Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Now What?

   

                                                                                                                         

The hiring of Santa Clara's next Athletic Director will tell Bronco season ticket holders, fans, alums and students all they need to know about the trajectory and future of Athletics and, in particular, Men's Basketball.  

When Dr. Renee Baumgartner was hired nearly nine years ago as Santa Clara's Athletics Director, the selection was met with great optimism and skepticism.  Skeptics didn't feel she had the "creds" and optimists believed her past stops at bigger name schools and energy would help take Athletics, especially Men's Basketball, to another level.  

Renee's hiring came on the heels of the 2015 SCU President's Commission on Athletics which declared, among other goals, that it was their intent to achieve and maintain a National Reputation in Men's Basketball.  Her first major move was to hire Coach Herb Sendek as Men's Basketball coach who came from stints at N.C. State and Arizona State.  Again, the idea was to take us to another level to rival Gonzaga who has dominated the WCC for the past 25 years.

Fast forward to now.  Four recent 20 win seasons, two NIT's, and back to back NBA 1st round draft picks and we are definitely at another level; a winning level in Men's Basketball.  

The question has to be asked, is this the level we aspire to?  Can we build off the successes of Renee and Coach Sendek and become a legit "national" level program to match our national level facilities, or are we satisfied with winning and settling for third in the WCC and our "mid-major" label?  

Due to the changing NCAA landscape, this may be the biggest decision in Santa Clara history regarding Athletics that Dr. Sullivan and the Trustees will have to make.  In the past, the University has not compromised building out our Academic facilities or hiring the best Professorial talent.  IMHO, until recently, Athletics has not been a strategic part of the mission on the Mission campus.  

Other small religious based Universities figured out 25+ years ago that using Athletics and, in particular, Men's Basketball as a strategic weapon that built National recognition and Endowments that funded key aspects of their Academic and facility needs.  Witness the successes of Villanova, Marquette, Xavier, and of course, Gonzaga.

The challenge will only get more expensive and harder as transfer portals, NIL pay for play, and the recent $2.8 billion NCAA legal settlement with the Power Conferences will change the landscape of the NCAA.  You're talking about perhaps the most significant changes since Title IX was adopted in 1972.

We've been down this road before and punted until 2015-16.  

The choices and financials associated with becoming truly National are equally daunting.  One choice is to pack it in, go down to non-scholarship Division 3, like Chapman or Lewis and Clark, and have athletics be more like intercollegiate intramurals; an extracurricular activity at minimal cost.  BTW, there are more schools in Division 3, (434) than in Division 1, (352).   With the legal settlement mentioned above, this will be an option as the cost of Division 1 will rise dramatically as athletes will have to be compensated by the Universities and/or NIL corporate contracts.  

Another choice is to invest.  Make the commitment to actually become national rather than just buzz words.  Why settle for mid-level in Men's Basketball?  The optics and financial payoff of success are enormous.  

Even with the recent improvements, much will need to change.  First, and foremost, is hiring a "been there, done that" Athletics Director who has the mandate and funding from the Trustees to get to National.  National means no less than a top 40 and preferably a top 25 ranking.  These are NCAA invite worthy rankings.  

Following that, staff, facilities, marketing, fundraising, both community and alum outreach,  fan experience and much more will need upgrades.  Our basketball schedule will need to continue the upward competitive level from last season.  This cannot be a "words only" get to National like the 2015 declaration from the Commission on Athletics.  

The search committee is nearly in place.  The "draft" board of candidates will follow and hopefully by end of summer we might know where SCU Athletics and Men's Basketball are headed.  

For season ticket holders and fans, we hope we don't settle for less than we can become.  So, now what?  

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Unfinished Business

 

                                                                                                                       

After a successful 20-13 season, there were many questions as to what might happen with the Broncos given the new "free agency" rules in Men's Basketball resulting from NIL and the transfer portal.   Pay to play is the new stratagem to building rosters versus the tried and true high school recruiting process.  Matching big NIL dollars is not in the SCU playbook.  The most visible example being National Champion UCONN who lost 4 players but found 5 others in the portal to repeat as Champs.  It makes total dollars and sense.  

