Amazingly, Broncos have committed 11 fouls, and Bukky has ZERO. 
Darn, I spoke 10 seconds too soonā¦he just committed his first with a minute left in the half.
12 team fouls in a half.
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Not sure if they showed it on TV but Francis dislocated his thumb
65-65 OT in Spokane.
Oboye just committed a foul 38 feet from the basket.
And now weāve committed 2 fouls in the first 1:16 of the second half. 
Make that 3 fouls in 1:41.
4 fouls in 2:07.
The fouls have become an epidemic with this team. They wonāt be able to overcome that against teams like GU and SMC.
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And 7th foul committed with 12:42 remaining in the 2nd half.
Broncos just possibly might set a record for most fouls committed in a season.
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Iām glad weāre seeing separation here in the 2nd half. I donāt understand why Herb for the simple reason to reduce fouls is reluctant to go zone. This team has some stretches defensively but they are by no means a solid team defensively. They have shown a propensity for committing fouls. I think you need to both protect your players plus give teams different looks. I donāt get it.
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Im watching the GSW game ( Iāll watch the Pepp tomorrow)ā¦ Bret Barry is waxing rhapsodic about Santa Clara, including his grandfather and uncle who played here in the 40ās.
Glad I didnāt watch the first half of the SCU game. Iād be screaming at my TV (again).
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Iām going to confidently predict the Broncos will set the school record for most fouls in a season. The record is currently held by the 2013-14 KK team that committed 633 fouls in 33 games.
This year, through 15 games (not including tonightās heavy total), the Broncos have committed 296.
If youāre curious, it appears Ben Dowdell holds the individual season record, having committed 124 fouls in a season, but that was due to the CIT āChampionshipā, resulting in 38 games total. He committed 3.3 per game. Bukky and Graves have committed 3.5 fouls each/game so far this season.
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Looked better in the second. Need to stop fouling. Have a great weekend and go broncos.
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Broncos played a strong 2nd half and thought Bukky and Hammond gave the team a lift on both ends. 3-0 and take nobody for granted. USD is up next.
Go Broncos!!
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A lot of the good and bad of Santa Clara on display tonight. At least they won with a comfortable margin by the end. Good game for Bukky overall. And Graves had a quieter game but also very good despite four fouls.
Really tough game for Sash, though as a frosh PG, heās showing plenty of promise. Itās just not all there yet. Darlan was a mixed bag, but you can see that he is much more comfortable out there than the beginning of the season. Growth isnāt a straight line and wonāt be for any of the young guys (or the young-to-college-basketball guys like Darlan).
Thereās a universe where this comes down to the wire because the Broncos stay messy. They cleaned up when they needed to and got a convincing result. Iāll be happy with that for now.
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Portland and Pepperdine were the two one-off games for SCU in the unbalanced conference schedule.
So by winning both games, SCU has completed the season āsweepā of both teams. The Broncos will see everyone twice the rest of the way.
Next up is San Diego who worries me quite a bitā¦
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I think Seattle will be another one-off. And WSU.
With 18 conference games and 12 teams, we can only do 7 in conference home-and-away games.
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Youāre right. There are three this year with the Seattle addition. My mistake.
Not playing Seattle in the PNW is a real missed opportunity for SCU.
Jumping ahead to San Diegoā¦.Patty is right to be a little nervous about them. They beat an OK Pacific team to open league play then played both Gonzaga and USF close, putting up 93pts on Gonzaga.
They donāt have.ton of post size or post scoring, starting posts are decent size but thereās not much on the bench behind themā¦.USD went small vs. Gonzaga and played a bunch of 6-6 / 6-7 guys.
One caveatā¦..USD starting point guard Ty-Laur Johnson and their leader in scoring, assists, steals plus a decent 3pt shooter at 37% did not play vs. USF last night. Not sure why, weāll see if plays tomorrow.
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The USD post-game writeup mentions āinjuryā without detail. So who knows.
Somewhat lost in the messages above was LLās observation that Francis dislocated his thumb last night. Thatās usually a fairly quick bounce-back injury but not sure if he will be able to go 46 hrs later. Chukwudebelu is not getting tons of run but has been pretty important as a stop-gap for when the fouls pile up on Oboye and Graves. I hope itās a quick and easy recovery for him.
Unfortunate that Normand is still having trouble shaking off his own injury. I wonder at what point the staff thinks about giving him the redshirt. He still is eligible for an injury redshirt, I think. I would think if he canāt go by the SMC game, itās not worth burning a season.
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Normandā¦.agree on the Redshirt consideration. Weāre already at the half way point of the season, w/ Normand in street clothes after dressing earlier games, I have to assume heās at least a couple of weeks from being available by which point weāll be 20 games in to the season.
As long as other wings stay healthy, we have plenty of bodies and options; Darlanās shooting has also improved reducing the need for another shooter off the bench. Our biggest need is defensively and I donāt think thatās Normandās forte, Cochran is probably a stronger defender so where would his minutes come from? With his improved play of late we probably need more minutes from Darlan, not less.
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Agree totally. Herb is already running a 10-man rotationābasically the outer edge of a normal college rotation. You almost never see 11 unless there are injury concerns or the team totally lacks identity (like Lavinās past couple of years). Adding Normand would be zero-sum overall and probably would totally remove someone (likely Cochran) from regular play.
Like you say, the biggest need is a lockdown defender. But thatās not Normandās reputation. Probably the second biggest need is a reliable catch-and-shoot 3P guy which is his reputation. But I donāt think the latter is so important to prioritize if he canāt also bring the former. Plus, given how much of defense is energy, effort, and aggression, itās hard for me to see him being a great defender straight off a lagging injury even if he had all of the requisite desire and skill.
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