If a Tuesday night in Oregon was any indication, the Seattle University men's basketball team faces a challenge that's conceptually simple but hard to meet.
After a 98-81 loss to the Portland Pilots at the Chiles Center, the Redhawks now realize - beyond a shadow of a doubt - that their most urgent task in the coming weeks is to aid their main man in the middle, Charles Garcia.
If the odd events surrounding SU's season opener at Oklahoma State cast a cloud of uncertainty over Cameron Dollar's ballclub, that cloud was removed against Portland. Last night's loss to an upper-division opponent from the West Coast Conference offered a team and coaching staff a considerable amount of clarity.
Look at the box scores from the Portland game and last Saturday's contest at Oklahoma State. (At the time this article was written, GoSeattleU.com could not be accessed. Maybe your server works better than ours...) You'll see some very obvious common threads in the two stacks of stats.
First of all, Garcia is the undisputed first option on this team. Six days ago, Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times chronicled the improbable and still murky events that forced Garcia away from Lorenzo Romar at Washington and led him to Dollar, Romar's former assistant. SU and its 33-year-old head coach are fortunate to have the 6-9 junior from Los Angeles; Garcia has led the Redhawks in scoring in each of their first two games. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that Garcia will receive a disproportionate share of attention from each defense he sees this season. Opposing coaches will double-team him regularly, and Portland was no exception. This leads to the second major discovery about this team after two tussles.
The Pilots did concede 30 points and 12 boards to Garcia last night, but Garcia's scoring punch came at a price. Portland forced 9 turnovers from the potent power forward, who will need to pass effectively from the low post if SU is to be successful. While Garcia has led the Redhawks in two positive categories (points and rebounds), he also coughed up more turnovers than any other SU player in each of these first two games. Garcia committed a team-leading 5 turnovers at Oklahoma State, so this is more of a trend than an accident.
The third link between Portland and Oklahoma State is that with Garcia being hounded on the blocks by opposing defenses, only one SU teammate has been able to make an impact: Aaron Broussard. The 6-5 sophomore has not only been the second-leading scorer in each of these opening-week encounters in Oregon and Oklahoma; more instructive is the fact that Broussard has been the only other Redhawk to score in double figures. SU's guards haven been unable to stick perimeter shots, and that's part of the reason why Portland and Oklahoma State were able to double up on Garcia with impunity.
Garcia's successes and struggles make it plain, then, that Dollar and his coaching staff must work on a few concepts, beginning with tomorrow's home opener against Fresno State (7:10 p.m. tip at Key Arena). For one thing, an imposing low-post presence, when unaccompanied by strong perimeter shooting, means that the guards have to find ways to keep defenses honest. At least a few threes need to fall, but if SU's backcourt can't bomb away, the Redhawks' guards can slash to the basket and use dribble penetration to break down defenses. Another option is to place an emphasis on the practice of "re-posting", in which Garcia passes the ball to the perimeter if he's not in a good position, but then receives an immediate re-entry pass if the double-teaming defender rotates away from his area.
Shooting, slashing, and re-posting: These are three ways in which a team with an impressive interior scorer - and not too much else, at least not at the moment - can become more effective and balanced at the offensive end of the floor.
Charles Garcia is definitely large and in charge as he leads the SU men in 2009 and 2010. Even a man in charge, though, needs help from his compadres. The extent to which the Redhawks help their meal-ticket scorer will say much about the trajectory of their still-young season.
Recent Comments