San Jose State is rebuilding, yet again
Team needs production from transfers, reduction of its turnovers
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series previewing UNM men’s basketball opponents for the coming season, including Mountain West (in reverse order of the preseason poll) and nonconference opponents.
Brae Ivey and Zach Chappell executed the game plan perfectly.
At the Oct. 15 Mountain West Conference media summit, tasked with being the faces of a San Jose State men’s basketball program that has gone 14-94 in league games since joining in the 2013-14 season, the Spartans duo worked in “take care of the ball” into as many responses as possible to the incoming questions.
During the session, one reporter turned to SJSU coach Jean Prioleau and noted, “Taking care of the ball seems to be
a theme.”
The third-year coach fired back without hesitation.
“You guys let us know about that after every game,” Prioleau said with a smile. “Not that we wouldn’t know that; you just had to look at the stat sheet. But, yeah. Our guys know. They know what we need to work on.”
The Spartans, picked by media to finish 11th in the 11-team league, were certainly the generous bunch last season. The team, which went 4-27 overall and 1-17 in league play (its lone league win was against the UNM Lobos on Feb. 26) ranked 330th out of 351 Division I teams nationally in turnovers per game (15.6) and 345th in turnover margin (minus-4.5 per game).
“Going into this year, a big emphasis for me is turning over the ball a lot less,” said Ivey, a 6-foot-2 senior point guard. He is the team’s leading returning scorer at 9.2 points per game. He averaged 3.3 assists and tied a school record with six steals in the win over the Lobos.
“I struggled with that last year. What I can do (now) is take care of the ball and have that leadership presence for my team and bring the energy that our team needs night in and night out.”
The road to success won’t be easy. For the third consecutive season, SJSU’s leading scorer transferred in the offseason. In fact, every player in the past three seasons who averaged double figures for SJSU left the program with eligibility remaining.
Ivey and sophomore wing Seneca Knight (6.2 ppg) are the lone returners who started more than half the team’s 31 games, though two more (guard Chappell and forward Crage LeCesne) started 15 times.
Two former Wake Forest players — 6-11 center Samuel JaphetMathias, a 280-pound junior from London, and 6-6 guard Richard Washington, who had a one-year stop at Tallahassee Community College after leaving Wake Forest — are eligible and should bring scoring help for a team that could use it. SJSU’s 65.9 points per game last season ranked 10th in the MWC and 319th in the nation and its offensive efficiency ranked 339th in KenPom.com.
HE SAID IT: “Scheduling is actually very easy for us. Everyone wants to play you when you have the record we have.” — SJSU head coach Jean Prioleau when asked his thoughts on the nonconference scheduling difficulties other coaches in the Mountain West have said they are experiencing.