Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Portal Blues: "Should I Stay or Should I Go"

 

                                                                                                              

NCAA Men's Basketball was forever changed back in April of 2021 when a weakened NCAA organization tried to fend off lawsuits accusing it of using players' images and likeness to make a profit without compensation. 

Fast forward to today and NCAA Basketball is a pay for play world offering unrestricted "student athlete" transfers via a Portal that is being driven by Agents seeking to enrich themselves and players to the highest bidders.   

In any sport roster talent reins supreme and it's no different for Men's Basketball.  The teams that have the most money, along with their winning history, have the first crack at the top players.  

For the past five years, the competitive gap between Mid Majors and High Majors has grown larger each year and the gap between the top 10 ranked teams and the top 30 teams has also increased in the past four years.  The miracle of the NCAA tournament "Cinderella" going past the round of 32 is largely becoming extinct.  The Broncos lost a nailbiter to Kentucky, High Point (12) beat Wisconsin (5), VCU (11) beat North Carolina (6) and Texas (11) beat Gonzaga (3).  All, but Texas, vanished at the round of 32.  

For the Mid Majors, like Santa Clara, roster construction along with talent evaluation are the crucial elements to get in position to have a season NET ranking able to earn one of the few at-large NCAA slots.  The remake of the WCC for the upcoming season presents us with a huge auto bid opportunity with Gonzaga gone and it's choke hold on the WCC tournament. 

For the record, according to analytic sources, Santa Clara had the highest overperforming roster in all of NCAA basketball last season rising 70 places above it's expected preseason ranking!  We'll need more of the same for 2026-2027 to vie for consecutive NCAA bids.  

It's not just money and access to talent that makes strong rosters.  It helps, but building a roster of complimentary skills it just as important.  Finding and recruiting players that possess multiple key skills - shooters, defenders, rebounders, passers, and the hardest one, chemistry.  We had all of that last season. 

There are great roster construction analytics tools that help coaches evaluate every portal player's performance for every game for any stat.  It's very realistic for us to snag a few more High Major transfers to elevate the roster.  This assumes we are able to keep most of our "core" players who will face the decision "should I stay or should I go?"  

We return 12 players.  We have three incoming high school recruits 6'5" Brayde Kuykendall, 6'7" Eli Jolin, and 7'1" Alex Ensor.  We have two High Major transfers on our roster, Chris Tadjo and Gehrig Normand coming off injury redshirts and two regular redshirts, Brad Longcor and Noah Badibanga who should be solid contributors next season.  

On April 7th, transfer portal opens for two weeks.  Coaches are not supposed to contact players until then, but Agents may ignore that date.  Players can state they are entering the portal and so far Christian Hammond has declared.  It is assumed that Allan Graves will declare for the NBA draft after a breakout season.  Both will test the water$ and can return if they wish.  It's no secret SCU would love to retain those two.  

IF they leave, that opens up spots for transfers.  I'm pretty sure our coaches have their prospect boards ready to move quickly.  I expect a few other Broncos may also declare for the portal as the date approaches.  Agents are swarming like locusts to land lucrative NIL deals for players and, of course, themselves. This past season was littered with Mid Major transfers to High Majors that, yes got some money, but more likely hurt their careers by getting buried on the bench by High Major five star players.  Santa Clara has proven it can develop high performing pros and that's real money for life versus one season. In other words, you might get "Nil" for your NIL.

After such a successful season, we may even see some coaching movement to take advantage of openings to further their careers.

Might be wishful thinking, but it appeared these players really liked each other and felt connected and committed to the significant task of getting the NCAA invite.  That's a special feeling.  The gut wrenching loss to Kentucky is one that some or most of this team may want to avenge by staying and qualifying for the tournament again and winning some games.  How about a quest for the "Sweet 16?"  

Now is the time for the Bronco Administration and Trustees to make decisive move$ and not let this moment lapse like we have in the past. It would be great to see our leadership be aggressive like we ask our Athletes to be.  If they do, that could be something sweet to savor for a long time!

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Is This the End of the Beginning?

 

                                                                                                                            

After a 30 year drought, the Broncos returned to the NCAA Tournament and battled a legacy blue-blood Kentucky team to the final three seconds before they made a miracle 40 ft buzzer beater to send the game into overtime. Only UCLA, under the great John Wooden, has won more NCAA titles than the eight owned by Kentucky.

It was perhaps one of the most exciting and painful three seconds in Bronco history.  As hard as the loss was in overtime, it had the effect of having Santa Clara Men's Basketball go viral on a global basis on every sports and news outlet imaginable.  A loss yes, but also a huge win.

It's interesting to note, that since the 1950's we have achieved consecutive years NCAA bids in at least three different decades; only to have it slip away back into anonymity for long spans of 18 and now 30 years.  

That's why I ask, "Is this the end of the beginning?"  Is it the new beginning of a sustained University and Athletic Department goal driven effort to make NCAA's annually or frequently like St. Mary's or let this opportunity slip away like in the past?  Those who were lucky enough to attend in St. Louis witnessed fans and season ticket holders on fire and loud in support of this team.  Maybe Coach Sendek's dream of filling Leavey for most every game can now be made a reality.  What a concept!

It will not be easy or for the faint of heart.  It will take a clear and measurable vision, backed by lots of money, and not accepting mediocrity along the way to growing the SCU franchise.  Everyone has to be all in including trustees, fans, season ticket holders, students, and, of course, staff.  That includes all of us chipping in to fund this fundamental shift of SCU becoming a more legit recognizable National brand like Gonzaga has enjoyed for 25 years running.  

