It’s still the coaching. Why anyone wants to look anywhere else is beyond me…
NDSU is a garbage team.
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As most of you probably know, SCU Men’s Basketball posts on Twitter/X, providing updates throughout the course of each game, along with video snippets of Bronco highlights.
When NDSU sunk those two free throws (of course) to tie the game at the end of regulation, the post announced the score, along with the following headline:
FREE Basketball At Leavey!
That’s some next-level spin doctoring, right up there with “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how’d you like the play?”
Maybe it’s just me, but I was there, and I don’t want any “free” basketball if it involves giving away a 19-point lead and playing horribly down the stretch at home against a lightly-regarded opponent.
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Unfortunately was in attendance last night. The athleticism/size mismatch between the two teams was obvious from the tip, and I understand NDSU got hot from the 3 line late in the game, but this was a really disgusting loss.
About the only highlights were Bryan’s play in the first half and Mahi’s play in the second half (outside of course the horrendous foul with 0.4 seconds left). Mahi is a physical presence who also showed flashes of having good skill. He needs to play much more than the 20 minutes he logged tonight, and should probably be a starter along with Bryan. Bryan, Mahi, Bal, Tilly and Tongue are the 5 most effective players on this team and 4 of them should probably be on the floor at all times. Though I have no idea how Tilly finishes with 1 rebound vs. that team last night.
O’Neil is shooting 7% from the 3 so far this season. I obviously don’t know what he shows in practice, but if he can’t find ways to score from inside the 3 pt line until he finds his shot, he needs to be benched. I understand he had 14 rebounds last night, but those can be easily replaced by Tongue with the added benefit of more pressure on the rim offensively.
I want to like Ensminger as a versatile swiss army knife, but at this point not really sure what he does well. The pg spot really hinges on Carlos finding his shot, which does not look good at all right now.
Does Herb talk to his players during games? Seems like only the assistants do the in-game coaching. There needs to be some inspiration coming from the HC.
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I imagine we’ve coughed up a 19point at some point in our history but would be surprised if it was to a team as weak as NDSU.
Not ready to throw in the towel but we’ve dug ourselves a huge hole. For a mid-major for every bad loss you need multiple good (Quad II or better) wins. Can probably only afford one more non-con loss (too a good) team and will need several good wins in WCC play (GU, SMC) split or sweep USF and undefeated vs. the bottom 5 or 6 in the WCC.
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Just using Torvik’s WAB tool: the Broncos are now -1.2 “wins above bubble.” A win over Nevada, for instance, is worth +.64 currently. So winning in Reno would get SCU halfway out of the hole…but only halfway. Beating Nevada and Stanford and TCU and Washington/Colorado State would put them in the black.
But any losses to a bad team along the way will truly make the hole too deep. They cannot lose to any sub-100 team out of the 14 sub-100 games ahead.
SCU is in the bottom 10% so far in 3-point defense. Now there’s a bit of luck involved in 3-point defense, and the Broncos haven’t had it (NDSU certainly didn’t have all star perimeter defense–the Broncos just bricked all night long). But the ball movement down the stretch was so, so much better for NDSU than Santa Clara. NDSU moved the ball on the perimeter and got as many open looks as they needed.
Nevada is one of the better three-point shooting teams in the country. So there’s no better time for SCU to wake up and guard the perimeter with everything they’ve got.
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Let’s not kid ourselves. We need to win the WCC to have any chance of a tourney spot. If O’Neil can’t make his shots he should be on the bench not parlaying it into 35min last night. O’Neil is 7.7% from 3pt this year (1-13) and shooting a dismal 15% FG%.
We can’t even blame team chemistry on the team as essentially everyone is back. The loss to NDSU really stings. Hopefully the team gets ticked off and we use this to our advantage.
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I was there and was impressed when we pressed. When we were pressing, we made it really difficult. I feel our boys should all be conditioned enough to press an ENTIRE GAME.
Spoke with Cam after the game. He knows he needs to tighten up on those put back shots and make them sink. And make his free throws. Cam has the burden of being a role player with VERY LITTLE ROPE. If he strays from the game plan, he is out. His role is to literally hand off, set the screen and roll downhill offensively. (So, he will focus on even tougher screens, fight even harder for offensive boards and put-back opportunities, and harder rolls to the basket to make it painfully obvious the lane is there.) Defensively he has the task of hedging at the top and dropping to defend the block. He also has to make the judgement call if his guard is going to stay with the player or switch. He and Bal miscommunicated, and it cost us an easy layup. So better communication on D as well.
