We're No. 69: Santa Clara

Five weeks away from Selection Sunday and the best event in sports, the NCAA Tournament. According to several bracketologists, almost 30 teams are locks for the 68-team field, another dozen are almost assured spots barring late-season face-plants, and roughly two dozen teams have work to do to and are on the bubble. Which brings us to the first entry in this season’s series: the Santa Clara Broncos. 

The Broncos are a case study in both seasonal evaluations that go into selection and the larger college hoops landscape that determines who gets a seat at the table. The school is a private Jesuit university located down the road from the San Francisco Bay area and California’s oldest institution of higher learning. It’s a charter member of the West Coast Conference, founded in 1952, and its notable conference hoops rivals are Gonzaga and St. Mary’s. The Broncos are No. 41 in current NCAA Net rankings, which the committee uses to separate teams, No. 38 in Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, and No. 51 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI). Herb Sendek – yes, *that* Herb Sendek, formerly of Arizona State and N.C. State – is in his 10th season as head coach. 

Let’s give them a look: 

Recent history: At least 20 wins the past five seasons, including this year. NIT appearances three of the past four seasons. A pretty fair historical footprint, with seven NCAA appearances, including the 1952 Final Four, and four other NIT trips. The Broncos have had only seven coaches since 1935, and all but one of them had career winning records. 

Mascot/nickname profile: Broncos and a mascot named Bucky, of which there appears to blessedly little history. The student section is referred to as “Ruff Riders.”

Home arena: Leavey Center (cap. 4,500) in Santa Clara, named for alum Thomas E. Leavey (Class of 1922), the founder of Farmers Insurance (cue J.K. Simmons and the TV commercial theme). 

Notable hoops alumni: Steve Nash, who led the Broncos to the NCAAs in 1993, ’95 and ’96 and was a two-time NBA MVP; Kurt Rambis; Jalen Williams (Oklahoma City Thunder), Brandin Podziemski (Golden State Warriors); John Bryant (WCC Player of Year, fixture in German professional league to present day); Dennis Awtrey; Ken Sears (1950s All-American and first college hoops player to appear on cover of Sports Illustrated). 

Current season: Santa Clara (21-5, 12-1) is currently in first place in the WCC, a half-game ahead of Gonzaga and a game-and-a-half up on St. Mary’s in a top-heavy league in which the top three have separated from the pack. Redshirt sophomore guard Christian Hammond (16.4 ppg) is one of three double-figure scorers, along with 6-7 senior Elijah Mahi (14 ppg) and 6-9 redshirt freshman Allen Graves (11.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg). The Broncos have won eight in a row and 12 of 13, their only loss a respectable effort against the Zags. 

Reasons to believe: Depth, quality, shooting ability, unselfishness. Nine players average between five and 16 points per game and between 12 and 30 minutes per game. They have seven capable 3-point shooters and five players with at least 60 assists. They shoot 47.6 percent as a team and are outscoring opponents by 12 points per game. They beat St. Mary’s in their first meeting, and they get another crack at both the Gaels and Zags in coming weeks. A solid 7-4 record against Quad 1 and 2 competition. 

Reasons to fade them: Here’s where we get into the effects of one’s neighborhood. The West Coast Conference is a middlin’ 11th in league RPI ratings. Gonzaga is near the top of the heap in many metrics, and St. Mary’s is actually several spots ahead of Santa Clara despite the head-to-head loss. This has led to hoopologists wondering if the WCC is worthy of a third team getting into the field, i.e., a second at-large bid. The Big Ten is projected to get nine and perhaps ten at-large bids, the SEC eight and the ACC and Big 12 seven. The eighth- or ninth-place team in a conference no more deserves a spot in the NCAAs, unless it wins the automatic bid, than you or me (Dead Horse and Club alert). 

Shouldn’t matter if the league is deep and difficult, but in an era of consolidation and mega-conferences, it does because the power conferences dictate terms. Selectors use metrics and available statistical tools to justify inclusion among the Power 4 conferences and the swells, and to exclude mid-majors who did everything asked of them, but whose numbers "just didn’t add up." That’s why we’re in a season where Miami of Ohio is still undefeated and could win 30 games, but if the RedHawks lose in the MAC Tournament, there’s a very real chance they’ll be denied because of their strength of schedule or predictive metrics or league ranking or whatever. In a just and fair world, teams such as Miami-O and Santa Clara should be locks for the field if they get to 26 or 28 wins. Alas, boys and girls, we do not live in such a world.