Santa Clara Men's Basketball - The "Marshall" Plan

 

                                                                                                                    

The Broncos will enter Thanksgiving week at 3-0 after a convincing win over Stanford at Maples Pavilion; who were #50 in the Kenpom ranking.  After the first eight minutes, it would have taken a lot of convincing to get Bronco fans to believe we could/would win this game on the road down 12 so early.   How did we do it?  

We instituted the "Marshall Plan!"  Huh, you say?  For history buffs, the Marshall Plan was a program launched in 1948 to stimulate growth, economic production, and trade.  It was a cornerstone of economic success for many years to come.   

The SCU Marshall Plan has as its cornerstone Carlos Marshall III, AKA, "Chef."  He has been the spark plug and stimulus for our team in our first three wins.  The numbers are eye popping:  22 PPG on 71% two point and 67% three point shooting percentages.  These are not typos.  Add six steals and a dozen rebounds and you get the picture. 

However, our Marshall Plan is having the same effect as the economic plan on our players on the court.  The scenario is Carlos starts hot, defenses try to shut him down which opens the floor for his very talented teammates to flourish.  The ball moves, players cut to their spots and Bal, Bryan, O'Neil, Tilly, Caffaro, Benjamin, and Tongue make them pay.  Pick your poison.  Defenses have nowhere to go.  It is not unrealistic that we could have 5 - 6 players average 10 PPG; not to mention the ability of our deeper bench to each score double digits when needed.  Finally, although Carlos Marshall has kick started the plan, his other teammates are just as capable of hot starts as the season progresses.  

I'm not concerned about our offense.  We can shoot even better than we have in the first three games; especially at the rim and free throw line.  While it's possible to just outscore opponents, that's not going to cut it against tougher teams that we will face in the next two weeks.  Our defense needs to get better.  Don't know the game by game coaching strategy on how we handle the high pick and roll, but it needs work.  

This was one of our Achilles Heels last season and we are gong to see it every game as teams know our tendencies.  We have our on ball player go behind screens opening up too many options for our defense to cover.  There will inevitably be nights where our shots don't fall and the defense needs to keep us in the game. We were very fortunate that Stanford missed at least five wide open looks for three's in the second half.  They shot 14% in the second half vs their team average of 39%.  We can't rely on luck.  

We'll learn a lot about our team late next week as we play Oregon (# 36), Alabama (# 5) or Ohio State (# 49) on the road in Florida.   

There's a lot to like about this team.  Size, talent, depth, grit, and effort.  Down twelve at Stanford, they didn't blink.  There's also trust.  The reason our Marshall Plan has worked is no one cares who scores and there's no hesitation moving the ball to the open player.  An example is Johnny O'Neil.  He was 0-7 from the field in his first game as a Bronco.  Since then he's 12-22 (55%) and was 7-13 vs Stanford.  His teammates got him the ball at key moments and he delivered.  

The point is that everyone on this roster can institute the Marshall Plan; not just our Carlos Marshall III.  That's a huge difference from prior years.  The prep for the Florida road trip starts tonight vs Southeastern Louisiana and Monday vs Mississippi Valley State.  It would be great to be 5-0 as we travel to Florida.  I say the Marshall Plan makes that happen!