Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Lost and Found

 

                                                                                                                                 

There's one month left in our season, which can only be described as perhaps the most unexpected in the nine year tenure of Coach Sendek and his staff.  Unexpected in that we started the year with our most experienced roster in many years with the hype and hope of finally earning an NCAA invite only to open with a 3-5 record.  For a team with over 30 games playing together in the same offensive and defensive system, these veteran players seem lost at key moments and unable to finish games they expected to win. 

Then, suddenly after the Washington tough loss on November 29th, things have been more like what this team is capable of and what fans expected them to do.  Wins over Bradley, Oregon State, Washington State, USF, and Gonzaga, at the Kennel, proved the talent in this roster.  This latest 11-3 run has also produced a 6-3 conference record putting us in position to grab the number 3, 4 or 5 seed in the WCC tournament.  More than the record, our team KNOWS if they play the right way, they can beat any of the WCC top level teams on any court.  

The key to the above is to avoid any more losses to the lower WCC teams. The good news is the remaining schedule actually favors the Broncos as we have already played most all the top five.  For example, St. Mary's is 8-0 in the WCC, but has eight games left against the top teams, including two versus the Zags as well as two against SCU.  We have only four remaining against the top teams.

Earning the # 3 or # 4 seed is crucial if we want a chance to dethrone either St. Mary's or Gonzaga for the title.  It means one less game to play to get to the title game.  That's what it's going to take to get an NCAA bid.  IF we can go 6-3 in the last nine WCC games our net ranking of 50-60 will not earn an at-large NCAA invite.  Maybe an NIT?  

How can we do this?  We will have to be ourselves, which is to push the ball and move the ball to our best open shooters.  We will have to outshoot opponents.  Limit hero threes and threes from players who know they are better from two.  Attack the basket and finish or dish.  Limit the "dribbling" into trouble.  Play smart.  Our defense will have to be good enough to stay in games and hope for a few big stops when needed.  

That's why I'm going "lost and found."  We've "lost" enough games we expected to win and should have, and now it time to find again the mid-season mojo we had in our 11-3 run.  We'll see tomorrow night against a St. Mary's team who has had our number for a long time, if we've "found" what it takes to play our way into the WCC final.

As usual, comments welcome!