Pacific:
The Tigers are 10-12, 3-4 in the WCC, tied for 6th place. They’re on a 3 game losing streak starting with our win two weeks ago followed by losses last week to USF and GU. They did play well vs. GU and gave GU yet another scare.
Top players:
6-8 wing/forward Keylan Boone (12pts, 4.3rebs; 38% from 3, leads them in 3’s attempted per game).
6-5 guard Luke Avdalovic (9.9pts; 58% from 3 but doesn’t do much else).
6-2 guard Tyler Beard (9.8pts, 3 assists, 41.5% from 3)
6-7 forward Judson Martindale (5.5pts, 36% from 3…averages aren’t impressive but he’s been starting of late, is average 13pts/game over the last 4 games and put up 17pts with 4 3ptrs when we played them).
6-6 wing Nick Blake (8.8 pts)
6-5 wing Donovan Williams, 6-1 pt guard Mo Odum have started of late. 6-10 post Sam Freeman generally comes off the bench and provides their only legit frontcourt size.
As mentioned the last time around, the Tigers play a deep rotation, often at least 10 guys.
Their advance metrics aren’t impressive with the exception of 3pt shooting where they’re shooting 38.4%, roughly top 40 in the country.
They’re subpar defensively allowing a high shooting % and are a poor rebounding team at both ends of the floor.
And random Pacific factoid: Zeke Richards’ little brother Makai Richards is a 6-10 back-up post for the Tigers; doesn’t play much, occasionally gets a couple mins of PT.
The Tiger’s frontcourt size is limited, sometimes with no one over 6-7 on the floor. The Broncos as a whole, especially our bigs should and need to dominate the glass. The Broncos also need to defend well against the 3, Pacific’s primary strength, and the most likely way they could upset us.
Hoping to see Podz bounce back after a somewhat quiet SMC game Also hoping to see some tighter team defense and better communication and execution on switches and ball screen D.
Prediction: Broncos 84-72.
LMU is about to beat Portland to move a half game ahead of the Broncos; LMU plays Pepperdine @home Saturday. Broncos need to win this game to stay on the heels of the Lions.
Thankfully, this is the last early afternoon home game on the schedule. We have one 4PM start in February against LMU. Hopefully the boys can salt this one away without too much trouble. But we can’t look past this game, Pacific played tough against the Zags.
Another point of insanity is playing Man D against UOP… unless you want them to stand a chance to win. If SCU played zone this game would be over by halftime.
If we can’t or aren’t going to take advantage of Bediako’s size offensively then we’re better off going with a Braun-Tongue front court who would match up better defensively with Pacific’s small lineups and perimeter shooting ability of Boone-Martindale.
Tilly for Bediako is a little better but still prefer Tongue over Tilly vs. this Pacific squad.
Agree 92… honestly though, I’m not sure Bediako has the offensive prowess to take advantage of his size (so giving the ball to him down on the blocks just seems silly to me. Sendek must think otherwise?)
Then, don’t play him much…he’s not dominate enough on the glass or blocking shots to make up for not being able to score.
Seeing already in just the past 5 mins that Tongue and Tilly’s mobility pays dividends and they match up better 1on1 defensively with Pacific’s lineup.
And we both know Sendek isn’t going to play zone…I’ve more or less given up on that.
The main reason UOP is up at half is Sendek only has 1 way to play. Once a team learns to take advantage of that (and just keeps hitting the repeat button) it spells trouble for the Broncos.
I’ll disagree with you there. I think Podz has the highest court IQ on the team. From a % outcome basis it’s likely more beneficial for him to take a contested 3 pointer than for someone else on the squad to take an open 10 footer. I’ll leave it at that.
The reason SCU lost today was Herb. That guy couldn’t change if someone showed him a dressing room and had clothes laid out for him. To think basketball can only be played 1 was is just simply stupid.
Trust me, that’s not an all-time low for SCU (or even the Sendek era).
On another note Cam was really good today in his limited time. Wish he was in there more. He’s not the biggest guy on the team, but he certainly is more versatile and quicker than any other big on the interior.
We get killed on the 2 man game because Sendek allows the opponent to pick the matchup and basically hands them the biggest mismatch possible when SCU switches on screens way more often that fighting through.
The reason SCU is not a threat is that Sendek plays equitable ball. He should pick his matchups and force the opponent to make a choice…as far as I’m concerned having Bediako, Braun, Tilly, or Holt set the high screen is useless. How can any of those guys be a threat with the ball from 20 ft or even rolling to the basket? SCU needs to run a 2 man game with 2 versatile guys (1 of which being Podz). Then again Herb has 1 way to play, and that’s it.
Agree w/ bettererer…high ball screens set by Bediako, Holt and to lesser degree Tilly or Braun aren’t productive for us. Bediako is zero threat for pick-n-pop and on pick-n-roll he struggles to catch the ball cleanly while on the move, not travel, continue to the hoop and finish strong; he often has to come to a two foot jump stop to gather himself which allows the defenders time to recover to him. More or less the same for Holt. And neither Bediako or Holt are above the rim guys.
Tilly is little better because he has solid mobility and footwork; with another year or so of work, hopefully he gets a little stronger to help with finishing at the rim and some improvement in his perimeter shooting would make him more of threat on pick-n-pop.
Braun is so-so in pick-n-roll; he has the right physical make-up, athleticism, decent hands, etc. but he’ll tend to travel on the catch (as he did tonight on one dish from Podz), charge and it times seems a little hesitant or unsure what he wants to do with the ball when he gets it.
Tongue is one of our better ones on pick-n-roll.
And a team weakness is none of our bigs are consistent 3pt threats so teams don’t have to respect them on pic-n-pop. Imagine if Braun had Keylan Boone’s 3pt shooting ability…would open up a ton of options for our offense.
Ultimately, it was poor D, particularly terrible 3pt D that lost this game, you can’t give up 17 3’s, it forces you to be great in every other aspect to overcome it. And bad FT shooting certainly didn’t help.
Remaining WCC games tonight…need SMC to take care of business @BYU and would be an outstanding time for Pepp to get their 1st WCC win of the season vs. LMU.
Very disappointing and will ruin our NET ranking. Can’t lose like this and the only way to make up for this is to beat BYU, LMU.and USF. Had thigh hopes but a loss like this really hurts.