Tip-off: Saturday, 5pm, Spanos Center - Stockton TV: ESPN+ Line: Torvik- Broncos - 14, 89% win probability; ESPN- 91% win prob, no line yet.
Pacific:
The Tigers are 9-22 (7 D1 wins) overall and 4-13 in the WCC and are coming off a 81-73 loss last night at home vs. Portland. From the end of Jan to mid-Feb Pacific showed some life, winning 3 of 5 including decent wins over WSU and LMU but have lost 3 straight since. Starters:
-6-6 wing Elijah Fisher (16pts, 4.8rebs, 30% from 3)
-6-7 forward Elias Ralph (14.7pts, 7.2rebs, 1.2 blocks, 27% from 3)
-7-0 center Jazz Gardner (4.6pts, 3.9rebs, 0.5blocks)
-6-3 guard Jefferson Koulibaly (6.5pts, 34% from 3)
-6-4 guard Lamar Washington (13.3pts, 5.1rebs, 5.7assists, 1.6 steals, 30% from 3).
bench: 6-4 guard Petar Krivokapic (7.1pts, 33% from 3) and 6-8 forward Kris Keinys.
The Tigers don’t do much well, middle to lower half in the league in about every stat that matters and are a really poor shooting team, ~350th in the country in eFG%. But despite that and the ugly record the Tigers can hurt you in a few ways and as noted have logged some decent wins in the last month vs. WSU and LMU.
Elijah Fisher is slasher who bullies his way to the hoop and gets to the FT line a ton. Elias Ralph is their most complete player and fills the stat sheet; though only 6-7 he is effective in the low post and a good rebounder but can also score from the perimeter. Lamar Washington also fills the stat sheet and is a solid athlete; but worth noting he started but only played 13mins vs. Portland even though he wasn’t in foul trouble…not certain if he’s injured.
While the Broncos’ 4th place status is cemented, it’s important to play well and head in to the WCC tourney with a little momentum especially after struggling and playing poorly for the last 25mins of the GU game. Hopefully we see some good player and ball movement, sharing the ball and play a reasonably balanced offense while playing with good effort on the defensive end and glass.
It’s wishful thinking but this would also be a nice game for the Broncos to play a little zone which could come in handy vs. SMC (and GU if they get to the title game).
Give me SCU 88 - UOP 65. I worry that they’ll be a little sluggish starting off, already being locked into their WCC Tournament seed. But I think they’ll want to expel the bad taste of Gonzaga and roll in the second half. Watch out for one of Lamar Washington’s weird offensive explosions.
I’m in Stockton to see our broncos . Maybe 20 SCU fans including Cam’s mom. Excellent concessions here - why are SCU’s so bad ? Tigers also have a great merchandise area - what happen to the one we used to have ?
We already have 3 three pointers - on our way to 15.
While clicking through espn.com to look at this game’s boxscore, my peripheral vision noticed something on the top banner of the ESPN website: St. John’s University is 26-4 and ranked 7th in the nation! Wherever Rick Pitino goes, he wins. This will be the fifth team he’s guided to the Big Dance. The last time SJU made it to the tournament was in Chris Mullins’ last year as coach in 2019, when they lost in a “First Four” game. Before that, in 2015, Steve Lavin coached the Red Storm to the second round of the tourney.
Pitino’s son Richard is having quite a good run as well as head coach of The New Mexico Lobos. This will be his 3rd straight season of 22+ wins. And they went to the NCAA tourney last year and a good chance of going again this year.