Keep Your Heads Up, Fans
By Chris Glennon
As we all prepare to leave Santa Clara for the summer, it is hard for me not to look back on the disappointing basketball season that 2012 brought us.
Marc Trasolini tore his ACL in a preseason game. Kevin Foster got suspended halfway through league play and the Broncos subsequently went 0-17 in conference. There's no way that Santa Clara's worst season in basketball history has left us any hope for 2013, right? Wrong.
While most of us were at home stuffing our faces with turkey and mashed potatoes last fall, Santa Clara was playing in Anaheim at the 76 Classic. The Broncos beat both Villanova and New Mexico in the tournament, setting up what looked to be a strong run into league play for a Santa Clara team that hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 1996. While that didn't happen, we can't just dismiss those wins.
Villanova is a traditional Big East power and New Mexico won the Mountain West Conference, won a NCAA Tournament game, and finished the year ranked 23rd in the nation. They were both high quality opponents and the wins over them give me hope that our team is capable of the type of success the Mission Campus hasn't seen since Steve Nash was here nearly 20 years ago.
The Broncos won these two games without their trusty big man Trasolini, who will be back next season after rehabbing his severe knee injury. During his junior year in 2011, he averaged 12.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
Foster's last game was a hard fought defeat at the hands of St. Mary's, who won the West Coast Conference and made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. At the time of his suspension, Foster was averaging 17.8 points, which was top in the conference.
The suspension of Foster threw freshman Denzel Johnson into the fire. He responded with three 20 point games before his production tailed off toward the end of the year as teams started to game-plan against him. Fellow freshman Brandon Clark also saw increased playing time, and will help take some of the ball-handling burden off of sophomore Evan Roquemore. Last year Roquemore played nearly 34 minutes a game, far too much for a point guard who had to work hard to bring the ball up the court night after night. A slight decrease in his minutes could result in an increase in his shooting percentage and overall productivity on the floor.
With some of the top big men from last year's WCC departing in Saint Mary's' Rob Jones and Gonzaga's Robert Sacre, a window of opportunity has opened for the experienced Broncos to stake their claim at the top of the conference. If they can utilize their inside game by feeding the ball to their big men in the post, they should find it much easier to get open 3-point looks and much easier to win basketball games.
Chris Glennon is an undeclared freshman and editor of the Sports section.