Monday, November 30, 2015

A Keith Fisher interview

Jackson Moore/Inside The Spartans provides an interview with Keith Fisher, the Westchester High forward who signed with SJSU.

Week Three MWC Team Rankings

Matt Stephens offer is week three Mountain West Conference team rankings.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Brown hits winning shot

(TBrown photo courtesy of BallIsLife)

SJSU commit Terrell Brown scored on a driving layup as Moreau Catholic High turned away Sierra Canyon High (out of Los Angeles) 60-59 last night at the Prep2Prep Classic held at Newark Memorial High. He finished with 13 points.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Thanksgiving in Alaska.and the turkey is tasting great

Courtesy of Danny Mahoney's Instagram account: "Thanksgiving in Alaska."

SJSU 91, AA 87

Up in Alaska, the Spartans nabbed another win 91-87 over Alaska Anchorage on Saturday. Senior forward Frank (Salinas High) Rogers was big once more with 32 points and 12 boards as he shot a remarkable 14-18 on the day. Speaking of shotmaking, freshman forward Ryan Welage went 5-7 from beond the arc on his way to 17 points.

19 of the SJSU 40 rebounds came from players off the bench. To keep noting this number, it was 20 assists on 34 baskets for the Washington Square crew.

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Friday, November 27, 2015

SJSU 76, San Diego 67

It was unannounced but definitely Frank Rogers Night as the senior frontcourter posted an 18 point, 14-rebound double-double in San Jose State University's 76-67 defeat of West Coast Conference member San Diego up in Anchorage on Friday. A 38-29 second half broke the halftime tie for the Spartans. Junior guard Isaac Thornton enjoyed a plus night with 15 points and four assists.

Coach Dave Wojcik's guys again were moving the ball and shooting well after catching it in earning 21 assists on 27 baskets.

SJSU now have a pair of D1 victories on the season while the Toreros are 0-5 thus far.

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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Toledo too much for Spartans

It was 47-38 in favor of Toledo at the half and the Rockets also won the second 20 minutes 42-36 to take an 89-74 victory over San Jose State University on Wednesday in the Great Alaska Shootout. It was a late 9-2 Toledo run that opened up the spread going into halftime.

For the Spartans, Frank Rogers was efficient with 16 points (6-11, 2-3, 2-3) plus eight boards and three blocked shots and freshman forward Ryan Welage totaled 16 points (three treys) and five rebounds. Princeton Onwas scored 14 points (6-12, 1-3, 1-3), six caroms and a team best five assists.

SJSU was credited with a very admirable 21 assists on 28 baskets.

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A verrrry interesting situation

Don't know if Utah State can keep this up but the AD is not making David Collette's future easy. USU believes tampering took place by, let's just say, an in-state school and that Collette's decision to depart two days before the first game of this season was inappropriate.

Utah State denies transfer permission to speak with any other schools

Matt Norlander offers his take

Parsing SJSU hoops

With any of the college basketball teams thus far, it's simply way to early for any judgments of any finality as what appears as a asset in one matchup then morphs into a presumed deficit a game or two later, and then reverses again.

With having typed such, here are some reactions to the collective performances of San Jose State University players to date:

* Idaho, Montana (missing its best guard) and Montana State are not soon to be mistaken for a Murderer's Row of opponents (sorry for the cross sport reference).

* The current squad remains a major work-in-progress, majorly dependent on the progress and maturity of freshman Ryan Welage (who has been a pleasant surprise -- got it wrong on him in thinking a redshirt season would be best) and Cody Schwartz. They offer the best hope for a future frontline that can engineer plus performances against opponents, thus allowing a chance to win.

Brandon Clarke has been another plus thus far but his ceiling as a three is limited unless he can lengthen his shooting range. That and better ball skills needs to be an off-season priority for him.

* Leon Bahner's foot movement is just too slow and he isn't a good fit with the current offensive system. However, he is the only real big on the roster and can still help defensively and on the boards to a degree but it wouldn't be surprising to see him looking elsewhere for a better basketball fit.

* Jalen James has never been considered a plus shooter but something is really wrong here (2-17, 0-9) thus far.

* Would like to see Gary Williams Jr. at the two for an extended time if only there was a better answer at the point.

* Princeton Onwas and Frank Rogers are certainly going to help but would be around sixth, seventh or eighth in the rotation of successful teams.

* The Spartans will face zone defenses of some sort from opponents until and unless SJSU's outside shooters make it impossible to continue in such a defensive set. The ball movement will have to become much quicker and precise but even then it appears a lack of consistent outside and mid-range shooters still dominates the roster.

