More Thoughts and Observations from the Huskies’ 88-76 Win Over Cal State Northridge

Without anything actually happening to elicit the change (at least nothing I could see), Coach made one of the fastest substitutions I’ve seen in a while last night, substituting Darnell Gant for Elston Turner 65 seconds into the game. Maybe he felt that Elston earned the start with his play at Texas Tech, but Coach decided he wanted to go bigger against Northridge early on? Not sure why.

If what Coach said is true, and the rotation will be trimmed for the next few games, at least Clarence got his money’s worth while he was on the court last night. In four minutes, he scored four points, grabbed four rebounds, turned the ball over twice and committed three fouls. He does make things happen when he’s in the game — it’s just a crapshoot whether those things are going to help the Huskies, or hurt them.

Trent does hustle, though. His rebounds are never cheapies. He often gets them by charging into a pack of opposing players and grabbing a ball that would’ve gone to the other team.

New nickname for Matthew Bryan-Amaning: “The Big Goaltender.” Has anyone else noticed that MBA will generally get called for a goaltending violation once per game? Rarely twice, but almost always once.

Really impressed with the way the Huskies came out and asserted their dominance over the final 15 minutes. Looking at just a one-point lead five minutes into the second half, it was hard not to think about how devastating it would be to lose this very winnable game. It’s crazy to say so early in the season, but, as far as the Huskies’ aspirations to be thought of as a national power, this was as close to a must-win as it was going to get (given the loss on Thursday and a very tough game coming up on Saturday).

Tyreese Breshers committed five fouls in 10 minutes against the Matadors. It’s been hard to get a sense of what he’ll be able to do with 20-25 minutes per game. Last night, he had three points, five rebounds, three blocks and three turnovers.

I’m a little concerned about how the Dawgs are going to handle talented Georgetown big men Greg Monroe (6’11”, 250) and Julian Vaughn (6’9″, 246) on Saturday. I haven’t seen anything so far to tell me that the Huskies can defend a team with two powerful presences in the post.

Quincy hit his first three-pointer of the season last night. He said during the post-game press conference that the coaches have been encouraging him to shoot it when he’s open. Prior to hitting one of his two attempts tonight, he was 0-5 on the year.

And, finally, a little anecdote:

After the game, while I was writing my post-game story in the press room, a group of players came in looking for a stat sheet. The group included Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Clarence Trent, Scott Suggs and Elston Turner. In the five minutes they went through the stats together, I’d say 90% of the discussion was about the Huskies’ team stats versus the Matadors’ stats (rebounding total, field goal percentage, free throw shooting, etc.). VERY little discussion about personal stats.

MBA mentioned that the coaches told him to focus on other areas of the game since his shot wasn’t falling (he had 10 rebounds), and also said to his teammates that he didn’t think Coach Romar was happy with the performance, given that the Dawgs shot only 40%.

I was in the middle of writing, so wasn’t really listening with full attention, but thought it was interesting to hear the things the players were focusing on.

Thanks for coming!