Hope the team adjusts to the time change beginning this evening and tomorrow morning.. getting to be 1.5 hours early and up 1.5 hours earlier throughout the week because in St Louis they will be getting up at 6:00am PST at the latest..
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For those not traveling to STL - you can watch at the Leavey Center, Kezar Pub or the other watch parties above.
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I read that Kentuckyâs NIL basketball budget is 22M for this season and they rank #1 in that respect. I will defer to someone on the board that may have some inside knowledge as to what our NIL roster budget is.
Iâd be surprised if it exceeds 10% of Kentuckyâs. Itâs David vs Goliath from an NIL perspective. Pope has to be feeling the pressure.
If you want to get your blood boiling - hereâs the obligatory âthey didnât play/beat anyoneâ that every WCC team is subjected to.
Far more vitriol Iâm seeing online is coming from Mountain West fans who are not happy to be a 1 bid league. I always liked the MW⌠The WCC is changing this year, but the MW is getting cleaved in half.
To the article, Iâd counter that we have two wins against a team higher in the NET than UK, played another NET peer to 1 point a neutral court, and played Gonzaga 3 times (lost by a combined 31 points) while UK lost to them by 35 points in a single game.
Iâm not saying I feel great about the game (thought Torvik is - weâve a 51% chance to win, favored by .4 points).
I cannot wait to exorcise the âFirst Trip Since 1996â from the mediaâs collective vocabulary.
Getting an at-large bid in 2026 as a mid-major requires significant vision, buy-in and execution. In so many ways, weâve already won by making it (given where weâve been). Iâm not counting the Big East or Gonzaga as mid-majors, and VCU won the auto-bid. That means the mid-major at-large count is just us, Saint Maryâs and Saint Louis.
Iâd love to win this one if for nothing else than to keep the story going and to get a chance to play a game on the weekend that presumably wonât be at 9am.
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Venting: Thanks for listening
How can the NCAA think a 7 vs. 10 matchup should be the 9:15am PT / 12:15pm ET game in STL?
The other 3 STL games:
2 vs. 15 seed at 11:50am PT / 2:50pm ET
Another 2 vs. 15 seed at 4:35pm PT / 7:35pm PT
And finally another 7 vs. 10 seed at 7:10pm PT / 10:10pm PT
So the only team from the PT/MT zones has to play at body-clock breakfast time?
While the 2 vs 15 likely slaughter games between CT/ET time zone teams are later (one of which is prime-time in CT/ET zones)?
And the last game of the STL slate, between an MT team and an ET team, will be on at 10:10pm ET?
Awful. Absolutely awful.
Rant over. Letâs go, Broncos!!!
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Parlor game: Speculation
25-8 Santa Clara goes into the tourney at a NET 40 Q1 2-6, Q2 6-1, Q3 10-0, Q4 7-1
SCU lost three OOC games by a total of 6 points (31 NET SLU by 1, 73 NET ASU by 3, Q4 LUC by 2).
Had the Broncos won those three games, theyâd have ended up 28-5 with Q1 3-5, Q2 7-0, Q3 10-0, Q4 8-0
Where do you think SCU wouldâve been seeded in the tourney?
Iâd say NET wouldâve been between 26 (Utah St.) and 31 (SLU).
Probably good for an 8 seed, maybe stretch to a 7?
What say you?
My guess is because itâs considered by many to be one of the most attractive and interesting first round matchups and itâs a âstand aloneâ game at least for the first 30 minutes.
CBS ranked all 32 1st round matchups based on appeal or âmust seeâ and Santa Clara/Kentucky ranked #1. However, the fact that many people will be at work takes away from that to some degree. Again, just my 2 cents for what itâs worth.
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When our name was selected on Sunday, I had zero expectations to beat Kentucky. It was always going to be an upset scenario we were walking into.
But as the week has progressed, Iâm convincing myself that this one is there for the taking - and Vegas agrees.
