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The last two games Haws is 6/10 from three and 9/18 overall. He has had some sets of games before this one where he shot better only to slump back. On December 21st and 23rd against Idaho State and Texas Southern he combined for 9/17 from the field, and December 6th and 9th against Illinois State and Weber State he combined for 15/28 from the field. Hopefully this time his shooting stays good.
A few others have mentioned, but Haws has clearly improved his game in pretty much everything other than shooting this year. If his better shooting of the last couple of games can stick and he can be a more reliable scorer the rest of the season, it bodes well for what this team can do from here on out. I know it "feels" perhaps like they haven't lived up to where some of us would like them to be right now, but 16-4 is not bad. We haven't had a record that good after 20 games since 2012. 2 of those losses were on the very last play. Yes, I know maybe the expected response to that is to look for how many wins could have gone the other way, but UMass is about the only one where you can really go there. And that was pretty early in the year. It was a nice win because the team needed to play great for the last five or six minutes to pull that one out. I think there was some pretty wide variation among the fans as to what to expect this year, but 16-4 is not anywhere near the dumpster fire category a few fans were fearing.
Also, SMC gutting it out to win at Gonzaga last night was impressive. But they actually came closer to losing to us than to the Zags. The Pacific game of course sucks, but they've at least been playing very well since that game. They may actually be emerging as the 4th team in the league. We'll see how it goes. USD is struggling of late, but if we see a strong performance tomorrow, I like where this team can still go, especially if Nixon can come back soon.
A few others have mentioned, but Haws has clearly improved his game in pretty much everything other than shooting this year. If his better shooting of the last couple of games can stick and he can be a more reliable scorer the rest of the season, it bodes well for what this team can do from here on out. I know it "feels" perhaps like they haven't lived up to where some of us would like them to be right now, but 16-4 is not bad. We haven't had a record that good after 20 games since 2012. 2 of those losses were on the very last play. Yes, I know maybe the expected response to that is to look for how many wins could have gone the other way, but UMass is about the only one where you can really go there. And that was pretty early in the year. It was a nice win because the team needed to play great for the last five or six minutes to pull that one out. I think there was some pretty wide variation among the fans as to what to expect this year, but 16-4 is not anywhere near the dumpster fire category a few fans were fearing.
Also, SMC gutting it out to win at Gonzaga last night was impressive. But they actually came closer to losing to us than to the Zags. The Pacific game of course sucks, but they've at least been playing very well since that game. They may actually be emerging as the 4th team in the league. We'll see how it goes. USD is struggling of late, but if we see a strong performance tomorrow, I like where this team can still go, especially if Nixon can come back soon.
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