The WildCat's like the Huskies looked like one of the top teams in the country headed into the conference season, but both teams have taken some lumps since meeting earlier this month. For Washington it is a chance to even up the score after UA had little problem with them at Hec Ed. For UA it is now a battle for survival as they have been slipping near the Huskies after some unexpected losses.
Washington State beat the Wildcats on their home floor Thursday night and were pretty much in control most of the game even though Arizona took a couple runs at them. The game was physical and exhausting, I think Washington can take these guys on Saturday to make up for the only loss of the season on their home floor. The guy's in Vegas have the Wildcat's at 8 1/2.
Okay it is time for tip off and Hawes once again will be coming off the bench. Arizona coomes out and hits the first shot from the top of the key to take a 2-0 lead. Dentmon pops in a nice three off a nice feed from Artem Wallace and it is UW 3-2 UW.
Wasington is beating Arizona early in transition which is a good sign. Key for UW today is to control the boards, and limit turnovers. 15:52 left and Arizona is leading 6-5 after a flurry of Washington turnovers. UW needs to slow it down, and insert Spencer into the game. UW needs to take care of the ball. you don't beat Arizona by running with them, you beat them by slowing them down and playing defense.
Spencer is in the game now...interesting note, he needs more work on getting into position to rebound. 17-12 Arizona with 12:30 left to go. On defense Spencer was blown away on a drive to the hoop from his high post position. I am looking for more defense and rebounding from him today. 10:48 left and it is 17-16 Arizona.
Arizona is on a bit of a run taking it out to 24-18. Both teams are trading shots right now but Arizona is taking it to UW in transition. Former Roosevelt player Marcus Williams is playing very well today for the Wildcats. Time out on the floor with 7:47 left. Arizona leads 26-20. The Wildcats have been toying with UW over the last five minutes threatening to blow the game out into a double digit lead. UW really needs to do a better job controlling the tempo.
Brockman just committed a foul on a three point shot attempt and Arizona htts all three, 29-20 Arizona, then Brockman commits an offensive foul on the other end of the court picking up his second foul in 30 seconds. 31-20 Arizona and the Wildcats are on a 14-4 run. UW is playing really sloppy on offense. 35-20 Arizona with 5:23 left in the half.
I just watched Hawes take a shot from around the top of the key...what exactly is he doing out there? Would like to see him move in lot closer to the hoop. I have lost track keeping track of the UW turnovers, but they are in the high double digits. Brockman comes in for Hawes who has not been a factor today. To be fair you could say that about any other UW player too. UW just shot their first two free throws of the game with 3:30 left, just a sign that they are not moving the ball around enough on their possesions.
42-24 2:20 left and it is getting really ugly. These two teams don't match up well at all. Arizona is way more athletic, and UW looks flat footed by comparison. In a perfect world Ryan Appleby is a long range shooter that comes in off the bench to ignite the team. He is a liability in his current role since he is slow, can't drive, and gets beat like a poor step child all day on defense. 45-26 Arizona at the half.
The Huskies are shooting 36% from the field while the Wildcats are shooting 59%. The Huskies have been outscored from the free throw line 9-2.
56-32 Arizona with 16:04 left and it pretty much looks like there isn't going to be a comeback tonight. Appleby is 0-7 on the night from the outside. Washington is looking as bad in the second half as they did in the first.
Spencer Hawes didn't need to bring a lunch to todays game. Arizona has been handing him his lunch all afternoon. I think Spencer is going to be great some day, hopefuly at UW, but he is just getting torched on both sides of the court tonight by less talented players. Another 11-0 run by Arizona and they lead 63-32.
Has Washington played a worse game this year, the Cal game was pretty ugly, and of course you have the Arizona game in Seattle? What it comes down to is tempo, and Washington never made an effort to control the tempo in this one choosing to run with the Wildcats. To make matters worse the Huskies have just been plain out hustled today. 69-39 with 10:48 left.
Got a good chance to watch Artem Wallace today and I'm not very impressed with his athleticsm in comparison to the UA big men. Call him Brockman light, but he doesn't have great hands. I think he will develop into a decent bench player as time goes on. One thing I like about him, like Brockman, he plays hard.
7:00 minutes left in this one and Arizona leads 73-45. I am going to count this as done, and start puttering around the house to get ready for Super Bowl.
I will say this, Washington needs to win out at home to get into the tournament for sure. That is going to be a very tall order.
Lorenzo Romar had a simple explanation for Arizona's 84-54 win here Saturday "Our inability to compete at our highest level." Romar said several times the Huskies simply failed to play as hard as the Wildcats. "I thought we would compete much harder," he said. As for why the team would come out that way in a game of this magnitude, Romar said "I don't know."
Romar and his team needs to find out, because effort, and attitude were definitely two of the biggest problems out their on the court today. You have to go back to the Bob Bender days to find a more lackadaisical effort.
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6 comments:
I had the game on the radio while falling asleep last night. I almost turned it off. Your commentary sounds like exactly like what I was hearing. We have good announcers at least. It was nice to see Wallace's name finally on the stat sheet.
A very curious game to say the least Hair. You have to wonder what exactly is wrong, and why Romar isn't getting through to these guys. Running with Arizona? Every team that has beat them slowed down the tempo except UNC. Spencer remains an enigma, have to wonder if his mind is on college, or the NBA.
Like others, I've been wondering that about Hawes as well. The way he's playing doesn't seem like he wants to be in the NBA, but something's on his mind. I'm no expert on hoops, but I expected better. I wonder how much of my attitude is due to message board hype. I may start putting a salt shaker near my computer.
Hawes was doing his best Flossi Sigurdson imitation yesterday. To me it seems like he is always out of position, plays way to far from the hoop, doesn't get into a position to rebound. I always wuestioned why he was ranked so high at Prep because even with him and Martel they didn't win the championship. I see the potential, but except for LSU I haven't seen it much on the court.
I've been waiting for something like the LSU game as well. The potential is there, if for nothing else than his height. I'm starting to think it's sort of similar to Artem's situation on a lesser scale. Hawes played against better competition, but still had a pretty big reach advantage and didn't have to learn how to fight for position. He can, but not consistently. Artem's competition, aside from the AAU stuff was very vanilla. We are years apart but if a team had a guy that was 6' 6" or greater in his league back when I played, he was almost always a star. He obviously impressed enough in the AAU's to get the offer, but the rest of the year was probably pretty relaxed for him for the most part.
Health and experience. I hope he's (Hawes)getting a wake up call and chooses to work on his game and not taking the easy road to riches. He'd be set for life either way but with the right work, he could truly be a star.
Hawes doesn't seem like much of a competitor to me at this point. I am sure he will get there if he stays.
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