Energized Dawgs take down Stanford, 76-63

by: Griffin Bennett

First of all, I’d like to congratulate and thank Coach Romar on his 300th career win and 100th conference win. Great achievements by a great man.

That game was a breath of fresh air. The team finally had a great energy out of the gate and controlled the pace for the entire game. Being in the building, it just felt different. I can’t really explain it. It felt different than any other game this year as the players had a new energy and it was transferred to Dawg Pack and then to all of Hec-Ed.

Perhaps the catalyst of this energy was a Austin Seferian-Jenkins who made one hell of a debut. His 6’6 frame holds a lot of power and he immediately made his presence known in the post as he abused the Stanford big men. He brings that football mentality to this team which was lacking a truly physical player.

Could this be the new rotation? Romar only played 7 men in the game with Gant and ASJ coming off of the bench. The guards, Gaddy, Wroten and Ross, played 38, 34, and 39 minutes respectively and will probably be playing those type of high-minute games until Wilcox returns.

Thank you, Cougs. Thank you so much. Soak that in because you probably won’t hear me say it again. The Cougars beat Cal to keep us still in the title hunt as we are still only a half game back.

On to the reviews…

Positives:

• Austin Seferian-Jenkins – Loved his game. Against a smaller Stanford squad, he was able to move players around. He played 17 solid minutes while grabbing 7 rebounds and five hard fouls.
• Tony Wroten – He was Wade-esque out there. The way he cuts through traffic to the hoop and finishes with style is incredible. When you see those flashes your jaw drops. He led the game with 21 points will stuffing the rest of the stat sheet with 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, and only 3 turnovers.
• Terrence Ross – Another stat stuffing effort with 18 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal. He was only 2 of 8 from three and you’d like to see him improve his scoring efficiency as he was 6 of 17 from the field.
• Darnell Gant – A great bounce back game for Gant who needed it badly. He was 2 of 3 from deep, which is great to see him continue to shoot. he finished with 7 rebounds and 17 points.
• Rebounding – It was a great team effort on the boards against the second best rebounding team in the conference (Huskies are number one). Aziz only played 13 minutes, probably due to ASJ’s effectiveness and the quickness of Stanford’s post players. Even with him out, the Huskies won the battle 39-31 with no one player getting more than 7.

Negatives:

• Passing – The assist-to-turnover ratio continues to be a struggle for the team. 13:16 against Stanford is unacceptable and Gaddy’s 3 assists to 5 turnovers need to be improved. Gaddy is supposed to be the consistent, mistake free player.
• Foot to the Throat – The Huskies had the Cardinal under their throat late in the second half but they let them crawl back. This team needs to be able to put away teams late in the game. With the smaller bench this year, that gets a little more difficult. I like it when I get to be picky in my negatives.

Overall:

This was the most enjoyable game to watch since the New York trip. Seeing Gant fist pump, ASJ grinding, Wroten slashing, Ross finishing… it was just a great feeling. Is ASJ the change that this team needed? Let’s hope so. We’re still in the race and now a trip down to Arizona is coming and date that we have all had circled on our calendar. A date in Tucson on ESPN’s Gameday. Bow Down.