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Player of the Week

Allen Crabbe, California Bears

Crabbe has been steadily becoming more efficient from the field after a somewhat slow start to the year. Over his past 5 games, he has averaged 20 ppg, hitting over 50% fg along with 6 rebounds while only turning it over once per contest. He seems to be getting into his groove shooting from the outside where he has looked really comfortable squaring up and getting his shot off in the blink of an eye before the defender has a chance to contest. The next step towards becoming an all around scoring threat will be attacking the paint with more frequency and getting to the FT line more often.

Who’s Hot

Garrett Sim, Oregon Ducks

Sim has been getting the job done and has been a major bright spot for the Ducks who have rebounded from their opening game loss to Vanderbilt by taking 5 of their last 6 games. Sim has averaged 15 points over that 6 game stretch and shot over 50% from the field in the process. He does a lot of the little things that don’t show in the boxscores, and also has a solid assist to turnover ratio while hitting a total of 24-26 from the ft line. Sim has been a very efficient pg and has the Ducks looking like one of the more competitive Pac 12 squads in the early going.

Who’s Cold

Trent Lockett, Arizona State Sun Devils

I was ready to sing Lockett’s praises after a solid start to the year which had him looking like one of the more underrated players in college basketball. But he has come tumbling back to Earth over the past week averaging just 7 points and 3 rebounds with 1 assists in 34 minutes of play. Lockett is relied upon to be a go to player and lead his team, therefore these no show games better come to a halt or it could end up being a disastrous season for the Sun Devils.

Updated Pac 12 Power Rankings and Analysis

1-Stanford-The Cardinal are 8-1 and went toe to toe with top ranked Syracuse in their lone defeat. They are a well rounded team with good length down low, solid guard play and can go 10 deep. As their confidence rises, this will be a team to watch out for.

2-California-Some head scratching losses,  including their recent one point defeat to San Diego State, drops this team from their top spot. But they are  still one of the better defensive teams with a great duo in Crabbe and Jorge Gutierrez.

3-Washington-Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades as the saying goes, but does anybody who watched this team play Marquette and Duke down to the wire this past week think this team is an easy game for anyone?

4-Arizona-Coming on stronger as they improve defensively and continue to figure out their roles. Sean Miller’s guys are a  deep and athletic squad. But they still do not have that go to player who can lead them with consistency yet and the team lacks size with a 6-7 starting center in Jesse Perry.

5-Oregon- The Ducks are gelling and playing cohesive basketball while taking care of home court with a 4-0 record at Mathew Knight arena. Minnesota transfer Devoe Joseph made his season debut in the Ducks most recent game vs Fresno State, and he looked very good getting 18 points to go with 4 assists.

6-Oregon State-I was really looking forward to watching this team vs Idaho. The Beavers were 6-1 with the one loss being a narrow 2 point defeat to a top 25 ranked Vanderbilt squad. However,  their lopsided loss to Idaho that dropped them to 6-2 left me underwhelmed.  I doubt leading scorer [player: Jared Cunningham] goes 0-9 again though like he did in that game. This team is as athletic and quick on the perimeter as any in the Pac 12, but need to show a little more discipline on offense where they have gotten careless at times.

7-Washington State-With leading scorer Faisal Aiden going down with an injury, PG Reggie Moore has finally stepped up to the plate and shown the aggressiveness I expected from him all season. While he is turning the ball over at a higher rate, he is pushing the pace and attacking the defense and this team will go as far as he is able lead them. Brock Motum continues to impress as one of if not the best big man in the conference.

8-Colorado-[player: Andre Roberson] is an elite athlete, but not ready skill wise to be a go to man and lead a team. This team has solid quickness around the perimter and likes to play in transition.

9-UCLA-Played their best game of the season in a victory over Pennsylvania. But even that was a close game. UCLA has lots of work to do and now with the [player: Reeves Nelson] distraction no longer looming over their heads they may finally come together as a team.

10-Arizona State-Solid tandem in [player: Keala King] and [player: Trent Lockett], but little else going on for the team. They lost a lot of experience coming into this year from last season’s squad and their top recruit [player: Jahii Carson] will not be suiting up this year as he is academically ineligible.

11-USC-[player: DeWayne Dedmon] has played through injuries but has yet to show the ability to takeover. Maurice Jones and Aaron Fuller are solid pieces, but this team has little depth and struggles to keep pace on the score board with their gridiron counterparts on a weekly basis where they have had problems just trying to crack 40 twice now and have yet to hit for 70.

12-Utah-This is just flat out not looking like a Division 1 caliber team at the moment. PG Josh Watkins knows how to run a team and can get to the basket, but his teammates are developing role players. Big man Jason Washburn is long and a decent athlete, but physically weak and still developing skill wise.

Notes:

Reeves Nelson has been permanently dismissed from the Bruins. According to coach Ben Howland, Reeves has been more a distraction than anything and failed to show the change the coach was hoping for. It will be interesting to see what step is next for the talented junior big man and if he decides to call it quits on college basketball and take a shot at a pro career or if he transfers to another school.

-Apparently Dewayne Dedmon doesnt believe his injuries are as serious as the medical examiners seem to suggest. Dedmon was expected to miss up to 6 weeks to start the year with a hand injury but was suited up for the season opener. He then was expected to miss a month with a foot stress injury but once again found himself in the starting lineup just a few days later.

-Arizona attempted to resolve their size issue by inserting 7 foot big man Kyryl Natyazhko into the starting lineup. The team struggled to get going offensively with him in the lineup and Sean MIller didn’t take long to move Kyryl back to the bench and continue with the smaller group that has  6-7 Jesse Perry manning the low post.

-Arizona’s Josiah Turner was expected to come in and be one of the standout freshmen in all of college basketball. While he has struggled and not been able to translate his game to the college level as seamlessly as was anticipated, down give up on him as a solid pro prospect down the line. I love his size, ball handling and ability to get to the rim. Plus he shows potential to be an elite one on one defensive PG.

Tony Wroten has been improving game by game. The guy gets by his man at will and the Huskies are going to ride him more and more even as the turnovers and missed ft’s pile up. For all his flaws, he is just too good to keep off the court.

6 Comments

  1. Dig it

    From the Sim shoutout to the Ducks being #5, I thoroughly approve. Well done once again, my friend. Think Devoe is going to play a major role for us. Joseph, Sim and Singler should be a pretty nice core in conference play, can’t wait to see how it plays out.

  2. utes

    I kinda feel ashamed to be a utah fan this year and the next couple.  But I am really into this pac 12 conference.  I still find my self watching the mountain west teams every time they are on though.  Habits are hard to break.

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