CougCenter is your place to be for everything related to the Diamond Head Classic. This is the fifth of eight capsule previews of the participating teams.
Note: This was written by Craig, who put in a herculean effort to get this done and emailed to me for posting, despite working with no Internet connection. As always, Craig is the man.
Head Coach: Bill Grier (51-59, 4th Season)
Record: 2-8 (#295 KenPom)
Best Victory: 82-57 over La Verne (San Diego has not beaten a full Division 1 school this year)
Worst Loss: 62-59 to Cal-State Fullerton at home or 90-76 to Cal-State Fullerton on the road.
Offense: 90.0 adjusted efficiency (312th); 47.8 eFG% (200th); 24.4 TO% (307th); 24.9 OR% (326th); 34.7 FTR (234th)
San Diego isn't really good at any one thing offensively. They shoot quite a few threes (35.5% of their field goal attempts), but they don,t shoot them well at just 31%. They don't take care of the ball, they don't get offensive rebounds, and they are below average at getting to the free throw line. They are just around average in 2-pointer percentage, FT%, and avoiding getting their shots blocked. Success!
The man with the best offensive rating on the team is senior Matt Dorr. He shoots free throws well and has flourished inside the arc. However, he uses only 16.5% of the team's possessions. Kyle Rancifer and Devin Ginty can be dangerous from the outside, as they are shooting 42.5% and 37.8% from three. Guard Darian Norris can get the opposing team into foul trouble, as he has posted an impressive 64.9 free throw rate.
This team really hasn't performed well on offense so far this season and it would take a miracle for them to start doing it in Hawaii.
Defense: 105.0 adjusted efficiency (256th); 52.2 eFG% (278th); 20.4 TO% (201st); 36.5 OR% (284th); 46.9 FTR (292nd)
San Diego is not just a one-dimensional team, they are equally bad on both ends of the floor. The only thing that is not at least a hint of red on their kenpom page is block%. This can largely be attributed to 6-8 sophomore Chris Mansrea, who has blocked 7% of the shots he has seen thus far. Everything else is just ugly.
San Diego really has absolutely no shot to win this tournament. They are given a 1% chance to beat their opening round opponent, Baylor. They will be a heavy underdog in every game they play, as they are far and away the worst team in the field. Look for the Toreros to go 0-3.
Check out CougCenter's full coverage of the Diamond Head Classic here.