Husky Basketball

Tical21

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There are 19 hockey threads and 2 JV basketball threads in this forum and no threads dedicated to the most fun season of local, non-JV college basketball this area has had in a long time. It is time for the Dawgs to have their own thread.

Tough loss to USC today. Just couldn't come close to getting any consistent stops. I'm done with this switching every screen BS too. Not wanting to take the time to teach how to play proper screen defense is not an excuse for allowing teams to get their big men on our undersized guards anytime they feel like it. There are 6 ways to defend a ball-screen, and switching every single one is not the answer. I have literally never in my life seen any other team try to do this, primarily because it is completely idiotic. USC's average-at-best big man scored layups at will against us all day long, and if you watch the highlights, you won't see any of our bigs in any of the videos. Andrew Andrews and David Crisp spent all day in the paint defending bigs while our bigs tried to keep up with their quick guards on the perimeter. Then, if they happen to miss their easy shot, they still have a bunch of bigs rebounding under the basket against our guards. It's time to spend some practices on learning how to play pick and roll defense. Okay, rant over.

Still am having more fun watching this team than I have in years. I wasn't a Dejonte Murray fan for the first handful of weeks of the season, but geez that kid is something else. He's going to be a NBA All-Star.

Best part of the whole thing....Rainier Beach, Rainier Beach, Timberline, Eastside Catholic, Hazen.
 

Hawk-Lock

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viewtopic.php?f=5&t=109935

^^^ I've been using this as my Husky thread, but lets move it here. Much more straight forward title.

Anyways, the team is awesome. So much fun to watch. Fifth youngest team in the nation and we are shocking the world (well maybe just the country). Picked to finish between 10th and 12th in almost every pre-season media poll.....Only 2 returning players from last year..... And we are tied for second in a pretty good Pac12 conference. It's a pretty amazing story, it's too bad the husky hoops team gets overlooked by not only the national media, but I feel like they get overlooked locally too. Zona comes here on Saturday, Hec-Ed should be rocking. A win against Arizona should get us some attention.

The best thing is, like the Seahawks from 3 years ago, we are just at the beginning of a great journey. Most of these freshman are here to stay. And while losing Andrews next year will hurt, we will be even better with Top 10 recruit Fultz, and a couple big men coming in (freshman from New Zealand and an Auburn transfer).

For those of you who need to get even more excited, look who is projected to go #8 and #9 next year...
http://www.nbadraft.net/2017mock_draft
 

CPHawk

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Ive heard this other places, that UW is shocking people. They aren't, UW had the talent coming in everyone knew that. What's shocking is a bad coach was able to get them to play together. If UW had a good coach, with this class, UW would have been picked 4-5 in the preseason.
 

Hawk-Lock

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CPHawk":p8bm7br2 said:
Ive heard this other places, that UW is shocking people. They aren't, UW had the talent coming in everyone knew that. What's shocking is a bad coach was able to get them to play together. If UW had a good coach, with this class, UW would have been picked 4-5 in the preseason.

That's a ridiculous statement. No team would have been ranked that high with only 2 returning players from last year (only 1 that contributes, Andrew Andrews). The recruiting class was very good, but it wasn't even second best in the Pac12. Both Cal and Zona had better recruiting classes (according to Scout). No way were we going to be ranked ahead of Cal, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, and UCLA. And that's not even mentioning other quality teams like Oregon St and Colorado who many were very high on coming into the season.

Unless you are Kentucky, you aren't going to get a ton of respect when your entire team is freshman except for 2 players. Perhaps with a better coach they would have been picked 8th or 9th rather than 11th or 12th. But you're crazy if you actually think this team had a chance to be ranked #4 or #5 with a better coach.
 
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Tical21

Tical21

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Hawk-Lock":1e7goye7 said:
CPHawk":1e7goye7 said:
Ive heard this other places, that UW is shocking people. They aren't, UW had the talent coming in everyone knew that. What's shocking is a bad coach was able to get them to play together. If UW had a good coach, with this class, UW would have been picked 4-5 in the preseason.

That's a ridiculous statement. No team would have been ranked that high with only 2 returning players from last year (only 1 that contributes, Andrew Andrews). The recruiting class was very good, but it wasn't even second best in the Pac12. Both Cal and Zona had better recruiting classes (according to Scout). No way were we going to be ranked ahead of Cal, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, and UCLA. And that's not even mentioning other quality teams like Oregon St and Colorado who many were very high on coming into the season.

