SB Nation Seattle - UW Basketball: Huskies Finally Get Back On Track Against Calhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/48997/seattle-fave.png2011-02-10T20:07:28-08:00http://seattle.sbnation.com/rss/stream/17498292011-02-10T20:07:28-08:002011-02-10T20:07:28-08:00UW Basketball: Huskies End Losing Streak With Big 109-77 Home Win
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<p>Someone suggested before the game that the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/teams/washington-huskies">Washington Huskies</a> were almost in a position coming into tonight's game where they couldn't win.</p>
<p>A loss to the Cal Golden Bears who they had already beaten on the road would clearly be disastrous, but even with a standard 20-point win it would just be sort of expected because there needed to be a sense of urgency and that's just what they've done to people at Hec Ed all season. </p>
<p>So how about UW beating Cal by 32 points like they stole something?</p>
<p>What's most impressive given that UW coach Lorenzo Romar had identified intensity as the problem is that the outcome was never really in doubt - the Huskies came out active on defense and maintained their intensity level.</p>
<p>Aside from the seemingly nebulous claim of intensity doing the trick, it's difficult to pinpoint one thing that went so much better for UW - everything just seemed to be going their way.</p>
<p>Most notably after their recent struggles, they shot 17 of 31 from beyond the arc with Isaiah Thomas leading the 3-point barrage shooting 6 of 8 from deep and scoring a team highs of 23 points and nine assists. <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/players/29072/matthew-bryan-amaning">Matthew Bryan-Amaning</a> added another solid game to his resume for the season with 18 points and nine rebounds. People have been asking about Venoy Overton's play lately, but he finished right behind Thomas with seven assists and eight points.</p>
<p>So perhaps in being the type of performance we saw during non-conference play, some people will merely yawn and say, "ho hum." But the main point is that the team showed that we can't yet count them out - as long as there are still Pac-10 games left to play, they can still win the conference and find themselves with a spot in the NCAA tournament.</p>
https://seattle.sbnation.com/washington-huskies/2011/2/10/1987605/uw-basketball-huskies-end-losing-streak-with-big-109-77-home-winNate P.2011-02-10T19:08:47-08:002011-02-10T19:08:47-08:00UW Basketball: Washington Jumps Out To A Commanding 58-34 Halftime Lead
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<p>It would be unfair to say that this game between the Washington Huskies and Cal Golden Bears is "over" at halftime - a 58-34 lead is certainly not insurmountable by any means.</p>
<p>But right now, Washington appears to be playing as though it never occurred to them that they would come back home and lose their fourth game in a row.</p>
<p>It would be shocking if they just all of a sudden relented and let Cal back in this one.</p>
<p>As many might have hoped for, the defensive intensity was definitely higher. It's not just forcing turnovers, but deflecting balls, shutting down backdoor passing lanes, contesting shots from the perimeter, and not allowing easy layups. Yet despite UW doing a pretty good job of disrupting Cal's offense, the Golden Bears actually had a solid offensive half, shooting 13-for-26 and not turning the ball excessively.</p>
<p>The far bigger difference was that the Huskies fed off their defensive intensity and found their rhythm on offense. Finishing the half shooting 10-for-17 from 3-point land, it's not exactly like they were shooting less threes either as some people suggested they should - they were just much more decisive in passing the ball around the perimeter and more patient in finding those shots they did make. The result was assisting on 18 of their 22 field goals and shooting 59.5 percent from the field.</p>
<p>UW guard Isaiah Thomas led the way for the Huskies with 11 points and six assists while forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning re-asserted himself with 10 points and three rebounds. Center Aziz N'Diaye was an integral part of the Huskies defensive effort to protect the rim and pulled in four rebounds in addition to a number of contested shots.</p>
<p>For Cal, guard Jorge Gutierrez maintained his solid play individually with 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting and doing an effective job of creating offense for himself.</p>
<p>All that said, what you might look for now is whether UW can maintain this level of play or anything close to it. UW coach Lorenzo Romar said earlier in the week that turning things around was more about maintaining a high intensity level than actually changing anything structurally.</p>
<p>This second half is the first opportunity to demonstrate that their back on track.</p>
https://seattle.sbnation.com/washington-huskies/2011/2/10/1987483/uw-basketball-washington-jumps-out-to-a-commanding-58-34-halftime-leadNate P.2011-02-10T17:53:52-08:002011-02-10T17:53:52-08:00UW Basketball: Who's Been Hot For Cal Recently?
