Pros, Cons, Conclusions vs. Oregon

[REB1094]

3 Pros:

1. Tristen Newton! He carried our first half offense, 21 in the first half and then flipped the switch into playmaker mode for the second while being very engaged defensively all game. Finished with 23 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds on 70%. There was a lot of talk on here about who would be the guy to settle down the offense and control the pace of the game - the answer is now easily Tristen Newton.
2. Donovan Clingan more than held his own. He did great in lineups with him and Sanogo at the same time (countered Oregon's only strength - size) and helped stretch the lead from 11 to 20 to start the second half when Sanogo was in foul trouble. He's maturing every game right in front of our eyes, he's a great bench piece already. Finished with 9 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks and played some very valuable minutes. He's a great passer and was very disciplined defensively today. Honestly, he was the best big man on the floor
3. I thought Joey C would only get 5-10 minutes here and there when we needed shooting, but he's already proving to be our 6th Man. Electric offense and he played a GREAT game defensively as well. He's taken up nearly all of Diarra's minutes with his play so far. Finished with 11 points and 4 assists on 80% shooting. This kid can shoot

HM: Hawkins started ice cold. Missed his first 4 threes (3 were WIDE open) and I believe was 2-9 after the first half. Last season, this would crush his confidence for like 3 games. He finished with 18 points on 6-16 shooting, so that's 4-7 in the second half including a great and-1 drive and a great alley oop pass to Clingan. He was a MENACE defensively as well. He took 14 threes this game (!!!) and honestly I want him to keep shooting. Most of his shots were good looks through the flow of the offense. They're going to start falling.

3 Cons:

1. First and foremost, ESPN is the biggest tragedy of this game. Bill Walton doesn't belong anywhere near a microphone, and it felt like at least a quarter of the game was terrible half-screen side-by-sides of the game and some random stuff like MSU getting off the bus, a Tom Izzo interview, bringing Phil Knight onto the broadcast table...I nearly muted my TV instead of having to listen to Walton call the game
2. Andre is still struggling to get back to form. He was looking to be aggressive on offense early which I liked, but it led to a really tough shot that got bailed out with a foul (missed both FT), then missed 2 threes and a floater. Also had 5 turnovers, and some of these were just bad decisions. I hope and believe he will get better with more reps under his belt, but that was not a good game. Defensively he was solid as always. Play of the game was Andre making a great defensive stop, skying for a rebound, pushing it up the court, and finding ADAMA SANOGO on a fast break for the record-breaking three pointer
3. Fouls. We had 11 first half fouls, and had 3 fouls in the first 15 seconds of the second half. Oregon was in the bonus with 15:29 left. We had 25 fouls tonight, although the referees were VERY sensitive in the second half. Every touch was getting called. Not sure why, since the game was over a few minutes into the half. Oregon shot 14-25 on free throws, yikes

Conclusion: Our offense is pick your poison - play Sanogo straight up or give up shots. Oregon chose to give up shots, and we broke the program record for most threes in a game. Absolutely ran through them. Sure Oregon wasn't fully healthy, but this is by far the best team we've played (lost to #3 Houston by 10 a few days ago) and it was barely competitive. They (comparatively) took Sanogo out of the game, Alleyne barely got any time because of foul trouble, only 2 bench players scored, and we blew them out by 20+. That was really fun to watch. Really excited to play Bama or MSU tomorrow. 6-0, let's go Huskies!

 

[UCLJ0211]

Solid points. It was only fitting that we cooked some birds (Ducks) on Thanksgiving! Excited to see what we do tomorrow night.

 

[UofCT]

Best game we have played since final four vs. Florida

 

[Icehawk]

Tonight was great, I cooked duck for my family and then the Huskies straight roasted some too!

Coverage was terrible and the announcing - my parents asked if I'd consider muting it. They were also worried when they saw the first few minutes with not a lot going in - I was like wait for it... yeah, there's a reason our guys are shooting 3s. Sanogo dropped 2. If you had asked me last year if he'd even take two in total this season I would have been like "nah".

Joey C, he's the guy I wasn't sure about the first few games but he's really turned it on. Love the effort. Our team is looking good. Can't wait until tomorrow night.

 

[CTBasketball]

The fact we’re blowing teams out with Sanogo and Jackson having off nights is telling.

 

[RichZ]

e shooting 3s. Sanogo dropped 2. If you had asked me last year if he'd even take two in total this season I would have been like "nah".

He's now 7 of 10 from 3 on the season.

 

[glastonbury50]

Best game we have played since final four vs. Florida

Time will tell how good Oregon actually is. We played great but Oregon is not nearly as good as the writers thought they'd be prior to the season.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The only "con" I saw was that I would like more touches for Sanogo. Otherwise, couldn't ask for more from the team.

 

[SwingDog]

Time will tell how good Oregon actually is. We played great but Oregon is not nearly as good as the writers thought they'd be prior to the season.

To be fair, Oregon was without four of their players, including two or three starters, so they were hardly at full strength. Once everyone gets healthy we'll have a better idea of how good they actually are.

 

[RichZ]

He's now 7 of 10 from 3 on the season.

Actually, he's 6 of 9. But I'm betting that he'll be 7 of 10 by halftime tonight.

 

[Waquoit]

The only "con" I saw was that I would like more touches for Sanogo. Otherwise, couldn't ask for more from the team.

To me that's a "yeah but". Yeah but Oregon was so worried about Sanogo we had a ton of open looks. And Sanogo didn't pout or seem to worry about his lack of touches. Which goes to what I thought was the key takeaway: we play team ball. It looks like everyone has buy-in, the days of "heat checks" are over. We'll know for sure once we face some adversity but I'm not worried.

 

[ctchamps]

Pro: lots of different combinations of players including some Clingan and Sanogo playing together and none of the combinations looked awkward.

Pro: they took away the interior leaving the perimeter wide open daring our shooters to make outside shots. First team since 2014 I feel comfortable knowing that in most games opposing teams will lose if they apply that strategy. Someone could make a mix tape of those shots and the majority would be only the sound of the net swooshing.