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!
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