The process has already started.  The WCC has changed as Gonzaga, Oregon State, and Washington State leave and Denver joins to form a 10 team conference.  SCU was 15-1 versus this remaining lineup last season.  St. Mary's will be without Randy Bennett, who is leaving to coach Arizona State.  The Gaels still have four starters and two solid bench players returning. This may change quickly, as players declare their intentions ahead of when the transfer portal opens April 7th.  

WCC coaches are evaluating likely roster scenarios for transfers out and in.  Santa Clara did an awesome job in the portal and high school recruiting last season.  Our NCAA press coverage should open new doors for more high major transfers into our program.  We have three high major transfers on our roster now who validate that other high major players will thrive at SCU.  The Broncos will not be exempt from current players announcing for the portal and transferring.  

The opportunities for NCAA bids remain the same.  Earn an at-large bid or win your conference tournament.  The NCAA tournament has plans to add more play in games for teams who can earn a berth into the final field of 68 teams.  With the new WCC, the Broncos have both qualification avenues as real opportunities with Gonzaga leaving and it's stranglehold on the WCC tournament.  

We'll know a lot more on April 7th when the portal opens.  In any case, it's a great time to be a Bronco and see if we can capitalize on the NCAA tournament success.  That's an opportunity 30 years in the making!

Next up:  The Portal: Should I stay or Should I go?

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Defying the Odds

 

                                                                                                                            

When the 2024-2025 season ended with a upset loss to Pepperdine in the WCC tournament quarterfinals followed by a giveaway loss to the University of Alabama Birmingham in the second round of the NIT, Bronco fans were left wondering where do we go from here?  Add to that, three of our best scorers left via the portal or graduated.  

Once the NCAA basketball settlement was approved, it boosted NIL payouts to players into the stratosphere.  This seemingly left Mid-Majors, like SCU, with the stark reality of how can we compete and continue to elevate a multi 20 win season program that last won a WCC Conference title in 1997 and last NCAA invite in 1996.  The odds didn't seem great. 

With only three players returning for 2025-2026 that played significant minutes, the roster rebuild was daunting.  The coaches are constantly recruiting and landed their four incoming Freshman class early.  

When the transfer portal opened they were ready to strike.  Bronco fans wondered how much impact do two SCU first round NBA draft picks really have in harnessing much better talent.  Let's just say, we are proving that you don't have to be a high major program to grab high major talent.  The portal yielded three top high major transfers from Iowa, Villanova, Michigan State, and one from the NBA G-League.  When the dust settled, we had a roster with 10 new players, six of which were Freshman.  

Despite all of the above, here we are 26-8.  Defying the odds.  It's a testament not only to our coaching staff, but to a unique group of players who truly play for each other and not for themselves or scouts like some recent players.  No egos about the starting lineup or minutes played - it's about competing and winning.  

The WCC Conference was ranked 6th best out of 31 Conferences in the NCAA this season and yet we had our best conference record finishing 3rd with a 15-3 record with NO losses to teams below us.  Even mighty Gonzaga lost to Portland this season.  This record was monumental in keeping our hopes of an NCAA at-large bid alive heading into the Conference tournament.  

Looking at our overall record, there were two losses that hurt our resume for an NCAA bid opportunity.  A second half loss to ASU when leading by 10 points late in the game and a disastrous loss to Loyola Chicago in Santa Cruz.  The road to the NCAA was crystal clear during the WCC tournament. A must win over vasty improved Pacific and a semifinal win versus our nemesis St. Mary's.  

Loyal Bronco season ticket holders and fans had seen this movie many times before.  Crushing losses at crunch time.  NOT THIS TIME!  This team, for all its foibles, has no rear view mirror and lives in the moment.  We shut down Pacific in the WCC quarterfinals.  A team that won 18 games this year, doubling their win total from 2024-2025 and setting up the showdown with St. Mary's in the semifinals.  

The odds against beating St. Mary's weren't great with them holding a 17-5 win record against us since 2016.  Our convincing win at Leavey against St. Mary's proved we had both the talent and toughness to send the Gaels packing in the WCC semifinals rematch.  It was a war.  Physical and chippy.  After several Bronco comeback runs from losing small leads, we were the intimidators with Elijah Mahi and Sash Gavalyugov scoring at will in the paint against the Gael's vaunted defense.  The final blow was the "night-night" 28 ft three pointer by Sash to seal the 76-71 win.  It was epic.  

Those Broncos in attendance and watching on television felt huge pride and vindication that 30 years of being known as that little nice Catholic school in Silicon Valley with a basketball team suddenly morphed into a WCC contender and a #10 NCAA seed.  

Our move up actually wasn't that sudden given five 20 win seasons in the past six years, but this statement win at crunch time at a highly visible venue was a coming out party that put us squarely in the mix for our NCAA at-large selection.  For those of us who have been around SCU basketball a long time, it felt as good as the Nash team 1993 upset of Arizona.  

If there are any questions as to what NCAA bids and success mean to the visibility and stature of schools that dare to compete at that level, just witness the last week's buzz about Santa Clara on every national media sports and news outlets.  It's huge.  I mean, we can't even get much press in the local SJ Mercury.

Our Friday first round NCAA game in St. Louis is another statement opportunity versus Kentucky; a true legacy "blueblood" program.  Their estimated $25 million dollar roster dwarfs ours; yet gives us another rare opportunity to "defy the odds." 

No matter what happens, the odds are in our favor for the future by parleying this season's success into more national level success.  And those odds we all can get behind!