SCU Men's Basketball - Are the Broncos The Dark Horse in The WCC?

 

                                                                                                   

Four games into the season, the Broncos are 4-0.  They ran a pre-season Mountain West Conference contender and frequent NCAA level team in Nevada out of the Gym and made the Cal Poly Mustangs look like a bunch of ponies in a 30 point drubbing.

Nevada was a bona fide solid win.  Witness one of the better second halves played by a Bronco squad under Coach Sendek.  It was a heady, forget about we aren't rebounding, we'll just outscore you, run up with 96 points.  Fun to watch.   

The Cal Poly game was reminiscent of prior seasons where slow starts, poor shooting, and defensive lapses kept weaker opponents in the game.  With Josip Vrankic sidelined against Cal Poly and scoring only 4 points against Nevada we still won both with blowouts.  The difference so far this season is that this team just plays on and has belief in each other they will recover and win.  Witness some of the in game runs like the 25-3 run against Nevada.  

The horses are off to a fast start, but it's a long race.  Our eleven remaining non-conference schedule is a blend of six teams ranked near or above us (88) and five a distance lower.  Our next two games are on the road at the SoCal Challenge and will be a good "mid-term" exam versus TCU (64) and, the always tough, Fresno State (128).  

TCU, from the Big 12, presents a good challenge for the Broncos.  They have average size, good speed, and experience starting two Sophomores, two Juniors, and a redshirt Senior.  They play nine deep with balanced success.  Cole Despie, a Bellarmine grad, is on their roster.  They are 3-0 against teams all ranked over 200.  IF we play at the level we did versus Stanford and Nevada, we have a very good chance to win.

Fresno State is our second Big West opponent.  This will be an interesting matchup.  They have a 7' Junior center who averages about 20 ppg and is getting pro scouts' attention.  He is a big presence; scoring and yanking down offensive rebounds.  The Bulldogs are 3-0, but two of those wins are versus Division 2 schools and the other against a 283 ranked opponent. Expect them to pound it inside.  Sounds easy, but these can be trap games where we overlook a team who hasn't played against two top 90 ranked teams like we have. Winnable, but will tell us about the resolve of this team being on the road.  

The other complication is we will be without Josip Vrankic again.  Still recovering from an illness; not Covid related.  His leadership, scoring, and passing will be sorely missed.  With Josip unable to play, perhaps expect more Zone.  He is our assist leader at 6.8 per game; most coming from the inside out to our shooters.  If we keep the ball moving and rebound we will be able to run and score in transition.  This should be enough to get the job done.

Getting these two wins would match our start to last year's Covid season at 6-0.  It would also put us in position to match the 2019-20 season 8-1 start; as we will come home to four straight at Leavey.

If we can pull this off in SoCal, "message sent" to our WCC opponents that SCU may not just be a Dark Horse, but the Horse to Ride and rise in the WCC!