For Most Valuable Pencil-Neck…. Sendek wins by a landslide.
Herb is outmatched every night and hands down one of the least adaptable coaches in all of D1.
He doesn’t run anything on either side of the ball that takes the talents of this team into consideration…… just a few 30 ft from the rim dribble hand offs from being indistinguishable from KK.
To have this talent and get these results is completely pathetic.
Scu promoted $8 tickets - smart for a change
Bad defense - guys aren’t even putting their arms up on most plays and we lose 90% of 50/50 balls
What’s bad is Herbs non contact man D and going underneath every screen. Straight up stupid.
Our 2 best players combined for 5 points (2/16) and 8 turnovers in 63 minutes. Lucky we didn’t lose by more.
Another disappointing game for a team that too often plays less than the sum of its parts. Outrebounded by a team not known for its rebounding, and once again lost the turnover battle.
This team badly needs a floor general; there are too many players dribbling who don’t have a good handle. O’Neil had a nice game, but he’s so much more effective driving than spotting up for the three. Bal and Marshall had off nights, to put it mildly: each went 1/8 from the field, and they combined for more turnovers (9) than points (5). One of those guys can have a clunker, but when both do you can’t expect to win.
The best player on the court tonight was Yale’s center; he looked like one of the Zags big men, just having his way with our front line. There’s a guy I wish the Broncos had.
So ends a frustrating non-league schedule. I don’t think anyone is satisfied with the 9-6 record, but I like that they scheduled a number of quality opponents. Better to go 9-6 with this schedule than 12-3 while playing half the SWAC at home.
Who knows what will happen in league play. Compared to last season, this looks like a 5th place team, but most other programs in the WCC appear weaker this year. We’ll see what happens, but my expectations aren’t high.
just a really stench filled game for lack of a better phrase. Having Bal and Marshall combine for 2/16 on FG’s and 5 points is a death blow for a team that doesn’t have the playmaking elsewhere to wrap it up. Also Yale may have only been 7-6 coming in but they had all my attention as a yearly force that they are in the Ivy under James Jones. They (ironically) took us to school in every sense, rebounding, deflections, cuts, and getting to 50/50 balls. With the way the game was playing out, there wasn’t even anywhere to turn and say “hey that guy can save us on the bench”, just a tough one to swallow all around.
WCC Tournament or nothing now
They should honestly let kids in free. At least until the place is filled regularly. Even if Leavey is packed with screaming kindergartners, at least it will be packed with screaming someones.
Look like we have some guys who want to fill up their stat lines vs play for W’s. In reality no one is better off without the W’s.
In our last 6 games we have 83 assists vs 94 turnovers. Enough said about no ball movement….
Blockquote compared to last season, this looks like a 5th place team, but most other programs in the WCC appear weaker this year. We’ll see what happens, but my expectations aren’t high
No question that it’s hard to have much confidence in this team given up/down results and mediocre to subpar play in so many aspects of the game (TO’s, ineffective half court offense, mediocre D, mediocre rebounding despite the big lineups).
But, the league as whole is down and as such I still think this current Bronco squad can safely finish above .500 with about the same play or nominal improvement. And given the talent level, if Sendek and Broncos actually figure some things out and fix some of their problems then 11-5 or 12-4 is actually possible.
Blockquote look like we have some guys who want to fill up their stat lines vs play for W’s. In reality no one is better off without the W’s.
In our last 6 games we have 83 assists vs 94 turnovers. Enough said about no ball movement…
I don’t have any firsthand exposure to the squad so hard to say if they are a selfish bunch or not. Instead, what I see is a very vanilla offensive system with limited offensive sets. Our assistant coach’s have referred to it as an ‘Open’ offense. It’s mostly dribble hand off action, some pick/roll (without much use of the ‘roll’ part), and then use of bigs for ball reversal through the top of the key to the weakside to continue the same hand-off or pick/roll action. And then some occasional entries to the post. But the end result has been poor player and ball movement and an offense that has been ineffective at creating a lot of easy looks or open shots. And instead you end with more guys making 1on1 type plays. Because of the talent level it has worked OK at times when shots are falling and/or when secondary players step up and contribute (ie- Knapper’s 12pts vs. Duquesne). But overall it’s not a recipe for consistent success and it doesn’t fully capitalize on the talent of the squad. And the whole thing is made worse without a steady true PG you can can count on to run an effective offense for 30+mins a game.
