They appear to have a very athletic frountcourt and are blocking a lot of shots at 6 per game and have been hitting the offensive glass hard with a 40% offensive reb % (19th in the oountry), Broncos are going to need to block out and focus on defensive rebounding. DePaul has also been solid on offense so far, ranked high 60’s in the country in eFG% and Adj Off Eff.
Lots of room for improvement for the Broncos. I’m hoping to see a more effective and cohesive offense that generates better scoring opportunities. Communication, execution on D must improve, lots of guys getting caught up in screens and missed help side rotations vs. Utah St.
Definitely need Justice to break out of his shooting slump; 2-28 overall (7%) and 1-15 from 3 has to be one of the worst shooting streaks over a 3 game stretch in Broncos history. Keshawn is too good of shooter for the struggles to last forever but I worry it’s now in his head and confidence may be a bigger issue than shooting mechanics.
Hoping the Broncos go at least 1-1 in the Bahamas.
Prediction: Broncos show some improvement but fall short 79-73.
Agree that Justice needs to get going and hopefully he will soon. A slump can get inside ones head so hopefully the coaches can help him and put him in position to succeed. We have a relatively tough schedule but we will need to start clicking on offense and defense to get some wins if we want to compete in league this year. Gonzaga, St Mary’s and USF look good so far and BYU is always a factor. A split in the Bahamas would be ok as far as I am concerned. Hopefully we can build over last year but it will take an effort. I was discouraged by the margin of defeat at Utah State and hope this is not an indication of the rest of the season.
I’m hoping there’s a wakeup among this talented and deep Broncos team after the last outing. I don’t love the Broncos going against two 50% downtown shooters after the previous game, but maybe that will benefit from having been a major point of emphasis.
I’ll keep predicting the return of Justice until we finally get it. 81-77 Broncos. Justice with 18 and 9.
Im all for putting in my overly aggressive kid an let him dish out a couple hard hits to opposing team and it will rattle them.
Kids tend to bounce off mine. He does not do it purposefully. You saw the foul he picked up when running through a screen to stay with his player. But the screens were not as tight in next rotation. .
If the fear is my kid picks up fouls. Use it to set the tone that Santa Clara is tough and aggressive. Throw offense off their game. Make the 3s more challenging for opposing team. His height and wingspan combined with his physical play is a good problem to toss at the 3 pt teams.
I get it. He is NEW in that position. But hes a quick adapter. Give him opportunity and he will figure it out.
Or we can keep getting man handled. Time will tell.
Hopefully we learned from last game. Hoping for an upset. Go Broncos.
Watching the other game in our tourney, OK St.-UCF which has gone to OT.
These Caribbean tourneys are a little peculiar…like a CYO or junior high team, it appears they’re playing in the equivalent of a ball room/conference center with a stage on the camera side of the court with no stands and portable stands and team benches on the other side, a few ballroom chairs beyond the baselines. You only see the ‘stage’ side occasionally when the cut to a courtside camera.
Probably not much energy in the place, appears to be about 300 fans, but both teams are on a level playing field.
Agree on Knapper.
Very good athlete and a more natural pt guard than Stewart.
When Podz needs a break, and especially with Marshall out, would like to see some of Stewart slid over to the 2 spot w/ Knapper at the 1…a small backcourt but they make up for it with good quickness/athleticism.
Was in attendance, and trust me, there were not close to 300 fans. I’d say maybe 150 fans for the first game, and maybe 60-70 for our game. We were joking that the boys kept slipping because of the champagne spills from the wedding reception that immediately preceded tip-off.
Next 3 D-1 games are huge. All basically coin toss games against UCF, Iona, and Wyoming on neutral floors.
Quick look at the analytics through 4 games. Most interesting thing is the Broncos are playing with the 6th fastest tempo in all of D-1. Key is making sure this tempo does not turn into lackadaisical defense.
A little early to believe much in advance metrics, doubt we’ll stay near the top (Top 10) in tempo as the season progresses, but we’ll see.
Some other observations from last night…
Rebounding was very good, Def Reb % 80%, Off Reb % 37%, both excellent #'s including 9 offensive rebounds combined by Bediako and Braun. Glad to see us hit the offensive glass more which has not been a hallmark of Sendek’s SCU teams.
Podz was leading scorer and rebounder and stepped up with some clutch individual play when the game got close in the 2nd half but IMO our posts were the unsung heroes. The four guys who got minutes at the 4 and 5 spots (Bediako, Braun, Holt and Tongue) combined for 30 pts, 20 rebs, 3 blocks. And they did a solid job of keeping DePaul’s athletic bigs off the offensive glass. Nothing earthshattering with their individual #'s but a good collective effort from that group that will be needed and important for the team’s success going forward.
Defense…we trapped ball screens most of the night, don’t recall much of that in the first 3 games. Will be interesting to see if that’s the norm going forward.
The depth really came up big tonight. I thought the frosh guard Kosy gave some really good minutes defensively. Very athletic. Would like to see him get some more run.
Echoing what others have said, defense looked MUCH better tonight.
THANK YOU! It is nice to have someone notice the importance/impact of not just rebounding, but as a team. When your bigs are sealing off the opponents bigs for your guards to sneak in and grab a rebound - that is KEY. I saw that happen quite a bit. Nothing but Bronco shirts with DePaul shirts behind them. That was nice to see. This will make or break games for us.