We’re definitely light on big bodies. Prepare for plenty of minutes from Bediako and cross your fingers.
As an alternative, Herb may go small and up tempo. Carlos Stewart is a one man fast break and built like a block of wood.
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Sucks, for sure, but that is life. Rarely do things go according to expectations. The best in all fields find a way to adjust and hopefully grow from the experience.
Bediako’s physical play and maybe some additional contributions from Tongue, Stewart, Tomley, GWilliams can overcome.
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Vs. Poly, Justice spent about half his minutes effectively as the 4 adjacent to Braun or Bediako…expect more of that vs. TCU and Fresno plus a some more minutes each for Bediako and Tongue.
I understand that and believe me have definitely lived some of it.
But I there’s normal adversity and there’s well, beyond normal adversity. Having to move completely out of the county and not having access to a practice facility, losing two players before the season starts (twice), and now this.
Also, this is a great article to rebut the idea that the best overcome and such and that the most successful are the most skilled. In reality, luck does play a significant role.
Agree…have to adjust as needed and move forward, we aren’t the only squad in hoops or even the WCC who is down a starter. And hopefully Vrankic is back in the mix by late Dec. if not earlier.
Sometimes these things lead to positive discoveries/outcomes. As noted earlier, may lead to more PT for Tongue and indirectly for Stewart…ie- Justice will likely spend more time at the 4 which opens up wing PT for a guard like Stewart.
And Tongue may get more PT at the 4…he certainly can’t provide the experience that Vrankic offers, nor the versatile offensive game. But he is a fair amount better athlete, quicker, faster end to end, better hops…might open opportunities to do some different things on defense, pressure more, etc. Example…not a starting lineup but a 5 of: Braun-5, Tongue-4, Jalen-3, Stewart-2, Pipes-1 is one of the more athletic lineups we could put on the court, which would be a decent fit for playing more pressure D, maybe some half or 3/4 court trapping, etc. Again, not for an extended period…maybe 8 to 10 combined over the course of the game. We’ll see…
I took some time away from here as this became a bit of a cestpool late this summer, but still have intently been watching the broncos. Glad to see we’re 4-0 and arguing about how good or not good boise st is.
Per Vrankic: I said before the year started that i believe the best version of this broncos team is with minimal input from Vrankic. Now, I didn’t want to lose him for the foreseeable future and obviously want him to get healthy quickly - but we’re going to have an expedited view into Stewart and Tongue.
Before the Vrankic news I was thinking… Pipes is an (massive) improvement over Carlyle, J Will looks much healthier (knocks on wood) and better than last season, Justice is finding his stroke more than last year, Vrankic was about the same if not more impactful finding others, and Braun was an improvement in overall play from Caruso.
That’s an upgrade at every position.
Now we’ll be down Vrankic but still up in 4 out of 5 positions with an opportunity for Stewart to showcase his talents - and from my early looks he seems to be the real deal. Tongue seems to be a bit raw (he had one tip in on the wrong basket, and almost had 2 more) still, but this is good experience.
2-1 this week would be a win for me. There’s no single “test game” for me. Its consistency and improvement - its hard to measure but has been lacking over the last 10 years.
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also, Jacob Holt also has not seen the floor in addition to knapper, correct?
Maybe we see some action from him filling in at the 4/5?
Welcome back, Midwest!
Having basketball to talk about has certainly helped the dialogue (winning basketball, at that).
I think someone mentioned a hip injury for Holt?
You’re facing an even worse time-zone issue for tomorrow’s game, which is a 10pm pacific tip, 11 for me, midnight for you. Too bad.
Well, it’s not 1 starter, it’s 5 guys already from the end of summer, depending on what is going on with Tomley and Holt.
And apparently Knapper isn’t going to play for whatever reason, though that may be a program choice. Doesn’t seem like anyone is sure what is up there.
I would not expect to see much press with basically a 7-8 man rotation. I mean not that many teams are playing it at all with how many teams have multiple ballhandlers now, but even aside from that, being short of bodies and needing to keep people out of foul trouble makes it pretty unlikely.
TCU now up to a -3.5. Opened at -2. Would translate to something like a 40% win prob.
I like that approach and I think it’s very much the program approach. but I think there has already been improvement over the last couple of years. Going from hovering around .500 to stringing together .600+ seasons is improvement, especially with all the adversity faced last year. I think that team was on its way to having an even better season and we saw at the end of year just a bit of what they could do.
No need to make excuses any cry about 5 guys… coulda, woulda, shoulda… Nobody cares.
What matters is how they adjust.
Broncos show that even without Josip they have more fire power than the horned frogs.
SCU 80 TCU 72
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Sad to see Josip’s sickness be more than a cold. But I agree with bb here. No one will take pity, and I don’t think they need to. SCU should still take this one.
84-78 SCU. Pipes goes off for 27 and 7 assists.
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Excited to see Parker Braun continue to improve. His brother starts for Kansas and fills up the stat sheet. After only playing a couple minutes a game at Missouri, Parker should improve rapidly as he gets more game action under his belt. He can run, jump, and catch …and I think will be a very good 3 point shooter as well before his Santa Clara career is up.
Is Holt’s hip issue going to keep him out for the season?
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You do realize there is a scholarship limit and that is pretty impossible to add to a college roster midseason, right?
Being down 5 scholarship players from where you planned to be in September is quite a lot. That’s a fact regardless of anything else.
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So what? Excuses are like feet… everybody has em’ and they all stink.
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I know you like to keep your knives sharp, but I would think you could acknowledge the really incredible adversity the program has endured.
I know deep down you still hate the coach and I’m sure at the first opportunity you’ll be baying, but if you’re being intellectually honest, you have to acknowledge that there are a lot of things that have happened that are well beyond what most programs have had to deal with. Maybe what any other program has had to deal with.
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This is incredibly disrespectful and uncalled for.
Cut it out. I’ve only recently been entrusted with moderating power around here, but I don’t mind using it to keep the peace. Everyone else manages to be an adult on the forum.
Don’t antagonize. Don’t respond when you are antagonized.
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Who are you addressing here?
Missouri really didn’t look good in the lead in game. Looks like Braun is in a better place and a better team.
OK, let’s go Broncos!