By Austin Turner — Staff Writer
San Jose State men’s basketball has returned from the Bahamas, and the business trip didn’t go exactly as they planned. The Spartans finished the Junkanoo Jam 0-3, with two of those losses coming in games that they had led by double digits in the second half.
After three close losses, it’s now possible to examine the good, and the bad, of how this brand new team plays together. Here are five takeaways from the weekend.
The group still needs time to build chemistry
SJSU averaged over 20 turnovers per game in The Bahamas. While some were because of great defense, most had to do with poor passing from the Spartans and miscommunications.
They particularly struggled with passing while driving to the bucket. It’s crucial to get the ball to perimeter shooters off of drives if the layup isn’t open, and a lot of the passes in these situations were deflected or intercepted.
Ball movement has been an issue for the Spartans. They have only 70 assists to 94 turnovers on the campaign so far.
Since the season is only five games old and the team brought nine new players into the season, this one can be chalked up to a lack of chemistry early on. However, if turnovers don’t come down before conference play, it may become an even larger issue.
Defense needs work – particularly in transition
Spartan opponents averaged 78 points per game at the Junkanoo Jam. If that trend continues they will be torched by some of the Mountain West’s high-powered offenses like San Diego State and Nevada.
The issue? Transition defense.
Spartan fans witnessed the same exact play dozens of times in the three Bahamas games: Defensive rebound by the opponent, an outlet pass to half court for a 3-on-2 against the Spartan defense, then either a drive to the bucket for an easy layup or a pass from the paint to a wide open 3-point shooter.
The Spartans need to do a better job at protecting their side of the court on fastbreak situations.
The good news is that head coach Jean Prioleau was clearly adapting to the problem in the middle of games. He switched to a zone defense to stop the bleeding in each game and it proved to be effective.
Maybe a permanent switch to the zone is coming.
The team doesn’t really have a “go-to scorer,” and that’s okay
Each of the games at the Junkanoo Jam saw a different leading scorer for SJSU.
Against Weber State, Christian Anigwe broke out and had a huge 20-point performance in his first real action of the season. In the CSU Bakersfield game, Brae Ivey had a terrific shooting performance and went off for 22.
In the final game versus Central Michigan, Michael Steadman shared the lead with Craig LeCesne with 13 points each.
This team – so far – doesn’t have a Ryan Welage player.
Welage, who in his last season at SJSU shot 46 percent, was the go-to, score from anywhere guy for the Spartans. This year’s team doesn’t really have a player like that as of right now, but what they do have is an arsenal of players that can become that guy for a game at a time.
Ivey is the team’s leading scorer so far at 14.4 points per game, but he’s only gone over the 12 point mark twice in his five games. Steadman, who’s second at 11.8 PPG, has been a somewhat streaky shooter that is great at getting to the free-throw line.
What makes up for the inconsistent scoring for SJSU’s top scorers is the pure variety of the players at the team’s disposal.
Each player has a scoring niche that they fit into in this offense.
Players like Steadman and Ivey have range and are excellent at drawing fouls.
LeCesne is the best jump-shooter on the team at 51 percent on the year, and his midrange game has been helpful to the Spartans in sticky offensive situations.
Noah Baumann has emerged as the sharp-shooter, as he’s shooting 50 percent from three.
This is a team of role-players that fit together extremely well, but going back to an earlier point, the chemistry just needs to be more well established for the team to make the next step.
The team’s young stars are beginning to emerge
Though this is a team with lots of new faces, it isn’t exactly a young squad.
Oumar Barry is the only senior, but a lot of the team’s biggest contributors so far are juniors. Ivey, Steadman and Lecesne will all be gone after next year, along with key bench players like Ashtin Chastain and Isaiah Nichols.
So who will fill those voids and become the next Spartan stars? It’s becoming clear already.
Seneca Knight and Zach Chappell are likely going to be the backcourt of the future. They’re both shooting only 28 percent, but they’re freshmen.
They’ll have time to work on their shots. They both excel at off-ball offensive play and getting to the free-throw line, so if they can develop a reliable jump shot, this duo will be torching Mountain West defenses for years to come.
Anigwe is another freshman that showed flashes of greatness in the Bahamas. In very-limited action so far, he has proved to be an emerging star of this team.
He is 14-15 from the field through five games with a three-pointer. At 6-foot-9, this is impressive.
Shooting in the paint has been a major issue for SJSU this season, so having someone that can reliably hit layups is huge. His length with be helpful for grabbing rebounds and making plays on defense.
Anigwe is going to be a terrific player for the Spartans down the road, and fans should expect his playing time to rise as the season goes on.
The Spartans need to learn how to finish games
As SJSU fans are fully aware of by now, the team struggles to end halves.
In two of the three games at the Junkanoo Jam, the Spartans led by double digits with less than ten minutes left in the game. Losing in those situations is simply unacceptable.
What’s the fix to this? All of the points mentioned above will help.
The Spartans have struggled defensively not only in transition, but also when the tempo of the game picks up.
Limiting shots on the perimeter will also help. Opponents have attempted 125 3-point shots through five games, so if defenders can contest these shots and make them tougher to make, it’ll help make comeback attempts much harder to pull off.
Consistent scoring down the stretch would be helpful as well. They’ve struggled against press defense, and many of the team’s turnovers have come when the defenders put pressure on the Spartans in the back court.
Slowing down the tempo and waiting for the perfect passing target to become open will do wonders for the team, rather than trying to force the ball like they’re doing now.
It was a disappointing performance for the Spartans at the Junkanoo Jam, but fans now have a better idea of the team they’ll be watching this season. It’s a good reminder that this team is still finding its groove and has lots of room to grow over the course of the season.
Follow Austin on Twitter @AustinTurnt