USD Unhappy Over Repeat Scheduling

Having lost games last weekend at San Francisco and Santa Clara, the University of San Diego men’s basketball team now plays those same schools this weekend at the USD Sports Center.

USD plays West Coast Athletic Conference games tonight against Santa Clara (12-5, 1-3) and Saturday against San Francisco (9-8, 1-3). Both games are at 7:30.

USD Coach Hank Egan isn’t pleased with the scheduling.

“I don’t think it’s really the best way,” he said. “I think we’d be better off if we’d play through the league one time and went back through the league a second time. That’s the best way to tell who’s playing the best ball. Because you could play somebody and not be playing well, or they may not be playing well. And that’s not fair.”

In this case, it is the Toreros who are not playing well, or at least not winning. USD (5-11, 0-4) has lost 6 games in a row and 9 of the past 10.

Egan sees progress, but his young team is still losing games in the final minutes. USD has lost each of the past 5 games by 6 points or less, and in each, the Toreros had a chance to tie or go ahead late in the game.

“We’ve played some very good basketball in some areas and have had some obvious letdowns in some others,” Egan said. “We went to the Bay Area this past weekend and played pretty well.”

Last Friday at USF (a 63-58 loss), USD outshot (16 more points from the floor) and outrebounded (45-23) the Dons and had more blocks (3-1) and steals (6-3). The problem was free-throw shooting. USD made just 11 of 24 (45.8%), USF 29 of 33 (87.9%).

Saturday at Santa Clara (64-58), USD shot 50% from the floor, 63% from the free-throw line and outrebounded the Broncos, 40-21. The problem was turnovers. USD had 26, Santa Clara only 10.