NCDS: Dustin Kerns, Asst. Coach - Santa Clara

By: Dustin Kerns, Asst. Coach - Santa Clara

Six games into our season and we are like a lot of teams across the nation in the way of trying to set a consistent rotation, find an identity, and go on the road to win. We are the 12th youngest team amongst all Division 1 teams and we have looked like it at times so far. At (3-3) on the year and with three of our six games on the road, we have experienced some growing pains from our young Broncos.

We have a great group of guys who are working extremely hard every day to get better. Coach Keating has a constant saying he tells our team, "If you aren't getting better, you are getting worse." Our players are putting in a daily effort to improve and get better as individuals and collectively as a team. A constant phrase we tell our team is the only two things they can control each day is their attitude and effort. We have "attitude and effort" above our locker-room door so they see that on their way out to the practice floor and games. We know we are not going to play perfect each game, but if we play our hardest and stay positive and together as a team, we feel our young team will grow up fast.

In fact, this past week, we were (2-2) with two home games coming up against Northern Arizona and Fresno State. We were coming off of two tough losses on the road at San Diego State and at Pacific. We were really excited about getting back in front of our fans and being home around the Thanksgiving holiday. We came out against Northern Arizona and did not play well. Our offense was not efficient and we dug ourselves a hole early on in the game. We ended up losing at home and did not feel good about where we were at and knew we had a tough game coming up against a very talented Fresno State team.

We decided as a coaching staff that we had to do something to change it up with our team. Kerry Keating coached teams have been generally prolific defensive teams and we pride ourselves on the defensive side of the ball. We knew our team had to get better in that area. We had to practice off campus because of a conflict in our arena and Coach Keating came up with an idea. We divided the team up in two teams for practice and it was newcomers versus veterans. He posted the practice plan in the locker-room the day before practice because he wanted them to prepare themselves which we normally do not do. He went over the guidelines for the practice and it was simple...in all of the drills which were all defensive the team that won would start against Fresno State. The only way each team could score in the drills were by getting defensive stops or deflections. The seventh and final drill was free throws and we wanted to see who could make them under pressure. Our team had an incredible practice and all twelve players competed to their fullest. The starting spots came down to free throws and the team combined of four freshmen and a junior won by a total of four points.

In the end, it worked. We built a 13 point halftime lead on Fresno State and went on to win the game and played our best game of the season. We are heading down to practice right now and as we hit the road again against an undefeated UC Santa Barbara team and then come back home on Saturday against an undefeated UNLV team. Going to be an exciting week!

In hoops,

Dustin