SCU Men's Basketball - Can We "Weather" the Storm?

IMHO, our season so far has been the perfect storm.  Inferior teams dropping 3's late in the clock from everywhere like they're layups. Our shooting has been a disappointment so far; to say the least.  The better teams - Nevada, Idaho were just better...

Add to that, some of our veterans are off to a s-l-o-w start. 

The newcomers have talent, but the transition to D1 has been a huge learning curve.  Don't assume these guys come from high school programs with great coaching.  You can see it on the court, out of position on offense, and defense leads to breakdowns and mistakes.  Vrankic is the exception; he's been very good so far.

Add it up and that's what 3-5 looks like vs reasonable expectations of 5-3.  The road ahead gets harder:  Portland State, USC, Valpo, and San Jose State before league starts.

Going 2-2 in this stretch would be very good.  Portland State is very experienced and talented.  They are coached by former SCU assistant coach Barret Peery.  They've played much tougher competition.  Their two losses were to Duke and Butler.  Most recent wins were against Stanford and LMU.  You know for sure that Coach Peery would love to get a "W" against his mentor, Coach Sendek. 

USC was ranked as high as 7th before the loss on the road to SMU.  BTW, SMU also beat Arizona.  Valpo is 8-1, but hasn't played strong teams until their first loss last Thursday vs Purdue.

As for your questions about rotations and playing time.  Coach's criteria is straight up.  You perform in practice and you earn playing time.

Looking ahead to the next four games and the WCC, it won't be easy, but barring injuries, I think we can get to a .500 season, 15-15.  If the team gels, add an upset or two, 17-13 can be done.

Not horrible, given the start.

The recent move to put K.J. Feagin at the point is a subtle, but important move.  He can both shoot AND penetrate; opening the court for other shooters.  Case in point, Matt Hauser had his best game at the 2 guard spot, going 7-10 from 3pt.  Much needed.

Not everyone agrees, but I think we need to see what Coach can do when he has a roster of HIS recruits.  That's 3 recruiting seasons. I'm OK with being patient if he can deliver post season consistency like his prior stints - Miami, NC State, and ASU.

Enough blabbering.  Click the link below to read about our 2018 commits.  It's a headline you haven't seen about SCU MBB in a LONG time.  There are 18-20 Division 1 conferences and about 200 schools considered mid-majors.  A top 10 recruiting class should be good news. 

Santa Clara 2018 Recruiting Class
https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/ranking-the-10-best-mid-major-classes-of-the-2018-early-period

Coach has had an eye for finding talent that became game changers for his programs - Wally Sczcerbiak, Devin Davis, James Harden, and, our own, Julius Hodge.

Expectations are high.  There is viral impatience for success after 20+ years of mediocrity.   As painful/exciting it may be for this season, we need to give Coach Sendek's "process" time to work.

I can assure you, no one is more impatient than Coach Sendek and his staff.  We're all on the same page.  We just need to see that "page" include better players and post season tourney invites...

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