SCU Men's Basketball - Are We on the Rebound?

                                                                                        

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.