SB Nation User Blog: thecassino

Pac-10 Power Rankings

thecassino — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:46:05 -0000

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Note: Short on the commentary this week due to a busy schedule

1 (2). California 6-3

Last week: W @ Pacific

Theo Robertson is back.

2 (1). Washington 6-2

Last week: L vs Georgetown

Losses are to teams with a combined 17-0 record.

3 (4). Washington State 8-2

Last week: W vs Idaho, W vs Air Force

0 wins against teams in the top 100 of the Pomeroy rankings

4 (6). Stanford 4-3

Last week: No games

Best way to move up in the Pac-10 is to not play. Can't lose if you don't play right?

5 (3). Arizona State 7-3

Last week: L @ BYU, W vs Delaware St.

Lost to every quality non conference opponent they'll play.

6 (9). USC 4-4

Last week: W vs Sacramento State, W vs Idaho State

7 (5). Oregon State 4-4

Last week: L @ Nebraska

8 (7). Oregon 4-4

Last week: L vs St. Mary's

Ernie Kent should be updating his resume soon.

9 (8). Arizona 4-5

Last week: W vs La Tech, L @ San Diego State

10 (10). UCLA 2-6

Last week: L vs Mississippi State

I know it's bad for the conference, but it's fun to watch UCLA lose.

Locker Says He's Returning For Senior Year

thecassino — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:38:49 -0000

Locker Says He's Returning For Senior Year

To quote Nick Holt: Awesome.

Huskies Fall to 24th

thecassino — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:12:48 -0000

Huskies Fall to 24th

UW remains the only ranked Pac 10 team. Georgetown is 11th and Texas Tech is 16th.

Vs. Georgetown Recap

thecassino — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:14:27 -0000

More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

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Final Score: 74-66 Husky loss (6-2)

Four Factors:

You might be shocked to learn that the Huskies won both the shooting and rebounding factors. However, they won them by slim margins and got decimated in the other two, posting a season high TO% of 31.6. Terrible. I don't care how good a team you are, you're not winning if you turn the ball over that often.

NCAA Basketball Stats

Summary:

The game was close in the first half. Back and forth early, Georgetown pulled ahead late, then UW closed and took the lead before going into the half down one. Quincy Pondexter was all over the floor, and despite numerous fast break chances that resulted in no points (due to missed shots and turnovers) and a lot of sloppy play the Dawgs were playing the Hoyas tough and looked like they had a very good shot at winning. A couple of adjustments to stop easy baskets and tighten up the ballhandling and they could come out and take a lead and come out with a W. Unfortunately that's the exact opposite of what happened. Nothing changed on defense, and John Thompson III exposed the Huskies fronting the post by extending the wings and spacing their offense out so that a help defender could not arrive in time to stop after the lob pass was made. Easy baskets were had all half. UW's perimeter defense didn't change either. They played passing lanes and continued to get sizzled on backdoor cuts. Offensively the ball was like a greased ham to the UW players. Georgetown came out in the second half with energy and a plan of attack, and made their run. By the time Washington made its counter run, the game was over, and all the run did was get the game to single digits.

NCAA Basketball Stats

Player of the Game:

I'm tempted to give it to Darnell Gant, for being the only Husky without a turnover, but it has to go to Pondexter yet again. 26 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. He also had 5 turnovers, but I can overlook those pretty easily when he had 5 steals to balance them out.

It Was Over When:

Georgetown went on a 516*-2 run to start the second half.

Stat of the Game:

25 turnovers

Other Observations:

The game came down to two things: coaching and turnovers. The team was simply not ready to play the second half, and that falls on Lorenzo Romar and company.

More on coaching: with Georgetown up 3, coach Raphael Chillious got whistled for a technical. Georgetown hit both free throws and scored on that possession, turning 3 into 7 and sparking their run.

Darnell Gant needs to play more. He can guard every position (very helpful in Romar's system) and is probably the best team defender on the roster. He rebounds and does all the little things well. I keep finding myself wondering why his minutes are shrinking.

Abdul Gaddy is close. Closer than people think. I feel like in the next few games he's going to have lightbulb moment where it clicks for him. That doesn't mean he's going to start scoring 20 with 10 assists, but the offense will run much more smoothly.

I could write all day on this game, but I feel like it's been pretty well covered. I still like where this team is. As I said earlier, the two losses were away from home to teams that are a combined 17-0. There's no shame in that, and as long as the play improves throughout the season, we'll be in great shape come March.

