Santa Clara Men's Basketball - We Could Use A Little "Punch" In Our Game

 

                                                                                                                 

Ten games into this season we've witnessed the full spectrum of what might be possible with this young team.  Important wins over McNeese, Xavier, and Nevada boosted our rankings to their best level in the Herb Sendek era.   Losses by one to St. Louis, then a dogfight win versus Utah Tech was followed a blowout defeat at New Mexico.  All testaments to the growing pains our roster is experiencing.  

The Utah Tech game was illustrative of this team trying to find some consistent rhythm.  Up 20, with 7:53 to go in the first half, a 3:00 minute scoring draught allowed Utah to close the gap to 10 with 4:30 left in the half.  We saw the same thing happen in the second half; where a 20 point lead with 9:10 remaining shrunk to 7 points with 1:30 to go.  

It was right after that, when an Allen Graves thunderous poster dunk led an embarrassed Tech player to throw a blind-side thug punch to Graves's face.  The dust up that occurred immediately after was stopped quickly by coaches and players.  Unfortunately, this was the most energy we saw from the Broncos most of the night.  

In giving up the 20 point lead in the second half, our defense allowed an uncontested transition layup and three consecutive 3pt makes all within a 1:10 span.  Utah had 17 layups for the night.  On offense, we missed five three's during the same span until the Graves' poster dunk.  That stretch, against any team, let alone the 296th ranked Trailblazers, needs immediate remedy.  Overall, we haven't shot the ball great, but we have defended well and won games on poorer shooting nights.  When our effort on defense and off shooting nights collide, it's a show stopper; much like what happened at New Mexico.

That's why I say we need to get back the "punch" in our game.  Not the fisticuff type, just a return to the early season defensive energy stopping the ball and preventing runouts for layups and vigorously contesting three's.  Injuries have been a factor with one of our best defenders, rebounder, floor leader Jake Ensminger and top scorer Christian Hammond sidelined.  With a young team, those injuries are magnified.  That said, 8-2 is a good place to be.  

While every game is important, the next three neutral site games can set the stage for what will be a tough WCC schedule.  We play ASU in Henderson, Nevada. They have size and speed and one of SCU's biggest nemeses, Moe Odum, who has torched us a number of times while at Pepperdine.  Most notably in last year's WCC quarterfinal.  Next is North Texas in Santa Cruz.   Their lineup can give us problems.  They have a good big man and speedy guards who can penetrate and score.  Given our recent games, a big test.  

Winning those two, and then, handling a very winnable game against Loyola Chicago in Santa Cruz, would put us at 11-2, giving us strong momentum heading into league.  In league, we hope to rise to the level where we can "punch" our ticket to the NCAA's and put 30 years of waiting behind us!  

 

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - What's All The "Hoopla" About SCU Hoops?

 

                                                                                                       

Let's face it, the Broncos haven't generated this much buzz, hype or whatever your favorite adjective, is for a l-o-n-g time.  After the 1972 victory over # 4 UCLA, twenty years passed before Steve Nash led us to wins in the NCAA tournament over Arizona in 1993 and Maryland in 1996 that vaulted the Broncos into the national spotlight.  Another press draught ensued for 27 years until the Jalen Williams and Brandin Podziemski NBA first round draft picks turned heads.

Now, as a result of the Broncos 7-1 start to the 2025-2026 season, we have notable non-conference wins over a Big East opponent (Xavier) and a Mountain West opponent (Nevada) which has put us on the verge of being nationally ranked having received three Top 25 ranking votes recently.

The media loves hype and it feels like they're a little "hyperactive" in their SCU coverage wanting to be out front of emerging trends.  We'll certainly take the exposure.  Heck, the Broncos even got a column inch headline in the San Jose Mercury News for our recent wins.  Prior to that, we weren't even listed in local upcoming games in their paper.  The Merc preferred to promote Stanford and Cal; who frankly have been pretty bad the past four seasons while we were racking up four 20 win seasons and 3 NIT's.

In reality, we could be 8-0, falling one point shy against St. Louis where there were chances to win at the end.  So, what's going on here?  After losing 72% of our scoring from last season and then adding nine new players via recruiting and the transfer portal, it appeared we would need to do a lot of rebuilding to maintain our momentum.  Not so.

