By Richy Zajic — Staff Writer
It is no secret that the San Jose State basketball program has been struggling — and this is nothing new.
Let’s start with the SJSU women’s basketball program. The team has not won a regular season conference title in 40 years and has a combined total of 24 wins over the last three seasons.
That’s an average of eight per year. The team had an overall record of 6-24 and went 5-13 in Mountain West play in 2018-19. While the Spartans were not dead last in the conference this year, they still found themselves among the bottom trio.
The issue doesn’t seem to be the players’ will to win because their intensity is apparent in every game they play.
Nor is it the coaching staff. Coach Jamie Craighead and her staff are heavily invested in creating a winning culture for the team.
The issue is, and always has been recruiting because of the location and competition from other Division I schools throughout the Bay Area.
When a player is highly sought after in high school, it’s more likely that they will commit to a Bay Area university in a more esteemed conference, such as Stanford or UC Berkeley, rather than a bottom level team in the weaker Mountain West.
SJSU is forced to seek the diamonds in the rough to pick up much needed talent for its rosters. It is a difficult but not impossible task.
There are players that were not sought after so highly out of high school that turn out to be valuable assets at the collegiate level.
San Jose State women’s hoops has managed to recruit quality players throughout its history, and even some on the current roster.
The 2019 women’s team has the potential to break the stigma and culture of losing.
Behind players like freshman guard Raziya Potter and sophomore guards Danae Marquez and Megan Anderson, SJSU has potential to do something special.
This past season, Potter averaged 9 points and 3.1 rebounds while Marquez averaged 8.7 points and 4.7 assists. Anderson contributed averages of 8.9 points and 3.2 boards.
This big three has potential to be dangerous as its games complement each other. Marquez is the playmaker, Potter is the driving scorer and Anderson is the knock-down shooter.
It’s not all bleak for the Spartans. They only had one graduating senior leaving the team this season in forward Andrea Kohlhaas.
They will be able to run back the same squad with another year of experience under their belts and will toss fresh new recruits in the mix.
There were bright spots this season for the Spartans to continue to build upon, such as their wins over Utah State and rival Fresno State.
SJSU has shown potential that it can be a scary team when it’s firing on all cylinders.
The Spartans need to aim to always play with that focus and they can be successful in the upcoming years.
An under-the-radar productive recruit or two might slip through the cracks and onto the Spartans’ roster to help make their next season more successful than the last.
As for the men’s basketball team, history has somehow treated it even worse.
Men’s hoops has not won a conference tournament in 23 years, with a combined win total of 22 over the last three in seasons including four-win seasons in each of the last two years.
This season, the Spartans finished with an overall record of 4-27 and a Mountain West record of 1-17. In the last two seasons, SJSU is 2-33 in conference play.
For a second straight year, SJSU is at the bottom of the MW. The Spartans seem as though they will need to be fortunate with their recruitment process this offseason and pick up a few players that may have been under appreciated or misjudged in high school.
There is also the constant fear that if a player begins to perform well for the Spartans, they may be scouted by another school and be convinced to transfer.
Former SJSU guard and current Gonzaga forward Brandon Clarke is a prime example of the transfer problem.
Clarke played his first two collegiate years at SJSU before transferring to Gonzaga. Now he is projected to be a top-15 pick in the 2019 NBA draft, as the second leading scorer for an NCAA tournament first seed.
After Clarke was forward Ryan Welage as the Spartans’ best player. He also transferred to a more notable basketball program in Xavier.
Junior forward Michael Steadman and sophomore guard Noah Baumann continued the trend.
Arguably the Spartans’ two most valuable players this past season, this is a gut punch to the program — but not unusual.
The absence of these two will apply more pressure to the rest of the team, as well as the recruiting staff. There is even more of a need for added talent in order to prevent another losing season.
One has to wonder if the coaching staff has the players buying into their system, because it seems as though everyone is playing for themselves.
Any successful program has players and coaches that believe they can go out there and win every night. SJSU seems like more of a temporary tryout for players to come show their talent and then transfer to a winning program.
The history of Spartans’ men’s hoops is not on the current teams’ side. SJSU has only made the NCAA tournament three times, with the most recent appearance coming in 1996. They were eliminated in the first round in every appearance.
In a similar situation as the women’s team, men’s hoops has young talent that they can look to build on.
Freshman forward Seneca Knight has been raw talent for the team all year, even putting up 15 points against Air Force in the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas.
Zach Chappell is another bright spot for the program’s future. Chappell hit his stride late in the season when he started to get more playing time, averaging 9.4 points in the Spartans’ final five games.
This team has potential to contend in the Mountain West if they keep developing their talent and bring in some help.
Fortunately, this process has already started for the men’s program. Wake Forest and junior-college transfer guard Richard Washington committed to play for SJSU.
Washington is an explosive 6-foot-6 guard that has the ability to attack the paint, something the Spartans lack.
Another Wake Forest transfer, junior center Samuel Japhet-Mathias can potentially help turn things around for the Spartans. Mathias was rank 90 in the class of 2016 and will likely start for SJSU next season.
It won’t be an easy task escaping the brutal cycle of poor recruitment opportunities and constant losing, but the current state of the basketball program has the opportunity to do it.
For now, the players and coaches from both squads can only continue to improve and hope for the best next season.
Embracing the underdog mentality and setting out to prove something may help both programs in the 2019-20 season.
Allow me to end this piece with the fact that my goal is not to bash or belittle these programs, but rather provide their history and possible ideas that could help the situation.
Follow Richy on Twitter @RichyZajic
