SCU Men's Basketball - Do We Need A Starter Kit?

 

The vibe before our home opener against the Eastern Washington Eagles was, "who are these guys?"  Must be another no name game.  Not exactly.  Eastern Washington's NET ranking is 197 (SCU 111) and returned three starters from an 18 win season.  They also had four 20 win seasons in the past six years; including eight straight winning seasons in The Big Sky Conference.  

It was a good test for our remade roster and we passed it, but not in the way that we expected.  It was the "newer" kids on the block that kept us in the game and made key plays in the second half to grind out the win.  Word has it that in our three European games, we started slowly, but came on in the second half of those to win two of the three contests.  Same report from our two scrimmages - slow start.  In this opener, slow turned into glacial; making 3 of 19 shots through the first 13 minutes.  Season ticket holders and fans were starting to shake their heads as to what's going on here?  So that's six slow game "starts".  Is this a harbinger for the season to come?  Not this game.

Carlos Marshall III, AKA  as "Chef" to his teammates lit the pilot light, scoring 10 of our next 12 points.  Sophomore Cameron Tongue kept the fire going with two corner threes and sophomore Brandin Podziemski (Podz) took over the last two minutes, scoring 9 points off two steals and a momentum shift dunk to give the Broncos a 6 point half time advantage.  

The second half was more of the same.  At times, we were both suffering and suffocating on defense.  Carlos Stewart (Los) and Brandin Podz were absolute thieves during the runs.  "Los" made two high wire hustle steals for layups and Podz picked off another five.  A nice change was that we "rebounded" from last seasons poor rebounding in this game, scraping 50 off the boards, with Parker Braun taking "offense" with 5 offensive rebounds that were big down the stretch to help close out the 12 point W.

Here's the thing:  The "newer" gang scored 70 of our 84 points!  Stewart in is his first full starting role had 20, Tongue, playing 14 minutes, came up big with 8, Marshall III had 12, and Podz had a monster game - 30 points, 5 steals, and 9 rebounds....Now that's a debut to remember!

As bad as it looked in the first 19 minutes, winning by 12 is a very good thing when you have more solid bench options as a coach than in years past.  The coaches will be trying lots of rotations to find which groups are most productive on the floor.  IMHO, this is both our strength and maybe Achilles' Heel in that too many slow starts make the odds of recovering to win more daunting.  

The thing I liked the most - no "head hanging".  Huge frustration combined with burning competitiveness.  A quality I love and has been missing in the past.  

The sample size is one.  Let's not get too optimistic or pessimistic.  

Georgia Southern presents more of the same on Thursday.  Also nicknamed the Eagles, they are experienced with six seniors or 5th year players and similar in size to Eastern Washington.   They were one of the best defensive teams in the Sun Belt Conference; giving up only 60 points and holding opponents under 40% shooting in their last 22 games.  

I'd love to see us get in the "startup" mentality of Silicon Valley and play well from start to finish.  I'll bring my jumper cables just in case!