Santa Clara Men's Basketball Snapshot 1950-2013

"The Bucking Bronco"

Many Bronco season ticket holders and loyal fans graduated from SCU during the 1960's through the 1990's.  There are TOO many great stories, games, players, and memories to include in one post.

Here's a quick 63 year recap and some stats:

Santa Clara was one of the top teams in the country and certainly a West Coast powerhouse during the 1950's through the early 1970's.  Known for marquee players and a bruising defense, when you played SCU, win or lose, you were in a dogfight.
The 1980's and 90's featured more "name" players, but our image on the national stage and after 1997 in league play began to fade.  
There were some huge wins, but our performance in the WCC was not only being challenged but overtaken in the late 1980's by Loyola and in the early 1990's by Pepperdine.  Then in 1993 Gonzaga, a newcomer to the league, won its first title. 
Santa Clara's last outright WCC title was in 1994-95 and we were co-champs in 1995-96 and 1996-97 - 16 years ago.....

After 1997, with a few interruptions from St. Mary's, it's been all Gonzaga in the WCC.

WCC Coaching and Post Season Statistics*  SCU in Chronological Order

Coach                           Seasons    W     L      PCT   WCC Titles  NCAA 's   NIT's

SCU

Bob Feerick   '50-62         12           77    43      .642           3               4

Dick Garibaldi  '62-'70       8            74    34      .685           3               3

Carroll Williams '70-'92      22         165  137     .546           0**            1         4

Dick Davey  '92-'07           15         122    88      .581           3              3         0

Kerry Keating   '08            6            33    52     .388            0              0         0***

Mark Few - Zags  '99       14         179   21      .895           11             14

Randy Bennett - SMC      12         117   55      .680            2               5        2

* Source: WCC record book
** Won WCC Tourney 1987

*** Won CIT.com in 2010 and CBI Tourney in 2012.  These are post season event for teams not selected to the NCAA and NIT fields. 


Why just focus on WCC results?  Day in and day out the surest way to get an NCAA invite is to win your league or league tournament. (The WCC tournament winner gets and automatic invite to the NCAA tourney.) 
Gonzaga's run in the WCC has elevated the program to national prominence and at the same time raised the visibility of WCC over the past 5 years. 
The addition of BYU and the return of Pacific makes the WCC a much stronger conference. Every WCC University has been investing to try to "step up" their program to compete with Gonzaga and St. Mary's.  

That's my brief history of where SCU has been and where we are entering 2013-14.  I hope you enjoyed the snapshot!

NEXT POST:  2013-14 EARLY GAMES RECAP AND SEASON OUTLOOK. 



Fred Crary
The Bucking Bronco