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Starting to get to the meat in the WCC schedule, as next up for the Zags is Santa Clara University (15-3, 2-1). The Broncos are sitting in 2nd place in the conference, having beaten San Diego at home, St. Mary's on the road, and they lost to USF away. The Broncos are 1-3 on the road. They played the second lightest OOC schedule in Division I, according to KenPom (#352 out of 353 teams!). Clearly, their biggest (and only) Q1 win is against SMC.
Here's the data:
source: https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-ba...ogs-2020-01-16
KenPom ranks SCU a respectable #129, and Torvik has them at #109. They are the first WCC team the Zags will have played that have, on average, outscored their opponents -- and by a decent margin (+7.4 points). The Zags outdo SCU in all four factors for winning basketball, although the Broncos do shoot the ball well. Defensively, they hold opponents about on par with the Zags in terms of FG%. Remarkably, they play a pretty darn fast pace (#48), which is about the same tempo as the Zags, so you can probably expect and up and down affair. More than a third of SCU's shots are from beyond the arc (35.8%), and they foul quite a bit (24%/play).
It should be an interesting test. Having taken down the Gaels on the road, it would appear that SCU are on the rise, and probably have some confidence momentum coming into the game. The Zags will need to make their free throws, rebound well, and limit turnovers. Torvik predicts a 87-70 win for the Zags.
Here's the data:
source: https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-ba...ogs-2020-01-16
KenPom ranks SCU a respectable #129, and Torvik has them at #109. They are the first WCC team the Zags will have played that have, on average, outscored their opponents -- and by a decent margin (+7.4 points). The Zags outdo SCU in all four factors for winning basketball, although the Broncos do shoot the ball well. Defensively, they hold opponents about on par with the Zags in terms of FG%. Remarkably, they play a pretty darn fast pace (#48), which is about the same tempo as the Zags, so you can probably expect and up and down affair. More than a third of SCU's shots are from beyond the arc (35.8%), and they foul quite a bit (24%/play).
It should be an interesting test. Having taken down the Gaels on the road, it would appear that SCU are on the rise, and probably have some confidence momentum coming into the game. The Zags will need to make their free throws, rebound well, and limit turnovers. Torvik predicts a 87-70 win for the Zags.
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