Michael Dunn is starting to look like the most clutch player in the Big Sky. You may remember his game-winner against Northern Colorado a couple weeks ago, and now he had a big role late in helping Northern Arizona go in and knock off Sacramento State in Sacramento.
First, with the Lumberjacks trailing 59-58, it was Dunn with a steal and layup with 50 seconds left to give NAU the lead. After the Hornets took the lead back (on a Mikh McKinney basket), Mike Dunn was sent to the foul line with 7.4 seconds left, calmly knocking down both shots.
Dunn was far from the only hero for Northern Arizona. Gabe Rogers had a game high 22 points, including hitting 4/6 from downtown. Over the last two weeks, he has really found his stroke. Max Jacobsen had 16 points on 8/11 shooting, continuing his extremely solid junior season. NAU moes to 5-7 with the win.
Sacramento State falls to 5-7, and it had to be a disappointing game for Brian Katz. No disrespect meant to NAU, but beating the Lumberjacks at home is something you have to do if you want to be a top 4 team in the Big Sky. Konner Veteto (0 points, 0 rebounds, 3 turnovers in 14 minutes) was still hampered by a knee injury suffered on Thursday, but this will be a tough one for the Hornets to take, especially since they were up by 14 points with 11 minutes to play.
Congrats to Northern Arizona on a great win! With Portland State and Eastern Washington coming to Flagstaff this week, Jack Murphy could have his club sitting very pretty heading into the stretch run.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Showing posts with label Michael Dunn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Dunn. Show all posts
Monday, February 4, 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Mike Dunn With Game-Winner For Northern Arizona (Video)
I will have more to say on the game later, but wanted to post video of the game winner by Northern Arizona senior guard Mike Dunn. With the game tied at 65 (after a Tevin Svihovec bank three), the Lumberjacks went coast to coast for the game winner to beat Northern Colorado.
Three things to notice.
1. Great play call by Jack Murphy to get the ball into Stallon Saldivar's hands with his momentum going toward the basket. With only 4.8 seconds to play that was huge.
2. Great decision making by Saldivar. He is a senior who is in the top ten in Big Sky career assists, and it showed. Took it far enough to draw the defender, then found Dunn open.
3. Great clock awareness by Dunn, who drove as close as he could to still be able to settle and get off a good shot before the buzzer went off. That's how it's done, and that is how Northern Arizona got the game-winner.
(Game winner is at the 1:00 mark)
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Three things to notice.
1. Great play call by Jack Murphy to get the ball into Stallon Saldivar's hands with his momentum going toward the basket. With only 4.8 seconds to play that was huge.
2. Great decision making by Saldivar. He is a senior who is in the top ten in Big Sky career assists, and it showed. Took it far enough to draw the defender, then found Dunn open.
3. Great clock awareness by Dunn, who drove as close as he could to still be able to settle and get off a good shot before the buzzer went off. That's how it's done, and that is how Northern Arizona got the game-winner.
(Game winner is at the 1:00 mark)
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Northern Arizona Falls to BYU
It is never easy to go into BYU and win a game, and Northern Arizona found this out on Thursday night. The Cougars jumped out to a huge first half lead and never looked back, winning the game 84-54.
For the Lumberjacks, senior guard Michael Dunn was the only one producing. He finished with 17 points on 7/9 shooting. Nobody else scored in double figures.
DeWayne Russell had about as good of a start as you could ever hope for from a freshman, but has cooled down a bit in his past few games. He was just 4/14 from the floor, with 9 points and 4 turnovers. Those kind of nights will happen.
What has to be more concering for head coach Jack Murphy is the play of senior guard Gabe Rogers. He is among the Big Sky leaders in scoring, but don't let that fool you - he has struggled this season. He finished 2/13 on the night (0/6 from downtown), and had 10 turnovers. He was shooting 31% from twos and 32% from threes, and that was before the game. He doesn't create offense for others with his low assist rate, shoots a ton (18 highest shot percentage in the country), and has been extremely inefficient when he has shot. That is a bad combination all around.
For the game, NAU had 24 turnovers, and had no answer for Brandon Davies down low, who was 13/16 from the floor. They drop to 4-8 on the season.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
For the Lumberjacks, senior guard Michael Dunn was the only one producing. He finished with 17 points on 7/9 shooting. Nobody else scored in double figures.
DeWayne Russell had about as good of a start as you could ever hope for from a freshman, but has cooled down a bit in his past few games. He was just 4/14 from the floor, with 9 points and 4 turnovers. Those kind of nights will happen.
What has to be more concering for head coach Jack Murphy is the play of senior guard Gabe Rogers. He is among the Big Sky leaders in scoring, but don't let that fool you - he has struggled this season. He finished 2/13 on the night (0/6 from downtown), and had 10 turnovers. He was shooting 31% from twos and 32% from threes, and that was before the game. He doesn't create offense for others with his low assist rate, shoots a ton (18 highest shot percentage in the country), and has been extremely inefficient when he has shot. That is a bad combination all around.
For the game, NAU had 24 turnovers, and had no answer for Brandon Davies down low, who was 13/16 from the floor. They drop to 4-8 on the season.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
A Look At Northern Arizona's Rotation
In both the coaches and media poll, Northern Arizona is being picked to finish last in the Big Sky. Regardless of whether that seems too low (we will get to that in time), there is no denying the fact that NAU has the potential to be one of the most entertaining teams in the conference this season.
