Trash - I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Every year: ”this team is different” from the alumni…then Herb has some sound bite near the end of the season alluding confidence, and inevitably we lose our first playoff game.
The goal shouldn’t be to win 20 regular season games and snag some B-Roll from the student section at the Gonzaga game to pretend like we care about sports. We have over $1.5 bn endowment, centrally located in one of the most desirable places to live on the planet, and we can’t sniff an NCAA Tournament birth in 30 years? In a conference that received multiple births regularly? We could’ve stepped up to MF + Zags and RB + SMC to benefit the entire conference, but we just don’t really care to compete on the highest level possible.
Maybe we can hang another CBI banner and ask for more alumni donations at grand reunions touting “school spirit” from that student section shot I mentioned earlier…from the one game that used to matter but won’t be on the schedule anymore. Sweet.
PS - the mural court is stupid…shows a complete lack of taste and judgement by administrators with too much time and too much money to throw at pointless endeavors.
With respect to men’s basketball, the satisfaction with mediocrity starts at the top and ripples through the organization. Our basketball goal seems to be a 4th place league finish. Through the years, there have been management changes, but resuts-wise nothing really changes except for upgrades from the depths. So let’s be happy with 20 wins and continued mediocrity. We have a quality highly-ranked academic school, a beautiful campus, great weather, and a superior location in high-powered Silican Vallet. So let’s forget Broncos at the big dance and root for the Gaels and Zags. Please educate me as I don’t get it.
Sendek’s WCC tourney history:
-6-9 overall
-4 first game exits
-Obviously he’s never won the tourney, but also has never made the finals and has only advanced to the semi-finals twice.
-And oddly, Pepperdine has been Sendek’s kryptonite eliminating the Broncos on 4 occasions.
And of course the two first round NIT exits…so Sendek is 6-11 in the ‘postseason’.
Was at the game and boy was it bad in person. Just complete no shows by Carlos, Adama and Elijah. Tyree and BK played well but Pepperdine exploited BK on defense. How many wide open layups did Pepperdine have?
Cannot understand how the Broncos were in the bonus with 11+ minutes left in the 2nd half and didn’t take advantage of that.
Just a complete failure of a game by the players and coaching staff.
Not as demoralizing a loss as the USF 2OT game that ended at 1:30am but close.
This was a truly painful watch. This was a truly painful season.
5 points in 52 combined minutes from Mahi, Stewart and Ensminger. At the start of the season I thought Mahi and Carlos were going to take us to the promised land.
Can’t throw it all on the players by any means (but also how many missed 2 footers did we have last night though). Ive been more of a Herb stan than most and this was a brutal one for him. I’m torn between the fact that we are now an incredibly consistent program, but incredibly consistent just below the water mark we all yearn for.
I really thought this would be the year but we just never really got it clicking. A couple of highs - at Gonzaga, and all the 30+ point wins that should be the norm against the wcc bottom feeders - but also too many lows which we all know about.
You’re right Lucas, we should have gotten to the FT line more.
But we didn’t because as a team we are finesse, perimeter oriented team, with a few exceptions players who are not very physical and don’t seek contact. We’re 300th in the country on Torvik in FT attempt rate.
And when you hear me complain about too much of a perimeter and 3pt focus…this is one secondary reason why. Falling in love with the 3 leads to softer mindset, less attacking the hoop and when we do get to the hoop lower conversion rate as guys don’t play through contact well.
Knapper showed up and had a solid game last night especially especially scoring…and yet he was still outplayed by Odum.
It illustrates the value of a true point guard performing at a high level. I love Carlos and he is talented but he isn’t a point guard, doesn’t make great decisions, not a great passer and shot selection suspect.
Gus at SMC, Nembhard at GU, Williams and Beasley at USF…good teams have reliable point guards and as evidenced last night even a lower level team can hurt you when they have a capable point guard.
Sendek has done a good job recruiting overall and has certainly raised the bar on talent level. But recruiting a strong point guard has been his biggest recruiting failure. He still has yet to recruit a traditional point guard who has had multiple years of high level success. We’ve relied mostly on 1year stop gaps (Pipes) or combo guards or multitalented playmakers to serve in the role (Jalen, Podz). The best true point guard to play for Sendek is KJ Feagin…a KK holdover.
I don’t know if Sendek and staff simply don’t value the role of true point guard or if they’ve pursued at lot of point guards and just struck out on landing them.
You can have a very talented and deep roster as we do, but if you’re missing a key piece for a key role then it’s going to haunt you and make it harder for the team to reach its potential.
This loss was very painful for sure. I have to give a fair amount of credit to Odum and Tovorsky for making a number of contested shots. While the Broncos inability to finish at the rim is on the players, switching every screen and constantly having Knapper or another small guard being posted up for 5-10 seconds is on the coaches. I am no basketball savant, but I don’t see this happening as much with other teams (and when it does happen, it is recognized quickly and they switch again). I believe the 7-8 layups from this constant switching was ultimately what cost us the game. Worse, this will continue to be a problem going forward unless a different strategy is employed. The other key component moving forward is we have to employ more ball pressure on teams and be more physical overall. Pepperdine looked way too comfortable out there- I believe they had single digit turnovers.
Herb shows just how lost his is in that video… talking about playing the “right way”… that bunk went out the window 2 decades ago. Clown steering the team bus.
No kid with the East Coast attitude will
fare well with Santa Clara. I’m sorry. But Cam brought that Boston attitude and it wasn’t well received. In fact - it hindered him a lot. Santa Clara likes finesse players.
Sorry to hear about Cam’s injury. I hope while He had to persevere in a system where the coaches took their time in evaluating his contributions, he can graduate from SCU with a degree that will serve him well in the future. He showed tremendous strength and commitment to the team which is admirable. Your undying support of your son was also appreciated. I wish the best to both of you as you proceed beyond SCU. For the record, Cam was part of a four year stretch where SCU started to raise the bar of expectations for us long term Bronco fans. Best wishes and good luck to both of you.
Appreciate the kind words! He will have a degree from a reputable institution. He is going to enter his name into the draft. He also has overseas opportunities awaiting him - so he may see what may come under a different coaching staff. Various agents have informed us that Cam is unique in that his court IQ, physicality, speed, strength, fearlessness, and soft touch around the rim make him an asset many teams are looking for. Just relieved some of the scouts out there noticed his intangible assets. Hopefully you’ll all hear of a fantastic post college basketball career for Cam with lots of success - until the ball stops bouncing.
