Hopkins at Washburn thoughts

Trent Lockett

A fun full house tonight at Washburn. Not as many people for the sophomore (or JV if you wish but this was battle of mostly sophs) game as you might have thought. They missed a heck of a sophomore game and the Washburn crowd especially got into it like it was David vs Goliath. A sign of the night had Washburn taking a bad shot that resulted in a Hopkins 3 and then knocking down a prayer for 2 at the halftime buzzer to take a 32-29 lead. The Washburn JVs extended it to 37-29 before Hopkins went on an 18-0 run for a 10 point lead but Washburn came all the way back to win a really entertaining sophomore game 64-57. Of note, Siyani Chambers started but only played the 1st half so he could be available for varsity.

Why should you care? You can name a star in every grade for the Royals. Seniors, there are bunch (Royce obviously). DJ Peterson as a junior. Marvin Singleton as a sophomore and Siyani Chambers as a freshman. Add Riley Carpenter to that list in 8th grade. 6'4", long and athletic, good looking shot. Remember the name, in the Hopkins system, he should become a really good player that you'll hear about again.

Some points that I noted during the game.

• Strange to see 2 techs on Trent Lockett. After the 1st about midway thru the 2nd half, he sat and I thought he'd stay out but he came back in with about 2 minutes left and picked up the 2nd one with 16 seconds left in the game.
• The play that finished with the 1st technical was terrific. Lockett taps a pass away, chases it down jumps in the air going out of bounds and finds Marcus Williams. Williams gets right back to Lockett who finished with a dunk. Don't know if Lockett called for hanging on the rim or saying something but T seemed questionable.
  
• Interesting that Hopkins only played 7 guys. You could tell Coach Novak thought this was a big game as soph Joe Coleman and frosh Chambers didn't see any meaningful minutes (1 minute for Coleman to end the 1st half with Peterson in foul trouble). Chambers 1 minute at the end of the game after outcome was clear. DJ Peterson got the backup point guard duties for the brief rest that Williams got in the 1st half.
  
• I'd be interested to see what Washburn shot from behind the arc as they were ice cold. If Noah Sheppard would have been hot, it could have gotten interesting. But Washburn settled for too many 3s. With talent of their guards, I would have liked to see them attack the basket far more than they did.
  
• Bad 1st half rebounding for Hopkins as Washburn really outhustled them for way too many offensive rebounds.
• Interesting that with Royce and Broghammer in the game, they play lots of 3 out-2 in offense. Otherwise they're playing 4 out-1 in on offense.
• Last year Hopkins early in the year tried to trap at half court after free throws then they got away from it as they didn't do it well. Once again this year they're trying some of that.
• Neat sequence late in the game. Washburn with a small lineup in the game (No Hageman). Noah Sheppard fronting Mike Broghammer. Royce White with a great job flashing to the high post and going over the top to Broghammer. But Sheppard blocked the shot attempt.
• Fun to see some of the possessions with Royce guarding Cedric Martin. Interesting choice there by Hopkins.
  
• At least 4 or 5 missed dunks by Hageman and Royce in this game. Won't see that much.
• Love the Washburn uniforms. Black with blue numbers and text and then the trim is alternating orange and blue. Sharp look.

X and O of the Day
Nice simple box set on the Baseline inbounds from Hopkins. Both ball side players cross-screen and then the low screener back-screens for the high screener looking for a backside layup. Nice variation of the screen the screener for a backside inbounds layup concept.

Trent Lockett picture courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net