Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Are We The Horse to Ride?

 

                                                                                                                     

It's amazing how two "daggers" changed the landscape and trajectory for Santa Clara Men's Basketball.  Sash Gavalyugov's nite-nite  three pointer to beat Sy. Mary's in the WCC tourney and Kentucky's half court desperation three to beat us in the NCAA tournament vaulted us from being an under the radar mid-major team to now projected to win the WCC. 

In reality, the above was 10 years in the making under the steady hand of Coach Sendek, and his staff, when many wondered if we had the guts and re$olve to compete at the national level.  Well, three first round NBA draft picks in the past five years and an NCAA selection answered those questions.  

We aren't the underdogs anymore, we are the "DOGS" in the WCC.   

No secrets.  We will be the hunters and the hunted as we seek to win our first WCC title in 30 years.  It's interesting that St. Mary's preseason ranking is better than ours.  Might be a Randy Bennett hangover, but more likely because they return two of the top 10 performers in the WCC from last season plus some strong transfers.

Our Coaches didn't just sit around over the summer and bask in the NCAA spotlight.  They went to work right away.  If the Stanford (ranked #78) exhibition game is any indicator of our season potential, you've got to like our chances.  It wasn't just the 83-78 win, but it happened without three of our mainstays who didn't play!  Sash, KJ, and David Castillo as well as Bronco fans were all spectators who watched a tornado of defensive effort disorient a good team into 20 turnovers and we bullied our way into 18 offensive rebounds in the victory. 

In our defensive intensity, we also committed 32 fouls resulting in 46, yes 46, free throws for Stanford who made 37 of those.  It's not a strategy most coaches would use as a standard game plan, but on this night it worked generating 17 more possessions than Stanford.  It's tough to score if your opponent dosen't have the ball. 

The exhibition at Utah State, a top 50 team, was a good road test before our season gets underway.  We were behind 5 at half, but not much seemed to go right in the second half; ending in a 21 point loss.  In that half, the box score shows we either couldn't make an open shot or their defense hotly contested the shots.  We were 2-11 from the three point arc and Utah State was 43% on 6-14 shooting.  That math just doesn't work.  A bright spot was transfer Fedor Zugic, who played his first minutes as a Bronco, scored 14 points in 18 minutes of action.  All three of our experienced bigs fouled out.  In any case, the coaches know a great deal more of the tweaks and fixes needed before the season opener against Towson at Leavey.

In practice, the coaches preach focusing on highest value offensive and defensive efforts.  The design is to maximize our points per possesion (PPP) as well as using aggressive defense to take away opponents' possessions.  Two examples are generating turnovers and grabbing offensive rebounds that turn into putbacks or kickout three's.

Perhaps most iteresting, will be how the team deals with being the WCC favorite and not the underdog role we've been accustomed to for the past 10 years.  A win against the Broncos in the WCC is now an upset and the underdogs will be chomping at the bit to make it happen.  You can imagne that the St. Mary's rivalry will be at Devcon 5 level ths season as they must be chapped at being picked second.  

Our preseason schedule is strong.  Games with expected NCAA tournamemt teams like Nevada, New Mexico, VCU, Grand Canyon, Murray State, Boise State, and McNeese State are real tests along with some easier games like Towson, Sacramento State, and Utah Tech.

I see this team as pugnacious and motivated.  Pugnacious as they are combative and agressive for the full forty minutes.  Motivated, to prove they are NCAA worthy and can shine with the brighter lights cast upon them.  It will be rocky and fun to watch! 

We have five returning players and nine new guys to assimilate and try to be productive.  A big wild card is, IF Elijah Mahi will be eligible.  As of today, he is listed on the roster.  We'll know very soon.  He woud be a needed horse in our corral as we embark on this team's journey of being the "Horse to Ride"!