1 more than St. Mary’s got. 
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@getnashty And FWIW, that final score of our game vs Minnesota was misleading. We were up by about 30 before we let up during garbage time. Coincidentally my daughter is a senior at Minnesota and I attended that game in Palm Springs (2 hours from my home in San Diego) on my birthday. What are the odds?
I liked Tilly when he was at SCU and wish him the best, but if his departure paved the way for Graves to get more time on the floor then that’s a positive development.
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For those wondering at home, GU was ranked 16th when we won last year.
The last time we beat a team higher ranked 12th or better would be the upset over North Carolina in 2004, our highest ranked win ever (tied with a couple other also at #4).
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I was there for that game. We beat NC thanks to Travis Neissen’s 28 points. He is now a Santa Clara police officer. I always hope that if I get pulled over for speeding Travis is the officer doing it. I think mentioning his 28 points might lighten the punishment. 
He is a great guy.
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The lack of available video footage of that game (or Nash’s game against Jason Kidd and Cal) is frustrating missing piece of SCU hoops history.
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Long time lurker here. Thank you for all of the insight, especially this season. Fingers crossed for continued success.
I was a student at the time of the UNC game and was in attendance as well. Was excited to get back to campus and catch the highlights on SportsCenter only to turn it on and see wall-to-wall coverage of the Pacers-Pistons “Malice at the Palace” game, which you may recall occurred that same night! 
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I’ve got more than this and some great videos too. Thought I’d share a few favorites. I took a screenshot of the front of espn.com which is also a fun time capsule.
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This is some awesome lore!
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Xavier and St Johns going to OT on FS1 - Pitino v. Pitino.
Is there an outside chance Xavier becomes at Q1 win?
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Yeah it’s hard to believe there’s no video to highlight one of the best individual shooting performances of all time. That second meeting against Cal in the 93-94 season was special (although that was probably the most disappointing season in SCU history). I try and forget that season in my mind, but I do recall that afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum quite well.
I was at that game too (when we beat Cal at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, or whatever they called the place that the Warriors played in 93-94). Agree that it was a highlight to an otherwise downer of a season. I thought we had gotten our mojo back when we opened up WCC play by sweeping the LA roadtrip, but alas we were consistently inconsistent that season.
For those wondering, our 2 votes came from Percy Allen of the Seattle Times again (keeping in mind that, in AP Poll terms, you get 1 ‘vote’ for being 25th, 2 ‘votes’ for being 24th and so on).
St. Mary’s vote came from the same guy.
I appreciate the regionality of having SCU at 24 and SMC at 25 - I’m sure southern and east coast writers show some regional bias too - but what this suggests to me is that no one else is really thinking this way, and the Broncos are a long way away from the Top 25, even if we go 2-0 this week like we are all dreaming.
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While it’s generous of him to cast a top-25 vote for SCU, after watching a good amount of college hoops over the past several weeks, I feel confident in saying Santa Clara is not a top-25 college basketball team. Maybe my eyes deceive me because of telecast production value, but wow many of the teams in the “Power” conferences are just head and shoulders above, from the athleticism to the coaching.
I’m not trying to be a debbie-downer, I really do think what, despite my criticisms, Sendek has built a great foundation and the walls are going up nicely. But the SCU program has a ways to go before it deserves to be in the rarified air of the top-25.
Let me put it to you this way. We all have great respect from Bennett and what he’s built in Moraga. But Bennett has only made it to the Sweet 16 ONCE, and that was back in 2010. Since his inaugural season in 2001-2002, SMC has made it to the tourney 11 times, going 6-5 in first round games. Would any of us consider them an “elite” program?
I’m so happy that our little school is making waves after a 30-year drought, and I am hopeful that our program can build off recent successes to achieve some level of long-term prominence. Unfortunately, I feel like we squandered a chance to springboard off of 4 solid years from 1992-96. Gonzaga, on the other hand, was able to turn a Cinderella story into a perennial powerhouse. I despise them, but also have to give them credit where credit is due.
OK, rant over. Go Broncos!
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Oh, I have no illusion that the Santa Clara Broncos are (1) actually one of the Top 25 teams nor (2) worthy of being in the AP Top 25 (those two things being slightly different - Miami (OH) is not really one of the 25 best CBB Teams, but they deserve to be in poll under their circumstances).
It’s just such a rare accolade for SCU (23 or so weeks in the history of all college basketball, mostly in the ‘50s and ‘60s) that I like to keep track. It would nice be have ‘appeared in the AP Top 25’ as one among the accolades for a season well-played. And, I think it’s especially nice to see late in the season - a mid-major seems likeliest to be ranked with a combination of an undefeated start combined with one big upset, etc.
