Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Are We The Horse to Ride?

 

                                                                                                                     

It's amazing how two "daggers" changed the landscape and trajectory for Santa Clara Men's Basketball.  Sash Gavalyugov's nite-nite  three pointer to beat Sy. Mary's in the WCC tourney and Kentucky's half court desperation three to beat us in the NCAA tournament vaulted us from being an under the radar mid-major team to now projected to win the WCC. 

In reality, the above was 10 years in the making under the steady hand of Coach Sendek, and his staff, when many wondered if we had the guts and re$olve to compete at the national level.  Well, three first round NBA draft picks in the past five years and an NCAA selection answered those questions.  

We aren't the underdogs anymore, we are the "DOGS" in the WCC.   

No secrets.  We will be the hunters and the hunted as we seek to win our first WCC title in 30 years.  It's interesting that St. Mary's preseason ranking is better than ours.  Might be a Randy Bennett hangover, but more likely because they return two of the top 10 performers in the WCC from last season plus some strong transfers.

Our Coaches didn't just sit around over the summer and bask in the NCAA spotlight.  They went to work right away.  If the Stanford (ranked #78) exhibition game is any indicator of our season potential, you've got to like our chances.  It wasn't just the 83-78 win, but it happened without three of our mainstays who didn't play!  Sash, KJ, and David Castillo as well as Bronco fans were all spectators who watched a tornado of defensive effort disorient a good team into 20 turnovers and we bullied our way into 18 offensive rebounds in the victory. 

In our defensive intensity, we also committed 32 fouls resulting in 46, yes 46, free throws for Stanford who made 37 of those.  It's not a strategy most coaches would use as a standard game plan, but on this night it worked generating 17 more possessions than Stanford.  It's tough to score if your opponent dosen't have the ball. 

The exhibition at Utah State, a top 50 team, was a good road test before our season gets underway.  We were behind 5 at half, but not much seemed to go right in the second half; ending in a 21 point loss.  In that half, the box score shows we either couldn't make an open shot or their defense hotly contested the shots.  We were 2-11 from the three point arc and Utah State was 43% on 6-14 shooting.  That math just doesn't work.  A bright spot was transfer Fedor Zugic, who played his first minutes as a Bronco, scored 14 points in 18 minutes of action.  All three of our experienced bigs fouled out.  In any case, the coaches know a great deal more of the tweaks and fixes needed before the season opener against Towson at Leavey.

In practice, the coaches preach focusing on highest value offensive and defensive efforts.  The design is to maximize our points per possesion (PPP) as well as using aggressive defense to take away opponents' possessions.  Two examples are generating turnovers and grabbing offensive rebounds that turn into putbacks or kickout three's.

Perhaps most iteresting, will be how the team deals with being the WCC favorite and not the underdog role we've been accustomed to for the past 10 years.  A win against the Broncos in the WCC is now an upset and the underdogs will be chomping at the bit to make it happen.  You can imagne that the St. Mary's rivalry will be at Devcon 5 level ths season as they must be chapped at being picked second.  

Our preseason schedule is strong.  Games with expected NCAA tournamemt teams like Nevada, New Mexico, VCU, Grand Canyon, Murray State, Boise State, and McNeese State are real tests along with some easier games like Towson, Sacramento State, and Utah Tech.

I see this team as pugnacious and motivated.  Pugnacious as they are combative and agressive for the full forty minutes.  Motivated, to prove they are NCAA worthy and can shine with the brighter lights cast upon them.  It will be rocky and fun to watch! 

We have five returning players and nine new guys to assimilate and try to be productive.  A big wild card is, IF Elijah Mahi will be eligible.  As of today, he is listed on the roster.  We'll know very soon.  He woud be a needed horse in our corral as we embark on this team's journey of being the "Horse to Ride"!

 

Santa Clara Men's Basketball - Can We Seize the Opportunities Thirty Years in the Making?

 

                                                                                                          

The 2025-2026 season was our year to break through the seemingly impenetrable path into the NCAA tournament. The heartbreaking loss to Kentucky sparked a new reality for Santa Clara Men's Basketball.  We belong.  

Not only do we belong, but our expectations are conference titles and more NCAA invites.  More importantly, our University leadership is also committed to this reality - a long overdue, but essential component.  It's how, then, lowly Gonzaga rose from anonymity 30 years ago to a basketball powerhouse while we and other WCC teams sat flatfooted. 

With Gonzaga gone from the WCC, our new reality presents an incredible opportunity to seize the top spot in the WCC and create a new trajectory into the future.  It's all there for the taking; even amidst the chaos of the new NCAA Moneyball roster building among the Power Conferences.  The 2026-2027 season will be our first chance to ascend to this level by winning the WCC.  It will not be easy.

Part of new reality is that with the Zags out, the WCC conference ranking dropped from 6th down to 10th.  Translation, the WCC may go back to being a one bid league.  More pressure to win the WCC tourney.      

Our schedule supports this quest and our roster is capable.  The difficulty is solving the roster integration Rubik's Cube and integrating 14 players into our system and get the most from them.  It's a lot to learn in three months.  For the Freshman and transfers it's akin to learning to be fluent in a new language and applying it in real-time.  The coaches are now assessing where the pieces will fit best and who will earn the minutes.  

Let's be clear, minutes are earned; not entitled.  Every practice uses a Plus-Minus box score formula to see which players are contributing the most on the floor in live action.  A testament to this formula's success was last year when Allen Graves came off the bench much of the season and his unit was key to many victories.  Obviously, competition in practice is fierce.  Coach Sendek has a lot of options at every position, a potential big advantage in our frenetic up tempo defense and offense.

No one in the WCC is standing pat.  Every team in the realigned WCC conference is investing to take the top spot.  More name brand name coaches have come into the WCC and facility makeovers are in progress.  NIL budgets are expanding in the search for the next under the radar stars.  

In the past five years, we have distinguished ourselves as the only mid-major program that developed three players into first round NBA draft picks.  There are only five power conference teams who have achieved this. They are the Bluebloods of NCAA basketball.  This momentum needs to continue as the NIL price to buy top talent is out of our reach. The global growth of college basketball should help us greatly as the top 20 power teams will just buy what they need.  

Scouting and recruiting become even more important as the transfer portal makes it very difficult to retain players.  Congress is about to vote on a College Basketball rules package that will cap University monies at $41 million, but this does not include NIL.  Transferring will be allowed only once in the five year eligibility rules. That should help SCU be able to recruit talent and have a season or two to develop them under these new transfer rules.

We'll see.  Our first preview is today at Leavey when we take on Stanford in a preseason exhibition contest.  Stanford had the 15 best transfer roster per several college basketball analysis sites; including the son of Hall of Famer, Hakeem Olajuwon.  I think coaches open with likely starters if they are healthy, but will play a lot of different combinations to see the newer players get experience in full game situation intensity. 

Update: SCU beat Stanford last night in this exhibition 83-78 making an 8-0 run in the lasy two minutes.  Fun to watch!

Nice to have had this exhibition for Bronco season ticket holders and fans.

The irony to this season is a real "Back to the Future" moment.  It was exactly 30 years ago that Santa Clara finished first in the WCC and went to the NCAA Tournament with a roster of Steve Nash, Marlon Garnett and Lloyd Pierce.  Will this harbinger of our past success give us the momentum to seize this new opportunity 30 years in the making?