*Approximate

UW/Georgetown Gamethread

thecassino — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:13:30 -0000

Gametime is 11 Pacific. Express your joy/vent your frustrations here.

I'll also be twittering: @TheCassino

Q&A With Casual Hoya

thecassino — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:17:47 -0000

Q&A With Casual Hoya

I did a Q&A with Casual Hoya, our fellow SBNation blog. Check it out to read some of my thoughts on this year's team, the upcoming Georgetown game, super trains, Starbucks coffee and the Sonics.

Game 8: Georgetown

thecassino — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:00:32 -0000

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Conference: Big East

Record: 7-0

Pomeroy Rankings: 23rd Overall, 53rd Offense, 29th Defense

Best Win: 72-65 vs. Butler (nuetral court)

Coach: John Thompson III, 191-93, 123-53 at Georgetown (6th season)

Key Players:

Greg Monroe: 6-11 Sophomore Center: 15.3 PPG, 10.7 RPG, 3 APG, 1.4 BPG

Chris Wright: 6-1 Junior Guard: 12.6 PPG, 3 APG, 40% 3FG

Austin Freeman: 6-4 Junior Guard: 12.3 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 47.6% 3FG

Scouting Georgetown:

Georgetown is a team that is very long and athletic. They play at a deliberate pace and run a Princeton style offense, predicated on backdoor cuts, layups and three pointers. Because of their size, the Hoyas are able to affect a lot of shots and hold their opponents to low shooting percentages while at the same time being pretty efficient when they have the ball. They take care of the ball, but at the same time don't force a lot of turnovers. They're a good rebounding team at both ends of the floor, but especially defensive rebounding where they're one of the best teams in the nation. Because of the size advantage they have over the Huskies, I would expect them to play man the majority of the game except for a few possessions to change it up and on inbound plays.

How to Beat Them:

This is easily the best team that the Huskies have played thus far, and may be the best team the Huskies square off against all year. Priority number one for Lorenzo Romar's squad is to take care of the basketball. Georgetown isn't a team that applies a tremendous amount of ball pressure, so the Huskies need to be deliberate when in their half court sets and make every possession count. Defensively the Dawgs need to be aggressive to try and speed up the pace, because in an uptempo game UW will have the best chance, and frankly I'm not entirely sure that they can beat Georgetown over the course of 40 minutes playing a half court game. Husky defenders have also been aggressively overplaying on the wings, leaving them vulnerable to backdoor cuts, which is not something that you can do against Georgetown because that's a cornerstone of their offense. This game will be a big test for Matthew Bryan-Amaning, as he hasn't gone against a big man as talented as Greg Monroe. The foul game between those two will be important, and whoever can stay out of trouble while maybe drawing a foul or two will give his team a huge edge. Isaiah Thomas needs to snap out of his shooting slump and Quincy Pondexter needs to continue his superb play.

Prediction:

Huskies win: 78-74

Viewing: 11:00 AM (Pacific Time) FSN, Honda Center, Anaheim California

Pac-10 Power(outage) Rankings

thecassino — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:25:31 -0000

More photos » by Joe Nicholson - AP

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1 (1). Washington 6-1

Last week: L @Texas Tech (OT), W vs Cal State Northridge

Quincy Pondexter may well be the conference's best player. Lost an emotional one at Tech which had the feel of a rivalry or tournament game, complete with poor officiating and all.

2 (3). California 5-3

Last week: L @ New Mexico, W vs Iowa State

Still missing Theo Robertson and Harper Kamp. New Mexico's a tournament team and very good. so there's not much shame in losing to them on the road.

3 (4). Arizona State 6-2

Last week: W vs Arkansas Pine Bluff, L vs Baylor

Needed to beat Baylor to give themselves a nonconference win over a BCS opponent, as that was their last shot. They do play BYU next, which would be a bigger win, but has yet to show that they can beat anyone but a clearly inferior opponent.

4 (2). Washington State 6-2

Last week: L @ Gonzaga, L @ Kansas State

WSU has established that their play this year is going to be up and down. Looked very good in the first 30 minutes when they outplayed Gonzaga, but couldn't hold on. Then got run off the court in Manhattan. With the team's youth, the inconsistent play shouldn't be too surprising. Seems like two losses should drop them lower, but I bring myself to put any of the following teams (all with MUCH worse losses on their resumes) above them.

