Wednesday Morning Shootaround

Go to the 3:00 mark in this video.



Ladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere, that is Arkansas's Michael Washington. Remember the name, and remember it well, because you are probably going to be hearing a lot from that young man this season. He finished the game with 22 points, 9 boards, and 2 blocks to lead the Razorbacks to their second upset of a top ten team in the span of about a week.

Going into this game, I really had no idea about anyone on the Arkansas roster. I knew they had some big man that was pretty good, they had a quick little point guard with long hair, and they had a former wide receiver from the football team on their roster. After watching them, I don't know if they are one of the top 25 teams in the country (talented, two big wins, but I see a lot of red flags), but they sure do play as hard as anyone in the country.

This game had a really weird feel to it. Arkansas was up seven early, but Texas made a run and took the lead. From that point on, the Longhorns pretty much controlled the game. Texas played far from their best game (and were without Connor Atchley, who needed 20-30 stitches to close a cut on his tongue), but everytime Arkansas would make a push in the second half, everytime the crowd of 19,000+ would start rocking, the 'Horns made a big shot or a ran off consecutive hoops to quiet them.

Texas had a huge advantage on the interior because Arkansas had no answer to Dexter Pittman, Gary Johnson, and Damion James. Those three guys combined to go for 42 points and 29 boards (14 offensive).

The score was 52-46 with 9:05 left when ESPN put up a graphic saying that Texas had scored 34 points in the paint. But from that point forward, Texas seemed to go away from their post players and start settling for jump shots. As a result, they went scoreless over the next five minutes while Arkansas ran off an 11-0 run to go up 57-52. Texas tied it up with a 5-0 run, and the teams traded baskets until Arkansas found themselves up 62-61 with the ball and under a minute left, setting up that play by Washington.

Washington's game is unorthodox. He looks awkward when he makes his moves, and he doesn't seem all that coordinated. But he gets it done (if this game wasn't enough, how about the 24 and 11 he put on the Brothers Griffin). He lives off of his pump fake, whether he is backing a man down, or squaring up on the perimeter. He is getting by right now on his length and athleticism, but now that the word is out on him, teams are going to know what he is about. He needs to add some variety to his game (on the perimeter he is pump fake, drive left; on the block he back you down, then goes to each a right hand jump hook or a pump fake the same way).

I really like the moxie of Arkansas's PG Courtney Fortson. He started this game about as horribly as you can possibly start a game. In the first ten minutes, Fortson had already racked up five turnovers and two fouls. But from that point on he was brilliant. He is quick and crafty with the ball (great handle, would be a star on the and-1 mixtape), and has no problem getting into the lane. Once there, he sometimes forces tough shots (he is a freshman), but in general seems like a solid decision maker (case in point: before Washington dunked on Damion James, Fortson had penetrated baseline, beaten his man, and looked like he might of had a lay-up, but instead of shooting he decided to pull the ball out and swing it to Washington).

The best player on the floor tonight for the Razorbacks was Stefan Welsh. He had a solid game offensively (20 points on 9-21 shooting, including carrying Arkansas in the early stages of the game, without a turnover), but more importantly he completely shut down AJ Abrams. With the exception of when Texas took the ball out under the basket, Arkansas played man-to-man. Welsh was put on Abrams, and he did a fantastic job. AJ was taken completely out of his rhythm, and while he did get some makeable looks in the first half, Welsh held him without a basket. On the night, Abrams finished 3-16 from the floor for just 7 points.

Is this a trend for the SEC? Are they better then people think? We will take a look at that later in the day.

I got a chance to watch two other games last night (going to be more brief than usual with these today):

• UConn 61, West Virginia 55: The Huskies got a fantastic effort out of Stanley Robinson (15 boards - 6 offensive, 4 assists, 3 blocks) as they out muscled the Mountaineers on their home floor. Hasheem Thabeet had 13, 13, and 3 blocks and Jeff Adrien added 17 points (13 in the second half) as the Huskies manhandled a tough West Virginia team on the boards (52-33).
  
  Just a couple quick notes about this game. Alex Ruoff and Da'Sean Butler never really got it going. They both had 13 points, but combined to shoot 9-29 from the floor. Ruoff inparticular missed a lot of open three's. Part of the reason for their struggles is that West Virginia does not really have a playmaker right now (Ruoff is their leading assist man and he is a catch-and-shoot two guard). Truck Bryant is going to be a good point guard one day, but he is just not quite ready to lead a team.
  
