Washington Basketball: Keys for the Huskies to take down Utah State
By Neil Adler
Contain Sam Merrill
Washington’s zone defense is imposing and tenacious, but it has a monster test arriving on Friday evening. That comes in the form of Utah State junior guard Sam Merrill, who is a total stud if you ask me. Merrill, at this moment in the 2018-19 campaign, is tallying 21.2 points, as well as roughly four rebounds and four dimes. He’s also getting, on average, more than 27 points a contest over his last five sessions.
Unsurprisingly, Merrill’s shooting percentages are really, really good. In the current term, he’s at 46.5 percent from the field as a whole, a ridiculous 90.7 percent from the free-throw line, and 37.8 percent from deep range. Not too shabby. In this tantalizing confrontation between the Aggies and the Huskies, no matter how awesome and sharp Washington is on defense, there’s no scenario where Merrill doesn’t accumulate a decent amount of points. He’s simply too fantastic of a scorer.
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The pivotal facet for the Huskies is to not let this talented dude defeat them by himself. If Merrill gets around 20 points or so, no worries. The rest of the Utah State crew will then have to contribute at a strong level. Now, if Merrill goes off for 30 to 35 points, that’s a huge problem. For Washington to ultimately have success, it’s all about containment.