Santa Clara Basketball Podcast

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Bronco Nation,

I kinda can’t believe I didn’t know this page existed, but I just found it. I graduated last year as a manager and started the Santa Clara Basketball Podcast this year (I recognize HoopsGuy from Twitter). There is nothing more in the world I want than to see this team play in the NCAA Tournament.

If you’re interested, here is the link to my latest episode talking about the L at SMC, W against LMU, W against Wazzu, and the WCC Tournament seeding scenarios.

If you don’t want to listen, I’ll break down the scenarios here; assuming that we take care of business at Pacific (pray to God I don’t have to eat my words on that), Santa Clara cannot fall below the 4 seed even if Oregon State finishes 2-0 with wins over USF and SMC. We have the tiebreaker over them due to their loss against Portland.

In my opinion, the best case scenario by far is actually not the best seed we could end up with. Here it is;

Santa Clara beats Gonzaga
San Francisco beats Gonzaga

In this scenario, Gonzaga would fall all the way to the 4 seed, we would be 3, and the Dons would be 2. This would mean that we would NOT have to beat both the Gaels and the Zags to win the tournament, we would only need to beat one of them, and would instead face San Francisco in the semis assuming we win in the Quarters, which I would guess would be against Washington State.

Why is this episode called “Tomorrow is Everything?” Because if we win tomorrow (and again, assuming we beat Pacific), there is no world in which we are ranked LOWER than the Zags come Vegas. We would have the same record as they do and we would have the tiebreaker winning both games against them (imagine saying that three months ago). The Leavey Center will be jumping tomorrow, it’s a big game by default because its the Zags. But I would venture to say it’s the biggest non-post season game I have experienced since I began paying attention to the team when I started working for it my sophomore year (Jalen’s year)

I apologize for the audio at the beginning!

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Many years ago, I remember GU losing three straight @ SMC, @SCU and @USF… I think I have the order right. Maybe 2014-15?

Been a long time since they lost three conference games in a month let alone in a row.

I would think that, in your scenario, a GU team that did lose against SCU and USF would be in a somewhat precarious position to make the field as an at-large and would be extremely motivated in the WCC Tournament.

It’s about dang time someone other than GU or SMC won that thing… why not us?

I do think we have the three point shooting to essentially go nuts and beat anyone. Already did it against GU…. Really hard for lightening to strike twice.

Go Broncos.

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Nashty, you know it wasn’t 14-15 or we would have been there :joy:

I think you mean 2010-11 when they lost at SCU, at USF, and then at home versus SMC. The Bay Area took revenge on the Bulldogs in that stretch.

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Lol, yes - even longer ago than I thought! Shoulda known since we didn’t win between the one you mention and last year.

That’s gotta be what I’m thinking of because (distressing stat alert) Few has never lost more than 3 WCC conference games.

He’s only lost double digit games twice in terms of full season records … seems almost certain to happen this year.

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@breslin27 What do the platoon of SCU managers do??? Theres seems like 5 at the end of the bench, and then another 4 at behind the bench. Back in my day, there was ONE manager that did everything. The overworked kid was on partial schollie or possibly paid for part of his time. I assume they are doing more than running the clock, washing uni’s and slinging water, stats, towels and chairs, but I am curious as to what other roles they fill and how many travel.

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Our manager program has grown a lot with the success of the program… when I first joined in 21/22, we had a total of four, and I believe they have ten this year. The traveling managers have the most important jobs because they’re responsible for all packing responsibilities (everytime we were on the road and arrived at the arena I would hold my breath hoping nobody approached me and said “hey Jack, where’s x item?”). In practice, guys kinda develop different roles. We have one manager that’s a senior now that could be a really good D3 player somewhere and will step in and practice if needed. I was a floor guy because I can’t shoot a basketball for my life. One of our guys now is the clock specialist. Whatever we do, in practice we are responsible for making sure everything is set up correctly for whatever drill. Balls are where they need to be, pads if we need them, etc. In games, guys have different jobs. One guy brings out the stool down at our end of the bench, I was usually waterboy, a guy is responsible for towels, and at home we’ll often have one that offers the refs waters at timeouts. Other than that, ALL of us are responsible for bringing a lot of energy to practice and making the gym loud

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The success of the program? I presume you are referring to the success of JW and Podz. I wouldn’t call one-and-done in the NIT “success”.

