UW Hoops Exhibition Wrap: Too Easy for Isaiah Thomas
Constable Echelon/everyone
Part of me worried I had unrealistic hopes for UW freshman Isaiah Thomas. I’m not worried anymore.
Thomas led the Huskies with 27 points in their 105-85 exhibition win against Western Washington Thursday night. 27 efficient points on 9-12 shooting. And it easily could have been more. On future nights a couple more of those threes will drop, and Isaiah won’t squander the handful of opportunities he missed at the line.
Isaiah didn’t just lead the Huskies in scoring. He LED the Huskies. His steady combo guard play gives Husky fans every reason to believe that the occasionally stagnant offense of the post Roy Dawgs is in the rear view mirror. UW again has a player who can create his own offense.
It wasn’t selfish basketball. Thomas expertly fed Jon Brockman for point blank looks on a couple of occasions. He accurately zipped no look passes 20 feet across the court. His offense demanded so much attention that Justin Dentmon got the easiest 18 points of his life.
Thomas reminded my of Roy a lot actually, in terms of how composed he looked on the floor. Like Roy, you wonder how hard he was trying. You can see it just looking at his face when he brings the ball up the floor. The game comes easy to Isaiah Thomas. Too Easy.
And now Larry King style game notes::
Western guard (and Highline CC transfer) Morris Anderson can really play. Like Oregon State could actually use him.
Western can fill it up from behind the arc. I was really impressed with their freshman guard Cameron Severson. He can shoot. Michael Duty, Morris Anderson, Ira Graham, and 6′8″ RS Freshman center Chris Mitchell all hit threes as well. Throw in that they were missing 7 foot C Dave Vanderjagt, and they will be a DII tourney team this year. Yes I know nothing about DII basketball, but they looked too legitimate to not excel at that level.
UW is much faster this year. This may render Joe Wolfinger obsolete. He couldn’t get his paws around some quick dimes in the first half. (Though he played well in garbage time.)
I got the feeling that Venoy was denying Isaiah the ball late in the game. Or maybe he was trying to get other players off. You wonder how he’s going to deal with coming off the bench after starting some last year.
Feel free to add anything I missed. We were all there.
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No Duty shout out?
Bob Condotta loves the Duty’s:
“The Vikings also have on their roster transfer forward Michael Duty of O’Dea High and Bellevue Community College. Duty spent a lot of the summer working out at Hec Ed with the Huskies, apparently contemplating walking-on at UW as did his older brother, Travis during the Bob Bender era.”
My first nickname for IT: The Democrat – because he always be going left.
The only thing I want our Isaiah Thomas to be less successful at than the other IT is suicide attempts.
A wag of the finger to the ticket office. Thanks to a woefully understaffed ticket office, the seven of us got in with 6:47 remaining in the first half. We must have waited in line for 15 minutes, or approximately the same amount of time as a Mike Jensen jab step.
Duty tore it up.
Wolfie proved in garbage time why he doesn’t play during real time (to disagree with Echelon). He got busted on for three on three consecutive trips down the floor by Severson.
Dentmon looked sleek – we all noticed this. And he played with confidence – we was not hesitant to let it fly from three (4-6 for the game). Hopefully we will not be terrible this year.
Too Easy works as a nickname for Isaiah Thomas because that’s his jersey number. 2-EZ. 2 Easy. He is horrible at defense, too – maybe the worst Pac-10 defensive guard since Ridnour.
While Thomas is as good as advertised, Suggs is not. Dreadful game from him.
The underclassmen, especially Elston Turner, defer too much to Brockman. They tried to squeeze passes into him when they had open looks. Maybe playing with Brockman is terrifying and they live in fear of him. I would not be surprised by this.
I can’t believe we had to pay full price when we missed the entire first-half. And to make it worse, no Dixie’s BBQ. The Man was not in the house.
Darnell Gant shows promise, but I would feel better having MBA at the other starting forward spot.
Didn’t see the game in person, but streamed it live from gohuskies.com, which is a hilarious experience if you haven’t done it yet. They have some Joe Blow calling the game. He referred to Elston Turner as Scott Suggs for a good five minutes.
Was very impressed by IT. Great control of his game, and possessed a confidence that is rarely seen by freshmen. I’m anxious to see how he does against quicker teams.
Brockman looks very fit, at least on the internet.
Despite Condotta’s naysaying, I was impressed by Holiday’s minutes in the first half. He made several great hustle plays on both offense and defense. Once he can get his offense together, he really could be another Bobby Jones. I know Romar said he didn’t like Holiday’s play either, but that’s because he was expecting a huge game out of him.
Suggs … dear God … the one guy I was banking on. Looks like Bust City, population Mr. Show Me State. No way he makes the ten man rotation.
I think Wolf will only play in certain games where the match-up renders him useful (so, like, maybe against Texas Southern and Morgan State).
The tip-off game at Portland is no gimme. They won their exhibition game 94-36, albeit against DIII Linfield. Plus, it’s a road game, and we’re not particularly good at those. Romar better get these pups ready.
Portland road trip, anyone???
I am in on the Portland trip.. IN.
and by IN. I mean 40%
Constable, thanks for giving me a personal recap from the game last night.
Although Dentmon seemed to have a good game last night, I wouldn’t trust that guy. No one has caused me more consternation over the last three years. He’s like the drunk sorority girl who’s decent looking (a 6, maybe) and slutty. But you know she has herpes … it could be flaring or not. So you just have to take that risk … you’re either in the clear or you’re taking Valtrex for the rest of your life.
Good lord SKDub…(shaking head)
Shaggy: If this new offense is too fast for Wolfie, what does that mean for Artem Wallace coming off a knee surgery?
The Duty shout out was actually called pregame, in the post about Gaddy for next year.
I too took in the streaming action, and by far the best part about Joe Blow, aka Joe Six-pack, was that he kept saying MBH instead of MBA. I wonder if he was paid to announce. No mention of the MBA slam?
Scott Suggs may not have made a shot, but he probably had a hard time adjusting to the face guard he was wearing as a result of a Brockman practice elbow. All of the other underclassmen now live in fear of those ‘Bows.
Did anyone else notice the icyness of Venoy towards IT? I sense a bit of hatred still brewing over from HS and AAU ball…
Yaaaarghhh, I’m pumped! I like the 40% committment to a Portland Road trip.
If things go well from the outset is anyone down to take the trip to Pullman on Jan 3? I want to be there when this absurd losing streak ends. We could book lodgings at the luxurious holiday inn express. I’ll even buy Pita-Pit for all comers…think it over.
I also assume that we’re calling IT ‘the Democrat’ because he is soft on defense.
Well played.
I like it. It works.
[...] diversion at Connecticut prep school. He is a 5′9″ lightning fast born scorer. In his exhibition debut against Western Washington Isaiah scored 27 points in 19 minutes on 9-12 shooting. He can get to the cup and shoot. His [...]