WSU Vs. Portland Basketball Recap: Charts And Awards

…and it was pretty clear we outclassed them from the tip. Such a nice thing to say after football season. Speaking of, did anyone else notice that Portland went on it’s big run right after Paul Wulff’s halftime speech?

There was an errant game score that I’ve fixed so all the charts should be working now:
http://statsheet.com/mcb/games/2010/11/23/portland-68-washington-state-84

Any thoughts on Casto? It looked like he was sleepwalking last night. The blocks and boards were alright, but he just handed them the ball a number of times.

there were several questionable fouls called against us, particularly in the first half, and I’m wondering if Bud’s head exploded and if he’ll be alright for the next game.

From Steve Kelly’s column in the Seattle Times:
“Reggie will give us one more piece so that at times we can go smaller,” said Bone, a former Washington assistant. “He’ll give us more depth. We would like to go small at times and put Klay almost at a four (power forward), like we used to do with Brandon Roy at the U.”

Love hearing this. It is pretty obvious that our 5 best players are Klay-Aden-Reggie-Capers and Casto—This would allow us to have them on the floor at the same time. (BTW the comment in the prior post that Aden will be the 6th man in hilarious—you don’t bring your 2nd best player off the bench)

Outside of those 5 I liked what I saw from Simon last night…he plays with confidence as evidenced by knocking down an 18 footer straight off the bench. I think he can be a candidate for up to 20 minutes/night off the bench.

Motum show some great flashes but at times tries to do too much. There were a couple of times in the 2nd half when UP was making runs that Motum forced things on offense leading to poor shots or turnovers; these came on crucial possessions where we need to find Klay or Faisel (or Reggie when he returns) one has to know his own limitations and there are times in the game when the 7th/8th man should not be shooting.

Winson Jr, has excellent handles but at this point in time does not understand how the point guard position is played. He went 1-on-1 early in the shot clock one time in the first half and it resulted in a wildly bad shot. He does not get the team into the offense fluidly and cannot set up our shooters with regularity. I do not foresee him being a regular contributor this season.

Lodwick is a guy I have never figured out. He is capable of knocking down some big shots but makes some poor decisions and can just get lost on the court for long stretches. Needs to be a bigger factor on the glass to justify his minutes.

First time seeing Aden and he is everything advertised. This kid can score at will and is going to torch teams that run too many defenders at Klay. Reminds me of a skinnier Terrence Lewis.

Klay looked amazing tonight he will benefit more than anyone from Reggie’s return. When he has a chance to step into his shot like he did a few times last night he is absolutely lethal.

Casto has to just slow down a bit on the offensive end. Everything from just catching an entry pass into the post to kicking the ball back out to the perimeter seemed rushed and resulted in a few turnovers.

Capers is amazing and is growing into his role as a Kyle Weaver-style stat sheet stuffer. Good teams need players that make big contributions w/out scoring double digit points. Capers is that type of ball player.