Agree fully. To be clear, i don’t think that the individuals on this team are selfish. I saw them yesterday being supportive of each other and communicating. They just don’t have a scheme that enables them to do much more than go iso. O’Neil, Tongue, and Tilly are good pick and roll options (something SCU has rarely had) but rarely used as such. When someone drives and gets stuck, there’s no one spotted up on the perimeter in a place to receive a clean pass, and even if there is, the driving player starts looking a second too late to get them an open shot.
The team right now demonstrates how good we had it with an Energizer bunny like Podziemski who was good enough to connect the offense and make his own plays at the same time. Bal, CMJ, and Bryan are all roughly the same player: each is an athletic combo guard / small forward who can shoot from the outside, give physical mismatches with smaller guards, and rebound. They each have their own strength on the margins, but none is a connector piece or distributor. So when all three are on the court at the same time, it ends up disastrous despite being basically the most talented backcourt SCU can run.
I just want to see Herb experiment to see what might be his best lineup by Vegas. McEldon and Hammond have shown flashes. Tongue has great energy. I liked that he just threw the kitchen sink at New Mexico when nothing else was working. I don’t want chaos but just some sign that he’s trying to probe what might work. Last night they used zone for short stretches (it worked!) and tried pressing (it didn’t work!). That experimentation was fun to see and gave some spark when it was successful. I just want the same on offense since all eggs are in the Vegas basket now.
There is absolutely no pick and roll.
There is a pick and roll. Guards just do not use them. Cam sets fantastic screens and rolls hard. Many commentators have noted that he is tough to defend when he rolls downhill. I might have seen it used once this year.
I had to LISTEN to the Duquenes game because the video was not working. No joke. All I heard was “screen set by Tongue. Waived off by Bal. Screen set by Tongue, waived off by Bal.” Over and over. One commentator even asked “wonder what result Santa Clara might get if the guards actually use the screen?” I was thinking - my sentiments exactly.
Tongue is the only player that makes himself available on the pick and roll and no one gets him the ball.
The zone worked, and while the full-court press didn’t, that half-court trapping press worked well.
I wish the experimentation would happen earlier in each contest versus late in games. Find out what’s working and what isn’t while THERE IS ENOUGH TIME LEFT IN A GAME FOR THE VARIATION IN PLAY TO WORK.
I’d venture a guess that our retired emeritus coaches are disgusted by the current state given how TALENTED THIS ROSTER IS and WHAT THEY ARE SEEING ON THE FLOOR (and also probably disgusted that HS is making ~10x inflation adjusted what they were making when they coached at SCU). An embarrassment of (talent) riches and an embarrassing underachievement in execution.
what can i say us student announcers know ball 
but yes this is a glaring black hole that needs to be solved, giving away opportunities at points because it could also lead to a pass to a cutter coming baseline
Need to turn the page to WCC play but some final thoughts from the game…both bad and good.
The Bad:
The Good:
Whoever called this out on that commentary - DEFINITELY knows ball!!! To utilize the pick and roll is a MUST in order to create an outside and inside threat. This would force defense to focus on the guy rolling downhill as well as the ball handler. This would open up so many more opportunities. But if you go back and watch film from this year - defense cheats on the ball handler, because they KNOW our guys do not use the pick and roll. And I’m pretty sure the opposing teams watch film before games and the coaches tell them, “Cheat on D and continue to pressure the ball - because the pick and roll is not utilized”. (Who knows - might even have a couple less TO’s if we actually tried to put the pick and roll to use).