And an aerial of Leavey with an SCU shout-out during Sunday Night Football!
A cathartic win up there for the first time since Kenny Sears was lacing up his high-tops for the Broncos.
And, as Hayward nicely displayed, truly one of the great West Coast basketball barns, along with Hec Edmundson and McArthur Court at Oregon (RIP!).
Spanos center at UOP is cool too
Didn’t want to jinx us but the opening of our league schedule shapes up well. On paper this game is/was the toughest of our first 4 games. Now we play three likely bottom dwellers: @ Portland, then at home vs. Pepp and USD. We should be 4-0 going in to the GU game.
Never underestimate Portland. They can creep up on anyone. But yeah - next three should be a 3-0 stretch, which makes me uncomfortable because the guys could get comfortable.
We thought it would be 6 straight after ASU, though…
Anyways, just a really great game from SCU all around. The defense was back, and the three-ball was falling. This game alone got Santa Clara back to a roughly average team from beyond the arc with a palpable improvement in the stats for multiple Broncos.
I thought that Darlan played his best game yet. He was solid on both ends and gave up only a single personal foul despite playing his usual tenacious defense. We got to see vintage Knapper as well, which was really heartening.
Mixed bag for Bukky. On the one hand, he was very efficient and caught two really tough lobs for dunks. On the other hand, fouling is still an issue–fouled out in just 13 minutes. On the other-other hand, his fouls were mostly near the hoop this time, and he did a better job not letting the other team bait him into excess fouls. Still too many, but it looked like incremental improvement to me.
I was surprised not to see any Normand. I figured that he would see the floor whenever the Broncos next had a comfortable lead–which should have been two games ago. Hopefully he gets out there against the Pilots.
Given that Corvallis is so close to Portland, I assume the team is just staying in Oregon.
Yeah, that shot on SNF was super unexpected and super cool. The added bonus was smooth-voiced Tirico narrating that shout-out.
I assume so as well, no reason to head home.
I wish the Oregon swing on the schedule wasn’t this week during the holidays, might have made the drive to Portland and caught the games.
Around what point in the game did this happen? I want to check my DVR since I wasn’t able to catch it.
I want to say it was during one of the quarter/half breaks. I just don’t recall exactly. Maybe after a timeout otherwise.
Something curious: Santa Clara got out-rebounded for what feels like the first time all season on the offensive end. I’m sure not-coincidentally, the Broncos gave up just 5 fast break points.
I like the strategy, generally, of going after offensive boards. But Santa Clara has to be able to convert more than they give up on the transition fast break (and ideally, like 50 to 100% more to know it’s an effective strategy). I would like to see SCU return to the offensive glass in the next few games. But for now, I don’t mind dialing in a focus on stopping the fast break and getting back into defensive position that leads to fewer fouls.
Didn’t watch the game. But I’m sure it’s also hard to crash the boards when you’re making all your shots 
Ha! Fair. Only so many misses to collect.
Also, when you’re up 30, coach is probably focused on getting back on D. Offensive rebounding seems to breed fouls. Especially by guys like Oboye and Darlan.
They took a bus to Portland. Will practice today, rest, then play Tuesday…
What Kev’ said.
Reb % is a much better measure of rebounding performance particularly when there’s a significant delta in either team shooting % or TO’s or both; both occurred last night. Broncos were +7 in turnovers and had twice as many defensive rebs as OSU.
Last night’s reb % #’s:
Broncos: Off Reb%: 35%; Def Reb%: 74%
OSU: Off %: 26%; Def %: 65%
Torvik loved our win…..jumped from 52nd to 37th. And last night was our top adjusted offensive rating for the season on Torvik, a hair better than the Minnesota and Nevada games.
NET ranking also jumped to 62nd….feels more legit than Torvik.
Bus driver told me they took a bus from Corvallis to Portland last night- about an 1 1/2 hours
The Sunday Night Football clip featuring The Leavey Center
