Looking at the Out of Conference predictions, the team is at or above where most of us thought it would be. It could have been better—SLU was certainly winnable, and the ASU game brought back gruesome memories of UAB and Stanford last season—so there’s work to done. My optimism for this team was in part due to Normand and Tadjo contributing, and we’ve not seen either on the floor. I thus fluctuate between hope to dread for the conference schedule. Hopefully we see some energy and adjustments against the Ramblers that carries into the league.
I expect to be disappointed, but have some hope I’ll be wrong.
Gritty win, Broncos played well defensively and more than held their own against a defensive minded team whose forte is defensive pressure and creating turnovers. It’s an area that we need to clean up.
I think this win on a neutral floor may end up being more meaningful than expected. This North Texas team will cause teams problems in the American Conference and it’s our collective hope that they do well in conference play. Echo previous comments in looking forward to seeing Normand on the floor, hopefully against Loyola Chicago.
One thing I’ve noticed, and I don’t think it is some kind of coincidence: when Ensminger suffered his injury and was out, the entire offensive flow changed dramatically (for the worse). Up to the time of his injury, the passing and movement in the frontcourt was exceptional – the best I’ve seen out of the Broncos since probably the late 70s/early 80s (perhaps followed closely by Nash/Garnett teams). I’ll add that shot selection was much better as well, though that is probably a product of the offensive flow.
Even with Ensminger’s return, something just seems “off”. Hopefully, the squad can recapture that magic.
I think a lot of us have been pointing to Ensminger as key to the offense. You see it a lot in Graves and Knapper especially–both are much less effective without Jake. Graves can’t dominate the boards without Jake helping him fight inside for position; Knapper gets overwhelmed by traps and ball pressure without a reliable 6’8" guy with handle helping him move the ball around.
Ensminger hasn’t been himself the last couple of games, presumably due to him still recovering.
The last-5 line on the Torvik page shows the steep decline in the Broncos’ performance in December. They were at the 91st percentile for in-game performance prior to Minnesota. Now just 64th percentile over the last 5 games.
And while the Broncos don’t have a bad loss or any loss that’s likely to become bad, they are also short on good wins. Last night’s drubbing by Creighton took Xavier fully out of the Q2 category. I don’t think that will remain as such–I had some hope that X might fight their way up to become a Q1 win for the Broncos…not looking so likely now. SCU has no room for slip ups in conference, must sweep USF, and must notch at least one win against GU or SMC, preferably in Spokane or Moraga. It’s not insurmountable. But it’s a tall order and will be impossible if December Santa Clara can’t find its way back to November Santa Clara.
As an aside, not going to Seattle this season hurts. The Broncos would much rather play in Seattle than Gil Colosseum based on results so far.
You can see the final play of the game on one of the slides. Interesting to see the 5 defenders we put our there. Since North Texas had to hit a 3, rim protection was not needed. Excellent job by Hammond, Darlan, and Knapper in particular on this defensive stand.
We can take solace in the win, but the box score is ugly.
UNT had 8 blocked shots – how is this possible? Man for man, they are shorter than our squad. They don’t have anyone over 6’9”. I didn’t watch the game, so perhaps there were extenuating circumstances.
The 21 turnovers is absolutely appalling. As we’ve said for a couple of weeks now, the roadmap for future opponents’ success (and Broncos failure) has already been written by the teams who beat SCU. Until it gets fixed, SCU v2025-26 is going to be another “aspiring for the NIT” team.
With our tendency to lose close games I will take this. A win is a win.
But my other comment is why was this game in Santa Cruz? For what purpose? 120 people total in attendance? Who is agreeing to these things. It’s not like Santa Cruz is helping us build the Santa Clara brand as they could care less about hoops there. Strange place to play unless I missed the reason it was held there. I get neutral site games but certainly there were loads of better choices?
I’m not sure there actually are better choices. I assume that SAP and Oracle are a lot more expensive, let alone Chase. It would feel a little ridiculous to go play on SJSU’s home court just for the neutral site analytics advantage. And since they played most of their home games in 2021 at KP Arena, I assume that the AD still has good relationships with the staff there.
I agree that the neutral site gamesmanship is one of the things slowly eating away at college basketball. I just don’t know that there’s a much better option than KP Arena in Santa Cruz if you accept the (annoying) premises that SCU is going to do these weird neutral site arrangements and wants the neutral site to be as close to a home game as possible.
My idea: they should do an exhibition with Sonoma State (pre-season) and then do a neutral site game at SSU’s gym in the North Bay against a decent mid-major opponent. I think enough North Bay denizens could pack SSU’s gym for a D1 game if you advertise it well. But I just think SCU would see such an arrangement as (a) beneath them and (b) too risky to be worth it.
We may see Normand vs Loyola. He’s been going through more normal practice reps and supposedly working hard on his conditioning to prep for game reps. I would think the coaches would want some game time before league starts. He could be a real shooting spark, but I would expect a game or two of assimilation.
He a fiery guy, lots of energy and hopefully some leadership which we need.
As far as Mahi as a point forward. He leads the team in TO’s (25) to go with 21 Assists…
Mahi is also by far the leader in minutes and has much lower turnover rates than our two point guards. He showed an acumen for the pick and roll last year, and am somewhat puzzled why we have not seen more of it this year with a couple of good lob threats on the team. I think when we get into conference play against the upper half of the league, the ball is going to need to be in the hands of Mahi , Hammond, and Ensminger on the perimeter. Hammond has shown an ability to protect the ball but we need him looking to score at all times. I am curious if he is used more on ball or off ball in conference when opponents’ familiarity goes up a notch. Our two point guards Turnover Rates are an alarming 22% and 24% and that is a problem that must be solved. It is amazing how Knapper and Sash have almost identical offensive stats this year, including shooting percentages.https://barttorvik.com/team.php?team=Santa+Clara