5 (9). Oregon State 4-3

Last week: W vs Colorado, W Cal State Bakersfield

Last year Oregon State started slowly as well, but by the end of the season they were playing decent basketball. This year the slow start is still there, but the team seems to be rounding into shape more quickly this year, and has a higher ceiling. Not sure what's going on with Roeland Schaftenaar though, as his production is down across the board, as are his minutes.

6 (5). Stanford 4-3

Last week: No games

Curios bit of scheduling for Stanford as they go 14 days between games here.

7 (6). Oregon 4-3

Last week: L @ Missouri

Missouri embarrassed the Ducks. Missouri plays fast, presses, traps and is a really intense team to play. Needless to say, the Ducks don't have the kind of coach who can combat a team like that.

8 (7). Arizona 3-4

Last week: L vs UNLV, L @ Oklahoma

Sean Miller's squad looked promising to begin the year, but as the schedule has toughened the Cats (like the rest of the Pac-10) have struggled. A good showing this coming week (La Tech at home, at San Diego State) could swing their season around.

9 (8). USC 2-4

Last week: L @ Texas, L @ Georgia Tech

Still not any good. They just don't have players who can consistently put the ball in the basket, as they have yet to reach 70 points in a single game.

10 (10). UCLA 2-5

Last week: L vs Kansas

Losing games is one thing, but now players are jumping off of the sinking ship. Drew Gordon has announced that he's going to transfer, stopping just short of saying that Ben Howland lied to him while recruiting him. Gordon expected to be playing a more up and down style, though I don't know why he'd believe Howland would suddenly change his entire philosophy. Rumor is that Malcolm Lee may be unhappy as well.

Pondexter Wins 2nd Pac-10 POW

thecassino — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:09:00 -0000

Pondexter Wins 2nd Pac-10 POW

Q-Pon averaged 25.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.5 blocks and 3.0 steals this past week.

Cal State Northridge Recap

thecassino — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:35:48 -0000

More photos » by Joe Nicholson - AP

Abdul Gaddy is talented, coachable, and just 17 years old. His play will improve all season long.

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Follow me on Twitter: @TheCassino

Final Score: 88-76 Husky win (6-1)

Four Factors:

The Huskies got back to offensive rebounding ways, posting an absurd OR% of 57.1. For the second straight game, the Huskies put up a too-high Turnover Percent, something that needs to be remedied before the matchup this weekend with Georgetown. Neither team was great shooting from the floor, and the Huskies used a 32-21 advantage in fouls to get to the line 11 more times than Cal State Northridge did.

Summary:

The Huskies needed this type of game sandwiched between an emotional loss at Texas Tech and a big upcoming game against Georgetown. It took the Huskies a bit longer than expected to finally put CSN away, but there were a lot of encouraging things that happened in this game. Thomas had a much better shooting night (4/10) than he has in the previous two games, though at times he got a bit careless with the ball. He also continues to get to the line and make his free throws, which has and will continue to carry him when his shot isn't falling. Quincy Pondexter continues to be the team's rock, hitting a momentum shifting three pointer and scoring 15 second half points to put the game away. On a night where the team didn't shoot well the offensive rebounding and free throw shooting proved the difference.

Player of the Game:

Abdul Gaddy showed us a glimpse of things to come, scoring 11 points with 2 assists. He shot 5/8 from the floor and 1/1 from the line and was the only Husky who shot better than 50%.

It Was Over When:

With their lead just 1 point and the game at 48-47, the Huskies went on an 18-2 run.

Stat of the Game:

Matthew Bryan-Amaning collected a season high 10 rebounds, 5 of them offensive.

Other Observations:

Quincy Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas are averaging 17.3 free throws taken per game and are hitting a combined 84%. Elston Turner continues to struggle, going 2/4 and missing his first two.

Matthew Bryan-Amaning, for all the flack he takes from the fanbase, is putting together a much better season than he had last year, which was better than his freshman year. He's going to get a real test though when he has to match up against Georgetown's Greg Monroe.

Tyreese Breshers had another game where he fouled out. It wouldn't be such a bad thing, except that his conditioning is still such that he can't play many minutes and it's the second time he's fouled out in 10 minutes or less. Even when he does get into shape, is he going to be able to stay out of foul trouble long enough to take advantage of it?