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I went to the SMU-WOU game this afternoon, came away very impressed with St. Martin's, which won 71-59. They move the ball extremely well behind their speedy point guard Jaden Nielsen-Skinner, who finds shooters wide open. Very impressive low post game behind Shakeem Alcindor, who played like Lew Alcindor (Jabbar), 14 points/10 boards and is a load underneath at 6-8 and he's gotta be 250 or more. SMU outrebounded WOU 47-38, they are tough inside, too. No surprise undefeated in league and are 13-2 overall. They are the type of team that could make some noise at regionals. Can't remember the dude who dunked it near the end, but I remember the dunk where he must have jumped over two WOU defenders. The Saints are very athletic.
Without leading scorer and pre-season player of the year Cameron Cranston, I thought it would be a long night for WOU and it was, though they hung in there a little in the second half. The Wolves have athletes, but at times not a lot of smart basketball players. Cranston's loss is huge, he is still limping, appears to be an ankle hurt vs. SFU last week. He has to return for them to be successful. They were 5 of 21 from 3-point land. Some guys kept jacking even though they were missing. Qiant Meyers, who frustrated me last week, had a fine game at point for the Wolves with 14 points. Wolves bench outscored 26-10.
* Three guys from nearby Salem, Oregon, combined for 27 SMU points; two guys were Portland State transfers. WOU has had an odd athletic relationship with the city nearest to them. They can't seem to land many good Salem athletes, though football has had some guys. The Salem guys had a lot of fans today; something our many out-of-state guys don't bring. Not saying don't recruit out-of-state, but WOU of late hasn't done well in-state, seems not to be a priority in recruiting with the staff. Not sure why, it's not like our Texans and Cali guys are killing it.
Without leading scorer and pre-season player of the year Cameron Cranston, I thought it would be a long night for WOU and it was, though they hung in there a little in the second half. The Wolves have athletes, but at times not a lot of smart basketball players. Cranston's loss is huge, he is still limping, appears to be an ankle hurt vs. SFU last week. He has to return for them to be successful. They were 5 of 21 from 3-point land. Some guys kept jacking even though they were missing. Qiant Meyers, who frustrated me last week, had a fine game at point for the Wolves with 14 points. Wolves bench outscored 26-10.
* Three guys from nearby Salem, Oregon, combined for 27 SMU points; two guys were Portland State transfers. WOU has had an odd athletic relationship with the city nearest to them. They can't seem to land many good Salem athletes, though football has had some guys. The Salem guys had a lot of fans today; something our many out-of-state guys don't bring. Not saying don't recruit out-of-state, but WOU of late hasn't done well in-state, seems not to be a priority in recruiting with the staff. Not sure why, it's not like our Texans and Cali guys are killing it.