Line: Broncos -6 and 79% win probability on ESPN; -4 and 65% on Torvik.
SJSU:
The Spartans are 6-4 on the season, ranked #202 on Torvik, under 1st year coach Tim Miles, former HC at Nebraska and Colo St. Miles takes over after four terrible seasons under Jean Prioleau where the Spartans never won more than 7 games in a season, or 3 in conference. No real wins of note for them so far; this will be the Spartans 4th straight game vs. a WCC team after a 13 pt loss to Pepperdine followed by wins over Pacific and Portland.
The Spartans do appear to be improved this season. Best player is probably 6-6 guard Omari Moore who leads them in scoring and assists (15pts, 5rebs, 5assists /game). 6-3 guard Trey Smith averages 11.5pts/game and knocked down 8 3-ptrs (not a typo) vs. Portland. 3pt shooting is the Spartans forte as they are Top 10 in the country in 3pt shooting %. They aren’t big or strong in the post, starting forwards are 6-9, 200lb Tibet Gorener (9pts, 2 rebs) and 6-7, 206lb Trey Anderson (10pts, 5rebs). 7-0 Center Ibrahima Diallo provides some size off the bench and is their top rebounder and shot blocker but he has not played the past 2 games, don’t know his status for tomorrow.
For the Broncos, need to defend the 3 well, this is the most likely avenue to a Spartan upset. This is a game where our lack of interior strength and rebounding struggles shouldn’t hurt us much because SJSU small inside and a poor rebounding team.
Matchups may be interesting in this one, may be advantageous to go with the smaller lineup for part of the game with Justice playing the 4 (Vrankic or Braun at the 5) as we’d probably then matchup better defensively with their guards while not really giving up anything inside.
We best enjoy this one as it seems to me we are steamrolling to an NCAA stoppage not too far off.
SJSU is not completely pathetic (finally). They have beat both UOP and Portland in their last 2 games. After the 5-0 start a 10-5 non conference finish wouldn’t be exactly what I hoped for, but they seem to have pulled themselves out of a tailspin and are heading in a better direction.
I bet we see lots of offense tonight from both squads.
SCU 89 SJSU 84
Bad news indeed for Tomley.
Will know in a couple of hours whether anyone else has tested positive…everyone is presumably vaxed (and hopefully have rec’d boosters) so I guess that gives us as good a chance as any at avoiding a shutdown.
School has now been out of session for 10+ days so little to no exposure to the student body but frankly that hadn’t been a critical concern given the schools vax mandate, mandatory periodic testing for on-campus students and what had been an extremely low test positivity rate. Hopefully players are lying low, avoiding non-essential activities like going to Valley Fair Mall, bars/clubs, etc…it stinks that they can’t enjoy their Holiday and school break but now is not the time to be taking any risks.
Makes me wonder about Christmas break. I assume all the players are going home for a few days (as they should). They are basically at zero risk of serious illness being vaccinated, young, and fit but with omicron’s ability to evade even the vaccinated then it seems more positive tests are inevitable.
Looking forward to seeing how much better (or worse, if that’s possible) SJSU stream is on the Mountain West Network. I’m willing to bet that it will be much better/more professional looking.
We seem to be getting to the rim rather easily whether through attacks off the dribble or post ups but are not converting. Our guys are anticipating contact or a shot blocker rather than just concentrating on putting the ball in the basket.
Nice to be leading by 12. It’s been 1 on 1 ball so far for us. Few cuts - little ball movement. Lots of misses at the rim. Lucky SJS is shooting terrible.
All about half #2. State will shoot better.
Hope we can hold on…
It really is impressive the amount of offensive skill we have on this roster. My only complaint is about a 6 minute stretch where San Jose State was getting layups rather easily…but a very good effort from our guys overall. Definitely the most offensive balance we have had on the roster since Davey’s final season.
Agree w/ all of the above. Patty called the double-double by Keyshawn, his 6th of the season.
Now 9 days off. Hopefully the team can get healthy, avoid any significant COVID outbreaks, etc.
And nice that we have a very easy start to WCC play with UOP on 12/30 and USD @ home on 1/1.
I liked the seven we have out there. Played well on both ends of the floor. Several folks on here have mentioned it before, but this team is better in transition or just earlier in the shot clock. It’s not just shooting percentage either, although that’s also better earlier, but it’s also turnovers. I counted eight turnovers today (missed four because I only saw about 75% of the game) and every one of them happened with under 20 on the shot clock. Overall, good win and the guys looked athletic and energetic.
I sort of wondered if the instruction during that SJSU run in the 2nd half was to be a little softer on the defensive end. When you’re up 27 with 13ish minutes to play and a 7-man roster, your biggest risk is someone critical fouling out and changing the dynamic of the game.
I’m no great basketball strategist, but it seemed like the easy offense by SJSU could have stemmed from an intentional choice to keep Josip or Parker from picking up their 4th or 5th fouls with so much runway.