I simply like to see them down at the bottom of the poll, in the Next/Last Four Out, discussed in the halftime break of other games and so - it greases the groove, so to speak, for an eventual at-large bid, despite how computer based things seem to be. That is, we start being a name folks associate with being in the mix.
We have been in the wilderness a long dang time, though Podz, Jalen and the NIT trips have brought us a new set of talking points beyond ‘Steve Nash went there, and Kurt Rambis too.”
My forever hope for Santa Clara Basketball is sustained stretches of meaningful basketball - I know we are unlikely to go on a run of Gonzaga proportions, but having the bar at “NCAA if the ball bounces the right way, NIT if not” and spitting out the occasional high level college or future NBA player is where I’d love us to be for a period of years. Perhaps we’re there already, but it does seem to me that NCAA trip would legitimize the slow foundation-building by Herb that you mention.
To answer your question, I’m not sure SMC is elite, but I want what they’ve got, and I think we can do it.
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WIth a Gonzaga win tonight, Santa Clara will be back as an At-Large team in most bracketologists eyes.
I am of the belief that we are outside looking in right now. I think we need a Gonzaga win to put us into the field (if the season ended today).
Some bubble games to keep an eye on tonight.
UNC @ Miami- We want UNC to win.
BYU @ Baylor- BYU win keeps Baylor off bubble.
Iowa State @ TCU- Same as above. Go Cyclones.
Arkansas @ LSU- Same as previous two. Go Hogs.
They don’t play tonight, but we could really use a Miami (OH) loss at some point to take any risk away from the MAC being a two bid league.
With this all said, just beat Seattle on Wednesday.
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Piggybacking off of BroncoHoops5’s post, here are this week’s games that matter, based on teams ranked from 9 seed to “next 4 out” in today’s ESPN Lunardi bracket. While beggars can’t be choosers, it sure would be nice to skip the Dayton play-in games and my dream is for the Broncos to get sent to San Diego (where I live) as a #9 seed.
Yesterday
Indiana (9) beat Oregon
Today
4 PM: Miami-FL (11) vs UNC (5)
4 PM: SMU (9) vs Notre Dame
5 PM: Wisconsin (9) @ Illinois (2)
6 PM: Okla St (next 4 out) @ ASU
Wednesday
3:30: VCU (next 4 out) @ LaSalle
3:30: USC (10) @ Ohio St (first 4 out)
4 PM: Cal (first 4 out) @ Syracuse
4 PM: Georgia (10) vs Florida (3)
4 PM: VT (first 4 out) @ Clemson (6)
4:30: Seton Hall (next 4 out) vs Providence
5 PM: Tulsa (next 4 out) vs UAB
6 PM: Missouri (first 4 out) @ A&M (8)
7 PM: SCU (11) vs Seattle U. LFG!!!
7 PM: SMC (10) vs Pepperdine
7 PM: NM (11) @ Grand Canyon
Friday
5 PM: Wisconsin (9) vs Mich St (4)
6 PM: Miami-OH (11) vs Ohio
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Hell yes MockmcD, thank you!
Santa Clara in San Diego is the dream. I’d take Portland too. Shit, I’d take anywhere. Beggars can’t be choosers as you said!
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Looks like the Portland games are going to be a pair of 4 vs 13 games and a pair of 5 vs 12 games. So that seems unlikely, barring a regular season collapse followed by winning the WCC tourney. It used to be that the last at-large teams would get 12 seeds (that was us in 1995 as I recall), but all of the mock brackets this year have the cutoff at 11 seed. I wonder is that because there are more conferences (getting auto bids) than there used to be?
Meanwhile, the San Diego games are going to be 1 vs 16, 8 vs 9, 4 vs 13, and 5 vs 12. I suspect that we would need to lose no more than 1 game including the WCC tourney to reach the 9 seed.
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Yup, more conferences now.
I guess that makes sense. Gonzaga is likely to be in Portland and a 4. Arizona will be a 1 and in San Diego.
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I watch the Kanas/Arizona tilt last night. Maybe it was the electric atmosphere in the Fieldhouse, the interior strength of the ‘Cats, or the tough defense by Kansas in the 2nd half, but I thought: “My God, they are in another stratosphere.”
I am excited about this team and how they are still fighting and taking care of business. And I will take what we have now to see if we can get out of a 30 year drought. But wow.
Note also…if you want to beat Arizona, force them to play on the perimeter and lock up on the interior. They don’t shoot the 3.
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