For one thing, the roster will be very guard-oriented, which can lead to an exciting style of play in the right system. It appears that new coach Jack Murphy wants to play that system. He told Blue Ribbon that the philosophy would be to, "Score early, get the ball up quick, and I'm not opposed to early shot - especially ones that are open, really an attack mentality. Defensively, we're going to have to play some different ways to promote that offense."
This is good on three fronts. One, players love playing in that type of system, and so it could help in recruiting. Two, they don't really have the personnel this year to be competitive playing a more traditional type of game (we will get to that), so an up-and-down style is probably their best chance to win this year. Three, Flagstaff is over 7,000 feet, so they could have a built in advantage there.
In the backcourt, they are led by two seniors in Gabe Rogers and Stallon Saldivar. Two years ago, Rogers was one of the best shooters in the conference. He struggled after returning from a shoulder injury last year. If he is back to 100%, he can be a very good scorer. Saldivar is one of the two or three best passers in the conference, and should have a great understanding of getting guys shots in his senior year.
Behind those two guys, there are some interesting options. The most intriguing is freshman DeWayne Russell, who led the state of Arizona with 27 ppg last year as a high school senior. The rest of his stat line was also impressive - over five assists, four rebounds, and four steals per game. He should be a big-time performer from the get go, and it wouldn't shock me to see occasional sets with Rogers, Russell, and Saldivar in the game.
Michael Dunn should also get time in the backcourt, as he made 22 threes last year. Blake Hamilton and Bryce Gosar are two more freshmen that could get time in the frontcourt, but they could also be redshirt candidates.
Upfront, their best player is Gaellen Bewernick, who stands at 6'6''. He may have been their best rebounder last year. In Murphy's system, I would suspect that he will play a lot at the four again, though it wouldn't surprise me if he started games at small forward. Ephraim Ekanem, Ben Olaynika, and Max Jacobsen will all have chances to get time at the four and five spots, and all are more traditional big men returning to the roster. Len Springs was brought in as a JUCO recruit, and he could be a presence defensively.
The more interesting option up front could be Jordyn Martin, who was Murphy's first recruit. He is 6'7'', and averaged 11 and 9 last season. With the team likely building for the future, it would make sense that Martin could see a lot of time.
There are a lot of unknowns with a new coach and some new players, but NAU should be consistently entertaining. Not a lot of Big Sky teams try to pick up the pace a lot, so it would be a welcome change if the Lumberjacks do. They seem to have the personnel to make a lot of things interesting if they can push the temp.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
For one thing, the roster will be very guard-oriented, which can lead to an exciting style of play in the right system. It appears that new coach Jack Murphy wants to play that system. He told Blue Ribbon that the philosophy would be to, "Score early, get the ball up quick, and I'm not opposed to early shot - especially ones that are open, really an attack mentality. Defensively, we're going to have to play some different ways to promote that offense."
This is good on three fronts. One, players love playing in that type of system, and so it could help in recruiting. Two, they don't really have the personnel this year to be competitive playing a more traditional type of game (we will get to that), so an up-and-down style is probably their best chance to win this year. Three, Flagstaff is over 7,000 feet, so they could have a built in advantage there.
In the backcourt, they are led by two seniors in Gabe Rogers and Stallon Saldivar. Two years ago, Rogers was one of the best shooters in the conference. He struggled after returning from a shoulder injury last year. If he is back to 100%, he can be a very good scorer. Saldivar is one of the two or three best passers in the conference, and should have a great understanding of getting guys shots in his senior year.
Behind those two guys, there are some interesting options. The most intriguing is freshman DeWayne Russell, who led the state of Arizona with 27 ppg last year as a high school senior. The rest of his stat line was also impressive - over five assists, four rebounds, and four steals per game. He should be a big-time performer from the get go, and it wouldn't shock me to see occasional sets with Rogers, Russell, and Saldivar in the game.
Michael Dunn should also get time in the backcourt, as he made 22 threes last year. Blake Hamilton and Bryce Gosar are two more freshmen that could get time in the frontcourt, but they could also be redshirt candidates.
Upfront, their best player is Gaellen Bewernick, who stands at 6'6''. He may have been their best rebounder last year. In Murphy's system, I would suspect that he will play a lot at the four again, though it wouldn't surprise me if he started games at small forward. Ephraim Ekanem, Ben Olaynika, and Max Jacobsen will all have chances to get time at the four and five spots, and all are more traditional big men returning to the roster. Len Springs was brought in as a JUCO recruit, and he could be a presence defensively.
The more interesting option up front could be Jordyn Martin, who was Murphy's first recruit. He is 6'7'', and averaged 11 and 9 last season. With the team likely building for the future, it would make sense that Martin could see a lot of time.
There are a lot of unknowns with a new coach and some new players, but NAU should be consistently entertaining. Not a lot of Big Sky teams try to pick up the pace a lot, so it would be a welcome change if the Lumberjacks do. They seem to have the personnel to make a lot of things interesting if they can push the temp.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Michael Dunn A Solid Option for Northern Arizona
There was a nice article on the Northern Arizona website about junior guard Michael Dunn, who is becoming a solid option for the Lumberjacks off the bench.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
"I just try and come in and do my part and be that spark off the bench," said Dunn after practice on Monday. "Whether it is offensively or defensively, I try to pick up my teammates. It feels good to contribute. Hopefully I can keep it going for the rest of the season."On a team with some solid backcourt options, Dunn is becoming another reliable guy for them. He is averaging 5.7 PPG this year.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)