The coaches have, perhaps, accomplished their best overall recruiting year with the breadth and depth in this roster.  During summer workouts something unusual happened.  Ego's were put in check.  Workouts and daily competition for minutes was intense.  Everyone played with and against everyone.  No matter what the scrimmage teams were in practice, they battled for wins.  The result - chemistry.  A genuine culture of playing for each other.

It's showing up on the court.  Everybody plays and everybody contributes.  In three of our seven wins, we shot the ball poorly; averaging only 22% from the 3 point line. Our defense, however, was lockdown and has been stout so far.  We have become thieves; swiping nearly 9 steals per game.  We are winning most of the "up for grabs" 50-50 loose balls as well.  When opponents drive into the paint, they face five legit rim protectors who are swatting away 7 shots a game.

In our other four wins, we shot 52% from three, making 16 in our recent win against Minnesota.  Our roster has nine players capable of putting up 20 points in a game.  We are sharing the ball with about 18 assists a game.  Add to that nearly 15 offensive rebounds per game that has generated 118 second chance shots and ranks # 12 in the country.

With the strength of these numbers, one can understand the extra accolades and ink the Broncos are receiving and our ranking moving to # 51.  While Bronco season ticket holders, fans, and students might be surprised by these numbers, I don't think the coaches are.  For example, they expected to win at Xavier.  Nevada has eaten our lunch the past two seasons and we just shut them down at Leavey.  We love the momentum, but let's remind ourselves there are 23 more games remaining and there are a few things the coaches will want to clean up.

On offense, keep the ball moving and play more inside out.  We have low post scorers who are also good passers so we don't have to settle for early clock three's; especially when they're not falling.  Because our shooting has been inconsistent, more teams will play a variety of zone defenses against us.  We'll need to solve them better by getting the ball into the paint for good looks or kickouts.  Make free throws.  We don't shoot that many, but prior to St. Louis, our FT percentage was 63%.  They are critical as game closers and opponents will use that against us.

On defense, keep up the pressure full court and half court, but eliminate the unnecessary touch or reaching fouls, especially by our bigs.  We are committing 20 fouls per game.  This has resulted in teams being in the FT bonus and our bigs on the bench with 8-10 minutes left.  Get back on defense.  Our style is to push the ball up the floor on every possession, but after a made field goal or deep rebound we are giving up too many transition layups.  Finish games.  Sort of nit picky, but when we're ahead by 25 or 30 in the second half, we've allowed teams to go on runs to close the gap to 15 or under.  Still big wins, but I'm sure the coaches would prefer to see the effort until the game is over.

No doubt this team is fun to watch.  Fans most admire their effort leading to these wins.  We still can, and should, get better as our younger players gain experience.  In addition, a potential key player, Gherig Normand will come back from his injury and be available for WCC play.  Gherig is a 6'6" skilled shooter who will provide another potent shooting option.

Add it all up and the Broncos are trending in the right direction.  There will be setbacks, but let's hope to see more great wins and our post season stock keep rising.  And that's the kind of "hoopla" we can celebrate!

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Can The Broncos Be "Kings of the Road?"

 

                                                                                                                                               

  

                                                                                                                                    

This season's 6-0 start for the Broncos has created some real buzz .  So much so, that we even got headline "ink" from the San Jose Mercury News!  Podcasters and college basketball media are writing about opponents to not take us lightly.  They have even mentioned a more legit chance at an NCAA at-large invite.    

The press coverage and flattery is well deserved albeit on a six game sample size.   We'll know in the next month if we can live up to the hype.  To do that, we'll need to be Kings of the Road.  Six of our next seven games will be away from Leavey.  Even though some games are on neutral sites, true road games at St. Louis and New Mexico will be stern tests.  Four of the seven teams are inside the NCAA top 100.  Road losses to top 100 ranked teams don't hurt as much, but winning those would be a huge boost.  The coaches and players will have to manage quick turnarounds adding to the difficulty.  

This team has shown it is up for big challenges.  Our defense has been stout and aggressive; forcing turnovers that have resulted in easier transition baskets.  Defense has saved us in a number of games where our shooting has been sub par.  The challenge ahead will be to stay aggressive, but not commit touch fouls far away from the basket that lead to high percentage free throws   Our opponents are averaging seven more FT per game than we shoot.  Too many.

