After Montana, Can UW Huskies basketball performance improve against San Diego?

M

OVING ON FROM MONTANA

The UW Huskies Men’s basketball team beat Montana 73-56 on Friday, but seemed to display every bad habit while doing so.

The Huskies set a season high in committing 21 turnovers against the Grizzlies.

Washington also shot 0 for 11 from three-point distance. many of which were hurried (bad) shots in early offense.

The single most positive UW Huskies headline was Sam Timmins scored 7 points (2-4FGs, 3-4FTs) with 5 rebounds, 1 Block and 1 Steal (and a lot of intimidation) in 20 minutes of filling in for foul-saddled Isaiah Stewart.

Focusing on the very aggressive (bad) PAC-12 referees, instead of Washington’s bad habits would be a mistake.

Of the 59 free throws attempts during the game, Washington had 46 and Montana had only 13.

Another inconvenient truth: the Huskies 17-point margin of victory was less than the Huskies 26-point free throws (made) margin.

There is no good reason to blame the refs for anything the Huskies did wrong against Montana.

I’ll say this slowly for the people in the back.

Arguably. the Huskies won the game because of the aggressive officiating which heavily favored Washington, not in spite of the referees.

S

AN DIEGO REGROUP?

The real headline is what are the Huskies going to do to improve between Friday’s win and Sunday’s matchup with San Diego?

Per the KenPom poll, Washington is ranked 53rd among Division 1 schools; and San Diego is ranked the 170th team.

In other words, UW is a heavy favorite in Sunday’s matchup.

The San Diego Toreros are definitely inferior on paper. They are nothing more than average (or below average) in every offensive statistical category.

San Diego’s defense looks better than its offense, due to a 12th ranked Defensive Adjusted Efficiency; a 5th ranked Block Percentage; and a 5th ranked 2-Point Percentage Against(per KenPom).

Diving deeper into their defensive performance, San Diego specifically excels at transition defense, as well as defending the pick & roll, handoffs and jumpshots off-the-dribble (per Synergy).

San Diego is vulnerable to spot-up jumpers, mid-range jumpers, jumpers off of screens, runners/floaters in the lane and secondary (not 1st option) post-up plays.

This suggests that San Diego is best at defending early offensive options (on the perimeter and in the post) but becomes vulnerable to good ball movement if swung to an open player for a catch-and-shoot jumper, e.g., Naz Carter, Quade Green, Jaden McDaniels; or when the ball is passed to a post player, i.e., Isaiah Stewart on a secondary post-up (after the initial offensive option is denied); or passed to a cutter in the post-up area.

Hopefully, Coach Hopkins and his staff spent their preparation day emphasizing better ball movement and patience on offense.

If the Huskies can limit their turnovers and resist the urge to shoot 3-pointers early in the shot clock, instead focusing on good ball movement from side-to-side and into the post, the Washington offense can have its way with San Diego on the way to a blowout victory.

However, that’s no guarantee as we’ve watched the uber-talented Huskies repeatedly play down to inferior competition this season.

Expect a Washington win, but it might be a sloppy one.

GO DAWGS!