Washington Husky Huddle for Tuesday February 7th 2012 (Part One)

(Jason McCleary of leftcoastrecruiting.com contributed to this post)

The Huskies sit on top of the Pac-12 at 9-2 in league play, after relatively difficult home wins over UCLA and USC. The Dawgs needed an inspired performance from sophomore guard Terrence Ross on Thursday to overcome a 65-55 Bruin lead with
less than six minutes to play to steal a 71-69 win. Always knowledgeable when it comes to hoops, Kevin Calabro did a great job of breaking the game down on Friday for 710-ESPN Seattle.

On Saturday UW ground out an ugly win over a disciplined but clearly out-manned USC team that outplayed them effort wise, but did not have the firepower to make it a closer game. The Huskies won 69-41 by playing well on defense and just having more and better talent than a Trojan team down to six scholarship players. Gohuskies.com did a nice wrap-up on the game including video of the press conference and an intelligent summary podcast from Gregg Bell. You can always hear my summary, as to what happened over the weekend with the Dawgs and what to look forward to every Monday night at 8 p.m. (PST) on “Talkin’ Hoops” and if you miss the show live it is always available by podcast. Griffin Bennett of Montlake Madness thought that USC was just a really bad team, if not the worst in memory.

“I’m not sure if I’ve seen a worse Pac-12/10 team in the last decade than that Trojans team I witnessed last night. The Huskies kept roughly a 10 point lead for most of the game and that seemed like an insurmountable deficit for a USC team
that almost looked as if they didn’t want to be.”

I saw it differently. I thought that USC played great, considering their lack of material, but in the end UW’s wealth of talent, depth and size comparatively wore them down, much like a horrible NBA team would do eventually to the best college team. UW committed 17 turnovers, as ‘SC did what they could to compete with maybe one player that would make UW’s 8-man rotation in sophomore guard Maurice Jones or perhaps sophomore wing Garrett Jackson and I mean maybe. UW clearly played down to the Trojans for much of the game, despite the lopsided final score. I’m not the only one that was critical of UW’s effort. Husky Haul talked about the Dawgs “playing down” to USC on Saturday after the game.

The UW Daily ran a piece on Saturday before the game hoping that the Dawgs would improve on a sloppy outing against UCLA, where UW had 10 assists to 16 To’s. Against ‘SC they answered that call with 17 assists (though against a much easier opponent), but couldn’t improve on the TO’s. Washington now controls it’s own destiny with seven games in league play, plus the Pac-12 Tournament. The Dawgs stand one game ahead of Cal and Colorado at 8-3 and two games ahead of Oregon and Arizona at 7-4. The one caveat there is that the Ducks play 4-7 at home to close out and the ‘Cats (who swept the Bay Area schools on the road this weekend) play 5-7.

Additionally, Oregon were much impressive on the road at Boulder CO and Salt Lake City UT this past weekend than UW was in their road split earlier this year. It was in that Utah game though, that the Dawgs started winning 8-9, including three straight league road games. UW appears to be bringing it’s talented, but to then unkempt group together, as it is the tendency of a Lorenzo Romar led team to do this time of year. On Thursday after the game, Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times talked about how this 2nd half season surge is as common to UW under Romar as it is becoming to Ross’ 2nd half heroics in games this year.

The Dawgs are in good shape, but even if they continue to play well, winning in Eugene OR at 8 p.m. (PST) Thursday and in Corvallis at 2:30 p.m. (PST) Saturday will not necessarily happen. Both the Ducks and Beavs are solid and talented teams. UW will certainly have to take better care of the ball in both games than they did against USC on Saturday and expecting a run in the last 5-minutes like Thursday’s to bail them out is not likely to happen. I think that it is very possible that the Dawgs could be swept this weekend, as they were last year with a much more experienced team and against weaker opponents. That misspent weekend, along with the trip to Pullman WA the week before was the fatal difference in UW’s 2010-11 season. Turn those three losses into wins and UW wins the then Pac-10 and more importantly gets a much easier seeding in the NCAA tournament. UW likely makes it into the Sweet-16 or better, instead of being blocked out by what was literally a home court advantage (including refereeing) against North Carolina in Charlotte.

Now a much less experienced, but arguably higher pedigree group of Dawgs, must face a much more experienced and also more talented Oregon team to start this stretch run which will put the Huskies on the road for 5-7 to close league play. In
order for UW to win the conference they will have to stay ahead of the Bears and the Buffs, who also play 5-7 road games. That sounds good for UW, but after being swept this weekend, it will not be. A road split that puts UW back in the pack, but not that far, would be a very big success. A sweep over the Oregon schools would probably put the Dawgs in front to stay. Anything can happen and probably will in one of the more crazy years in this league ever.

