Denver (3-7) traveled Sunday to San Marcos, Texas to face Texas State (6-2). The result was a sloppy game in one of DU’s poorest non-conference efforts under head coach Jeff Wulbrun.
A Jordan Johnson 3-point make and a bucket by Mikey Henn gave DU a 5-0 lead to start the game. At 14:51 the Bobcats took their first lead, 11-10, by Dylan Dawson on route to a 13-0 run, before a DU timeout. DU’s Coban Porter and Touko Tainamo closed the gap to 19-15 with nine minutes to go in the half. Denver fell behind 27-21 with five minutes remaining as the teams traded buckets. A sloppy half ended, 35-28. KJ Hunt led DU with 9 points at the break, matching the Bobcats Dawson with 9. Denver shot 53% but committed 12 turnovers (vs. 6) to earn the deficit.
A pair of 3’s by Shelby Adams gave the Bobcats a double digit lead, 41-30, early in the second half. Another 10-0 run pushed the score to 51-33 as the game slipped away on sloppy ball handling and cold shooting by the Pioneers. A Tevin Smith 3-point shot pulled Denver within twelve, 56-44, with ten minutes remaining. Denver trailed 67-50 with five minutes remaining as nothing went right for the reeling DU squad. During mop-up time, the teams went scoreless the final 3:48, 71-58 final.
This game was a marked regression for Denver men’s basketball as they did little to stand in the way of Texas State on the afternoon. DU committed 22 turnovers and was out rebounded by 9 boards. The effort was just not good enough by DU today.
No excuses. This was a poor effort level on DU’s part, and I am sure the coaches are not very happy with what they saw today….
But as fans, we have to ask — why was effort level so poor today? Hard to pinpoint the answer. The facts are that this was the fourth straight road game for DU and perhaps road fatigue is an issue here, too, especially scheduling the first four of the road games all against very good, one or two-loss teams.
Scheduling these six straight road games, as DU did this year, is murderous – and it’s really no way for any young team to build its confidence, as NCAA home teams win nearly 70% of home games in college hoops. It’s really hard to get most other teams to visit Denver, too– it’s a flight, and at altitude and for most a change of time zones.
There is also DU’s depth issue that gets real exacerbated with all these road games. DU just doesn’t have enough D-I caliber players in this first year of the new staff, and the 12 first half turnovers, which were spread out among most of those in the line-up, really did them in today…
Very nice