By Allison Covey (@allisoncovey):
San Jose State men and women’s basketball both have had a rocky season winning games and keeping up with their Mountain West conference components.
Men’s basketball has lost 13 in a row and 18 of their last 19 while the women’s team has lost seven straight after starting the conference season 3-3.
At this point, the question has to come up. What is it going to take to win?
For the men’s basketball team, they had high hopes for this season as they came off a 14-16 season in 2016-2017, its best record in seven years.
The women’s basketball team came off 11-21 season last year. For the past few seasons, the women’s team has kept that record steady.
This season the men’s team is 0-13 in conference play. With only five games left, the odds of them winning a game this season does not look good.
Not pointing any fingers, but the resignation over the offseason of former head coach Dave Wojcik, the departure of SJSU best forward in a decade Brandon Clarke and even throw in the incident Terrell Brown was involved in two months into last offseason sure has to be a chunk of the reason why the team has just three wins in mid February.
Last June, head coach Dave Wojcik announced that he would have to resign from his position.
“This past year has been emotionally challenging for me with the loss of my father. His passing made me evaluate what is important in life and the value of family. With the considerable needs of my widowed mother as well as my son moving to the East Coast after his high school graduation, I believe it is the appropriate time to resign my position as head men’s basketball coach at San José State University,” Wojcik told SJSU Athletics.
During Wojcik’s time at SJSU, he was able to bring them from a 1-17 conference season to a 7-11 conference season. His last season with SJSU was their best season since 2010.
Brandon Clarke was SJSU’s star player last year. He was named to the All-Mountain West Conference first-team honors after averaging 17.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks last season. Clarke was also named to the MWC All-Defensive team.
In August, Clarke announced that he was going to transfer schools to Gonzaga. He currently is sitting out due to the NCAA transfer regulation.
Losing two key people for the team is what many can believe is the reason the men’s team had a losing season. New head coach Jean Prioleau is going through a similar first season that Wojcik went through and junior guard Ryan Welage has stepped up into the role of being the star point scorer for the team.
The struggle for the women’s team this season has been their young roster. Last year’s scoring threats Dezz Ramos and Jasmine Smith are gone and the team has had a hard time finding comparable players.
This season is a time to rebuild. In a preseason poll of Media Relations Directors, the women’s team is the second youngest team in Division I women’s basketball. Of the 15-player roster, 12 are underclassmen and that has shown largely this season.
Look now further than the rebounding category. In every loss this season, SJSU has a lower rebounding total than its opponent. In all its wins, its flipped.
Sophomore Taylor Turney has stepped up in the scoring department, but lacks consistent play-making ability.
Senior Myzhanique Ladd has played with enormous heart game across game, but individual hustle doesn’t win games, team hustle does.
The Spartans are stat-sheet oriented. They play small ball, kill you from deep every other game, and rely on a different leader every game. That needs to change.
It’s been the same starting five for coch Craighead nine out of the last ten games. Ladd, Turney, Hafoka, Benally and Lewis all play reasonably well together, but eventually, the bench has to come to life. Give them more opportunities and their stats will increase.
With five games left for the men and women’s basketball teams, they both have a lot of work this next offseason, starting with recruiting, for a better 2018-2019 season.