Our rebounding has been terrific, grabbing over 100 offensive boards.  We average 7 block shots per game with Bukky Oboye, Allen Graves, and Thierry Darlan the primary erasers.  We are also moving the ball so much better than the past two seasons.  Fewer hero shots and more really finding the open shooters.  Our shooting has been literally hot and cold. Our three ball shooting has been erratic at 31%.  More consistency would be a welcome addition to all the other strong efforts.  Our FT percentage also needs work at 63%.  We have four players that play a lot of minutes with sub 50% FT shooting.  This is, and, will be critical for closing out victories late in games.  

This roster has serious competitive fire.  You can't teach heart.  The rest can be learned and with experience this younger roster could be positioned to do some damage at the top of the WCC when conference play starts.  Many look at the lower half of the WCC and assume easy victories against the likes of Pepperdine, USD, Portland, Pacific, and LMU.  That would be a big mistake. 

The WCC conference is now rated 6th best overall out of 31 NCAA conferences.  Bronco fans know too well our untimely losses to LMU and Pepperdine over the past few seasons.  Add to this list newcomer Seattle to the league, who just took down Stanford at Stanford.  There are few, if any "gimmies".  Games come quickly.  Many, with only two days rest and little time to prep game plans from detailed scouting information.  At the end of the day, it comes down to players executing the core offense and defensive principles ingrained in the two months of practice before the season.   So far they have served us well and we'll need the whole roster to contribute their individual talents at the highest level possible.

First things first.  Win the next seven, starting on the 27th in Palm Desert vs St. Louis.  

We'll know a great deal more by Christmas what this team can achieve.  Hopefully, it will be "Ho-Ho-Ho" and not Oh No, Oh No, Oh No....

                                                                                                            

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - On Our "Court" The Defense Doesn't Rest

                                                                                                          

The Broncos are off to a great 3-0 start to the 2025-2026 season.  An opening tune up win against scrappy Cal Poly Humboldt, followed by a "duke it out" win over McNeese St. led to a blowout road win at Xavier.  The wins showed we have a team that, unlike a law courtroom, on our court our defense doesn't rest. 

There's something different about this new roster that has been missing, at times, during past seasons.  GRIT.  Thus far, we have been physical (that's not a typo), pressuring and pressing full court with excellent results. The GRIT has produced more steals, blocked shots, and offensive and defensive rebounding.  Turnovers are down a bit; which is good considering all the new players.  

The coaches installed focus areas in preseason practices to capitalize on our deep roster.  Pressure everywhere where possible.  Play more "inside out" by going down to the bigs for a post move or dish to an open layup or a 3 point shooter.  Play FAST - get the ball moving up court for open 3 point looks or drive to the rim.  Dominate the boards to limit second chance points or get our own for putbacks.  So far, it's working.  

For a team that lacks overall experience, one important thing we don't seem to lack is effort. We have eight or nine players that can start with not much talent drop off.  We can be tough to play against.  We're known for shooting the three ball, but now we have solid post options like 7'1" Bukky Oboye and 6'10" Allen Graves who can score in traffic or pass it to open three ball shooters.  We also have four guards who shoot the three at 40+%.  With them on the floor who do you guard?  Not easy and just the way coaches want it.  Even better, we have players who really like each other and pick each other up when needed.  We have some floor leadership that keeps everyone motivated and focused.  Intangibles, but missing in the past.  This is all happening with two of our potential better players unavailable.  Chris Tadjo, a 6'7" 255 lb forward, is out for the season with a knee injury and Gehrig Normand, a 6'6" elite shooter, who should return in December.

While it all looks good now, the heart of the non conference schedule awaits with strong opponents.  The last four non conference games are road games against St. Louis, Arizona State, North Texas, and New Mexico.  We should expect some off nights where we just don't click.  Hopefully, not as many as last season with Quad 4 losses to teams ranked above 200.  Next week Nevada, Idaho State, and Louisiana come to Leavey.  Nevada has been a difficult out for us while we should handle Idaho State and Louisiana at home.  

The coaches are focused on cleaning up key game performance areas to get more consistency.  Those are turnovers, transition defense, high ball screen defense, and free throw shooting.  Turnovers and free throw shooting are always on the list.  Giving away possessions and missing what should be high percentage FT shots is always frustrating. 

