Road woes continue as Wolf Pack win in OT

by: Griffin Bennett

So that happened. Another preseason road game, another loss for the Huskies. It’s like we’re all stuck in some Husky basketball Groundhog’s Day remake as the Huskies lost tonight to Nevada 76-73 in overtime.

More of the same from this Husky team. Too many turnovers, not enough defense, lack of leadership, poor coaching, and a lack of an identity as a team.

The glaring absence of Isaiah Thomas finally reared it’s ugly head tonight as no one took the game over late and the entire team dropped the ball. As our good friend @Sarkisianity put it on twitter: “This team has ZERO leadership. Captains need to step up. It’s not a honorary title. It means something.”

Without a go-to player on this team, they will continue to run the “clogged toilet” offense down the stretch as it circles around the rim and never gets flushed down the hole.

While I could pick apart the minutiae of this game for days, it won’t do any of us any good. The bottom line was that the turnovers doomed us from the start when 11 minutes in the team had 11 points and 11 turnovers. It should have been Saint Louis all over again at that point.

I’m sure that many Husky fans’ hands remain hovering over the panic button but I urge you all to remember that losing early on the road is a staple of Romar-led teams. We’ve been through this before and have come through on the other side in the clear.

Let’s delve into the nitty gritty, shall we?

Positives:

• Aziz N’diaye – He is what he is. We all need to stop thinking that he’s going to be some sort of game changer this year. He had 12 rebounds, 4 blocks, only two fouls and one turnover. I’ll take it. He misses open passes and makes scoring at the rim look like brain surgery. He needs to learn how to catch a pass or rebound under the hoop and go right back up with it. He continues to go down to the floor and it gets stripped 9 times out of 10. And yes, this was a positive for tonight.
• Rebounding – Hey, we won that battle 27-21 at least! Yay!
• Terrence Ross –  A great night on paper for a sophomore. 18 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and only 2 turnovers. This is the last time I’m putting Ross in this category for a game like this again. He needs to become a game-changer with a killer instinct late in the game or else the team will be falling short come March. Other than a fantastic 360 catch-and-lay-up, he did not demand the ball and he seems content watching his teammates make plays (or lack thereof). He’s better than that and he needs to take a page out of IT’s playbook and dial up his signature step-back jumper late in games.
• Desmond Simmons – Can this kid get some more playing time, please? He played only 9 minutes but had 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and only 1 turnover. NINE MINUTES? Only one bench player had over 10 minutes of game time and that was Wroten with 27. Romar basically played 6 man ball the entire game with the rare exception of Simmons, Breunig, and Kemp sprinkled in.

Negatives:

• Turnovers – Good lord, turnovers. 21 in total. This game should have been well in hand after halftime. Another sloppy start from a Romar team has many people, including myself, doubting how mentally prepared the coaching staff has this squad before road games. Gaddy is night and day when it comes to home versus road games, Wroten is Wroten, and out-of-bounds plays continue to haunt us. Is this getting old yet?
• Abdul Gaddy – If he can’t pass effectively, he’s almost useless. He has obviously lost a step since his injury and his defense has noticeably suffered. He played a team high 39 minutes (all but one) and only posted 10 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds, and 4 turnovers. He had no calming effect on the team and his leadership is no where to be seen. This REALLY worries me.
• Tony Wroten – He was told to foul up three with seconds to go and didn’t. That’s the game right there. He had a decent game other than that but that was the deciding play and he failed. It’s a freshman mistake but it cost us the win.
• Coaching – I love Romar and I am in no way calling for his head to be placed on top of Hec-Ed, but these road games leave me scratching my head. Poor timeouts, poor substitutions, lack of pre-game energy/preparation, poor/no dead ball plays. When does the light turn on for this coaching team? It’s the same story over and over again. The in-bounds play to Wilcox was horrible, just as the timeout in between Wroten’s last free throws was. It’s infuriating to watch as a fan as these seem to be fundamental concepts that the team consistently fails to grasp.

There’s not much more to say. This could be only ugly trip to New York next week. I guess it’s just another day of pre-January Husky Basketball. Bow Down.