Some of our guys need to dig deeper and play with more heart. And the coaches need to get flexible with their rotations. I have seen two times now when a given set is HOT and then the buzzer goes off and out go three of the 5 from a set that was in a rhythm. Let them stay in their rhythm and widen the gap. I also don’t think some of the combos out there are the best.
Pretty much they have to go undefeated the remainder of this pre-conference. They have the depth and the talent. But do they have the heart? And are our coaches willing to be a little more creative with their combinations?
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Herb needs to read (or re-read) Sun Tzu’s Art of War. His one size fits all approach to coaching is driving me crazy. It’s KK all over again. Perhaps if we win the NIT using a zone D, Herb can also claim that SCU is the “Syracuse of the West” 
Keep in mind, I am a Zag fan who also has been following and rooting for Santa Clara (except when playing the Zags) since Henry Caruso played for you. Santa Clara is looking like the Gaels did last year at this time. They had a bunch of ugly losses and looked like they were dead in the water but look what happened. I also remember the year that Podz played for you and Keshawn Justice started the first five games (maybe more) with attrocious three point shooting. It definitely cost Santa Clara some early losses. Hopefully, Santa Clara can learn and rise above this because they have the talent. I think the more that you can work Cam into the offense, the better. Watching the game and seeing Santa Clara force all those first half turnovers, you guys should have been up 20 at the half. There were just so many squandered opportunities. Correct me if I am wrong, but Santa Clara’s offense looks disjointed many times and this could be a result of either the point guard play or coaching. When the Zags first started off last year, they struggled with ball movement. However, once Nembhard started getting more comfortable running the offense, things took off and the same could be said about Marciulionis and the Gaels. Both of them are averaging over eight assists a game this year with very few turnovers and no losses for either team.
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I think you are on point about a lot of observations.
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SCU has top 25 talent… and a top 250 coach.
Not sure there’s a valid comparison between the Broncos O vs. the Marciulionis led SMC O and Nembhard led GU O.
SMC and GU offenses are more structured (without being rigid, predicable or limited) and dynamic and rely on Marciulionis and Nembhard to respectively control those offenses, get them organized in half court sets, dictate/control pace, get guys the ball in their ideal spots, feed the hot hand, etc.
Our O isn’t structured much at all like SMC or GU which has been my criticism this season and last. We don’t have a PG led offense. Sure we see a little pic/roll and an occasional purposeful screening action. We had a nice pic/roll dunk by Cam I believe off the pass from Bal against NDSU for instance…but IMO not nearly enough of those type of plays where the offensive scheme and team play results in easy buckets. It’s mostly a lot of vanilla open motion offense with Bal, Stewart, Bryan (or Mahi when on the floor) trying to create action from the top or wing. With some assistance by Tilly or Tongue with screens out top or to pass to them leading to a handoff back to a guard. And those without the ball are all parked stationary on the wing or corner waiting for a catch and shoot 3 opportunity. The end result is often too much standing around with stagnant motion by 3 or 4 guys while one guy goes 1 on 1. Not nearly enough player or ball movement. We’ll get a Bal floater or Stewart/Mahi layup out of it a few times a game and few open 3’s but overall over the course of the entire game the O isn’t nearly as functional, efficient and productive as say SMC and GU. In GU’s case they have superior talent to help make it all work. In SMC’s case, the talent really isn’t that spectacular, they just execute better and run better actions than SCU.
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Very well put. It was obvious against the Bisons that you had superior talent but it seemed you kept frittering away opportunity after opportunity and let them take it to overtime.
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I’m as big a homer as the next guy but to say the Broncos have Top 25 talent is ridiculous
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Yes. More off ball movement would be nice. I’d like to see some back screen action and back door trick plays.
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Calling overtime “free basketball” is quite common. Jon and other reporters do it often. I wouldn’t look at it like the university is trying to spin something here. That said, Bronos have to play better
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The last few minutes certainly were a “giveaway…”
Who is the “floor general” on this squad? I just don’t see any leadership. We’ve had guys in the past who held their teammates (and themselves) accountable.
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This is a cogent observation, buckets. There are a number of talented parts with minimal on-the-floor guidance. The lack of cohesion, especially on the offensive side, has been tough to watch.
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NDSU lost to Southern Illinois