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<p>While the cast of characters is generally the same since the last time the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/teams/washington-huskies">Washington Huskies</a> played Cal, with the Golden Bears playing as well as they have recently it's worth revisiting who might be contributing to their increasingly confident play.</p>
<p>If indeed the key to Cal's improved play has been their more fluid offensive execution, then it's hard not to start with ball control as a key to the game.</p>
<h4>Key statistical battleground: turnovers</h4>
<p>UW's defense has been under scrutiny after three consecutive poor efforts. Given that the Huskies are a team that typically thrives off turnovers to get out and score points in transition, their ability to force turnovers will be significant. For Cal, they've turned the ball over more often than their opponents throughout the season and conference play but with the exception of one game (vs. Oregon) they've dramatically improved that along with their assist to turnover ratio over the last six games.</p>
<h4>Cal players to watch</h4>
<p><b><a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/players/53339/jorge-gutierrez">Jorge Gutierrez</a>, G (6-foot-3, 195, Jr.)</b></p>
<p>Over the last six games, Gutierrez has had 35 assists compared to 16 turnovers and 6 of those turnovers came in their triple overtime game against Arizona last weekend. He's running the point very well right now as a distributor and also as a scorer getting to the line 44 times over that same time span. UW coach Lorenzo Romar has identified Gutierrez previously as a player they've had to worry about on the defensive end, but his ability to run the team so efficiently lately definitely helps Cal's chances quite a bit.</p>
<p><b><a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/players/123296/allen-crabbe">Allen Crabbe</a>, G (6-foot-6, 205, Fr.)</b></p>
<p>Crabbe has been Cal's second-leading scorer during conference play (behind forward <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/players/28829/harper-kamp">Harper Kamp</a>) at 16.6 points per game and perhaps his most significant contribution among rotation players is his three-point shooting 45.6 percent from beyond the arc. However, Crabbe also contributes quite a bit on the boards in averaging the second-highest rebounds per game at 6.2.</p>
https://seattle.sbnation.com/washington-huskies/2011/2/10/1987316/uw-basketball-whos-been-hot-for-cal-recentlyNate P.2011-02-10T13:02:10-08:002011-02-10T13:02:10-08:00UW Basketball: What Has Cal Been Doing So Much Better Lately?
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<p>The folks at SBN's California Golden Blogs have taken a much more humble approach to this game with the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/teams/washington-huskies">Washington Huskies</a> than they did in the previous one, which is perhaps ironic given how the Huskies are playing lately.</p>
<p>But with the last three games having been "sheer carnage" - in the words of CGB writer Kodiak - and UW possessing a massive home court advantage, caution is appropriate.</p>
<p>All that said, there is something to be said for the fact that Cal is playing quite well and Kodiak also points out how one of the more subtle things they're doing lately could be a key to their hopes of ending the Huskies' home magic.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2011/2/10/1983328/roll-on-previewing-cal-mens-basketball-against-the-washington-huskies" target="_blank">Roll On: Previewing Cal Men's Basketball Against the Washington Huskies - California Golden Blogs</a><br>3) Offensive Execution - Perhaps the biggest improvement with the Cal team is their ball movement on offense. Instead of a disjointed, confused effort, we more often get a crisply-run symphony of five players moving together with confidence. When we lose confidence and start settling for early shots, our offense stagnates and tends to lead to transition baskets for the other team. Considering the Huskies' collective shooting slump, we need to avoid jump-starting them with anything easy.</p>
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<p>The type of offensive execution described there is not always something that shows up clearly in the numbers, but the numbers for Cal show dramatic improvement, particularly in the cozy confines of Haas Pavilion over the last four games.</p>
<p>Cal's percentage of assisted field goals - a reasonable barometer of execution, with exceptions - has been consistently above average over the last four games after being below average in their previous two losses (vs UW and at UCLA). Their assist to turnover ratio - again not a perfect metric, but good for this sort of thing - has been well above average as well: they've posted their three best assist to turnover ratio games of the season in the last four games with their best coming in their tough triple overtime loss to Arizona. </p>
https://seattle.sbnation.com/washington-huskies/2011/2/10/1986862/uw-basketball-what-has-cal-been-doing-so-much-better-latelyNate P.2011-02-10T00:05:27-08:002011-02-10T00:05:27-08:00UW Basketball: Something's Got To Give With Cal Coming To Hec Ed
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<p>Having already fallen out of the rankings after their three-game losing streak, there is little question that the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/teams/washington-huskies">Washington Huskies</a> return home against Cal is sort of a big deal.</p>
<p>Perhaps you can find a way to excuse the losing streak given that all three of those losses were on the road and all three were in reach down the stretch.</p>
<p>But to put things in historical perspective, Steve Rudman of Sportspress Northwest describes <a target="_blank" href="http://sportspressnw.com/2011/02/nobody-asks-but-us-13/">the rather ominous fact that no Huskies team has ever won a tournament game</a> after dropping four in a row.</p>
<p>And even if you refuse to think so deterministically about history, taking their first loss of the season at home against a Cal team they already beat on the road would be rather disappointing on its own given that a loss to Cal (6-5 in the Pac-10) would send them from third to fifth in the conference standings and at risk of falling into the bottom half of the standings on Saturday against a Stanford team that has already proven that they can beat them.</p>
<p>While fully acknowledging that saying that something is a "must-win" game is an overused label, a loss to Cal at this moment would be a disastrous statement about the state of this team.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Cal's confidence is only rising as they find themselves right on the heels of UW after their blowout loss at home six games ago, as described by John Crumpacker of the San Francisco Chronicle.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/09/SPRO1HKV7D.DTL" target="_blank">Cal men prepare for rematch with Washington</a><br>From that point on, the Bears have won four of six Pac-10 games, bracketed by a last-second loss at UCLA and a triple-overtime defeat by then-No. 21 Arizona on Saturday.</p>
<p>"It gave us more confidence," Cal center <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/players/100862/markhuri-sanders-frison">Markhuri Sanders-Frison</a> said. "We already knew we could play with anybody we face up and play against. ... I'm not surprised at all. Everybody is molding into their own roles. Coaches are doing a good job of letting us know what our roles are."</p>
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<p>In other words, while the redeeming qualities of Washington's losses have been rather scant, Cal comes in playing rather well even in their losses.</p>
<p>As Crumpacker describes, something has to give.</p>
https://seattle.sbnation.com/2011/2/10/2329524/uw-basketball-somethings-got-to-give-with-cal-coming-to-hec-edNate P.