First Impressions of the 2014/15 UW Basketball team (Tequila style)

First off, it's st mary's. They are a very small school with very small players across the board. The talent gap is, and should be vast. Any who, on to first impressions of this team.

A few issues which have plagued us in the last few years have been scoring the basketball and shooting outside. One of the biggest concerns I see with this team is who will put the biscuit in the basket consistently. The only player I saw last night actually go at the basket was DJ, but nobody really looked like they could take their man to the hole at will(actually most seemed content to hang out at the 3pt line). This will be concerning as most of our backcourt can't shoot and we get bigger more athletic players to contest winters and dorsey. If we're not abusing St Mary's on the dribble, I can't wait to see the pac12.

Our post play looks at least marginally good for the first time in a few years. Granted, not much to be said about playing a band of midgets, but on the surface Upshaw is a very large man, good feet and a quick first step. He looked rusty and still stiff, but you can certainly see promise in his length and quickness. Kemp was equally impressive with his interest in the ball, going hard and being one of the few on the court who seemed to really give a shit. I've always liked Kemp and thought he had the chance to be a solid contributor in college so it's good to see him come out strong. Diex is one of the worst wastes of scholarship and height i've ever seen. The kid may be nice, but he should be playing soccer or chess. Long story short, we have talent on the front line for the first time in a while, but we're incredibly thin if we have injuries or upshaw goes upshaw.

JJ isn't really a guard, and he's not really a post, and quite frankly I'm still not impressed. Doog central has been selling JJ as the next great thing in the pac12 landscape since he went off against the children of the blind. He got up 3 shots in 20 minutes last night. I'll tell you, last night I didn't see anything that has changed my mind since he showed up. He doesn't look overly athletic on the floor, doesn't have a quick shot, but does get a few stat points based on his length(blocks and rebounds). To me, he's a poor mans justin holiday. Maybe he turns into more, but I have seen nothing that proves he's even close to holding justin's jock in the way he moves on the floor or can guard so many positions on defense. I don't see how he really kills it when matched up vs normal talent and size in the pac.

Guard play was what I expected overall. NWG is not a great shooter but will shoot a decent % on the year when it's all said and done b/c he picks his spots well and he's not a volume shooter. He didn't have his best game last night but nobody is worried about him at all. The NBA talk is still comical to me b/c he's nowhere fast enough to do many of the things which make him successful at the next level. Someone like TW was an example of how he could click at the next level, while NWG just seems like he would not even make a roster. He is going to be one hell of a legend in UW hoops if he stays 4 years though. The more AA plays, the more i'm amazed he plays. 3 years in and he still can't figure out how to take a jumpshot without falling over, backwards or something in between. He still struggles to make decisions on when to drive, when to kick, and when to shoot. He still thinks he can shoot 3's eventhough yet again last night most of his shots appeared more likely to miss the rim than to go in. This team will be better the minute one of dorsey, winters, or anyone else takes his starter minutes.

The newbies were encouraging. Winters jumper looked smooth, which is good b/c he's the only person who really appeared to have any threat to make a 3 all night. Dorsey had a few good moves and by god that kid is large and impressive in uniform. He is going to be very good. I was disappointed in DJ not looking "that" much better from last year. I expected him to make a huge jump and he seems just so so.

A few things to keep an eye on over the first few games.

We still can't shoot from deep - Another putrid effort from 3. A solid 23.8%. Even if Winters can hold things together similar to CJ from outside, not having any other threats to stretch the defense is going to become a major problem. We saw it last year, and right now i'm not over impressed with anything I saw last night from shooting perspective.

Penetration in the lane is still the white unicorn - Since ross and TW left, we haven't seen anyone be able to make a team respect their penetration ability. From what I saw last night the only guy who had the chance is DJ.

Defense. Defense. Defense. Romar used to be known for exciting high pressure defense which got in opposing players shorts. Last night isn't a good assessment as everyone on the floor was 6" shorter than our player. Of course we look imposing. I hope this team allows us to go back to that type of defense. Upshaw and kemp can get up and down the floor which gives us options.

We will see how a few of these pieces gel together in the coming weeks. I could see a rotation of NWG, Dorsey, JJ, Kemp, Upshaw, with Winters, Anderson and AA playing major minutes. If Dorsey isn't able to defend, i'd rather have anderson/winters on the floor and dorsey coming in off the bench.