OPEN HOOPS GAME THREAD: LCSC at WSU

Cupcakes are delicious, but who cares it is COLLEGE FREAKING BASKETBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will post a little on whats going on, just don’t expect any high quality analysis.

and bad cell service

So much for that… I’m at least hoping that this gametracker will work.

As Casto hits the layup, and 1

klay with 5, lodwick, harthun hit 3s

Lodwick has a 3 and a block.
Casto has 5 board (1 on Off., 4 on Def.)
15 to play in the first half.

Nik just missed a 3.

Casto gets another board.

Finally. 22-14 wsu

As the red avatar jumps really high over the black avatar on the gametracker… Fantastic.

THAT WOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED UNDER BENNETT!!!

seems like the offense flows a lot better with Moore in there. He has quite a few assists too.

Moore to thames.

Maybe I underhyped harthun? Looks great

Klay with four FT attempts.

I think everyone is going to play.

Five minutes, two fouls, two turnovers, zero points, zero rebounds.

Klay Thompson is still good.

Yeesh. Looks likes around a sixty possession game.

Had to leave early because I have an intramural football game at 9. But here are a few observations.
1. Casto will rack up the stats this year. He had tons of looks, some designed plays to him, and he sure rebounded and blocked shots well. He looks thicker too. (he won the tip)
2. Klay slashed to the hoop several times, looked better than last year. He drew contact twice, and was on fire from 3.
3. Thames and Moore both handled the ball well, and they looked like good fits for the up tempo offense. Thames made some good moves to the hoop but didn’t finish well.
4. Harthun and Lodwick both shot the ball well, but didn’t do much else.
5. Motum looked uncomfortable the whole time, he has some adjusting to do. He is also very thin.
6. Overall we took some chances pushing the ball and there were only a coupe of DOH! moments (bad passes, missed Offensive rebounds). We did not look like we are ready to run with the pac-10 though (no surprise, its early).

Fast break dunk and fast break alleyoop to casto

System wise feels very similar to last year. Against a team like lcsc that can’t shoot, it works like a charm

Numbers are prettier when there are more possessions.

Great night for moore, esp. passing. Taylor who?

The guy who isn’t Andy Katz thinks UCLA should be picked under UO, OSU, and UA. He also said the NW is relevant again! (When did we go away?) But of course, he only mentioned the Oregon schools and UW.

Katz did say his players to watch are Klay Thompson and Nic Wise.

Say hello to player turnover

Any body else watching the Cal game? Murray State’s making a late push.

Here are my thoughts on everybody…
Reggie Moore- WOW! The best passer I have ever seen at WSU. He threw 2 or 3 alley oops and also had a sick one handed bounce pass to Klay Thompson in transition. Very disruptive with his defense playing passing lanes very aggressively. Seems to be the perfect point guard for Bone’s system. I did see some of that loss of attention that Bone talks about defensively. A couple of times the guy who he was guarding was on the other side of the court and he seemed to have no idea. Against a Pac 10 team, that would have led to an easy three pointer or lay-up.
Marcus Capers- Hit and miss here. Great defense like we all know and was a force on the boards getting something like 3 offensive rebounds I think. Some steals and some nice passes. However, shot looked AWFUL. One wide open mid range shot from the left baseline hit the side of the back board. Yikes.
Klay Thompson- We all know how good he is. Great looking stroke hitting all 4 of his three pointers we all know that. What was evident was how much better he was at driving to the hole. He stayed low, had a good dribble, and had some creative finishes around the hole. Also, his defense was good as he was always in the right position. I dont know if anyone scored on him all night.
Abe Lodwick- Silky stroke looked good on the first shot. One of those shots everyone in the arena knows is going in. The rest of the time he was kind of a non factor offensively. What surprised me was he seemed to have some decent hops. I dont know how many rebounds he had, but he was right there on a whole bunch of them and he let Dee take a couple away from him. He should be just fine playing the 4.
Deangelo Casto- Showed some good moves offensively and was a BEAST on the boards. Hands seemed improved as he caught a couple of tough passes in traffic. Took a great charge in the first half as well. Did a good job of staying out of foul trouble. However, he left his guy way to many times to go for the block. Doesn’t seem like hes changed that all since last year. His guy would get the offensive rebound or receive a pass then miss a lay up. Not going to happen against better competition.
MIke Harthun- The surprise of the game for me. His shot was money! First shot he hit (either a long 2 or a 3) was with a hand right in his face and it was nothing but net. He was hitting shots all day especially from the midrange area. Looked solid defensively as well. He seems like the perfect 6th man with the quick scoring he can bring off the bench.
Nik- Don’t like him at all as a player but looked more comfortable in this system. His he gonna be a great player? No. Can he be solid? Yes. He made some nice cuts to the hoop for some layups and played some decent defense. Looked better dribbling the ball and passing and my make reconsider his nickname of TOM (turnover machine.)
Xavier Thames- Seemed a little nervous early then settled down. Some bad shots and risky ball handling early. Then he was very very solid. Some nice finishes with contact around the hoop. Had a good feel for the offense and was in good position defensively. Seems like he was the perfect point for bennett, but he will be solid for Bone.
Brock Motum- A little bit disappointing for me. I was expecting a lot more form him offensively. He seemed to just kind of hang on the outside and wait for the ball and never really drove to the hole with that craftiness we had heard about. Was decent defensively and on the boards, but was a little timid today offensively.
Charlie Enquist- Ehhh. O.K. Moved around decently and did have some good bounce to him. However, seems to be the definition of a non factor offensively. Seems to be a player that will be played about 10 minutes a game to help defensively when Casto needs a breather.
John Allen- Wasn’t real impressed. Nothing good seemed to happen when touched the ball and he was a step and a half slow defensively. It seems like we have enough guard depth to where he shouldnt need to play tho.