Need to develop Cam to be a threat on 3 and keep attacking (with a finish) to come back bigger, stronger, and enhance our inside game next season. Tilly’s ongoing development is a huge plus too.
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Make your fts!
I’ll take the win but HAVE to get this one on Saturday.
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On a night where the majority of WCC games resulted in upsets, it’s nice not to be among them. The first half was a mess, but they didn’t fold and found a way back. Keshawn’s third straight three, followed the the Tilly dunk were very exciting.
I was glad to see Tilly’s minutes increase again, and he delivered. Give me more.
Maybe the most important conference game is tomorrow? Not what I would have predicted going in, but it would seem that the winner on Saturday has the strong edge for 3rd.
I think that SMC and GU are comparable this year: both very good but beatable. I don’t know that it matters as much which side of the bracket SCU is on–except for the Spokane South X-factor that may make a GU matchup in the semis a little better.
But two third place finishes would be good for momentum and pride. And I definitely don’t want to cede 3rd to another up-and-comer like LMU.
I do think that, with even a 4th place finish, Stan Johnson has the edge over Bennett and Sendek for COY.
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Agree Patty. 3rd place matters for pride and overall trajectory of the program but for preferred WCC tourney seeding I don’t think 3rd vs. 4th matters this year. In the past you’d prefer 3rd over 4th to avoid GU as the dominant team, but not much difference between SMC and GU this season. And now with SMC’s loss to LMU opens the door for GU if they can beat SMC in Spokane.
For the Broncos and the NIT it’s more about winning as many games as possible regardless of whether that leads to 3rd or 4th place. Hopefully, we can go at least 10-6 in league and win a WCC tourney game which would get us to 23 wins overall and a likely NIT bid.
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A couple of other random USD game thoughts:
- Crappy FT shooting could have cost us the game; bigs may need a sports psychologist to help them with their FT’s…they haven’t improved over the course of the season.
- Keep in mind USD was without their 2nd best player and leading rebounder in the league in Eric Williams Jr. Along with Stanford transfer Delaire being out.
- 3pt D was again poor…9/20, 45% from USD. For a team that normally doesn’t rely on a ton on 3’s, allowing 9 makes is too many, and allowing 45% isn’t good regardless of who we’re playing.
- The 5-8 min stretch where Stewart, then Justice went off was clearly key, just blew past USD and by the time the run was over there wasn’t much time left for USD to gather themselves and recover. But you can’t count on having a run like that every game to save you or get you back in a game…not a sustainable approach to winning, particularly against decent teams.
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Hey, as a parent of a BIG - I would like to emphasize that ALL of team (guards too) were ATROCIOUS with FT last night. lol
FYI - Cam went 5-6 at the line in previous game.
ALL SEASON I have been emphasizing to Cam that KEY GAMES this year are going to be LMU and . . . PORTLAND. Yep Portland worries me. They are creepers who can make or break programs.
I’m terrified of Portland too.
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I’d argue that the way the conference is shaking out, the 3 seed is a huge advantage. You gotta get to that semifinal game!
The 4 seed likely draws BYU in the quarterfinal.
The 3 seed would play the 6 or 7 seed which as of today is Pacific/Portland. If USF stays at 8, I would much rather have to deal with the Pacific/Portland combo than the USF/BYU.
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Bennett should be COY without a doubt… I’m not even sure SMC has as much talent as SCU and Bennett has them in the top 20
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BYU and 5th place…maybe but the Pepp loss really hurts them…far from certain they’ll secure 5th place.
BYU is currently 6-6 with a challenging final 4 games of: @GU, SCU, @SMC, USF. Conceivable they could end up 7-9 and tied with one or more of USF/Pacific/Portland.
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SMC definitely DOES NOT have the talent. They DO have some great football players and teams facing them need to figure out how to deal with that.
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Very true! This is why you just worry about the games in front of you and win those!
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