-18 from the line. He pretty much got the shots he wanted all day. That concerns me. Look, Justin Holiday can’t guard everyone. I think Cal is beginning to figure it out on offense. They are a three man team: Randle, Christopher and Robertson. Over the past couple games, these guys have scored 102 of the 135 points the Bears have scored. Cal is getting their identity in order, which means good things are in store for the crew from Berkeley.

One the other side we have the Huskies. Coming into this game, the Dawgs may have started to figure out who they are: a defensive team. Quite literally, when this team plays in your shorts, brash defense led by Venoy Overton (or Venoying as I like to call him), they are extremely hard to beat. There is no one in the Pac-10 who can hang with them when they are crazy on defense and crashing the boards. The problem, of course, is they don’t bring this defense on the road with them. The two losses in Arizona were

Plastic Man!

embarrassments. No one contested shots, no one got back, and what happened? Got run by 17 both times. Now, in both those games, Holiday didn’t play, and he is most certainly a difference maker. Just see the game up in Seattle against those same teams. Horne and Kuksiks were non-factors, largely due to Holiday playing his Stacy Augmon “Plastic Man” defense defense on them. I expect Holiday to play well Thursday, but it will be interesting to see who Holiday checks. He is taller than Christopher, but Patrick has him by 40 lbs. Robertson is a load at 6-6 230. I expect to see a lot of switching with Pondexter on these two guys. If the Dawgs let the Big Three go off, it will be a very long and frustrating night for the Huskies, so QPon, Holiday, and Venoy must bring their A games. I do think the emergence of Scott Suggs has helped this team gain confidence on the offensive end verses a zone. I have no idea what defense Cal was running in the January game. I watched the who game, and Cal didn’t play a lick of defense. That said, Suggs and Turner have been great zone busters with the ability to hit the corner three ball. Do it with some consistency, and they have a recipe for success on the road in a hostile environment. I know I haven’t said much about Isaiah in this post, and that is by design. If I.T. just lets the game come to him and plays his role, the Huskies are much better off.

In the end, this will be an extremely tough game for the UW to win. I cannot think of a scenario in which Cal comes out flat. I would think right away we must lock down Randle. Thomas is underrated as a defender, so I expect him to check Jerome. After that, the Dawgs better hope the refs let them play, or else they’ll have foul trouble quick, and Cal in the bonus before the 12 minute mark. The Huskies must withstand the initial emotion of the start, and just hang in there and give themselves a chance at the end. I feel very confident the Dawgs will come out playing well, I just think Cal may be slightly better because of the home court.

Joe

3 Comments

Filed under Huskies Basketball

Tagged as California Golden Bears, Washington Huskies

by Joe Loughery | February 6, 2010 · 11:41 pm

Huskies, Intro & Quick Hits

Wow, well, finished up watching the Dawgs wipe the floor with ASU. That’s great, I really don’t like Derek Glasser, he’s a bum. Thursday at Cal. CAN WE GET A ROAD WIN PLEASE!?!? National TV, ESPN, let’s do this DAWGS!!! UW wins and first place is ours.

Anyway, I was invited to be a member by Danny and so far the posts have been excellent, I expected nothing less. I am clearly NOT the best good guy here, I can tell right away I might just be the peanut gallery!! I am honored to be a part of this, as I am passionate sports. It’s a wonderful constant in my life, always a great topic of discussion and interest. I think humor and lightheartedness are vital to loving sports (especially in this town!!!!), so fair warning, I may not always be serious…

About me… I’m 32, born and raised in the state of Washington, so yes, I am a homer, but I love the national sports scene as well. Went to school at Auburn High, then college at the UW, class of 2000. The Huskies are it for me, football and hoops are 1 and 2 on my list. I am very passionate about the UW, I love the school, the campus, the neighborhood. I love the vibe before and after games. I really don’t pull for any other school, and I am generally not a “root for the Pac-10” guy. I backed Penn State in the 1994 Rose Bowl against Oregon when a bunch of so called UW fans thought it was “neat” the Ducks made it. “Go west coast” they tell me. Bull. Oregon sucks and always will. Kenny Wheaton is a cuss word in my vocab.

Regarding pro sports, I love the M’s, Hawks, Sonics, Sounders, TBirds. Yes, the Sonics. I still love them and always will. The Supes are a passion of mine. The 1990’s are the decade I really matured sports wise, and the SuperSonics had their best run that decade. I am old enough to remember Dale Ellis, Tommy Chambers and the X-Man, but for me Payton and Kemp are almost sports deity. The 1996 Sonics are family. The spring of ’96 was one of the best times of my life. The fact that this city does not have an NBA team is a complete and utter disaster and joke. I shake my head every time I think about it. But, I am hopeful. No idea why, I just choose to be hopeful that one day I’ll see the Green & Gold back out there on the hardwood.

I have a ton of thoughts about the upcoming Mariners season, the upcoming NFL draft where the Hawks MUST get it right. In the NFL if you screw up the draft, it will set back the organization years.

Random Quick Hits:

Quincy Pondexter is Pac-10 POTY.

The Mariners should bring back the teal jerseys.

Cortez Kennedy belongs in the HOF, and so does Edgar.

The Kingdome was awesome, even if it stunk of stale beer constantly and had only two bathrooms.

Safeco Field is even more awesome: Tons of bathrooms!!! ICHIRO!!!!!!!!!!! Garlic Fries!! Ivars fish!!!! Sushi!!!! Zombie Nation Kernkraft 400 BLARING!!!!! DIPPIN DOTS!!!! DAVE SIMS!!!! HEY NOW!!!!!!!

Steve Scheffler and Frank Brickowski had game.

Shaun Alexander could catch, check his stats from 2001-2004.

Vin Baker was an all star in 97-98 with the Sonics. Then he discovered donuts during the lockout. The rest is history.

Steve Emtman was unstoppable. Best defensive player I have ever seen. Period.

Jackie Z and Wak are geniuses, how the M’s were above .500 last year is beyond me, (not to mention the amazing offseason JZ has put together so far, the Cliff Lee deal was highway robbery).

Game 7 of the 1993 NBA Western Conference Finals was fixed, you cannot convince me otherwise, it’s established fact, look at the boxscore.

The 2005 NFC Championship is the best game I have ever seen live. (seeing Jimmy Johnson’s hair freeze was an added bonus…)

Both times the UW lost to UConn in the Tourney resulted in me refusing food and water for days and human interaction suffered for weeks.

I have major, MAJOR bromances with Coach Sark, Jake Locker and Chris Polk.

If you’ve made it this far, congrats, I am done, sorry no prizes… I know it was a lot about me, but I thought I better get my street creds out there now before someone asks for them. More to come!!