I have so much fomo for those going to the game. Get the (Irish) coffee flowing early and hope we can jump all over them with 3s from the get-go.
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Iâm guessing almost all of us have some dread that the early tipoff catches the Broncos still asleep and we fail to make a good showing while the national spotlight is on us, but I also think itâs for the taking and Iâm really looking forward to it (and of course Iâm advancing the Broncos much further in my bracket than any reasonable person should).
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I donât think the early tipoff will be an issue. Maybe some nerves and a talented Kentucky team but I think they will be locked in. BTW - Is it reasonable to have Broncos over Duke 100-5 in the final? Asking for a friend.
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Speaking of coffee (above post), I am a former coffee drinker who used it for athletics..Why canât they give them a cup or two of coffee friday morning? I am sure it is legal, but is it efficacious? Is there something else teams do in these circumstances beside adjusting bed time and waking time?
Whoâs kidding who? The Broncos are young. Theyâre playing a blue-blood. Kentucky is legendary. Weâll be so stoked, itâll be halftime before the kids quit jumping through the rafters. We might be too awake. I donât think we will have any trouble being ready to go. None of us are. Friday canât get here soon enough. Go Broncos!
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Love to see that my dread has been rebuffed. This team has shown up ready to battle in difficult circumstances again and again this year. Win or lose, I believe theyâll make us proud again. Go Broncos! Thrive for the bounty
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One of our greatest strengths is that we are a deep team and we could have 7 different leading scorers in 7 different games. So if the lights are too bright for one guy, another player or 2 is likely to step up.
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On the one hand, I get the sentiment (and you donât even need to find your way past the paywall to get the gist here).
On the other hand, I think:
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The reported 2.5 or so million NIL budget is wrong on the low side; and
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There are 25 or so D1 basketball programs in California. Who is spending more than us on NIL? UCLA, USC, SDSU, perhaps Cal and Stanford (though Iâve heard the Card donât participate in the NIL world that much). I think we spend more than any other team, SMC included.
I suppose weâre cost conscious - certainly compared to Kentuckyâs impecunious ways - but weâre hardly some shoe-string miracle. We are smart, but not broke.
Throw in the Chron calling us a âtraditionally unsuccessfulâ program this morning⌠what does make, say, SJSU or UC Davis? This is our 12th NCAA tournament, with a trip in 5 of the last 7 decades. Thatâs a long arc of being at least above average.
Anyway, the whole framing of this game like itâs a 15 versus 2 is frustrating. 10 seeds have won 40% of their games in the seeded-tournament era. Weâre a metric peer of Kentucky this season, not a Pete Carril Princeton team.
Anyway, I hope we win.
Go Broncos.
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I think youâre overthinking this, @getnashty
I feel like the SCU AD fed a lot of the info with the clear intention of setting up the David-Goliath narrative. We know weâve got the juice and the talent to beat Kentuckyâbasically every outlet has it as a toss-up and many are picking SCU. Santa Clara is creating fertile ground to make a huge push for PR and funding if they can knock off the Wildcats since itâs way more fun to be the triumphant underdog than the equally-capable opponent on the winning end of a gentlemenâs match.
Remember that the average person reading the Merc probably occasionally refers to SCU as âUC Santa Claraâ and couldnât tell you whether they have any D1 sports let alone a March Madness entrant. Thatâs the audience that we are trying to get to pay attention.
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The article does appear to be written by someone who works for SCU!
I am definitely overthinking it.
I just want us to be good at basketball (which I think we currently are) and have it not be like a charity case 
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I donât mean this in any negative way, but I find it just a tad ironic that Tillyâs college career has ended before the Bronco season will, as the Ohio State has fallen to TCU.
Best of luck to him in his future endeavors.
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Hey, whatâs the next game in the NCAA tournament?
Could it be the SANTA CLARA BRONCOS and the Kentucky Wildcats?
So exciting - hope I can get a little sleep before this one!
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