SCU Men's Basketball - We Didn't Leave Our Heart In San Francisco

                                                                                                     


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.