I think @TheWeave is referring to our true most recent successful program decade, from roughly 1987-1996.

1987: Won the conference tournament despite being a 5-seed (out of 8 teams) and played in the NCAA tournament.
1988: Lost in the finals to the (then) 18th-ranked LMU Lions. I think LMU finished even higher than 18th in the nation.
1989: Lost in the finals again to LMU, 75-70 in OVERTIME. This is notable because LMU AVERAGED over 112 points/game that season.
1990: Tournament semifinals and finals were canceled due to the on-court death of Hank Gathers. This was a down year for SCU finishing 9-19
1991: a middling year for the Broncos finishing 16-13 and bounced in the first round of the conference tourney
1992: Finished 2nd place in the conference. Lost a close one in the semifinal game.
1993: (Nash’s first season) Finished 3rd in conference, won the WCC tourney, and moved on the Big Dance. Became only the 2nd 15th-seed team in history to beat a #2 seed (Arizona wildcats) in the first round
1994: A slog of a year, finished 13-14, bounced in 1st round of WCC
1995: Finished 12-2 (first in the WCC) and 21-7 overall. Lost in the first round to last place LMU, but got an at-large and a 12 seed, lost to Erick Dampier and his MSU squad
1996: Finished first in the conference, somehow lost again in the first round to the last place team, but got an at-large bid as a 10-seed and BEAT 7-seed Maryland, before getting trounced by 2-seed Kansas in the second round. Of note, one of the great basketball names, Exree (pronounced X-ray) Hipp played for the Terrapins.

To recap: in 10 seasons, SCU finished 1st in the conference twice, 2nd place once, 3rd place twice, made it to the tournament finals 4 times (and won it twice), AND had 4 trips to the Big Dance and 2 trips to the NIT. And they did it all with just ONE manager. I knew the manager of 4 of those seasons well, as well as his immediate predecessor of 4 seasons, and I can tell you that they worked their tails off (to the point of it affecting their school work).

And to be fair, the Broncos REAL golden era was long before 1987. The late 1970s teams led by Kurt Rambis come to mind – unfortunately, USF dominated the conference for a decade. Also, SCU’s 1952-54 and 1968-70 teams come to mind, though even those teams were before my time (I was just shy of a year old during the 1970 conference tourney).

My point is: I won’t judge “success” by the number of players who make it to the NBA. Basketball is a team sport, and I judge success according to the team’s outcomes. Sendek is in his 9th year. His SCU teams have never finished higher than 3rd in the conference and have never made it past the tourney semifinals.

Compared to the KK years, sure Sendek has been a big improvement. But I think calling it success is a stretch.

So, yeah, a gaggle of 10 team managers seems absolutely wild to this geezer.

Just one (crotchety old) man’s opinion. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: Rant over.

P.S. I highly recommend watching some old LMU games from the 1988-89 season. Those teams played so fast it was entertaining to watch. As I mentioned above, they averaged 112.5 pts/game. They had one game against Gonzaga where they won 147-136! Run-and-gun offense was an understatement. They were one of the best physically-conditioned college teams that I can ever remember.

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Hey, I mean just in the past 20 years. I’m only 23, meaning for my entire life until Jalen’s year (how I refer to my sophomore and his final year as a Bronco), this program was, as I have said on my podcast, “the definition of mediocrity.”

I don’t know anything about Santa Clara before Josip except for Nash and Rambis.

Totally valid point. Just a different perspective as I’m pretty young. For me, as someone who expected to never crack the 6 seed in the conference based on recent history before I got there, this has all been pretty cool, and the NIT has been great to achieve - but I’m with you on not being satisfied until our names are called on selection Sunday.