Over 1,000 players entered the portal;  all seeking a better deal or playing time situation on a higher profile team.  Even St. Mary's, known for "home grown" development, lost two key players including Aiden Mahaney to, you guessed it, UCONN.  Santa Clara benefitted from the portal the prior two seasons getting Brandin Podziemski and last season landing five transfers who played significant minutes.

With the Broncos parked in third in the WCC, some hoped the portal would help us find key players needed to move up.  Well, guess what?  Only one, uno, transfer.  Former Bronco Carlos Stewart decided to come back from LSU.  Basically, we are standing "pat".  No new blood.   

The only major departure for SCU will be Athletics Director Renee Baumgartner, who is stepping down on June 30th, to attend to family matters.  While Renee didn't play a game or score a point for MBB, she paved the way for more success; revitalizing a neglected program by former SCU administrations adding facilities and programs that have the potential for SCU to rise to legit National status.  More on this topic coming.

So why did the players stay?  So far, no coaching departures either despite opportunities.  Certainly there was money out there for a few players to showcase their talents on a bigger stage.  My feeling is, there's unfinished business these coaches and players desperately want to accomplish.  

As fans and season ticket holders we know what "could" have been.  I think these players feel the current stage is big enough.  They just need to play to their potential which, to be honest, didn't happen consistently last season.  The highs were high, but the lows too low.  We beat Gonzaga, but lost to Portland and lowly others.  

Let's face it, everyone in the WCC is raiding the portal to get immediate results.  Higher profile name coaches are coming to the WCC.  They're not coming here to lose.  Gonzaga is still Gonzaga.  They lost players to the portal, but still improved their roster.  St. Mary's lost top players, but was able to retain key pieces and harvested promising talent that Randy Bennett will know how to develop.  No one is standing "pat" except SCU.  

Let's be clear, standing "pat" doesn't mean standing still.  Players can, and do, improve when they have the talent, work ethic, and detailed coaching.  I believe each SCU MBB player has their own development plan and measurements to track progress.

The question is what will be different?  Should we expect more from the same players, running the same offense and defense, and coaching game plans with just one more season of experience?  Maybe.  If, in fact, this is what the players are thinking, that's a good start.

Here's what fans and season ticket holders think need improvement to get out of third gear in the WCC and contend for an NCAA invite.  I've added some benchmark stats to compare  the Broncos performance to both the WCC and NCAA qualifiers we played in 2024.  While there are other key factors beyond just stats that position teams to warrant NCAA bids, the stats for these qualifiers reveal performance baselines to get into the selection conversation.

On offense:  Reduce turnovers by 25% from 12.8 to an average of 10 or less per game.  Improve our assists to turnover ratio 25% with more efficient ball movement from 1.2 to an average of 1.5 per game.  Improve our inside/out offensive production where our bigs are better positioned to score down low AND pass outside to open 3 point shooters.  Over a third of our 422 turnovers came from our bigs when they were stopped in the post; often too far from the basket.

On defense:  Improve the defensive scheme to handle the pick and roll.  Play physical without fouling.  Our opponents overall shooting percentages were 5% higher than the above peer group of NCAA teams.  We shoot the ball well, but give up better shots to opponents.  Sounds like a nit, but 5% on 2,000 shots, not trivial.  We gave up more free throw attempts to opponents and to the peer group than we shot.  Lastly, we generated 30% fewer steals from our opponents than they stole from us.  

Overall:  Run offenses and defense with "purposeful"  intentional motion.  The peer sample teams don't just go through the motions, they catch defenses with their screens, actively go to exploit clear mismatches, and can stop opposing teams best players from taking over games.  

A lot went right for us to get 20 wins.  We were "in the mix" with 11 games left for a postseason invite.  Our 5-6 finish might be the reason our players are staying.   That's why I call it unfinished business.  

In a way, it's a gutsy call on the part of the players and coaches. They could have run away into the portal or other coaching gigs, but didn't.  Instead, face the challenge straight on.  Stare it down.  That's a competitive spirit you're got to love.   IMHO, this will be also be the greatest challenge for our coaches as well.  

There's no doubt to the potential of this roster.  Molding this roster into a team that contends in the WCC and for post season is the "unfinished business" our coaches want to and need to deliver for Bronco fans. 

We all hope it will be worth the wait!