Washington Huskies – Mainland Eagles Game Analysis

 I was lucky enough to be able to watch the Washington Huskies play the Mainland eagles in my hometown of Christchurch in New Zealand yesterday and it was an amazing display of youth and talent. I want to go over 4 players that caught my eye; 3 huskies and 1 kiwi.

Markelle Fultz | 23 pts, 8 rbs, 5 ast | Washington

Markelle Fultz came into the building with no one knowing who he was but left everyone knowing exactly who he is. Fultz displayed elite athleticism and used it to make mid-air changes to layups similar to Kyrie Irving and threw down a pair of highly impressive dunks (one nearly pulling down our budget hoops). Fultz showed a bit of range going 1 for 3 from behind the arc and hitting some nice pull up Js but also showed the ability to draw contact and get to the line. When driving Fultz looked confident but his handle was loose. On one occassion he did a very smooth spin move into the lane to score but when he did it later in the game a span into one of the defenders and practically gave him the ball. Fultz took some bad contested shots and made some very lazy passes but showed good potential as a playmaker (5 assists). Fultz put a lot of effort in on D and made sure that he kept on his man but he did gamble on steals a lot but lucky for him Washington had great help defense to make up for Fultz’ gambles. He also showcased a killer instinct when defending fastbreaks and cutters. Fultz swatted a shot away with ease and chased down another one similar to LeBron but it was stupidly called a foul. Overall Fultz was an excellent score first player with elite athleticism and great defensive potential but needs to gamble less on defense and tighten his handle/shot selection.

Sam Timmins | 6 pts, 8 rbs, 3 ast, 4 blk | Washington

New Zealander Sam Timmins has a very interesting skill set to put it simply. To start off Timmins has no jumpshot what so ever, I didn’t see him hit a single jumper in warmup and airballed his two warmup threes. Timmins stupidly took a ‘show off’ three pointer and long two in the game which he both bricked. Aside from that Timmins struggled to finish around the basket but showed a lot of promise has he had a lot of moves he could go to in the post he just couldn’t convert sadly. Timmins was a very capable defensive rebounder, he pulled down boards with both hands and secured the ball. His passing was astounding, he passed out of tricky situations in both the low and high post and also made some flashy no look bounce passes to cutters and teammates running the baseline. Timmins was slow to rotate on D but he was a vocal leader for them on that end telling his teammates everything that was going on. Timmins showed good timing with his shot blocking but I don’t believe that he will be a legit rim protector any time soon as he was quite slow and unathletic. Overall Timmins is a high IQ big with a lot of two way potential depending on how he develops his body.

Noah Dickerson | 9 pts, 12 rbs, 3 fls | Washington

Freshman forward Noah Dickerson looked great out there. His offensive and defensive rebounding was dominant and impactful for his team. Dickerson had great form on his jumper showing an eye opening midrange game but also showed that he can work inside with the bigger players. Aside from that he picked up fouls that he could have avoided. Overall Dickerson could be a suprise riser on draft boards but I believe that a year or two more in college would be good for him so he can develop more strength and a better perimeter game.

Sam Waardenburg | 10 pts, 10 rbs, 2 blk | Mainland

The 6’8 forward out of New Zealand who was recently named one of the top performers at the 2016 adidas nations showed off what he can do. He showed how he can use his length to alter shots on defense but also use it and his long strides to make good finishes inside. He rebounded well and displayed his underrated ball handling skills on the perimeter. Overall Waardenburg is a young (17), lengthy combo forward who utilises his length well to get shots over the top of his defender and play D.