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I couldn’t find a video of the LMU-Gonzaga game that I referenced in my previous post, but here is one of LMU @ Oregon State early in the 1989-90 season.

Final score was 117-113 and they did it without arguable their best player Hank Gathers. Bo Kimble scored 53 points.

One thing you’ll notice is that LMU employed the full-court press liberally.

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Certainly you’ll concede that the second half of Sendek’s tenure (say, since the year before covid) is the best stretch of similar length for the program in the last 25 years?
Which is, unfortunately, the best stretch in a long dang time?

I think it’s fair to call the last three or four seasons our “relative modest success” at least.

There really have not been that many NIT trips (and only one win) or 1st round draft picks in the programs history in any era.

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I think it’s fair to say the school has invested in the program far more in the last 4 years than previous and that’s evident by the improvement in resources.

We all wanted a NCAA tournament bid. That’s probably unlikely, but finishing ahead of the Zags would be something.

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@breslin27 forgive me if my post came off as condescending. I apologize if I came across harshly.

My bone to pick is with the school, not with you.

The school made a HUGE mistake not building off of the success/notoriety of the 1991-96 Nash years. Gonzaga did not make that mistake. The Zags were able to turn their Cinderella story into a perennial powerhouse.

The teams of the past 4 years have certainly entertained, but have also frustrated. So much talent, but many times the whole seems less than the sum of the parts. I’d argue that the teams of the past 5 years have been MORE talented than the Nash years. But those teams had fight. For example, Drew Zurek wasn’t the most talented player, but he hated to lose. He was also the team’s enforcer, to borrow a hockey term. Everyone on those teams had a clear role. Plus, Nash made every teammate better. He was a true floor general.

We have a collection of truly talented players. But can anyone on this board tell me who is clearly the leader? Because I cannot.

And back to @TheWeave’s original point – 10 managers? Is that standard in the WCC? In D1 hoops? I have no idea.

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Buckets, just curious…

What year did you graduate from SCU? I am Class of 89.

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Welcome to the board :joy::joy::joy:

You’ll find that depending on your graduating class, the level of expectation and measure of success widely varies.

Massively appreciate your insights and optimism, don’t let some of us waiting on 10+, 20+ and close to 30 years for an ncaa bid dampen your outlook.

If anything the numbers of managers we have shows our progress in the amount of funding this program has seen rise. That’s a lot of mouths to feed!

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My frosh year was the 0-16 conference season. Much of my eternal optimism comes from having seen the true nadir of SCU basketball. Everything since my first year has looked like success with that as my starting place.

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Hi Pete, I was Class of 1991.

But I grew up in the South Bay and my dad had season tickets. I started attending games when I was just 3 months old, so I’ve lived a lifetime of SCU basketball disappointment. :rofl: Thankfully, we had the 1989 soccer co-championship team and Brandi Chastain in our graduating class (As an aside, for the younger folks on this board, we literally finish the NCAA final game against Virginia in a tie, and both teams were awarded the national championship. The NCAA changed the rule to add penalty kicks back because of the outcome of this game.)

I’ve mentioned this before WCC Game 4: vs. SMC - #55 by buckets, the USF@SCU game in 1977 was probably the single greatest SCU game that I’ve personally attended. Even though we lost, it was absolutely electric.

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Fair enough.

I just feel like Charlie Brown – Lucy keeps pulling that football away.

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Ok, so you attended games at the SJ Civic Auditorium, albeit an infant, during the Awtrey/Ogden years. Was the 77 game at Toso the 71-70 final when USF was #1?? I believe Chubby Cox, for the Dons, won it at the buzzer if memory serves correctly.

My dad had season tickets too at Toso, but remember listening to that game with him on the radio. My brother was in between us, Class of 90, and played baseball as a walk on. Enjoy the game tonight.

GO BRONCOS !!!

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Yes, it most certainly was. Made quite the impression on this 7.5 year old!

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Chubby F’N Cox….sigh