Why am I seeing all over Twitter talk of Herb going to Providence? Don’t we pay him well? Also building Santa Clara into a great program seems like a more fulfilling thing but maybe I don’t understand what coaches want.
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Providence has one of the weirdest twitter fanbases around. They blamed Ed Cooley bolting for Georgetown because they made up a story of him cheating on his wife.
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I would be pretty surprised both if (1) Providence would hire him and (2) if he took it.
It seems to me like the 10 years at SCU are just about to starting paying dividends…
To go to grey Providence in an ultra competitive Big East environment would strike me as odd given where Sendek is in his career and his relatively comfortable spot at SCU.
Perhaps the pundits think Sendek + Allen Graves is an attractive package if it can be had.
I don’t know how much stock to put in the fact that he was a coach there during the Reagan presidency… Only Herb can say :
(1) How much he wants that kind of challenge
(2) how he views SCU long term - is he frustrated by the tepid attendance given the success? Does he think a post-GU WCC is a one-bid league that he would prefer to leave?
(3) How much he feels like putting several million more dollars in the bank. Providence can probably buy out his contract and pay him an amount that would represent a valedictory send-off to a lifetime of hard coaching work.
Even those on this board never seem to have any insight on how much money is in the proverbial ‘banana stand’ at SCU to counter a suitor like that for a player or coach. We know there’s money around Santa Clara and in the alumni base, but do folks actually want to sign on the dotted line for men’s basketball when there’s two commas in the number?
I really like Herb - but if I’m a Providence die-hard, I’d be pretty mad if they hired Sendek given his age and frankly the apparent ceiling on results he has shown over his career. Unless there’s some scandal at Providence that I don’t know about and they need a squeaky clean caretaker type.
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I’m not sure I’m willing to accept that Providence is even a better job than Santa Clara. Big East, sure, but Providence is pretty openly acknowledged as a lesser Big East school—not quite DePaul, but akin to Seton Hall. I don’t know that Providence has more money or resources than SCU even with the better media deal.
Why Providence or Sendek would be interested is a bit mystifying to me.
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We have the money, resources, alumni, and size to be just as good as Gonzaga. Yes we need to invest more in athletics but we can. Gonzaga might be leaving but why don’t we raise the bar? I really don’t like when people make the WCC seem like nothing without Gonzaga.
I feel like you also get a much higher quality of life in Santa Clara than you do back east once you’re his age. Do you really want to go from sun to snowstorms?
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I missed this interview the other day.
So strange to see SCU in connection with something so modern like Barstool sports. I guess that’s what winning gets you… great stuff for our University community.
This does not strike me like I guy who wants to leave… but stranger things have happened.
https://x.com/realpitino/status/2031012638734348518?s=46
Pitino chimes in…
The ramblings of a 73 year old with Twitter, or 4D chess?
I’d figure someone with actual influence picks up the phone and calls the AD, rather than a salutary tweet.
One might even suggest that tweet is saying Sendek is over the hill?
The account that posted it is a parody account. Fake news
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That’s what I originally thought but there’s been way more talk than that. Plus Pitino tweeted.
We’ve been ballsack sports’d 
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Yeah, I despise Barstool. I’ve actually interacted with Dave Portnoy in person before I knew who he was—collateral damage of going to Michigan for grad school. His public facing persona and off-camera personality are basically the same, which is to say, in my opinion, pretty repellant.
But it’s a major sports outlet with a big late Millennial/Gen Z following, so you can’t say no when they call and ask for a hit. And from my observation, most of the Barstool personalities are fairly standard issue commentators who happen to have been formed in the “hot takes” era that they have embraced but did not cause.
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Lest anyone ride into the sunset thinking I like Tony Padilla or Barstool:
What I was trying to say is that it’s jarring to me to see (1) Barstool and (2) Santa Clara basketball on the same frame.
Barstool is a very hip, modern spots media outlet. I don’t consume it, largely because I think most of these places are abhorrently in bed with sports betting and that the personalities are not folks I’d like to ride in an elevator with, as Patty is saying.
Santa Clara basketball is something that, to me, feels largely personal, not at all hip or modern… it gets broadcast late at night, only on occasion and for the last 15 years, we usually lose those ESPN games. It’s national cultural sports value is Nash in the 90s, Brandi Chastain etc. Even knowledge of Jalen and Podz is largely confined to hoop-nerd territory. So it’s mostly stale as can be. Recently, googling Santa Clara basketball spit out old ESPN recaps of games two or three seasons ago, if we played a bigger school.
Hell, our local newspaper is power ranking who would have been in the Pac-12 All-Conference team highlighting GU’s season, rather than discussing the in their backyard that might make the NCAA tournament.
Now, all of the sudden, all sorts of known entities - Lunardi, Barstool, Kevin Neghandi and the rest are talking about SCU. Not bad, it’s just different. In a sense it’s what we’ve hoped for. I hope we dance and win and this all snowballs. But it’s different.
If Herb Sendek takes the job at Providence College I would be astounded. It’s not right for them or him. But being in this kind of conversation is actually a symptom of a good thing.
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Don’t worry. I, for one, definitely didn’t see it as an endorsement of Barstool or its personalities. It’s good that you shared it and good that Sendek went on. More exposure helps. Get it (almost) anywhere you can.
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I thought their questions were good, and Sendek did well considering he’s about as talkative as the Sphinx.
My productivity is terrible today… see y’all for the game!
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I know Ed Cooley very well and like him, but the stories about him were not made up. For more details, watch the upcoming season of the Real Housewives of Rhode Island next month.
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I’m guessing Herb isn’t downplaying any talk of him going elsewhere. He can use that interest from others to extract a much better deal from the SCU powers-that-be.
If I’m a coach his age, do I really want to mess with something that’s working? Look what happened to Monson when he decided to leave Gonzaga for supposed “greener pastures”..
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Herb is a great guy and still has connections to Providence, including Friar legend Billy Donovan, as well as Rick Barnes and Rick Pitino. Providence also spent $10 million in NIL this year with terrible results. I’d love Herb at Providence but wouldn’t mind if he stays at Santa Clara.
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