Alabama’s Charles Bediako is our Jayden’s brother
Yep, and Parker Braun’s little brother, Christian, is a starter and 2nd leading scorer for Kansas. Knapper’s brother also plays college hoops. We’ve cornered the market in dudes with brothers who are good basketball players.
3 Likes
USF promotes from within. Also, Golden gets 18 million over 6 years. USF might have been able to fend off Kansas State but not a blue blood like Florida.
2 Likes
Happy birthday, @92bronc! I hope you have a lovely birthday deep in enemy territory though you are! Thank you so much for your dedication to Santa Clara and to our fun little community. Your game threads are an invaluable contribution throughout the season, and your analysis is always appreciated, especially by those like me who have a middle-school understanding of strategy and technique.
4 Likes
What PattyMac said: Enjoy a marvelous birthday and thanks for your well constructed discussion engendering posts.
I expected Golden to bolt… he’d be crazy not to take that deal.
1 Like
Agreed. Florida is a Top 10 job in the country. And he loses an NBA draft pick PG. Curious if Shabazz follows him to Florida.
I was in Boise that weekend as well. Though it was disappointing that we got throttled by a good Miss. State team, that night in downtown Boise was quite a party, especially Nash’s hometown friend Damien.
Witnessing the Tyus Edney coast-to-coast final play to win was pretty darn cool too, propelling the Bruins to a national championship if I remember correctly.
I was in Tempe as well, when we knocked off a good Maryland team led by a very talented coach. That Terrapins roster had probably the greatest single player name in the history of NCAA basketball: Exree (pronounced “x-ray”) Hipp. I wish he had gone on to medical school to be a Doctor of Radiology.
That win was exceptionally rewarding. But then we ran into the buzzsaw called the Kansas Jayhawks led by PG Jacque Vaughn. The foreshadowing of the inevitable blowout loss happened early in the game (might have been just our second possession in the game), when our center Brendan Graves was basically standing alone under the offensive basket and was on the receiving end of a deep pass…that went right through his hands and out of bounds. Would’ve been the easiest two points that Kansas had given up all season, I’m sure.
The rest of the game pretty much went the same way. No matter – back then, it felt like the program was on a major upswing, so a second-round loss to the 4th best team in the nation. Back then, it felt like we would become a dominant regular contender for (real) postseason play. Boy was my optimism misplaced!
1 Like
I remember that run well; they looked so good against Maryland, but it all fell apart vs. KU.
And as great a name as Exree Hipp is, my favorite is God Shammgod!
Baylor may not even get past today. Getting absolutely owned by NC.
I think Nash had 28 points, 12 assists, 6 rebounds, and a steal or two… what a performance against one of the best defensive teams that year.
Yeah, he and the rest of the team were brilliant against Maryland. We had 5 guys in double figures, including Zurek, who had ZERO fouls in that game.
Against Kansas, Nash was 1 for 11. Zurek fouled out (to be fair, he had his hands full with a massive Jayhawks frontcourt).
Good to hear that 1 for 11. Softens the pain that came with the recent performance vs Washington State
Kansas did a great job challenging someone besides Nash to beat them, they were all over him, giving Vaughn a lot of help defensively.
Other WCC postseason news…
-
BYU beat Northern Iowa yesterday, 90-71, behind 27points from Gideon George and Te’jon Lucas with 14pts and 8 assists. Barcello with only 11. Advances them to the round of 8 to play the winner of today’s SMU vs. Washington State game.
-
Portland beat New Orleans 94-73 in the The Basketball Classic (appears to be a replacement for or rebranding of the CIT). Apparently this is Portland’s 1st ever postseason victory. I know, I know…many consider these garbage, meaningless tournaments…but they won the game put before them, so there’s that. For what it is worth, New Orleans was 18-14, 2nd place in their league (Southland Conf) and ~260ish in NET. And for context, the tourney field includes Fresno St. who beat us. Portland next plays Merrimack, day and time TBA.
-
No WCC teams in the CBI. I think the CBI has typically been a little stronger than the CIT…about half the field this year are 20+ win teams including some top 100 NET teams (ie- Drake - #82).
Washington State currently destroying SMU 39-20 on the road at halftime. NIT seeds are not very precise but WSU should have been a 1 or 2 seed.
3 Likes
Trey Wretz after getting a flagrant foul. Had 6 points in the game . Sometimes the grass is not greener in the transfer portal.
2 Likes
I’ve wondered if the Broncos would have been better with him. Maybe Jalen would not have blossomed as much. Even if he had, would we have been better with him than Pipes? He would have helped last season.
He was a good scorer, but his defense was inconsistent at best. That said, I hope things look up for him— he seems like a good guy.
1 Like
Honestly, I don’t think so. Sendek seemed hell bent on making Wertz a point guard (which made no sense to me). I guess you could get away with that in the WCC, but I never felt the team was markedly better with Wertz at the point. He did have some nights where we he was a very efficient scorer @ SCU, but that was usually when he had 6 inches and 50 pounds on the guy guarding him. He hasn’t had many advantages like that in the ACC.
2 Likes