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."