| 05 February 2012
Initial (Over)Reactions
USC is bad. Really bad. The entire season I have been trying to process the fact that the Pac-12 sucks. I did not truly come to that conclusion until last night. The Trojans are easily the worst team in the big six conferences this season and that is no longer debatable.
As for the game itself, Washington played average, inconsistent basketball and won by 28. Tony Wroten “led” the way for the Dawgs with 13 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds. Except nobody actually led Washington. The game as a whole was a cluster of talent against a cluster of slower moving, less competent basketball players.
The Huskies did not play a good game, quite frankly they played how they did against UCLA, except UW destroyed USC on the boards. That was the only difference besides the presence of Brendan Sherrer. The Dawgpack superstar picked up the offensive burdens and finished with an assist and a rebound in three minutes of play.
WOOFS AND WHIMPERS AFTER THE JUMP!
Woofs
Rebounding: The Huskies absolutely dominated the glass against USC, winning the battle of the boards 52-23, in the most lopsided rebounding game in recent memory. Terrence Ross attacked the glass with tenacity, finishing with 14 rebounds and seemingly stat-padded by stealing multiple rebounds from teammates. If only he stole more shots from Gaddy.
Tony Wroten Ball Control: Wroten had a career high 8 assists and one turnover last night, putting together his best assist-to-turnover game of the year. Great bounce-back game for Tony following his setback against UCLA.
Brendan Sherrer AND Alex Wegner: The Dawgs were able to play both of the super-subs last night, with both Sherrer and Wegner receiving three minutes of playing time. The closing lineup of Hikeem Stewart, Alex Wegner, Brendan Sherrer, Martin Breunig and Austin Sefarian-Jenkins outscored the Trojans 9-5. This in itself is a modern day miracle and is a prime example of USC’s talent.
Whimpers
Three Point Shooting: 3-30. UW and USC combined to go 3-30 from beyond the arc. I’m 100 percent confident I could go at least 3-30 while shooting ¾ court shots at my local rec center. The Huskies and Trojans would have combined to go 1-27 if Darnell Gant did not play last night. One just can’t make these things up.
Turnovers: The Huskies played extremely sloppy basketball and if not for a solid final 10 minutes of ball control, would have been below a 1/1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Instead, they finished with 17 assists and 17 turnovers.
Inconsistent Play: The game as a whole was extremely sloppy play from both teams. The Dawgs are still playing very inconsistent basketball and I continue to worry far too much about how they will perform every night. You should too. This home stand, despite two victories, is a setback from the performance in Tucson.
Finishing Thoughts
The Huskies cruised to a victory in one of the worst basketball games I have witnessed in a long time. A road-trip to Oregon beckons and will be very telling for UW, as they are beginning to put themselves on the radar nationally.
It has gotten to the point where nearly every game from here on out (discounting the road game in USC on March 1) will be the most important game to date.