These are the errors associated with a fast paced floor game trying to "fit" a pass while running the floor or coming up empty after getting fouled at the rim.  Both valuable when executed well.  Not getting back on defense,  giving up easy transition layups, or undefended threes is inexcusable.  The high ball screen defense is always hard; as the options created for the defense to handle are many.  We just need to learn to deal with it without leaving the best player uncovered or open on the play. 

You can teach talent, but not experience.  Our starters, depending on the game, have been a redshirt Freshman, or two redshirt Sophomores, a Junior, and two Seniors.  The coaches are working hard with the players to accelerate the talent/experience ratio.  Defense keeps teams in a game when shots aren't falling.  Hopefully, our defense won't rest and continue its tough and relentless pressure.  If so, we have a real chance to surprise better opponents and that would be a great post season resume to build!

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - The 2025-2026 Roster Roll Call

 

                                                                                                                                      

After achieving their fifth 20 win season in the past six years, the Broncos were poised to build off this success with momentum heading into the 2025-2026 season.  Not so fast...

Coach Sendek and his staff have proven that building rosters by developing players over multiple seasons was a winning strategy.  With the NCAA settlement now allowing pay for play and no limit on player transfers, that plan may need to be "benched."  

The term "one and done" used to be reserved for players leaving for the NBA draft, but now applies to every player who can transfer each season if they desire.  Analytics prove that returning most of your team minutes and scoring year to year is one of the strongest determinates of future success.  Loyalty now has a price tag.  

The Broncos saw 72% of their 2025 roster minutes and scoring graduate or leave for perceived brighter pasture$.  There are four players returning who played significant minutes.  The new rules on roster expansion allows 17 players.  The incoming transfers played limited minutes at their prior schools like Villanova, Iowa, Michigan State, and the NBA G league.  Several were 4 star recruits out of high school.  They all bring talent.  Even top talent needs competitive game "reps" to hone skills and learn a new offensive and defensive system.  The coaching challenge will be to see if it's possible to accelerate their competitive development.

Here's the 2025-2026 Roster breakdown.

Returnees:

Elijah Mahi - 6'7" Senior.  Strong scorer, rebounder and will be a floor leader.  Will be a key in the transition 3pt scoring attack.  Ranked 11th best in the WCC.  Could have a breakout year.

Jake Ensminger - 6'9" Junior.  Strong defender, rebounder, playmaker and can play all positions and will guard top opponents.  Ranked 12th best in WCC.

Brenton Knapper - 6' Senior.  Our most experienced guard.  Good shooter at 53% and can finish at the rim.  Good passer with a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio.  Ranked 19th best in WCC.

Bukky Oboye - 7'1" Sophomore.  Played only 100 minutes, but showed real progress late season.  Rebounder, paint scorer, effective shot blocker.  Could be a big factor this year.

Christian Hammond - 6'4" RS Sophomore.  Quick, good defender and can be an effective scorer.  He should see lots of minutes this year.

Allen Graves - 6'9" RS Freshman.  HS player of the year in Louisiana,  Can score at all levels, good rebounder, and plays long on defense.  Expect a strong season from Allen.

Walk-on's Malachi Douyen and Brendan Yarusso complete returning roster players.

Transfers:

Sash Gavalyugov - 6'3" RS Freshman from Villanova.  True point guard.  Good shooter, passer, and penetrator.  Should see lots of minutes and be a key player.

Francis Chukwudebelu - 6'10" Freshman.  Offers from Kansas, Auburn, and Xavier.  Long wingspan, good touch at the rim.  Will be needed as another post defender and rebounder.

Brad Longcor III - 6'4" Freshman.  Top 10 high school player from Illinois.  Good ball handler and defender.  Will compete for more minutes.

KJ Cochran - 6'5" Freshman.  Offers from Loyola - Chicago, Duquesne, and Temple.  Top  three ranked high school player in Pennsylvania.  Should earn some minutes at guard and at the 3 positions.

Gehrig Normand - 6'6" Sophomore.  Transfer from Michigan State.  Played off the bench in MSU's elite eight NCAA run.  Ranked 8th best shooting guard by rivals.com.  Shooter, tough defender and a gritty attitude.  Should be a major contributor this season.