  The same goes for Kemba Walker, who is being forced into a lot of minutes as AJ Price continues to struggle. Last night, Price was 0-9 from the floor with 2 turnovers and 2 assists. The Huskies proved tonight that they can play with the intensity that they need to play with in order to be successful in the Big East, but they are going to need AJ Price to awaken from this season-long slumber. In all fairness, Walker had a pretty good game (10 points, 8 boards, just 1 turnover), but he took some ill-advised shots (2-8 from the floor) and didn't hand out a single assist.
• Michigan State 67, Ohio State 58: The Spartans went on a 21-5 run, sparked by hitting five straight three's, that turned a four point deficit into a 12 point lead. The Buckeyes were never able to recover as the Spartans were just too good defensively. In what amounted to a fairly average game, the play of three guys really stood out. MSU PG Kalin Lucas is so improved from last season. He is the fastest guy on the floor just about every time he steps on the court (I would love to see a footrace between him, Ty Lawson, Darren Collison, Kemba Walker, and Courtney Fortson - my money is on my boy Kemba), which was a detriment to him last year as he would get out of control. But this season, he is using that speed to perfection in leading the break. He makes good decisions with the ball, is an efficient scorer (20 points last night on 6-8 shooting), and doesn't turn the ball over (17 on the season compared to 84 assists - that's almost a 5:1 ratio).
  
  The other two guys are the Ohio State freshman BJ Mullens and William Buford. Mullens played as well as I have seen him play to date. He was scoring in the post (a couple jump hooks going either way, a turn-around jumper, a couple tip-dunks) but he was also aggressively defending the rim. He finished with 16 points, 6 boards, and 2 blocks in just 22 minutes of play. He is still raw, however, as he didn't have the balance (core and leg strength) to deal with Goran Suton in the post. Suton knocked him around early in the game, forcing Mullens to take some wild shots. Buford looks like he could be a great compliment to Evan Turner once he gets more consistent. Turner is a slasher that loves to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim or hit a pull-up jumper. Buford, who has the same body type and athletic build, is more of a shooter that is effective coming off of a screen. Buford had one of his better games as he shot 7-13 from the floor and finished with a team-high 17 points.
  

The rest of the night's action:

• Clemson 66, Alabama 59: Alabama was down six at the half, but took the lead at 42-41 midway through the second half. The Tigers responded by holding the Crimson Tide scoreless over the next six minutes as the went on a 14-0 run that blew the game open. Trevor Booker led the Tigers with 19.
• Penn State 67, Purdue 64: Penn State blew a 15 point first half lead, but used a 13-0 run in the second half to hand Purdue an 0-2 start in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers were shorthanded as Robbie Hummell (back) and Chris Kramer (sprained foot) both missed the game. Talor Battle led the Nittany Lions with 21 and 9 dimes.
  
• Villanova 89, Seton Hall 85 OT: Scottie Reynolds went for 40 points as the Wildcats were able to hang on in overtime. Jeremy Hazell had 23 points with 16:00 left in the second half, but was shut down by Reggie Redding until he banked in a three with seconds left to send the game to OT.
• Florida 95, Longwood 69: Doesn't Longwood 69 sound like a porn star's name?
• Georgia Tech 67, Georgis 62
• Kansas 91, Siena 84: Cole Aldrich had 23, 14 boards, and 4 blocks.
• TCU 85, Texas Tech 80
• Missouri 88, Coppin State 55
• Dayton 45, Miami OH 40: This game was 17-17 at halftime. Not too upset about missing that...
• Bradley 56, Illinois State 52: Bradley is the best defensive team in the MVC, and it showed last night as they held the Redbirds and their high powered offense to just 37% shooting and 52 points. Bradley was up by as much as 14 in the second half, and Illinois State never really threatened. Chris Roberts and Theron Wilson each had 12 for the Braves while Osiris Eldridge led ISU with 17 and 10.
• Northern Iowa 69, Creighton 66: Creighton, the preseason MVC favorites, is now 2-2 in the conference after back-to-back losses.
  
• Oklahoma State 83, Savannah State 56
• UTEP 73, New Mexico 60
• Utah 91, LSU 61: What does this tell us? That Utah, who also beat Gonzaga, is for real or that LSU is not?
• BYU 85, Western Oregon 64