Why is there so much Pac-12 parity? Doug Haller of azcentral.com on Wednesday talked about all of the attrition, not just from early entry into the NBA draft, but since the beginning of this year from season ending injuries and transfers. Doug
didn’t even include UCLA wing De’End Parker, who I thought could have helped them this year and will transfer. When you think about early entry last spring and off-season transfers, you really get a sobering picture. UCLA guards Malcolm Lee and Tyler Honeycutt went pro along with USC post and could have been Pac-10 Player of the Year Nikola Vucevic. ‘Zona lost post and actual Pac-10 POY Derrick Williams, plus family hardship transfer guard Lamont “Momo” Jones. Stanford lost guard Jeremy Green to the pros, Buff guard Alec Burks went early, UW likely all-time leader in scoring, assists and steals had he stayed in guard Isaiah Thomas declared and WSU wing Klay Thompson did too. You get the picture.

Oregon also lost senior guard Malcolm Armstead, ASU again lost a couple of transfers in guard Corey Hawkins and Brandon Dunson as well, while wholesale transfers with the coaching changeover left Utah in shambles. A lot has gone wrong in the Pac-12, but there are still some very good teams, much better than what the national media will try to sell it as. Nine games through league play there are five teams separated by two games, with the teams two games out playing a home heavy schedule here on out. Additionally the teams that are three games out in Stanford and UCLA are no slouches and capable of playing their way into the race. Additionally the Bruins play 5-7 at home. It’s anyone’s race and UW cannot afford to feel like favorites at all, despite their tenuous one game lead. Myron Metcalf of ESPN talked about the conference race on Monday and pointed out how it is at least entertaining.

“The Pac-12 might end up with the most captivating finish in the country simply because so many teams possess questionable NCAA tourney résumés.”

Oregon is one of, if not the best example, of a team in the conference that even though they’ve had their weak moments, still has enough (even after suffering heavy attrition) to pack a punch. The Ducks have a solid and seasoned front court
in seniors Olu Ashaolu, Jeremy Jacob and Tyrone Nared and juniors Tony Woods and Carlos Emory. The Ducks have one of the top wings in junior E.J. Singler, plus a strong veteran back court in seniors Garrett Sim and Devoe Joseph and sophomore
guard Jon Loyd. Beating an angry group of Ducks in their house after the controversial 72-71 loss in Boulder frankly does not look likely for UW. Neither though did the Dawgs amazing 69-67 win at ‘Zona weekend before last. The 2011-12 UW team (like the entire conference) is not dull and seems like they have it in them, but looked like they took a step back in the games this past weekend against the LA Schools. We’ll really see what they are made of on Thursday. On Monday all of the national pundits weighed in and I think that UW fans should hope that their team doesn’t read their clippings. In ESPN, Joe Lunardi elevated the Dawgs from a play-in game 12 seed to an 11 seed, while Eammon Brennan put the Dawgs on top of his Pac-12 power rankings.

Andy Katz showed his factory school favoritism by picking Arizona his national “team of the week”, after barely mentioning the Dawgs after sweeping the Arizona schools on the road last week. This could work in the Huskies favor, if they focus on that type of publicity, rather than their being heralded as frontrunners. UW (fittingly) always does better as a dog. Jeff Taylor of Husky Haul may also be a good read for over zealous Dawgs, as he points out that though UW leads Cal, the Bears are “more disciplined and did better in the non-conference”. Not only will UW have to play more disciplined than they did against the LA schools, they will have to do it again like they did in Tucson. It would be a huge mistake for the Dawgs to feel too confident that they can summon that kind of effort and the fact that UW beat Oregon at home by 16 on New Year’s Eve should also not make the Huskies feel comfortable. Looking backwards though, UCLA continued their losing streak at UW to eight losses and four straight. In a game where the Dawgs didn’t seem like they would pull it out, the UW team came together late in the game and won. There had to be a wide scope of feelings for UW fans, but in the end the Huskies came away with a huge win behind Ross. Romar talked about the star of the game on Thursday after the game to the media.

“Terrence got that gleam in his eye, that look that forces you to make sure he gets the ball without him saying a word.”

The night started out with junior post Aziz N’Diaye in foul trouble. The big man came to play, but with Romar’s two foul rule before the half, Aziz had to sit the bench. That gave big man Josh Smith time to go to work. Smith was heavily sought by Romar and showed why he was a McDonald’s All-American. The big man finished with 22 points in 26 minutes. UW couldn’t stop him until the last three minutes of the game. If Smith was in better shape, there is little question that UCLA would have won this contest, despite the heroics of Ross.

