I realize one can’t make much of the NBA pre-season, but I saw that Jalen had a solid final game against the Spurs.
EPSN Summary:
Williams tallied 21 points (7-8 FG, 1-1 3Pt, 6-7 FT), two assists, one rebound and a steal over 31 minutes Thursday in a 118-112 win over San Antonio.
Spin: Williams started for his second straight contest and logged a team-high 31 minutes. He was very efficient from the floor, missing only one of eight shot attempts and making his only three-point try. Williams was outstanding during the exhibition slate, shooting 61 percent from the field and posting per-game averages of 14.4 points, 5.2 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.8 steals. He may not begin the regular season in the starting lineup, but his strong preseason play has likely earned him plenty of minutes regardless of his role.
Looking forward to seeing him light it up. Thunder kick off things tonite against T-Wolves.
Jalen was pretty awesome in the 2nd Quarter of the Mavericks/Thunder game on Saturday. I highly recommend checking that quarter out if you are a League Pass subscriber. His ability to get to the rim and convert “And Ones” is so impressive and bodes well for him having a long and successful NBA career. Highlights from Jalen’s performance on Saturday below.
Jalen Williams made a IMPACT last night in his first NBA game
Brilliant play! So happy for him. What a great representative of SCU.
I’ve always felt SCU did not do enough to capitalize on Nash’s success to boost recruiting. Maybe Steve didn’t want to participate, I don’t really know.
Is there something that SCU could do to capitalize on JW’s success and visibility? And would JW “help”? I’m not close to the program, so don’t really know the relationship between RB, HS, and JW.
Just random thoughts. Would love to see our program get back to the point it was at in the late 70’s, when USF was basically what Gonzaga is today, and we always had epic battles with legendary Bronco players like Rambis, Eddie Jo, Theus, McNamara (too bad he and Rambis didn’t get along), and even the fun of Corky Nelson and his fan club in the stands.
Of course, it’s also possible that I remember those games being bigger than they actually were because I was a kid and to me, those players were gods. My dad knew CW well, so we’d be on the court pre-game while my dad chatted with Coach and I got to chase stray basketballs while the players were warming up. The good ol’ days.
Sorry for rambling! Bottom line, how do we get the program back to must-see sports? I can’t think of a better way than boosting recruiting, and the only way we can do that is to leverage recent player success at the next level.
I agree with you and I went to SCU in the 70’s and remember the players you mentioned. The Corky Nelson fan club was legendary and Rambis Eddie Joe and Theus were great. Hated the Chubby Cox shot to deny us a win over #1 USF. If I recall correctly Mc Namara left SCU for Cal after one or two years at SCU.
I long for relevancy too and it is good to see Jalen do sowell at OKC. Now we seem to be heading in the right direction though the loss to UOP was a major derailment. We need to re-group and win some more games (BYU USF LMU) to right the wheels. As Jaylen plays well that will hopefully help recruit see they can come to SCU and still make it in the pros, if they are good enough.
I thought that would happen with Nash, but it never translated. Maybe things are different now because back then we didn’t have commercially-viable internet?
Right after Nash, the program was in a recruiting upswing. Brian Jones was a top 100 recruit, and there was another Athlon top 100 whose didn’t stay long. When Jones was injured in the old Kezar Summer league, the program didn’t have any margin for error. I’ve often wondered if the program would have fared differently if Adonal Foyle hadn’t fouled BJ into the basket stanchion; after he recovered he was ok, but not on his earlier stellar level.
