SCU Men's Basketball - Last Week was "Weak"

                                                                   

Last week was a tough one, not just for the players and coaches, but for our whole MBB program.  An all time record loss blowout by Gonzaga followed by a blown second half at home vs LMU.

It couldn't have come at a worse time.  Just when upbeat feelings of seven straight wins and some bounce back wins after road losses had Bronco fans believing again - just maybe.

It's a conundrum.  How do our young players perform so well under pressure with O.T. wins over USC and a road win at Washington State?  Followed by second half comeback wins over Pepperdine and Pacific?  Then whoosh, gone.  Program momentum capital squandered.  

Coach Sendek's pillars of "learn and improve" seemed to be taking root, then came the "root canal" of last week.  Ouch!  

There are lots of Bronco alums and fans who talk about getting MBB back to the successes of the "good  old" days.  Well, honestly, with the exception of the Nash years, maybe not that good.  Chew on this.

Since the 1970-71 season, in 48 years of Bronco MBB have exactly three WCC titles, two of them Co-Champs.  Three.  We have four NCAA appearances.  Three with the Steve Nash teams.  That's it folks.  48 years!!!

Maybe our best performances were our four NIT appearances; two of which, '88 & '89, were with a roster that was without superstars. 

Now, all of the sudden we're supposed to be a WCC top level team in Coach Sendek's third season.  Dream on...At LEAST, after 48 years of flat-lined MBB budgets, the University leadership team is investing.  We don't know if Coach Sendek and his staff can get us to a national level or not.  We'll find out in 2-3 more years.  Right now, a long way to go.  

My/our biggest hope is that the Trustees remain strong and committed for the long term.  Don't give in and don't accept mediocrity.  It took Gonzaga nearly 26 years to become relevant.  After all their NCAA run successes, IMHO it wasn't until the past four seasons that the power conference teams took them seriously.  

Our team acts like the have the "terrible two's."  As parents/coaches, we know the act.  They have wonderful minutes of being the greatest child, taught by the best parents ever, followed by hours and hours of going rogue; where nothing seems to work.  Meltdowns.  Just like the LMU game.  

The team practices the offense and defense every single day.  How do they seem to forget what to do, come completely unraveled?  Forget to play basketball?  With a short roster, is it fatigue?

That's why last week was "weak."  Whatever "will" to compete we've had in earlier games seemed to evaporate.  

On offense, instead of the ball moving, it devolved into late shot clock, low percentage efforts.  My unofficial count was 10 of those in the second half.   Of our 31 or so second half possessions:  23 points on (7-26 FG),   3Pt FG (4-17) combined with 8 turnovers.

Not a winning recipe.

I'm sure the coaches would say that with our lack of depth, the margin for error in every game is very small.  Particularly, at Guard where we have only two with neither of them playing their natural positions.  It's evident and easier to coach against us - pressure them everywhere.

They play 36+ minutes per game because they have to.  Fatigue is a factor in a very long season for first year players.  Expect more of the above.

Some impatient fans think, "well, with experienced coaches, they should be able to fix that or make adjustments."  Garbage.  Like it or not, you can't teach experience; the thing we don't have.  The biggest impact of our coaching is to accelerate the learning and development process.  Time will tell.

With eight WCC regular season games left, we need to get STRONGER.  

We need stronger game plans, stronger offense and defense, and the will to compete every game.   Get rid of the weak stuff and play with some old Bronco toughness.  



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