Rush The Court

Here are some news and notes from the Pac-12’s opening conference weekend.

• We’re, what, two months into the college basketball season, and I’m not sure I’ve written the name Josh Hawkinson yet this year. Consider this blurb my official apology for such an egregious oversight. Last year, he played in all but three of Washington State’s games, but never more than 13 minutes, never scoring more than six points, never grabbing more than six boards. This year, he’s averaging 31 minutes per game and has only once had an outing where he failed to score at least six points or grab at least six boards. Over the weekend against the Bay Area schools, he was the best big man on the floor, and that came against frontcourts featuring senior bigs like Stefan Nastic and David Kravish. (By the way, the fact that Jordan Railey had his best pair of games in his career does not bode well for Cal and Stanford’s frontcourt defenses). Hawkinson is not going to amaze you with his athleticism. He’s not what you would call a visionary passer. He’s a decent face-up shooter, but by no means the second coming of Dirk Nowitzki either. He just gets it done. He’s got a great motor; he understands the game; he’s tough on the boards; and he has completely bought in to Ernie Kent’s philosophy. He’s on the short list of players in this conference who have made the biggest jump in production from last year to this one.

• To say that it was not a good weekend for UCLA basketball is to engage in annoyingly obvious understatement. The Bruins went to Colorado on Friday night to face a struggling Buffaloes team without its best player, and despite Colorado’s best efforts to fluff up UCLA’s offensive confidence early in the game via a series of turnovers leading to breakaway layups, the Bruins offensive woes continued. Against Utah on Sunday, it was even worse. The gold standard for UCLA offensive ineptitude was their 44 points against Kentucky on national TV. In that game, the Bruins scored those points on 68 possessions, good for 0.647 points per possession. Their 39 points on 60 possessions in Boulder works out to 0.65 points per possession. So, um, progress? In all seriousness, UCLA just has absolutely no offensive confidence right now. Norman Powell is a mess. Kevon Looney can only get so far on effort alone. And Tony Parker can’t seem to get out of his own way, earning only 20 minutes per game this weekend in part due to his continuing problems with dumb fouls. And then there is Bryce Alford. Yikes. For the weekend he was 2-of-26 from the field, 0-of-13 from deep, with five turnovers against nine assists. And let me tell you, those Rocky Mountain scorekeepers were generous in only giving him five turnovers. Now, that’s only one bad weekend, and we’re not going to write off all the other good things he’s done to this point — but with UCLA’s offensive struggles, you’ve got to start with the quarterback, right? The shooting thing? That’s mostly an aberration. Still, Alford is definitely earning a reputation as a guy willing to take bad shots. And on a team with a fragile personality right now, launching wild early-shot-clock bombs while the rest of the team stands around and watches is not going to build much cohesion. Alford is plenty capable of shooting his team into games, but as the point guard, he’s also in part responsible for how the guys around him perform. There were numerous times this weekend where he delivered a beautiful dime on the run that bounced off the hands of a guy like Thomas Welsh, Noah Allen or Tony Parker. But you know what? Alford’s got to know that those guys aren’t really capable of making those kinds of catches and play to his personnel accordingly. This 0-of-13 shooting from deep is not going to continue, but for the Bruins to regain their confidence, Alford’s got to find ways to get Powell, Looney, Parker and Isaac Hamilton good looks on a regular basis, especially early in games. He’s got to be the facilitator, first and foremost.

• Colorado got through their weekend without Josh Scott unscathed, and color me shocked. The Buffaloes have looked horrible for the better part of a month and then they turned around and won a pair of conference games without their best player on the court. Now, certainly, those Los Angeles-area schools are not playing very well right now, but this could be just the boost of confidence that this program needs. It’s worth noting that the Buffaloes played these two games at an average of 69.5 possessions per game, up from their average of 64.0 this season. Part of that was due to the competition, but hopefully we’ll have a chance to see the Buffaloes get out in transition and find more easy hoops like they did on occasion this weekend. We’ll know how much confidence the Buffs gained this week right away, as they get back to work on Wednesday with a trip to Utah before heading to Arizona next Thursday.

• Speaking of Utah, a pair of wins by a combined 56 points is a statement start to conference play. Since the preseason we’ve had Arizona as the clear favorite in the conference, with everybody else on the chase. Now, it is almost time to start putting Utah right there with Arizona as a co-favorite. Almost. But not quite. We’ve still got to see this team win some road games on a more consistent basis. Even with wins against BYU and UNLV this season, Utah is still 5-12 away from the Huntsman Center in the past two years. And, what do you know, the Utes’ first conference road trip of the season is a swing through Arizona. So, we’ll get to see the Utes on the road and we’ll get to see them up against Arizona. And believe me, we’ll really have an answer then.
• Stanford is another team that got conference play started without a key player, as freshman Reid Travis missed both games – and is expected to miss at least a month – with a stress fracture in his leg. What do you know, the Cardinal are also undefeated after getting a gift from Washington as the Huskies blew a four-point lead with 20 seconds left and wound up losing in overtime. Nice win. And sophomore Rosco Allen stepped up big in Travis’ absence with an average of nine points and six boards this weekend. But what the heck was with that 0-of-6 deal from the line? They’ve got a trip to the Los Angeles schools lined up this week, so they’ve got a chance to get a real good start going if they can take advantage of the struggling teams down south.
• As for Washington, that’s three losses in a row. Losing at Cal and at Stanford would not normally be cause for concern (the Bay Area swing is at least in the conversation for the toughest league road trip this year), but coming on the heels of the Stony Brook disaster, the Huskies are in need of some rebuilding momentum. Robert Upshaw is still a monster in the middle, and Nigel Williams-Goss is reliable and occasionally spectacular at the point (despite his rough outing Sunday night, including a crucial missed free throw late in regulation). But secondary and tertiary offensive threats need to be more consistent. Between Andrew Andrews, Shawn Kemp Jr. and Mike Anderson, there has been far too much on-again, off-again for a trio of upperclassmen.
• Lastly, we’ll at least swing by Arizona, where Sean Miller continues to play with his lineup. Against Arizona State, it was Stanley Johnson and Gabe York heading back to the bench, with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Elliott Pitts taking their spots as starters. There may be subtle signals to players about their performances in the UNLV loss. Or in practice since that time. But let’s not read too much into it just yet. It still looks like a team with six starters, with Pitts the next man in line. From the outside looking in, it doesn’t really matter who is on the floor at tip-off.