Noah Badibanga - 6'8" Freshman from France.  Good international experience.  Long and thin frame and once he learns the system will contribute valuable minutes.

Chris Tadjo - 6'7" Sophomore.  250 pound frame.  Four star recruit. Transfer from Iowa.  Named MVP of the All Canadian games.  Strong post player.  Should get solid minutes at the 4 spot and center.

Thierry Darlan - 6'8" Junior.  From Bangui, Central Africa.  Played for the NBA G league with former SCU great Jared Brownridge.  Long and versatile.  Should be a staple in Coach Sendek's up tempo play.  Can score at all levels.

Juan Reyna - 6'3" Grad transfer from Jackson State.  Good shooter, defender. Will compete for minutes at guard.  

The good news is we have size and depth in numbers; if not experience.  For the new players, it's a crash course learning our system after only 30 or so practices and two scrimmages.  Might be a bit like learning a full year of Geometry with all the angles and spacing calculations in two months.

Our preseason national rankings range from 88-105.  Predictions are for 18-20 wins and anywhere from 4th to 7th place in the WCC.  The goal remains making the NCAA tournament or another NIT.  Our at-large NCAA bid chances are low odds, with winning the WCC tournament the better chance earning the automatic bid.  

One thing for sure, this season will be full of surprises.  We will see first hand the impact of how the new pay for play changes the competitive dynamics.  Our team is young, talented, and motivated just as we as season ticket holders, fans, alums, and students are to see them be successful on the court!

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - The NCAA New World - Everything is New Yet Fundamentally the Same

 

                                                                                                                                   

The NCAA as we knew it, save for March Madness, is gone.  It's now a pay for play, semi Pro operation that resides on college campuses.  Loyalty to a school is now auctioned off each post season to the highest bidders via the transfer portal.

The Broncos are a prime example of the above.  We have nearly a complete new roster with nine new players on a roster size of 17.  If you only count the returnees that played more than 100 minutes all last season, it's, experience wise, 13 new bodies including two good players who redshirted.  

More than 70% of our last season scoring either graduated or left via the portal.  Like I said, even though it's all new, the fundamentals remain the same.  They are:  find great talent via high school, international, and the portal, have facilities and a location that are top 20, a coaching staff with a winning culture AND proven ability to develop talent for the pro draft, "Enough" NIL money to land both top rated and under the radar players.  The Jalen and Pods model has been working in building a stronger roster the past three years.  Of all the above, quicky developing players will be crucial this year.  In the past, redshirts have allowed teams to use a year to further develop promising players.  While still a valid program, teams may have to pay players to redshirt in order to sit out.

All of the above begs the question, how do the Broncos compete at a NCAA potential tournament bid level given the Power 5 and top 25 schools all have war chests to pay players far in excess of what we have available today?  BTW, if any of you have a spare $50 million, please call Heather Owen immediately.

The current portal season revealed a potential sweet spot for teams like Santa Clara.  We were able to attract both transfers from perennial top 30 programs AND land top high school recruits.  It is similar, yet better than the prior years of getting transfers like Pods, Johnny O'Neil, Tyeree Bryan, Adama Bal, Elijah Mahi, and the return of Carlos Stewart.  

Our coaches have the contacts and reach and have landed transfers from schools like Villanova, Iowa, Michigan State, and the NBA G League.  Our French pipeline is paying dividends again this year with two good players.  You don't get 20 wins in five of the last six seasons and three NIT's without good talent.  

IMHO there's more talent than ever available as basketball popularity continues to explode nationally and globally.  We won't get or be able to pay for the 5 star athletes that top 20 teams will have access to.  We CAN and have found 3 and 4 stars that blossomed into 5 stars.  That's our critical path for success, to find better talent than St. Mary's and USF.  

Our new roster has six freshman, four sophomores, two juniors, four seniors and a grad transfer.  We have size.  Coach Sendek seems to love big guards and wings to run his fast paced, three point shooting scheme.  We have six guards 6'4"- 6'9", four forwards 6'7" - 6'9" and centers 6'10" to 7'0".    

