Scoreless for nearly 14 minutes with a 30-0 run. Brutal. I thought the days of that kind of lopsidedness were over, but no. Randy Bennett must feel like a kid at Christmas when he looks across to see HS coaching against him. 15 straight wins at Leavey. Unbelievable.
Bennett’s teams are always better than the sum of their parts, whereas Herb’s teams are often less. As I sat in the stands watching this utter free fall play out, I couldn’t help but think the only way the Broncos beat SMC is to have exceedingly superior talent to make up for the coaching deficit.
astonishing to be HELD to 6 total FG’s, let alone the 2 points on 1/6 shooting. Goose is so stocky and Bal hates the contact because he can get fed into Saxen.
last year it was a 27-0 run, this year a 30-0 run. Astonishing. Being as tough as SMC is a prerequisite to competing with them. Shows these guys still have to grow up
Well. I’m sure Cam would’ve LOVED the opportunity to get in and help with the boards and being aggressive - but he had to sit and witness the 30-0 spread like the rest of us.
Maybe put guys in their REAL roles we might have some more upsets like Gonzaga.
REAL starting line up should be:
BK at the 1
Bal at the 2
O’Neil at the 3
Tongue at the 4
Tilly at the 5
First comment I’ve read that has put any blame on the PLAYERS. I see guys missing layups/open shots, bobbling the ball and not rebounding. smc isn’t running some complex offense, they’re just better/ higher IQ players. This is my first year really watching but when PODS was here was the talk the same? Bal is soft, los is a 2 and the teams most interesting player can’t shoot! We lack playmakers and shot makers on a basketball team! I’ll put the defense on the staff but not scoring in 10 min is on the guys.
Let’s face it. This team has underperformed most of the year. Why? I don’t know. A few well played games (Gonzaga WSU and OSU at home and USF at home). Last night was terrible. How do you get outscored 26-0 to start the second half? SMC came out ready to play and we did not. The losses to Nevada and SMC were routs. Losing to North Dakota State LMU unacceptable. I liked our defense in the first half but the turnovers and poor ball movement and shooting held us back. Second half the team did not show up. Sadly this has happened before and unless a fire gets lit under them it will happen again. Very frustrating…
I drafted and deleted one of my typically long and pedantic posts about just how good Bennett is and whether it’s even reasonable to expect any coach to be better than him. But here’s the summary:
Basically the thing that stings is that an SCU coach actually doesn’t need to be better than Bennett to be successful. Bennett has out-coached Few the last two years, and the Zags’ Sweet Sixteen run has continued. Did you know that Todd Golden never beat SMC, including in their Tourney year? Golden, Gerlufson, Kyle Smith, Mark Pope, and Damon Stoudamire had a combined 7 wins against Saint Marys across all of their seasons in the WCC. Two are now coaching national title contenders in the SEC; two are in the ACC.
Sendek’s record against SMC is basically about in line with the best coaches who have come through the conference, including ones now with nice SEC/ACC gigs. What you can’t do is lose to NDSU, LMU, and get blitzed by a merely okay Nevada team and then get thrashed by SMC on top of it. It’s the inconsistency that kills us, not the performances against the top of the league.
P.S. Bennett has been at SMC for so long, I couldn’t remember where he was before. He was last an assistant coach at St. Louis. Under Lorenzo Romar. Go figure that one out.
P.P.S. I basically just said the same thing as @maddog1 but with three paragraphs and now two postscripts. Thank you all for tolerating me…
O’Neil was a full fledged three when he entered our program. I’d have to go watch footage of his days at American to see his defense at the 3. (Good point).
More equal time between Los and BK. Los is GREAT at capitalizing on ISO opportunities - but I feel BK is better at running an offense.
And WHY do we stick with pre rotation schedules? Shouldn’t we make substitutions based on HOW that particular game is playing out? I’d like more LIVE adjustments then sticking to a pre game strategy that doesn’t always execute.
Personally I’d perfer a much different starting 5 (with 3 guys that didn’t make your list) but honestly that has little to do with it. This squad has real talent… It’s not the kids, it’s the coach.
It’s glaringly obvious to me. Not sure how anyone could miss that.
This team definitely has some talent (and legit size)…whether that is “real” or pro level talent, I am not so sure. Who is the best player on this team? Going into the season Bal was the player with the most hype. If he was in position to get drafted in the 2nd round last year he should have left, no way he gets picked in any round this year.
Sorry, but IMO O’Neil is not a legit 3…at least not with his current makeup and skill set. He is the very definition of a Stretch 4.
He would struggle to stick with good SF/3’s on the perimeter and chasing them through screens (ie- GU’s Khalif Battle). His lateral quickness and change of direction isn’t great relative to what you want to see from a wing, he gets beaten off the dribble by forwards sometimes as-is, would just get worse guarding wings. And he was always regarded as a forward at American U; highlight vid even showed him posting up some which he’s rarely done at SCU.