I wanted to start this thread for prognostications on post-season WCC Awards just for some water cooler-style forum talk. Maybe premature and obviously speculative, but that’s what our forum is all about.
But also, I think Allen Graves has a real shot at WCC Freshman of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. His main competition would be the certifiably-electric Joel Foxwell from Portland who has more Freshman-of-the-Week awards but is arguably less impactful on the whole. Controlling for conference games, Graves is the 4th most efficient player in the WCC (after only Murauskas, Ike, and Dent). Foxwell is 15th, behind fellow frosh Dillan Shaw and Ace Glass.
You also have to think that if SCU finishes 2nd (or better…) that Sendek gets the nod for COY.
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For discussion, here’s the Torvik chart for frosh players since December 28–when conference play started.
And here’s the chart for WCC players overall (top-30):
If Sendek wins the COY in the WCC at some point, he will have won it in the MAC, ACC, Pac-12 and WCC.
Would be a pretty amazing career trophy hall. I’d love to see it.
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More accolades for Graves. His second mention on this no ceiling’s column.
Hope the link works.
With Graves racking up the accolades I hope we’re scrapping together the dollars and cents to keep him. Same with Hammond.
I love Graves but NBA draft talk feels a bit premature to me. He still needs to expand his offensive game including midrange. And while is 3pt shooting has been solid, it has been on low volume so hard to know if it’s sustainable and translates to the NBA distance.
And depending on position I do question whether his size and athleticism translates to the NBA…..he’s on the small side for an NBA center and as a ‘4’ he’s not as athletic as most of the guys he’d face. In other words kind of a tweener without a clear position fit, those types sometimes struggle to land a roster spot. That’s my scouting report.
More importantly, I’m just glad he’s a Bronco and love what he provides this team right now.
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I was listening to NBA Analyst Sam Vecenie on his Substack, He concluded that Graves will play in the NBA but thought he was probably a year away. Also mentioned that if he were to enter the portal then Duke, Kansas, and every team in the country should want him. Does not view him as a wing defender but more of a 4/small 5. I have no idea what our NIL budget is going forward but we clearly made smart decisions not overpaying complimentary pieces like Bryan and Tilly. However, the “franchise guys” like Hammond and Graves are going to be worth it unless they get something that simply can’t be matched by us.
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Agree with all of the above. If your Graves, Hammond, Bukky, Sash, etc, they all want to play in front of big crowds at home and play in the NCAA tourney and continue to showcase their games. Things so far not available at SCU. If we fall short this year, they “might” want to stay together with additions of Normand, Tadjo, Francis - and the new recruits would make our best roster by far in the Sendek tenure. With Gonzaga gone , it opens up the top slot in the WCC for some team to claim and make the tourney. SCU has proven it’s a great place to showcase talent vs transfer where it’s easy to get lost in the power conferences.
IF they don’t want to pursue the above option here, Nil money won’t keep them here.
The “MANY” fundraisers at SCU need to find 5 Mil or so to keep this roster together. Now is the time to make this move like Gonzaga did in the late 90’s and get on a multi year Tourney run. Dreams……
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I think if we do Dance, there may be lots of money in the Banana stand for NIL.
There’s lots of money in the Bay Area, I think if folks see it in action, it’ll make it easier to give.
Even the buzz associated with the year so far cannot be hurting with big and medium donors.
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