San Jose State men's hoops' rebuild is finally on track under Tim Miles
The San Jose State men's basketball program's rebuild, which never was going to be easy, met its latest obstacle along cold and dark Interstate 80 late Tuesday night: Mother Nature.
The Spartans were traveling home by bus from Reno after a 66-51 loss to Nevada when snowfall forced them to stop to put chains on. After a onehour delay, they were moving again, but not for long.
“About 10 minutes later, the chains snapped and they kind of wrapped around the axel. We had to stop again and wait like five hours,” sophomore guard Alvaro Cardenas said. “It was a crazy trip for sure.”
The whole thing took place barely 10 miles from Donner Summit, where history hasn't always been kind to stranded travelers.
The Spartans pulled onto campus at 7 a.m. Wednesday. “We caught rush-hour traffic coming in,” coach Tim Miles said.
Just the latest challenge in the trip back to respectability for a program that has had one winning season since 1994. Miles, 56, took over before last season, but after a solid non-conference start, the Spartans ran into injury problems and skidded to a 1-17 record in Mountain West Conference play.
“Nobody wants to lose so many games,” said Cardenas, who came to San Jose State from Spain. “But we knew we were a team that was not that experienced. We knew this year was going to be different.”
And it has been. The Spartans have dropped
their past two games, but they are 16-12 overall and 7-8 in conference games. With one more win — their next chance is Friday at home against Boise State — they will match their highest victory total since going 21-9 in 1980-81.
“To put that in perspective, I was in middle school that year,” Miles said.
Another win also would give them eight Mountain West wins, equal to their total of the previous five seasons combined.
Miles and his players were disappointed they couldn't close out a win at Nevada after leading with 11 minutes left. But the big picture is important, too.
“I'm really happy for our team and our program. We've made some huge strides forward,” Miles said. “We are not a finished product. We're still a limited team. But these guys show up most nights, fight their tails off and everybody in the Mountain West recognizes their progress.”
Senior guard Omari Moore, who is fifth in the conference averaging 16.9 points per game, leads the
charge. He is eligible to use his COVID year and return next season, but has not made a decision yet.
Transfers Sage Tolbert III (Temple) and Robert Vaihola (Fresno State) have helped transform the Spartans from the secondworst to the best rebounding team in the league.
Cardenas arrived a year ago after the Spartans were the only team to offer him a scholarship. He spent the season before at prep school in the Czech Republic and few college coaches saw him play because of travel restrictions during the pandemic.
“They took a big chance on me. They saw something they liked and that was all I needed,” said Cardenas, who is second on the team at 9.7 points per game. “I've been an underdog my whole life so I really like this challenge.”
There are only two seniors among the team's top 11 scorers so the program's direction appears on an upward trek. Cardenas says the team isn't waiting until next year to chase its dreams.
“We want to try to get to a postseason tournament, whether it's the NIT or CBI or the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “You get to the conference tournament, you win three games and you get to the NCAA Tournament. I really believe we can beat anybody.”
NO COIN FLIP IN THE WCC >>
If No. 12 Gonzaga (235, 12-2) beats No. 15 Saint Mary's (24-5, 13-1) on Saturday in Spokane, Washington and the teams wind up co-champs in the West Coast Conference with identical resumes, the top seed into the conference tournament will be determined by which team has the better NET computer ranking on Sunday morning. As of now, the Gaels are No. 7, the Zags No. 10. Of course, if Saint Mary's wins, it will own the WCC crown outright for the first time since 2011-12.
HEAL STAYS HOT >> Santa Clara freshman Tess Heal's 39-point performance last week against BYU equaled the second highest-scoring game in program history behind only a 40-point game by Nici Gilday in 2014. A native of Melbourne, Australia, Heal was named WCC Freshman of the Week for the 11th time this season after becoming the 11th player in program history to reach 500 points in a season. Her 511 points translate to a 17.6 average, third-best in the WCC.
APPROACHING 400 >>
Only 12 Division I women's players have made as many as 400 career 3-point baskets. Saint Mary's senior guard Taycee Wedin needs just four more to join that club. She made six 3-pointers in two games last week, boosting her WCC record to 396. The Gaels close the regular season Saturday at home against Pacific.