Huskies Win 76-60 to the Oregon Ducks

The Oregon Ducks traveled to Alaska Airlines Arena for a New Year Eve’s tipoff but left without the ball dropping for them. EJ Singler did what he could by putting up 20 points and shooting 43% from the field. However, that performance wouldn’t help when the Oregon team as a whole shot 32% from the field and 21% from behind the 3pt line.

Here are my thoughts from the game:

• Tony Wroten is maturing, he is making better decisions with the ball, and is focused on improving. At the half-time shoot around he solely shot from the free-throw line because that is one of the biggest slights on his game.
• CJ Wilcox had a monster game with 24 points and shooting 6-8 from 3. He helped carry this team when Abdul Gaddy and Terrence Ross were in foul trouble.
• Only 9 UW players played in this game and only 8 recorded a stat. There was no sign of Shawn Kemp Jr. and Martin Breunig and Hikeem Stewart saw only a few minutes.
• Aziz N’Diaye helped this team start hot as he scored the first 4 points and had a couple big defensive plays.
• There were a few too many fouls especially from Ross and Gaddy. Gaddy didn’t even start the second half because he was already sitting at 3 fouls.
• 15 turnovers is still too high for the Huskies. There were a few obvious miscommunications in this game. However, I do think overall, the chemistry is improving for the team.
• There was one heated moment in the game when Olu Ashaolu elbowed Wroten in the face. Immediately following was lots of jawing between the players. Gant stepped in to jaw with Ashaolu and those 2 received technical fouls after the elbow was considered “incidental”.
• The Oregon Ducks were very sloppy. They had 16 turnovers and many poor possessions. They may have been able to beat Washington State but they need to iron out some major issues if they want to compete in the Pac-12.

Jeff “HuskyLenz” Taylor’s notes:

• Oregon is even worse in terms of organization and half court offense than the Huskies. They relied far too much on the 3 point shot, which other than a few by Singler and Sims, weren’t falling. They looked like a less talented clone of the Huskies. Their record looked great because of their weak schedule, but I don’t even see them finishing in the Top 6 in the conference.
• CJ Wilcox showed tonight why he needs to be on the floor. He is the best all-around player the Huskies have. He’s lights out from downtown, has a great first step and drive, plays tenacious defense, and actually hits his free throws.
• Tony Wroten is on another plane. He is Isaiah Thomas as a freshman, with more height. He plays with fire, crashes the boards, and is willing to do everything it takes to win games. The only thing holding him back, other than his obvious free throw shooting woes, is some inexperience in knowing when to pass it, turnovers, and sometimes when maybe he shouldn’t drive in. He’ll be incredible next year, but I am starting to feel like there won’t be a next year for him. So, the Huskies need to have a replacement point guard in mind (other than Gaddy of course).
• The Huskies had their lapses, but did appear to play with more purpose on defense tonight. It helped when Oregon would go hot-and-cold.
• The offense didn’t light it up, but I did see a bit more movement and passing than I’ve seen in some other games.

The next game is at Colorado on January 5th, 2012. Happy New Years Husky Fans!

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