Simply put, that may have been the most ridiculously perfect display of Husky basketball ever.Let me clarify this: it was not perfect basketball. Aziz N'Diaye went an unbelievably ridiculous 3-15 at the stripe, leading to the Huskies' age-old free throw problem, as the team only shot 47% from the line.
Of course, that's really the only complaint from last night. Romar's Husky teams are built on crazy good rebounding on both ends of the floor and turnover creation, and boy did that ever work against McNeese State. The team made Jon Brockman proud, pulling in more offensive rebounds (28) than McNeese's small ball team (26). Aziz N'Diaye filled his role more perfect than anyone could have imagined, going for 13 points, 12 boards, 2 steals, and 2 blocks while giving Bryan-Amaning all the room he could ever want to operate in the paint.
Isaiah Thomas played more efficiently than in years past, putting up 17 points on 8 shots, while backcourtmate Abdul Gaddy didn't play amazingly but began to show why people used to think he was talented, scoring a bit (10) and passing a bit (5 assists). Terrence Ross and Justin Holiday didn't exactly shoot amazingly well (a combined 6-19 from the field), but Ross showed glimpses of his talent and Holiday continued to challenge Venoy Overton for the title of defensive player of the year for both the Huskies and, probably, the Pac-10.
Most importantly of all, Brendan Sherrer put together the greatest game of all time, with a 3 trillion (3 minutes played, zero stats). Go Huskies.
So I actually got to go to the game. It was a lot of fun for my first huskies basketball game. 118-64. All of us in the stands were hoping to double their score. Probably a bit greedy and in poor taste but it still would have been awesome.
ReplyDeleteMy insights from the game were very similar to what you posted. The Cowboys started off hot and swished a 3 on their first poscesion. They didn't do anything from there on. The husky interior D was dominating. The McNeese players could penetrate at all.
For me the most encouraging thing was MBA. He scored 28 points and looked good doing it. Not once did he do his patented triple pump fake, double spin fade away. He continually made one good move and layed it in or slammed it home.
Aziz was a rebounding beast. It was very obvious what he needed to work on though. His offense was downright bad. When he finally made his second free throw the fans cheered louder then any other time but MBA dunks.
I felt Abdul Gaddy did better then his stats showed. He had several good passes to Aziz that were bobbled away and didn't result in a score or worse resulted in a turnover.