Brian Floyd already took a look at the key players in tonight's matchup between Washington and Washington State and THolt of SBN's UW Dawg Pound has already alluded to the major statistical key to this game.
#18 UW @ WSU Game Preview - UW Dawg Pound
In order to do that, though, the Cougars are going to have to account for Aziz N'Dyiae, who after missing all of last season with a knee injury has done exactly what the Huskies brought him in to do: clog the lane and crash the boards. Despite giving up almost ten minutes per game to MBA, he's still second on the team in rebounds per game, trailing only 5.94 to 7.74.
Coming into this game, UW is clearly the more dominant offensive rebounding team statistically, but a brief glance at UW's losses - and even some of their earliest wins against cupcakes - shows that they have struggled at times to rebound consistently.
And Matthew Bryan-Amaning's play is probably the focal point, as N'Diaye will garner a lot of the attention from the biggest players leaving MBA available to get boards as he pleases. The important thing to watch is whether they can maintain it for 40 minutes.
For today's game, two ways to keep up:
- Brian Floyd, Jeff Nusser and I will be chatting about the game live at Coug Center, with me the special opposing (yet civil) guest.
- At Coug Center, I would implore Huskies fans to keep their trash talk to a minimum. However, if you struggle to keep your animosity for the Cougars to yourself, you can also visit the game thread at SBN's UW Dawg Pound.