Glovin’ It

Player of the Week

[player: Gary Payton II] – Oregon St.

The Glove Jr. finally reigns supreme as the Pac-12 player of the week. Oregon St. has strung together some wins (albeit against some weak teams) but no matter, Payton II was great this week. To start the week off, Payton II made life a living hell for Colorado’s backcourt. The senior guard had 17 points six rebounds and four assists, but really stuffed the stat sheet with his career high seven steals. Payton II was much more controlled in the Beaver’s second game this week, against Stanford. The senior had 14 points, six boards, four assists and “just” three steals. The Beavers are finally on a roll and Payton II is getting some recognition from the rest of the country. Payton II is athletic and an incredible defender. The guy is long and moves his feet and he honestly doesn’t foul that much while hounding the ball every single play. Offensively, Payton II doesn’t have a great jump-shot but he gets by with passing and his driving ability. The senior has an incredible touch around the rim and forces every team in the Pac-12 to be afraid when the Beavers are in town. I cannot overstate how important it is to have a star guard in the NCAA, you never know when the star will go off and create an upset. Let’s see if Oregon St. can make a late run in the season, everyone should be rooting to see more of the Glove Part II.

Who’s Hot

[player: Ryan Anderson] – Arizona

Another game, another incredibly efficient outing from the Wildcat senior. Anderson is simply on fire and was a beast against Washington. While Anderson did have six turnovers against the Huskies, it really isn’t that big of a deal. The senior had 22 points and 15 boards shooting 50% from the field and went to the free throw line 11 times. Anderson even chipped in two steals. If I was a betting man, I would look long and hard at the Wildcats. Sean Miller has them playing some great basketball and really, their losses have all been incredibly close. [player:Alonzo Trier] returned against the Huskies and Miller will look to ease the freshman in for the end of the season. Watch out, there is no way the Wildcats will falter at the end of the season, rather, they are only getting stronger.

[player: Jabari Bird] – California

Well, Oregon’s streak had to end eventually, and Bird was a stud against the Ducks. The junior guard had 24 points on 9 of 14 shooting, adding six rebounds, two assists a block and two steals. The junior also hit five threes. Bird had a good shooting game against Stanford as well, playing the sharpshooter for the Golden Bears, shooting only eight times, but pouring in 13 points. We’ll talk about California later, but Bird has kept them afloat in some incredibly important games, having is best game of the year against Arizona. I have never been a huge fan of Bird, basically because he only shoots, but when the junior is shooting well, he certainly is fun to watch.

Who’s Cold

[player: Tyler Dorsey] – Oregon

A tough week for the freshman guard. Dorsey failed to score more than nine combined points this week, as Oregon beat Utah and got rocked by California. The freshman only shot six times in both games and only had two free throws the entire week. I understand it’s difficult to find offense when [player: Dillon Brooks] dominates the ball so much, but Dorsey has to find other ways to impact the game. The freshman will not always dominate the ball on the Ducks, he must learn to score without touching the ball every possession. That being said, I’m not worried. Dorsey is very talented and will find a way to make it work.

[player: Noah Dickerson] – Washington

While young, Dickerson has actually had some surprising games this year. The freshman’s one game against Arizona was bad enough to land him on the cold list. Dickerson had zero points only two rebounds a block and five fouls. The freshman only played seven minutes. The Utah game was a bit better, but the Huskies still lost. Washington is an interesting team in the Pac-12. They clearly play better at home, but then again, everyone in the Pac-12 plays better at home. However, the Huskies have to turn their play around if they want any hope at winning the Pac-12, they are losing ground.

I’ll save my favorite top 5 list for next week, this week will be more about adjustments. Here are the Top 5 adjustments the top Pac-12 teams will have to make to make noise at the end of the year.

Top 5 Pac-12 Adjustments

5. Oregon has to make more threes

This actually doesn’t seem very obvious. The Ducks clearly have a high powered offense and are a very good team, but they really don’t have many players to consistently hit threes. The Ducks only have one player shooting over 40 percent from three, and that’s Dorsey, who has lost command of the offense. I guess [player: Casey Benson] is passable from three, but the line really ends there. Listen, I still think Oregon is an extremely good team, but for them to reach the Elite Eight and maybe beyond, they will need some three-point shooting. Eventually, they will reach a team that defends the paint really well, they need an answer other than just driving aimlessly to the rim. Let’s hope Oregon figures out a way to stretch the floor before it’s too late.

4. California must play better on the road

This is a pretty simple one. I don’t know the exact splits, I just know that six of California’s eight losses are on the road. Obviously, it’s not really possible to immediately improve your road play, but I still expected the Golden Bears to be better away from sunny California. In all seriousness, nobody on California plays well on the road. The team is just too inconsistent to make a run at the end of the season. The only way the Golden Bears actually win, is if they figure out how to win on the road. Doesn’t seem very likely.

3. Washington must play better defense

Okay, I understand that the Huskies play a high-tempo game and all, but some of their defensive performances are just embarrassing. Washington let up 90 points to Utah and somehow almost let USC score 100 on them, all in just two weeks. The Huskies have an interior problem, they don’t really have a great center. [player: Marquese Chriss] is okay, but he certainly isn’t going to scare anybody away from the rim. [player: Malik Dime] is also pretty good, but he fouls way too much and is a zero on offense, limiting his minutes as is. Clearly, this is a hard fix. Maybe the Huskies can play an even more up-tempo style and force some steals, but that might make them even worse on defense if the opposing team can handle it. I’m worried about Washington, it is incredibly hard to win in basketball if you cannot defend the rim. Let’s hope that the Huskies figure it out before the season comes to an end.

2. USC has to protect the rim

It was actually surprisingly hard to find a weakness in the Trojans. Their two lead guards are very good, can score with the best of them and don’t even turn over the ball that much. The team as a whole doesn’t take many bad shots and they have a balanced offense. Looking them over, I kept coming back to their starting frontcourt. Nobody defends the rim. [player: Bennie Boatwright] is a nice player and is a good scorer, but he certainly isn’t a rim protector. [player: Nikola Jovanovic] is their resident center and is an imposing presence, but he cannot defend the rim either. When USC makes the tournament (and they will) teams are going to see this and try to get to the rim. USC has some depth, but not enough for the NCAA tournament if any of their players get into foul trouble. I want to see USC go to the passive Chicago Bulls style defense of 2011, sag off the pick and rolls and just let the other team hit midrange jump-shots the entire game. If USC can play disciplined and passive, they can beat anyone.

1. Arizona must learn how to run a crunch time play.

This one is all eye test for me. Every time I see the Wildcats win a close game, it’s on the back of their defense. I never really see a crunch time play that gets a shot I’m actually happy with. It’s usually just [player: Gabe York] going for a contested jump shot or [player: Alonzo Trier] driving into a double team. Let’s see some double picks, some off-ball movement and maybe a couple of passes at the end of the game. Coaches are sometimes so afraid to draw up a play with so many passes in crunch time because of mistakes, but it’s going to be okay. If Miller trusts his players, he should draw up more complicated crunch time plays than a York pick and roll. I trust that Arizona will figure out their possessions at the end of the game, if not, there might be some painful losses in the future.