WCC Game 1: @ Pacific

Edited for Jan. 7th announcement of reschedule of Pacific games:

Tip-off: Wednesday, Jan. 12th, 7 PM

TV: WCC Network

Line: 78% win probability on ESPN, 83% on Torvik. Broncos -10 on Torvik, No line yet on ESPN.

Pacific:
5-10 on the season, coming off a 73-51 loss vs. BYU on Thursday (the only league game played to date). A decent win over UCSB but nothing else to speak of. They have losses to common opponents: Hawaii, Fullerton St., San Jose St., and Cal…all wins for the Broncos except for Cal. Currently ranked #244 on NET, #282 on Torvik. They don’t do much well, advance metrics are particularly bad on offense, ranked #324 on Torvik.
6-5 wing Luke Avdalovic, a junior transfer from Northern Arizona, is their best offensive player, averaging 10.3 pts/game. Point guard Pierre Crockrell is small but super quick, a good penetrator and passer but not much of scorer and has no perimeter game (0 made 3’s on the season). Oddly, veteran and former starting forwards Jeremiah Bailey (Kyle Bailey’s bro) and Jordan Bell have not started in recent games but still get solid playing time off the bench, often playing more than the starting frontcourt guys.
Stoudamire is gone, went to the Celtics as an assistant and replaced by Leonard Perry. Seems like a big drop-off; IMO, Stoudamire did a solid job under very challenging circumstances inheriting a program coming off a 6 win season and under NCAA sanctions with a pretty significant cut in scholarships.

Will be interesting to see if the Broncos are rusty coming off 2+ weeks since their last game…the San Jose St. win feels like a long time ago.
We should be at or close to full strength and might even see Bediako back in uniform. Will also be interesting to see who starts between Pipes and Stewart.

Prediction: Broncos 74-67

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50/50 chance of actually playing. Assuming all the guys are available for both teams, SCU 79 UOP 62

Game moved to Wednesday.

Tough. I was looking forward to watching tomorrow. Ah well. At least having it on Wednesday gives one extra day to prepare for the tilt with the Zags. Assuming any of it all happens.

The week of the 24th looks tough now with USD, BYU, and USF in a six-day stretch.

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Yeah, I was looking at that stretch of games later this month as well. Very tough. Our squad and our collective opponents will all suffer through some rust. I sincerely hope that HS has our boys well-prepared, both physically and mentally.

One hour to game time. Fingers crossed.

If we get to tip-off, I’ll take the Broncos to show some potency with everyone back. 83-65 Santa Clara. Justice leads all scorers with 22 and comes just shy of a double-double with 9 boards.

Clarification, game time is 7PM…two hours to go…changed it somewhere along the way in the numerous reschedules. Sorry if I led you astray.

Pipes in the starting lineup.

And the WCCNetwork feed has been fine…further evidence the problem is with our home court feed.

I really hate how they show the Pacific replay after every score.

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You can tell Herb is trying to play more guys. Hopefully will help keep us fresh.

I checked out with 8 minutes left in 1st half, when UOP was up 5. What the heck changed to give us the lead at halftime?

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Justice caught fire.

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This pace has to favor us. I don’t think Pacific has another player who can put in an 18-point half, right?

SCU has the worst feed in the WCC, but the UOP commentators and constant replay while the game is in action are WCC lows.

I was having the same thought. Also losing 20 seconds of game with every break because someone is asleep at the camera.

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Add to that returning from ‘commercial breaks’ late almost every time.

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We were getting open looks, but we finally started hitting. Played a little better defense too.

Justice getting hot helped.

Bob Thomason is so annoying doing play by play…. He misses all the action with his comments

Our defensive breakdowns are no bueno. Slow close outs and can’t defend a screen/roll…

Agreed. Not a great man D team.
Still just nice to get a game after 3 weeks without one.
UOP blows but hey its a road win.

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