Unless you are Kentucky, you aren't going to get a ton of respect when your entire team is freshman except for 2 players. Perhaps with a better coach they would have been picked 8th or 9th rather than 11th or 12th. But you're crazy if you actually think this team had a chance to be ranked #4 or #5 with a better coach.
I do agree that Lorenzo leaves some to be desired in terms of X's and 0's. However, he recruited the heck out of Seattle. If you look at the twitter feeds of his ex and current players, it really is a family thing. You get the sense that even those living overseas are still close to this program. I believe it is that closeness that brings recruiting classes like this and the next few together. Would a different coach have convinced Chriss to come here and Murray to stay? I dunno. That said, Romar has had his most success with hungry, athletic style teams. If he can get this team to play defense, which is usually the one thing he can do, they're going to be in the top portion of the conference for a while.

The fun part to watch is when we take our undisciplined pace and play against the more deliberate teams like Arizona, Oregon and Gonzaga. Those teams try to execute us to death, and we try to get them out of their game. Fascinating stuff. We can look really silly at times in those battles, but we can also really expose a team that might lack a little athleticism in others.
 

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Tical21":2kq2htas said:
Hawk-Lock":2kq2htas said:
CPHawk":2kq2htas said:
Ive heard this other places, that UW is shocking people. They aren't, UW had the talent coming in everyone knew that. What's shocking is a bad coach was able to get them to play together. If UW had a good coach, with this class, UW would have been picked 4-5 in the preseason.

That's a ridiculous statement. No team would have been ranked that high with only 2 returning players from last year (only 1 that contributes, Andrew Andrews). The recruiting class was very good, but it wasn't even second best in the Pac12. Both Cal and Zona had better recruiting classes (according to Scout). No way were we going to be ranked ahead of Cal, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, and UCLA. And that's not even mentioning other quality teams like Oregon St and Colorado who many were very high on coming into the season.

Unless you are Kentucky, you aren't going to get a ton of respect when your entire team is freshman except for 2 players. Perhaps with a better coach they would have been picked 8th or 9th rather than 11th or 12th. But you're crazy if you actually think this team had a chance to be ranked #4 or #5 with a better coach.
I do agree that Lorenzo leaves some to be desired in terms of X's and 0's. However, he recruited the heck out of Seattle. If you look at the twitter feeds of his ex and current players, it really is a family thing. You get the sense that even those living overseas are still close to this program. I believe it is that closeness that brings recruiting classes like this and the next few together. Would a different coach have convinced Chriss to come here and Murray to stay? I dunno. That said, Romar has had his most success with hungry, athletic style teams. If he can get this team to play defense, which is usually the one thing he can do, they're going to be in the top portion of the conference for a while.

The fun part to watch is when we take our undisciplined pace and play against the more deliberate teams like Arizona, Oregon and Gonzaga. Those teams try to execute us to death, and we try to get them out of their game. Fascinating stuff. We can look really silly at times in those battles, but we can also really expose a team that might lack a little athleticism in others.

Romar is one of the better recruiters, but in my opinion a below average in-game coach. His strenghts are recruiting and player development. Just look at all the Huskies who are having success in the NBA, and a lot of those guys weren't 4 or 5 star recruits coming out of HS (Isaiah Thomas, Nate Robinson, etc.).

Romar is the only reason why we are getting Fultz to come across the country to play with us. Fultz could play for any team, very rarely do you ever see a 5-star east-coast kid come out West.
 

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Big overtime win against ASU tonight. DeJounte Murray is the real deal, he had a career high 34 points to go along with 11 rebounds and 6 assists. Biggest UW basketball game in years will be this weekend against Arizona.
 
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Tical21

Tical21

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Hawk-Lock":2cdlvx8i said:
Big overtime win against ASU tonight. DeJounte Murray is the real deal, he had a career high 34 points to go along with 11 rebounds and 6 assists. Biggest UW basketball game in years will be this weekend against Arizona.
Sadly, I think we still get blown out. Andrews looks like he's out of gas, and we just aren't capable of playing the defense necessary to beat a team as good as Arizona. I just can't handle the switching. We spend all game trying to compensate for mismatches. Arizona ripped us apart for it last time and I don't think we have any other plans to try anything different. I think it is only a matter of time before the players themselves start to go off the grid and stop switching everything.

Maybe Murray and Chriss can keep us in it. We're also going to need one of Green, Thybulle or Crisp, who is about out of the rotation, to step up and have a big night. I'm going to be rooting like crazy, but I don't think we're there yet. Man, it'll be huge if we can pull it out though.
 

pehawk

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Recruiting was more important than X's and O's at UDub at one point in time. Also, Romar probably wouldn't be able to recruit if he focused heavily on X's and O's. Just letting players "ball" is a big part of his recruiting excellence.
 
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Tical21

Tical21

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pehawk":2gt14i1g said:
Recruiting was more important than X's and O's at UDub at one point in time. Also, Romar probably wouldn't be able to recruit if he focused heavily on X's and O's. Just letting players "ball" is a big part of his recruiting excellence.
That's a pretty solid point that I hadn't thought about. Do you think he sells that in the living room?
 
