SCU Men's Basketball - "A Season on the Brink"

John Feinstein's account of Indiana Men's BB 1985-1986 season is an acclaimed look at a program back on the "rise" under fiery Coach Bobby Knight with talented players that are slow to integrate into his system. 

Obviously, we are not a "blue blood" level program like Indiana, but I see a number of parallels with where we are with SCU MBB.

More struggles than successes.  A University with a rich history of notoriety in Men's Basketball.  Fiery Coach.  Animated, vocal, prowling the sideline.  A program trying so hard to rid itself of mid-major mediocrity .  Like Indiana with the "middle America" label, a cut below Kentucky, Duke, and North Carolina as we are in the WCC, a level below Gonzaga, BYU, and St.Mary's.

So far, our season is disappointing to say the least. Our four wins are against teams with losing records. Only one team has an RPI below 250. We are 286.  We do have one quality loss to Arizona.

At 4-8, our season is on the "brink" as the WCC starts.  

Good news. Of the next 10 games, six are at home. Our WCC opener is away at Pacific (1-8).  BUT, then, we play St.Mary's, Zags, and Portland at home.  Away @BYU, @USD, and finally Pepperdine, LMU, and USF at Leavey.  Oh, then off to Spokane to play the Zags again!  Tough....

IMHO, it's not just our season, but our program is on the "brink."

With 18 games left before the WCC tourney, going 9-9 would be heroic, given the road schedule, for a full season 13-17 record. We are headed for our seventh losing season in the last nine years. The only event not to put us over the "brink" is a WCC tourney final upset.  

One thing for sure.  The team will play hard; effort is rarely a problem.

This puts our program on the "brink."  Fr. Engh, the Trustees, and the Commission recommendations are there to see in print - moving to National prominence.  I'm pretty sure this isn't the momentum and progress they are looking for.

As season ticket holders and fans, neither are we.  

Our program history has had its highs and lows like Indiana or any other program, but it just feels like we're treading water not "rising."

So, I looked back.  It's been 20 years since our last NCAA tourney.

But, going further back, since 1982, Santa Clara Men's Basketball has never had a losing record over any eight year period, until now. 

In terms of overall wins, it's all about the spin.  

For WCC coaches, over an eight year period, we're actually fifth not third as our PR suggests.   Our game day program states: "Keating has 128 wins in his seven years as a head coach at Santa Clara.  He is the third-winningest coach in the last 12 years in the WCC behind Gonzaga's Mark Few and Saint Mary's Randy Bennett".  Last time I checked last year would be coach Keating's eighth season and this his ninth.

To make us third, you have to extend the time period for coaches to 12 years and eliminate Dave Rose, Eric Reveno, Rex Walters as WCC coaches since none have tenure of 12 years.  Pretty silly.

For WCC conference only wins spanning eight seasons, we rank seventh with 46 wins and 78 losses.  Again, if you remove Dave Rose we're sixth.  Eric Reveno has been in Portland nine seasons, but still has more wins through eight seasons.  Rex Walters has more wins over seven seasons.

If Bobby Knight was witnessing this, he might throw another chair.

Reality, we'll never be an "Indiana" level program.  But as a program we're on the "brink" and have to ask the tough question, where are we headed?  There are two edges on the "brink." Where will we choose to go?   

As season ticket holders, our answer is pretty simple - UP.  

Up fills Leavey and energizes donors to make "national" a reality rather than another PR campaign.  Is SCU "On a Mission" or just located "On a Mission." 

We'll know soon....

Also on Twitter @Fcrary

Next up:  Close but no Cigar....

 

SCU Men's BB - The We're "Young" Story is Getting "Old"

Will we ever grow up?  It seems that in every game recap I read, the reason we are not performing is because of how young we are.  Frankly, the "young" Bronco story is getting OLD.  Stale.  

Is that the best we've got in our PR repertoire?

So, I decided to check it out.  If you look at the top six WCC contending teams, we're not that young.  The Zags and BYU have more experience.  Most all of the other teams are like us and even younger.

So here's the conundrum.  The issue so far, is that some of our older guys just aren't performing as well as the other teams and our own young guys. 

Consider some data.  

We return 6 of 8 top scorers.  Pugh and Ndumanya are red shirt sophomores and Kratch a RS junior.  They all have the benefit of that extra year of practice and development in the system. 

Our team shooting has been way off the mark. However, of our usual starters at guard & forward, the top three in FG% are freshman and sophomores.  Go figure.  Exception - Nate Kratch, our center, is on a roll in the paint going 24-39 (61.5%) in the last 3 games.

Meanwhile, on defense we've given up 65 three pointers in the first seven games - many from the corners where our more experienced players are relied upon to cover.  BTW, we made only 33.

Paradoxically, our experience hasn't been yielding enough good experiences.

So, I decided to go back in time and look at more data on the we're "young" byline.   Another irony.  For years, our MBB S.I.D.'s last name was - you guessed it - Young...

It's just weird.

Looking at the career stats of 10 "impact" players from the past seven years, only three had better statistical years as seniors.  In fact for six of them, their best stats were as sophomores!  

Another reason we may stay so "young" is about 18 players left the program before becoming seniors for a plethora of reasons.  I'm actually OK with that, since our motivation is to upgrade talent.  It's the "Peter Pan"* in our program.  Begs other questions, but not the focus of this piece.

Stats are stats.  Open to all levels of interpretation.  Players contribute in may ways.  Defenses adjust, but so should we.  The point - counter point re: performance would be never ending.

Bottom line.  Other than our senior laden 2012-13 CBI Tourney Championship team, we are no closer to a WCC Title or NCAA bid.

Don't get me wrong.  I really like our roster.  Real potential. Unfortunately, as we all know games aren't played on paper.

There's no doubt some freshmen and sophomores are prone to more mistakes.  What counts is progression. Learning to make better "in game" decisions.  Gaining confidence to make the "read" and make an athletic play.  

It just seems to be right now we're more worried about failure than success.  Playing not to lose rather than win.  

Of the top 25 scorers on WCC rosters, 18 are not seniors.  Half of those are Fr/Soph.  

IMHO, we may never be old enough, but being "young" and progressing never gets "old."


* From Peter Pan "I'll never grow Up."