Portland St.
The Vikings are 5-5 on the season, but 2 of the wins are vs. non-D1 teams. Oddly, they are 2-0 vs. Oregon St., other win is vs. Air Force. They are coming off a 23 pt loss to Cal Poly.
Advance metric say they are below average both offensively and defensively and they’re a poor rebounding team at both ends of the floor. They shoot a high # of 3’s but only shoot in the low 30’s. The only thing they seem to do well is create turnovers which could be problematic for us.
The Vikings play at a fast pace which should be to our liking.
Top players appear to be:
6-4 guard Jorelle Saterfield (16pts, 4 rebs, 37% from 3, their top 3pt threat, makes nearly 3 /game).
6-2 guard Cameron Parker (15pts, 5 assists)
6-6 wing Hunter Woods (9.5pts, 5.5 rebs)
The Vikings don’t have or play much size, which probably explains their rebounding woes.
For the Broncos, our bigs need to play much better than they did vs. SJSU and given Portland St.'s limited size our bigs have a chance to dominate in the post and on the glass. Offensive production from someone other than Podz, Justice and Stewart is sorely needed; don’t care where it comes from, but someone needs to step up.
I assume Portland St. pressures the ball either full or half court considering they force a lot of turnovers. Turnovers have been a problem for us, so our guys need to be prepared for the pressure and take care of the basketball.
I’m probably going to have to catch this one on replay. I’m just hoping that finally the Broncos can overwhelm an outmatched opponent. They seem to play to each of their opponents’ levels (including Menlo). That’s a recipe for some bad losses, one of which Santa Clara got on Saturday.
Give me 77-59 Broncos. Bediako with another stellar 14 and 11 showing. Podz gets another 30. Too much to hope for a Carlos Marshall appearance?
A poor start down by 10 27-17. Looks like the defense is taking the night off. Someone better get hot soon and the coaches better start lighting a fire. Ugly…….
Portland State is 8-16 from 3, and 8-20 from 2. Why are we respecting their penetration so much with weak closeouts? Please run them off the 3 pt line every time and just leave one of our bigs under the hoop at all times to rim protect.
I hope we can get the bugs out and play a complete second half with better defense and shooting. After SJS, two stinkers in a row will not bode well for the future. The team needs to respond quickly and the coaches need to make adjustments. Same ole same ole is not working.
We are NOT gonna get bugs out when we keep going with the same rotation!!! Outrebounded. Out hustled. Out played.
FOUR KIDS averaging combined minutes of 83 per game!!! CLEARLY they are TIRED. Legs give out and Santa Clara will not survive an OT game. Barely scraping by regular minutes.
Do not even see a GLANCE at an NIT opportunity this year. My forecast - conf play is gonna be a nightmare - until Herb learns to use his bench.
WARNING: When you are accessing this thread with phone during game - it actually records you when you have the comment box open. (Hence my deleted comments)
No we didn’t work any bugs out.
No real improvement or progress but we did just enough to win and survived.
Still too many TO’s. Half court offense…as it’s been all season, not a work of art, in particular too many wasted possession late 2nd half. And while the rebounding #'s look good, it seemed we failed to secure some key rebounds or got ball striped out of our hands several times.
Going to have to play better Thursday vs. a good UC Irvine team.
Two bad games in a row but at least we got a split. Looks like adjustments need to be made and prior posts about the wins over Iona, Wyoming, and New Mexico State all three missing players indicates we need a lot of improvement for league. Cal is horrible but the way we are playing we cannot take anyone lightly. UCI and Boise State look like blow out losses if we don’t improve or shake things up. While we won tonight I am losing my enthusiasm for the team this year. Hope i am overreacting. Go Broncos!
Santa Clara looks like a real paper tiger for being 9-3. So many issues. Irvine is good. And I’m sure they will take note of the weak perimeter defense.
Both the offense and defense are a mess (completely the fault of the coach). This team has got some solid talent and that alone has got them to this point. Unless Herb changes I see a really rough WCC ahead.