The season schedule is NCAA worthy.  Our average preseason opponents rank at about 120; with ten of those games against sub 100 ranked teams including Xavier, ASU, St. Louis, Stanford or Minnesota.  Our WCC opponents ranking is around 125; unfavorably skewed by Pepperdine, Portland, and Pacific's low rankings and Gonzaga and St. Mary's high ranking. 

You will soon see players Thierry Darlan, Sash Gavalyugov, Gehrig Normand, Chris Tadjo, Noah Badibanga, and a redshirt, Louisiana State high school player of the year Allen Graves a 6'9" skilled player.  Elijah Mahi, Brenton Knapper, Bukky Oboye and Jake Ensminger are the experienced returnees.  This roster has something else we need; more "grit" as several on the staff have witnessed as players compete for minutes.  Two scrimmages will take place.  One was Saturday, October 19 and the other will be next week: giving the confirmation as to who may start and the rotations.  

Learning the details of our rapid fire play system and solid "team" defense will be a challenge for this young roster.  At the end of the day, it's basketball and still fundamentally the same.  Shoot the ball well, stops on defense and own the boards.  They've all done this thousands of times, just not with a Santa Clara Bronco jersey on!

Next up our roster scouting report.

Don't forget to forward to other interested Broncos!

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - The NCAA Settlement is Very Unsettling

 

                                                                                                                 

The NCAA Division One settlement was ratified on June 6th ushering in a pro sports type model for collegiate athletics.  June 6, 2025 was "D Day" for college sports programs who have to decide by June 15th to either opt in or opt out of the settlement terms.   

Here are some key points: 

Schools that "opt in" will be able to pay their athletes up to $20.5 million directly from a schools operating budget.  

Opting in also allows former Athletes going back to 2016 to file claims against their former schools for NIL compensation they were not able to have access to. 

Schools that opt out, must opt out for all sports and do not have to abide by the settlement to pay athletes directly, but athletes are able to accept NIL deals.  

There are no limits on scholarships for athletes as long as maximum roster numbers are not exceeded.  For D1 Men's Basketball, the maximum roster size is 15.  

NIL money can be paid from a University budget, but counts towards the cap of $20.5 million.   External NIL money can be offered through legitimate business sponsorships from alums, boosters, or even Investment collectives offering business and revenue generating services.  Any amount exceeding $600 to a player will require reporting to a Deloitte external compliance organization for audit and reasonableness.  Expect abuses as the rules and oversight are not yet well defined and seriously understaffed.  Imagine trying to inspect 364 division one programs each with 30 + sports.....

This changes everything except perhaps the X's and O's of how coaches implement their on court systems.  It will change the potential caliber of the players who execute these plays when the best players will be highly paid for their services and play for the more well funded power schools.

It's happening F A S T...Clemson has already formed and funded Clemson Ventures to raise donations and revenues for primarily Clemson Football and Basketball.  Duke was ready last season.  Estimates are that Cooper Flagg earned $28 million in NIL! 

How will smaller schools from smaller conferences compete?  IMHO, might not be as daunting as it sounds.  IF, the goals are to make NCAA tourneys and build your Brands national reputation benefitting the whole University, it will take more money, but not the $145 million that it takes Alabama to run football.  As it stands right now we're not going to be able to buy the 5 star transfers or recruits, but we can, as we have proven find through sharp recruiting 5 star talent for 3 star money.  

Some schools are thinking of a Private Equity or Private Credit model where strategic investments in media, facilities, brand, player development and exposure, and advertising are funded using a shared revenue or payback model.  There are those who believe that SCU's media profile locally and nationally could be enhanced.  How about just a better TV package for games?  Maybe we should engage SCU's own on campus Bronco Accelerator to analyze and make recommendations?

Lastly, in the 2026-2027 season, it's possible the WCC may not be as strong and deep as it will be this current year.  With the Zags, Washington State, and Oregon State departing, it's an opportunity for SCU to rise in the WCC and contend for league titles and auto bids from winning the WCC tourney.  It should be a major goal.  Getting to NCAA's in conjunction with investments from the above can be a game changer.  With the successes from Women's Soccer, Golf, Softball, and Men's Baseball that all helped earn SCU the Commissioner's Cup as the WCC's top athletic program this season we'll have some kindling.  Our last Commissioner's Cup win was 20 years ago.

We'll know more on June 15th.   That's the NCAA settlement opt in or opt out deadline for Division 1 schools.