MANDATORY READING

Yes, the links below refer to Nevada athletics but there is so much applicability to Spartan sports. Give credit to Chris Murray for producing this.

* The fight to fund the Wolf Pack's future

* How the Wolf Pack must court its fans

* The case for investing in athletics: Boise State

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Falls set for Montana

From a Montana men's basketball MB"Timmy Falls will take his Official visit to Missoula on Feb 12 for the Northern Arizona Game on the Saturday the 13th."

Falls is a 6-foot-2 2017 shooting guard out of Dublin High. SJSU has also offered as has Weber State. He's on the slim side but is a very good shooter.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Friday, November 20, 2015

Montana St. 81, SJSU 69

Coming off a homecourt defeat of Montana, San Jose State University went out on the road to face Montana State on Friday and fell 81-69. The Bobcats won both halves, 42-31 and 39-38.

Spartan senior forward Frank (Salinas High) Rogers enjoyed 15 points, five boards and three assists but it was Princeton Onwas who led with 21 points.

Even though Montana State committed eight more turnovers, they owned the boards by a whopping 45-25 margin.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Not breaking news: dollars lagging at SJSU

From Chris Murray: "On Friday, I’ll publish an in-depth story on the future financing of Wolf Pack athletics and how that relates to the department’s success, or lack thereof, on the playing field.

The Wolf Pack ranks 11th out of 12 Mountain West schools in annual budget at $27.3 million, according to the latest NCAA Financial Reports. The Wolf Pack receives a relatively small amount of state and university support when compared to other MW schools and also lags in fan support.

Here’s a look at which MW fan bases support their teams the most via donor support and ticket revenue, which often are tied together because season tickets are usually tied to mandatory donations.

Listed is the total fan support (donations plus ticket revenue), the donor support, the ticket revenue and overall budget, which is inflated by about 10-15 percent per school because the NCAA Financial Reports requires schools to include non-cash items such as deprecation, debt services and income such as camps and courtesy cars. Also included is the rank of each school in the MW in each category (out of 12)."

The SJSU element:

MW FAN SUPPORT
12. SAN JOSE STATE
Total fan support: $5,248,737 (12th)
Donor support: $3,765,020 (10th)
Ticket revenue: $1,483,717 (12th)
Overall budget: $29,666,940 (10th)

% of budget funded by fans: 17.8 percent (11th)

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Monday, November 16, 2015

SJSU 64, Montana 61

It came down to the last possession and San Jose State scored to move from a one to a three-point lead in besting visiting Montana 64-61 on Monday as the Grizz missed on a last-second trey attempt.

The Spartans led 36-24 after 20 minutes and handily won the overall rebounding battle 46-29.

It was a plus frontcourt game for the victors with senior forward Frank (Salinas High) Rogers totaling 16 points plus 10 boards while freshman forward Ryan Welage finished with 10 and 10.

Game report

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Coach Wojcik talking about his two-man (so far) recruiting class for 2016

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Nai Carlisle makes it official

Here's the Carlisle family proudly backing Nai as he signs his letter-of-intent with San Jose State University.

Provocatively titled Aztec preview

From Mark Zeigler/Union Tribune beat reporter: "Aztecs men have soar or crash potential"

Tidbits on Keith Fisher

Via recruiting analyst Gerry Freitas: "West Coast Steals: ... High School: Keith Fisher from Westchester to San Jose State."

This sounds really promising.

From Double Pump Bball: "Congrats to @Nation_GQ on signing his NLI to SJSU! Proud of you lots of growth over the last year"

Two backcourters heading to BSU

Boise State brings in a pair of well-thought-of prep guards.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Brown to be a spring signing?

Phil Jensen/Bay Area News Group-East Bay sports writer tweeted: "@fknightsays just texted me that his players will sign in the spring."

Frank Knight is the head coach at Moreau Catholic High of which Terrell Brown, one of his players, committed to SJSU basketball in late August.

Oscar Frayer, another Moreau player, is a longtime Cal commit, having done so in 2014. He also hasn't signed.

Here's a Frank Knight tweet: "@JeffFaraudo the Moreau Catholic Boy's Basketball players will all sign in the spring at an event hosted by our schools Booster Club."

Carlisle signs

Sam King/Lafayette Journal & Courier: "Williams sat alongside classmate Nai Carlisle on Wednesday afternoon as Carlisle made his commitment to play basketball at San Jose State official.

Carlisle, who will be a four-year starting point guard for the Red Devils, was an Indiana junior all-star last season after averaging 19.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.2 steals and shooting 49 percent for West Lafayette.

