Washington Huskies Vs. #13 San Diego State Aztecs Preview

Nov 24, 2014; Lahaina, Maui, HI, USA; San Diego State Aztecs forward

II (5) drives to the basket against the Brigham Young Cougars during the 2014 EA Sports Maui Invitational at the Lahaina Civic Center. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

If you haven’t been paying attention to the Huskies, start paying attention to the Huskies.

Lorenzo Romar‘s undefeated Dawgs went to Anaheim for the Wooden Legacy Tournament and left with their loss column still empty.

But we will know for sure if this Husky team is legit come tonight. #13 San Diego State will travel to Hec Ed coming off of a tough-luck 61-59 loss to #3 Arizona, and a 57-48 win over San Diego.

Scouting Report

Senior forward JJ O’brien and junior forward Winston Shepard are what make this team go. They are a pair of do-it-all 6’8″ wings who fill up every corner of the stat sheet. Freshman Trey Kell is the point guard, but you will often see one of the other guards bringing the ball up the floor.

Former coug Xavier Thames graduated, and they no longer have the type of player who is going to have the ball in his hands for most of the possession. They set a lot of on-ball and off-ball screens and look to create mismatches to isolate. Because of this, Kell averages just 1.4 assists per game.

Another player to worry about is senior wing Dwayne Polee. If he gets hot, there isn’t much you can do about it. He can catch-and-shoot, and also is very good on the pull-up. However, he can also hurt his own team at times. He will shoot the ball whether he’s hot or cold, balanced or off-balanced, open or contested, and as such he will take and miss a lot of bad shots.

They don’t have much in the way of low-post scoring. Angelo Chol, who almost committed to UW before choosing Arizona and transferring to SDSU, is their most skilled big man.

Down the stretch of a close game, they go through lulls offensively. They don’t have a go-to scorer, which leads to a lot of indecisiveness and jump shooting instead of getting into the paint.

Defensively, they play a high-pressure man and without a lot of help until the attacker gets to the rim. They dare you to try to beat their athletes one-on-one off the dribble. And if you do get into the paint, they have an Upshaw-type shot-blocker in junior Skylar Spencer. At 6’10” he isn’t as tall as Upshaw, but he gets off the floor as quick as anyone in the country and has great timing. He won’t do much else beside block shots, though. Spencer is not a guy you have to worry about offensively.

Next up: Who has the better guard play?