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Tical21

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Tough, kind of uplifting loss today. The kids came and tried to go toe-to-toe with Arizona. They got out-seniored a little bit, but gave AZ all they could handle. We gave up 8 offensive boards to Anderson, and at least half of those were direct results of switching screens. I think we win this game if we aren't switching every screen. Arizona knew we were going to do it, Anderson knew he was going to be on little guys all day long, and we just got torched in the paint.

Baby Boy needs to get a midrange game going. He took way too many 1-on-3 layups today and had no plan B.

Thybulle and Chriss were really impressive today. Dickerson's foul trouble really hurt. I'm excited to get another crack at these guys next month.
 

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Do UW fans think all these Fr will return next year? I heard on the radio that 1-2 of them are in mocks as first round picks.
 

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None of the current crop of freshmen came in as 'one-and-done' type players. Chriss and Murray both have NBA potential (others may as well, I don't claim to be an expert) and, if they receive indications they would be lottery picks, may well go. But I think the expectation is that all are likely to stay at least one more year.

Fultz, on the other hand, is widely expected to be at UW for only one year.
 

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I think if Murray wants, he can probably leave after this year. Obviously he sky rocketed up draft boards the past couple weeks with his hot play. One draft site had him as a lottery pick, it's very hard for players to pass up the guaranteed money that being a lottery pick offers you. Personally, I think Murray needs to spend time at the collegiate level to get stronger. Yesterday was a good example of him not having the strength to finish in the NBA, as Arizona has an NBA-sized frontcourt.

IMO Chriss is still at least 2 years away from being an NBA prospect. The NBA will love his athleticism, but he everything else about him is so raw.

The goal is to have all the freshman stay so we can have one year of all these kids with Fultz, Timmons and Atewe.
 

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This team has really been fun to watch. Romar is really building something awesome.

As of now I'd say the only two players the dawgs will lose are Andrews (obviously graduating) and Dorsey (I think he will ultimately transfer). Murray is nba ready, but I don't see him leaving quite yet. Chriss is the one that gives me pause. Really hope he doesn't pull a Wroten because he could use another year in college. Losing either of those two would really hamper what this team could do next year. If the freshmen stay, however, that will be a very special team.
 
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Tical21

Tical21

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You just never know with young kids. I think Murray benefits most from staying. He's nothing in the NBA until he develops at least his mid-range game. I think he's got in in him. He's got a decent stroke and the ball comes off his hand cleanly, it is just a confidence and comfort issue at this point. The question is whether or not the best place to develop this is in college, vs. the D-league or the end of a NBA bench. It really is a tough question. He can dominate most college games just by going to the rack, so your fear is that if he stays in college, he's just going to keep doing it. In the NBA, he would probably be forced to develop, unless he wants to end up like Tony Wroten, possibly out of the league already because he failed to develop the rest of his game. However, Murray seems to be having a ton of fun in college, and I can see him staying for that reason.

Chriss to me has amazing NBA potential. Just so many tools. Inside game, outside game, some defense. Legit NBA athleticism. Legit NBA skills. The big issue is maturity. Stay in the game with the right attitude. Don't just dominate in stretches and don't show poor attitude and body language when things don't go your way. He also doesn't seem like he's having as much fun, and almost is treating the college game like it bores him. For that reason I can see him coming out if somebody tells him he'll go in the first round.

I think both are top-20 picks. I think both would benefit from more college. You never know what Jamal Crawford is telling Baby Boy. If they get into the tournament, I think there is a better chance they stay. Gun to my head, I'm guessing Murray stays and Chriss leaves, even though Murray is the better prospect at this stage.


On another only slightly related note, if those two weren't here, and we had vets, we would be so thrilled with Thybulle and Dickerson. Even Green. Those are the kinds of kids that can make teams special as junior and senior role players. This is going to be a lot of fun.
 

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Any news on Michael Porter? I heard that his list is basically between us and KU. I heard we have the slight edge. Would be huge if we could land him. I know this isn't likely, but let me dream: Could you imagine a team of Fultz, Murray, Chriss, Porter and all the other young kids we already have? That team would be a final four contender.
 

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Chad Ford on ESPN , has Murray at 26 fwiw.
 
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Tical21

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As much fun as this team is offensively, I don't know how much more of this defense I can watch. DON'T SWITCH EVERY SCREEN. DON'T SWITCH EVERY SCREEN. DON'T SWITCH EVERY SCREEN.
 

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Have they hit the wall?

I think they have to go 3-2 to finish out the year and probably win at least one game in the Pac12 tournament if they want to make the dance. It's very do-able. WSU and Stanford at home should both be wins. At Oregon is most likely a loss. Then they just need to win either at home against Cal or against the Beavers on the road.
 
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