The Broncos had a nice rebound road win at San Diego on Saturday after a disappointing overtime loss to Pepperdine. At 4-3 in league heading into the Zags at Leavey this week, we are on track with my assumptions pre-league of 8-8 or maybe, with an upset win 9-7.
This team seems to have a short memory after losses with three good rebound wins after blowout losses. But, if we are going to continue to "rebound" in the last nine WCC games, we need to rebound!
Through seven WCC games we have 50 fewer defensive rebounds and 30 less offensive rebounds than our opponents. It's not so much the total difference, but more the trend and timing of rebounding. In our home win versus Pacific, we gave up 17 offensive rebounds, but were fortunate they didn't shoot well; especially from the free throw line at 60%.
In our overtime loss to Pepperdine, ahead five points with less than four minutes to go, we were two rebounds and two free throws away from a great comeback. Kessler Edwards' two offensive rebounds and put backs, the last one with 51 seconds left, were buzz kills to closing out that win.
With Willie Caruso still out, we are down to one true center. Willie is progressing in his rehab drills, but no decision yet on a return date. While Jaden Bediako shows grit and flashes of "wow" he's among a group of eight in the rotation whose lack of experience are glaring in some key moments in both our wins and losses.
While I love the fact this team has a short memory after losses, the short memory also rears its head in game situations when we forget to rebound or contest our opponents' best 3 - point shooters at key moments. As fans, we are dumbfounded to see Pepperdine's Colby Ross and Skylar Chavez make threes at crunch time due to soft closeout defense. Frustrating.
To be trite, "you can't teach experience" or resiliency. One we lack, the latter we have. A good thing. The other big plus is depth. Huge. Eight different players have lead us in scoring this season.
We can be a tough cover because we have 5 legit scorers on the floor. It's been YEARS since we had that as a weapon.
Of our last nine games, five are at home and four away. The hardest are Gonzaga and St. Mary's at Leavey and then Pepperdine, BYU on the road. The other five are not easy either.
To get to 8-8 or 9-7, we will have to rebound by committee; guards, everyone. You can't run up the floor unless you get the rebound first. Obviously, we need to shoot it at our season average or above and cover the 3-point drainers of our opponents.
In the end, our ability to "rebound" into the upper tier in the WCC starts with rebounding and that experience is one we are looking forward to seeing.
Last week USF exacted revenge on us for their heartbreaking loss at Leavey the end of last season. That loss sent them into a spiral out of NCAA or postseason consideration. Thursday, at USF, we were as cold as a summer day in SF; shooting a season low field goal percentage at 33%. As bad as the shooting was, the rest of our performance was just as bad.
To many Bronco fans and season ticket holders, more disasters were on the way. After USF, facing St. Mary's and then Gonzaga, a three game road nightmare was going to happen.
But, guess what? We didn't do a Tony Bennett. We didn't "Leave our Hearts in San Francisco." We took them on the road to Moraga and downed St. Mary's with a final four minutes of old style Bronco basketball - toughness.
In the past 10 seasons, we have all seen many times where we withered down the stretch in key, close games. It's like the full "Eeyore" lose again downer. Not this time. We had "Justice" enough D, DJ, Trey and Josip to finish the road shocker.
Roller coaster. Trey makes a big three, then misses (for him) a pretty easy layup with 13 seconds to go. Josip boards, gets hammered on the first put back - no call - and then boards again and puts back a nifty left hander.
Whew! That's this team.
We have six players in their second season; who are sort of like kids during their "terrible twos" phase. Awful, then so good. After all of our prior road losses this season, we have come back with a good win. After Nevada, five straight wins. After Stanford, we beat Cal. After USF, down goes St.Mary's.
Good stuff, but expect more of the unexpected during the last 13 league games. No game will be easy. Our next five include Gonzaga twice, Pacific (who also beat St. Mary's), Pepperdine and away at USD. Pepperdine started the season slow, but is playing well of late taking #14 ranked Arizona and # 1 Gonzaga to the final minute before losing both road games.
If we get Willie Caruso back by the Gonzaga home game (Jan. 30) we have a real chance to finish 9-7 in the WCC. Of our last 13 games, seven are at home and six away. IF, we improve our road game performance, maybe upside to 10-6.
Better.
BUT, everyone in the WCC is also getting better; perhaps faster than we are. We can't relax. We can't fool ourselves into thinking a bit of success and the new Athletic Excellence Center will get us to National status. It won't.
Instead, we all need to step it up. We are not there, until we're there: Nationally ranked. Not once, but consistently. Complacent doesn't get us to competitive.
We all need to step it up. The University, the Trustees, Fr. O'Brien, Renee, Men's Basketball, and fans. We need to prove our "heart" is all-in to being Nationally relevant, not just some words on a five year plan whose expiration date is, you guessed it - 2020.