With Aziz out, the Dawgs got a little spark from freshman post Shawn Kemp Jr. Kemp showed signs of what the future could hold for UW fans. With two strong moves to the bucket and nice block, Kemp had the Dawg Pack hyped. The Wear twins (David and Travis) got it going for UCLA in the first half but the junior posts looked out of synch in the second. Kemp did enough to make the locals take notice, as Husky Haul ran a hopeful piece on Monday about what they saw out of him over the weekend. As I can’t help but reiterate, the Huskies were sloppy with the ball the majority of the UCLA game, as junior guard Abdul Gaddy and freshman guard Tony Wroten combined for nine of the teams 16 turnovers. There was little team ball being played at all and this wasn’t the same Husky team that went into Arizona and won both games. The second half came around and the Huskies looked like they just didn’t have any heart, but somehow they stayed close. Big Josh was pounding it in the paint all game long and senior guard Lazeric Jones hit some three point shots to extend the Bruin lead. Senior guard Jerime Anderson added a couple of big shots as well.

Everything was looking like the Bruins would finally break their losing streak, but when Romar took Wroten out for the majority of the second half and put veteran soph guard C.J. Wilcox in the game, things seemed to turn. Some would say Wroten was taken out due to his five turnovers or it could’ve been his 4-11 shooting night, but I doubt those were the reasons. At one point in the second half it also looked like Tony hurt himself. Wroten got hit in the thigh and it was noticeable as the freshman wasn’t as explosive as he normally was the next couple of plays. After a timeout was called, Wroten was out of the game for most of the rest of the way. I wouldn’t read much into this, as Tony came back to lead the Dawgs in scoring on Saturday. Wroten was just slowed by what was obviously a debilitating injury. He and Ross are one of the top one-two punches in the college game nationally, as Bleacher Report stated on Wednesday. On Wednesday Bleacher Report also named Tony as one of “10 Current (college) Players Who Will Be Legitimate NBA Stars”.

On Wednesday Jay Bilas of ESPN went on 710-ESPN and talked about how Tony has really improved his decision making and is one of the top 5-10 freshman in the nation. I think Bilas didn’t go far enough. I don’t know of a player that can do much
of what Tony does and with time Wroten could become not only an NBA point guard, but the next UW NBA All-Star, Brandon Roy and Detlef Schrempf being the last two. Wroten was also the subject of a very well written profile by Todd Dybas on Thursday for theclassical.org in which the freshman’s unique nature makes you wonder if he will do the obvious and go straight to the NBA as most expect. Doug Haller of azcentral.com on Tuesday named his All-Conference team midway through
the schedule and named Tony 1st team all-conference, 1st team all-defense and freshman of the year. I think that Wroten stands an excellent chance of being named Player of the Year, if UW stays on top.

But even with Wilcox back in the game the team seemed to still struggle, but they gradually thawed out. C.J. finished with six points and wasn’t much of a threat on offense, but it was when he was on the floor that the UW team saw the light With about six minutes left in the game and down ten points. The Dawgs came together as a team, even though it was Ross that did much of the actual scoring, as they fought back. The defense that the team is capable of playing bothered the Bruins. Romar switched the team to the 2-3 zone in order to stop Smith and it made the Bruins cough up turnovers. The Huskies pressed the Bruins as well and the defensive success set the tone for Terrance to take over the game. There is something special about Ross taking over games in the second half and he didn’t disappoint. Terrence only had four points at halftime but finished with 22. Those 18 points Ross were not only the key to the win, but incredible drama. He took over the game and had the eye of the tiger.

Husky Haul on Friday went down the list of a number of big games in which Terrence has had a big 2nd half and it certainly seems like more than a coincidence. It is getting obvious on why NBA scouts see Ross as a first round draft pick. There are some things on the court Terrence does that will leave you amazed. The Huskies took the lead with 2:35 to play and the Bruins never again tied or led. UCLA still had one more chance to win the game but missed their last shot by frosh wing Norman Powell who missed a two from the baseline. In front of a sold out crowd, the Huskies took sole possession of first place and full control of their destiny due to ‘Zona beating Cal in Berkeley. If the Huskies could play like the last six minutes for a full 40, there is no telling what this UW team could do, but this was a gutsy win for the Dawgs that they could have easily lost. That is the mark of a champion to win the close ones, but also a troubling sign that they cannot seem to continue to improve, rather than back slide.