1. Coaches around the conference are getting to the point where they have seen enough of their teams to have a good idea who the starters are going to be and who else will be in the rotation. At Arizona State, for instance, head coach Herb Sendek seems pretty solid with a starting lineup of Jahii Carson, Jermaine Marshall, Shaquielle McKissic, Jonathan Gilling, and Jordan Bachynski. However, with a lineup like that, Sendek sees the possibility that lack of rebounding could be a problem. Beyond that five, Egor Koulechov, Eric Jacobsen, Bo Barnes, Calaen Robinson and Richie Edwards are the main candidates for minutes right now, with Brandan Kearney likely to jump right into the rotation once he’s eligible in December.
2. At Washington, likewise, Lorenzo Romar says he has a “pretty good feel” for what his rotation is going to look like; but unlike Sendek, he’s not sharing. Romar has already let slip that C.J. Wilcox and Perris Blackwell will be in the starting lineup, but the winner of the point guard battle between Andrew Andrews and Nigel Williams-Goss is still unannounced, although both could wind up starting. Likewise, Blackwell’s frontcourt partner up front is still to be determined, with Shawn Kemp, Desmond Simmons, and Jernard Jarreau in the mix. And while plenty of media members have their ideas as to who is going to wind up with those spots, the fact that Husky practices are closed to media leaves something of a guessing game.
3. Meanwhile, in Utah, Larry Krystkowiak knows that Jordan Loveridge at the four, Delon Wright at the point, and Brandon Taylor at the two are pretty well locked into the starting lineup, but the other two spots are still in play. JuCo transfer Princeton Onwas and sophomore Dakarai Tucker are the lead contenders for the three spot, with Renan Lenz and Jeremy Olsen in the mix at the center. But, this week in practice, Krystkowiak spent some time working on a smaller lineup, with Loveridge, Tucker, and Onwas manning the frontline. We’ll get a further clue as to how this rotation will shake out beginning on Friday when the Utes host Saint Martin’s in their exhibition game.
4. We’ll also check in with Washington State where head coach Ken Bone continues to search for replacements for prematurely departed point guards. The problem started last year when Reggie Moore was dismissed just in advance of the season and continued this year when Danny Lawson, the expected starter at the point, left school again just in advance of the season. So, Royce Woolridge, who helped out at the point last season will be back at the point this season. While freshman Ike Iroegbu may get some run, Woolridge is going to be the guy there to start. The other big question is in the middle, where Iowa State transfer Jordan Railey is expected to be the starting center, with one major caveat – he missed a ton of practice time due to a suspension. Railey is now back at practice, but Bone has said that Railey will not play on Friday when the Cougars play an exhibition against Central Washington, in part because he’s not yet in great shape; two strikes against the newcomer already.
5. And, we got football tonight. Last week, Connor and I both went 4-1 in our prognostication prattle, taking Connor to 52-12 on the year and me to 49-15. But, I hope to inch at least a little bit closer this week as I’ll be found rooting for Arizona State and USC.

AMurawa (999 Posts)

Andrew Murawa Likes Basketball.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 31st, 2013 at 9:00 am by AMurawa and is filed under microsites, morning 5, pac 12. Tagged: arizona state, utah, washington, washington state. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.