Carlisle moved to West Lafayette from the California Bay Area prior to high school, living 10 minutes from San Jose State’s campus.

“I can just focus on the season and winning games and not have to focus on the college process anymore because I know where I am going,” Carlisle said. “The coaching staff and players and the setup, it all was the right fit for me. That’s why our family prayed about it and thought about it again and decided that was the school for me.”

Collette leaves Utah State

If timing is indeed everything, 6-foot-10 David Collette's departure from Logan, Utah prior to the Aggies Friday night opener at Weber State should be busting a few watches and timepieces throughout the Beehive State.

The killer quote“I was shocked when he came into my office today and said he was going to quit,” Duryea said in the release. “I think there are a lot of factors in play that, unfortunately, have become a trend in college basketball of schools poaching other schools’ players. I don’t feel good and don’t like how things transpired, but we will move on and get ready for our season opener on Friday.”

Collette redshirted at Utah State, went on his two-year mission and then returned to average 12.8 points and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 59% in his initial season.

From Isaac Draxler: "There are also rumors that he had a problem with one of the coaches and that he has wanted to transfer for some time. After some digging and a small bit of second hand inside information I believe he will transfer to Utah."

From USUBlue: "I had a private conversation with Collette last spring during the coaching search process. He made it clear to me that he didn't want Duryea to be the coach and was hoping to get a more high profile coach in..."

Harry Palmdale: "Decision was made today when he found out there was an opening at new school."

rezaggie: "A few things I can confirm from very good sources. First, DC and his family had always hoped he would get offered by byu. They have no real tie to USU. Second, Byu, Utah, Stanford, and Villanova all contacted DC after the season and asked him to transfer. Third, the loss on Friday did factor in, to what degree I do not know. Fourth, DC has a confidant that has close U ties. My best guess is he goes there, his wife wants him to stay close to home. this confidant had tried to talk him out of byu based on their style of play. Finally, he was not a TD fan."

On the flip side, Utah State announced the signing of three new talents.

The new math

New Mexico is signing three new prospects as Geoff Grammer reports. This despite having just one scholarship currently open.

Via Grammer: "Craig Neal on recruiting: Likes the 3 signed today "and we could have some more. We're not done recruiting." Team is already oversigned by 3."

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Quality home games must be purchased

This Marek Warszawski feature on Fresno State basketball contains some fascinating tidbits on the difficulty of scheduling quality home games.

Looking at MWC teams' out-of-conference schedules

Matt Stephens evaluates the out-of-conference schedules this season for each Mountain West Conference member.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Now Wyoming falls to a DII

First, Utah State loses at home to Cal State Monterey Bay and now Wyoming falls 77-69 in Laramie to DII Fort Lewis. It's early but the Cowboys are looking vulnerable.

Spartans offer 2016 SoCal guard

Josh Gershon tweeted: "2017 Chatsworth (Calif.) Sierra Canyon SG Adam Seiko was offered by San Jose State."

Here's a March 2015 feature on him as he averaged 11.4 points per game as a junior. His physical numbers are impressive for a high schooler at 6-foot-3, 215.

Cal State Northridge offered about a week and a half ago.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

SJSU 112, Pacific Union 59

As expected, host San Jose State University blew past Pacific Union 112-59 last night. Junior newcomer Gary Williams Jr. led with 19 points in just 18 minutes as he shot 4-8 from long distance. The Spartans generated 31 assists on 43 baskets.

The Pioneers were missing two of their better backcourters but the Washington Square crew annihilated them in the paint 68-24.

Former Columbia College guard Jarron Crump paced the visitors with 17 points.

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A few MWC items

"College basketball: 5 Mountain West questions to be answered this season"

Utah State lost badly 77-60 last night  in Logan to Cal State Monterey Bay, a DII team. The Otters match the Aggies rebound for rebound (40-40) and shot 47% overall, 39% from long distance to 33% and 18% for the hosts.

Also, this is a bit of a surprise from Fresno State MBB: "Freshman Nate Grimes will redshirt the 2015-16 season. He'll continue practicing with the team and getting ready to play next season."

Grimes was a very nice pickup, not a dominant player yet but one with major promise. Wonder if the decision was made due to depth, a slower-than-expected take on picking up matters, academics, or what? He does have a pair of junior starters ahead of him and he would be more effective with greater strength..

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Marrion joins Idaho staff

Former SJSU assistant Tim Marrion has moved from his Associate Head Coach position at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington to Director of Player Development at the University of Idaho, a member of the Western Athletic Conference.

His Clark bio.