Pretty solid prediction here!
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Just got out of Leavey. This might be the team.
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I was lucky to be one of the analysts for KSCU so I would say I watched my fair share of games 
. I’m really excited about this team and hope we can get some more packed games this year. I think the last 3 years have seen more students go each season but I wish more than Gonzaga would sell out.
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Nit-picking a bit: The defense in the second half was not the best and allowed Nevada to keep pace and cut the lead in half. Mahi had a few possessions where he opted for iso and stopped an otherwise-excellent offense. Darlan continues to have some awesome athletic plays on defense but the pro potential has yet to manifest on offense.
That was a fun wire-to-wire win. But cleaning up the little things is really going to matter. And letting the defense slip just because the offense is humming is one of the fatal flaws for last year’s team, so these guys need to keep up the aggression on that end.
But it’s hard not to be excited so far, and I definitely am as a fan. Two should-be-easy games and then the biggest test of the season so far in a much-improved SLU team in the desert.
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Sound the alarms, PattyMac is feeling things
1 game at a time!
I’ll be the first to admit that I did not expect this after watching Bal, O’Neill, Stewart, Tilly and Bryan walk out the door.
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Maybe the ever-optimistic @Sedulous knew this was coming all along. But even if you were bullish enough to believe that the Broncos could be just as good (or better) this season, you would almost certainly assume that it’s coming largely off the backs of the three high major transfers and our precedent-altering G-League player, plus the three core returners.
And yet what we are seeing so far is a homegrown young guy renaissance from Hammond, Oboye, and Graves. Ensminger is still the most statistically efficient player in the WCC. Mahi finishes at the rim way better. Knapper plays with nearly unbelievable control. And the true frosh, Chukwudebelu and Cochran, are already contributing at about as high a level as you could reasonably expect.
Not to minimize Sash or Thierry who help a ton with depth and athleticism, but the core of the narrative at this point isn’t “Santa Clara reloaded by finding the next Podz and/or breaking precedent to bring in a former pro.” It really is “Santa Clara developed its bench into potential stars.”
And the latter is way cooler and presumably what we all love most about college basketball when it happens (more and more rarely now).
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The only real nitpick I have is the free throw discrepancy the past two games. Hasn’t hurt them but would like to see them stick with the aggressive D without fouling as much. Opponents getting 10-12 more foul shots a game is really not sustainable.
Btw big news from Mission Campus. Saw high school sophomore Boss Mhoon at the game yesterday. He’s a four star recruit from The King’s Academy and has SCU on his shortlist according to the recruiting services. Plus his IG page has several SCU related posts.
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The cautionary side…..we’re excited w/ the wins and the energy and effort this team has brought but the teams we’ve beaten so far look better on paper than on the court. McNeese, Xavier and Nevada clearly are down a bit this year compared to the recent norm for their respective programs.
And there’s plenty this squad needs to clean up. Bukky and Graves have both been in foul trouble on multiple occasions. That could spell trouble when we face teams with bonafide post players, ie- GU and SMC. And as Lucas noted above the excessive fouling we saw in the 2nd half is problematic, it allows teams to stay in the game, score points with the clock stopped and disrupts our own momentum. And we need to see more consistent good decisions at the offensive end by certain guys; Sash, Mahi plus to a lessor degree Darlan and Hammond have forced things with the occasional ill advised drive in traffic, into double teams and help D which has led to some turnovers. We have to make better choices when playing strong defensive teams like SMC or GU who has several elite, long wing defenders who could victimize our crew with deflections and steals.
On the positive side…..effort, defense and rebounding travels. It can make up for a rough shooting night from 3 or some poor decisions or ill advised shots. Lots of examples of this yesterday…..Darlan with the chase down block on a Nevada run out that started with a Bronco turnover. Loose ball rebounds on 50/50 balls. Plus several possessions where we drove in to traffic and had our dribble or a pass deflected that lead to a loose ball that we ended up securing and then made a shot….that’s mostly about effort and aggressive play.
Another positive is there is room for growth and improvement from guys like Bukky, Graves, Chuk and Cochran. As good as Bukky looked last night, you get the impression he’s just scratching the surface. And Darlan is still adjusting and settling in and trying to figure out where his shots and opportunities are in the offense….like Bukky, a ton of upside with his game and at some point we’ll see a breakout game from him scoring 20+.
And Bronco vets Knapper and Ensminger are providing exactly what this team needs, leadership and steady play to balance the youth and inexperience of much of the rest of the playing rotation.
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Mahi’s willingness to let the game come to him has impressed me. Yeah, he had 3 turnovers but played 33 minutes and went 4-5 from the floor with 6 assists. He knew this was Bukky’s night to get fed.
Bukky is definitely getting some prospect buzz on X. I hope he has a monster season. https://x.com/TheHoopHerald/status/1990256107898749152
Not sure I have ever seen a Santa Clara player with Christian Hammond’s floater game. It is a true weapon.
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I had. the chance to attend Bukky’s coming out party on Saturday. It was super impressive to see the way he moves on the court. I attended SCU during the Ronnie Reis days and witnessed John Bryant progress from a hefty, slow freshman to a talented inside force. But Bukky is a vastly different big man, and a lot of fun to watch.
A few other observations. I have been really impressed this far into the season, how the scoring is spread across so many different players. There are multiple players that can score 20+ points on any given night, and now we can add Bukky to that mix.
Secondly and related, it appears that there multiple players that we can go to to get a clutch bucket. In the past, there only seemed to be one player (Vrankic, Jalen, Podz) that you could rely on to get a bucket when you absolutely needed it. This team seems to have a number of trustworthy hands that can get you a bucket when an opponent makes a run or the offense slows.
I hope this continues. Go Broncos.
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