A prime example of a win is a win
Posted by Nuss on January 7, 2008
Well, folks, welcome to Monday. Your team is still ranked No. 4 — although I’ll probably jump UCLA ahead of them on my blogpoll ballot, but that’s another story — and you’ve beaten Washington for the sixth straight time. That’s the good news.
Other good news includes the offensive domination of Aron Baynes, clutch shooting of Kyle Weaver and the return of Daven Harmeling to the tune of a pair of timely 3’s with a heavily taped shooting hand.
The bad news, of course, is that the Cougs hardly looked impressive in beating Huskies on the road. Don’t get me wrong — beating any conference opponent on the road is never anything to sneeze at. But this was hardly the Cougs’ best game and leaves plenty of room for improvement before making the Southern California road trip this weekend.
Much has been made of the Huskies’ supposedly improved defense, and I will give them some credit — they did hold the Cougs to 46.8 effective field goal percentage (what’s this?), a seemingly good accomplishment. But let’s be real: Most of that was due to the Cougars missing open 3-pointers, to the tune of just 4-for-14 for the game. If they make two or three more of those, as they are prone to do, this is a comfortable victory. As it was, the Cougs’ offensive efficiency (what’s this?) was still 99.7 — well below their season average (115.0), but only slightly below the national average (100.6).
Put simply, it was hardly the stifling effort many in the media have made it out to be. The Cougars’ low point total was due to missed 3’s and the fact that there were only 56 possessions in the game, third lowest of the season. If anything, give credit to the Huskies for staying within that slow pace and keeping the game close. It was an excellent strategy that their previous editions have steadfastly refused to embrace.
What would I like to see done better this weekend to have a good chance of getting a pair of victories on the road?
For one, I’d like to continue to plead with Derrick Low to be more aggressive on the offensive end. He passed up too many good shots on Saturday, and this team needs one thing from him on offense: To put the ball in the basket. He is just too unselfish. Let Kyle Weaver be the playmaker. Low just needs to look for his shot. If he ever really starts to believe that, this team will be scary. I really would like to see him taking 13-15 shots a game.
I also would like to continue to plead with Baynes to quit reaching for the ball. A prime example was his third foul. He had played stellar post defense on Jon Brockman, was straight up and down with his arms, then at the last second as the shot was going off, he moved his arm into Brockman as if to try and block the shot. He needs to remember two things:
- He is 6-foot-10. Straight up and down is good enough 98 percent of the time to alter a shot.
- He is developing a reputation as a whiner.
I’m starting to lose faith, though, that either of these things will change, since they’ve been the same for three years now. Imagine how not close this game would have been had Baynes been able to stay on the floor for 35 minutes instead of 28 because of foul trouble? I’ll try not to.
I know this post sounds a little pessimistic — mostly because as a fan, I of course want perfection every time out — but the truth is that this wasn’t a half-bad win against the Cougs’ first quality opponent in exactly a month. The Huskies played inspired ball, using defense that rode the momentum of the crowd and some early missed shots by their opponents. We just all know that we’re going to need a little more this weekend against a desperate 0-2 team and a UCLA team that will be looking to stake its claim to the Pac-10 title and reassert itself as one of the clear top four teams in the country.
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