Broncos Look to Rebound this Upcoming Season
Experienced Santa Clara team looks to prove the pessimists wrong
Santa Clara Men’s Basketball faces a tough road ahead to make it to March. Picked to finish 6th in the West Coast Conference (WCC) preseason poll, the Broncos have rough sledding against talented teams like Gonzaga and experienced teams like Brigham Young University (BYU) and San Francisco (USF) in the WCC.
With a total record of 77 wins and 72 losses in his tenure, the Broncos have yet to take off under the helm of Head Coach Herb Sendek. Since accepting the job at Santa Clara in 2016, Sendek’s teams have consistently been a step behind the local programs of USF and Saint Mary’s, and even further behind the likes of Gonzaga, BYU, and Pepperdine.
This year, Santa Clara and Sendek have an experienced roster ready to make some noise. After coaching a relatively young squad through an ascending WCC these past few seasons, Sendek finally has three seniors and two juniors in his starting lineup; if the Broncos are going to step up, this is the season to do it.
Despite recent shortcomings, the Broncos are making real strides to start their 2021-22 season. Santa Clara is 3-0 with two dominating wins against Stanford and Nevada. With more non-conference matches against the likes of California, Texas Christian (TCU), and Boise State, the Broncos will have their fair share of chances to prove themselves on a big stage.
Nipping a 84-77 win over Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 9, the Broncos are off to a strong start towards the end goal of competing in the March Madness tournament. Santa Clara scratched and clawed against the Titans throughout the game, with almost every run by the Broncos met with a subsequent run by Fullerton.
The Broncos were led by super senior Josip Vrankic with 29 points, eight rebounds, five assists and five steals, followed by Jalen Willians and Keshawn Justice, who dropped 16 and 14 points respectively.
Despite the win, the Broncos were out-rebounded 34 to 24, as the Titans were able to garner 16 offensive rebounds: Santa Clara only had 15 defensive rebounds.
The Broncos needed to clean up their play against Stanford. And to say they shaped up in time is an understatement.
Santa Clara could not have played a better game under the primetime lights on Friday Nov. 12 at Leavey Center, with a 88-72 victory over their local rival. In front of a packed crowd, the Broncos took it to the Cardinal with a knockout blow that Stanford could never recover from. After a quick 5-0 scoring run to start the game for Stanford, Santa Clara responded with a scorching 21-0 run that sent Leavey Center into a frenzy from students and fans alike.
The Broncos half court defense was remarkable from start-to-finish, completely stifling star players Spencer Jones and Jaden Delaire from Stanford. On the other hand, Santa Clara pushed the pace early and often, generating tons of offense in transition that had Stanford Head Coach Jerod Haase scratching his head from the get-go. Herb Sendek and his players took advantage of their first-half momentum, and pushed the lead up to by as many as 16 points in the first half.
No Bronco seized the moment better than senior transfer PJ Pipes. Pipes had a game for the books, generating 24 points on an efficient 9-11 from the field and 4-5 from 3-point range. Throw in his 6 assists to Camaron Tongue, Jalen Williams, Josip Vrankic, and Keshawn Justice throughout, and there was simply no stopping the Broncos.
The Broncos brought the energy for 40 full minutes, shocking a Pac 12 opponent and enabling the country to put more respect on the WCC.
Their next game was against the Nevada Wolfpack, another respected Non Power Five conference opponent, on Nov. 16.
The Broncos initially struggled with the Wolfpack, who shot 3-3 from 3 point range in the first 90 seconds of the contest, resulting in a quick timeout from Herb Sendek after the 9-0 start. The fears that Santa Clara would come out flat after such a big win reared its ugly head, but fortunately the Broncos picked themselves up and went on an 8-0 run themselves to get back into the game.
The first half was an offensive shootout from both sides, with Santa Clara eventually becoming hot from 3-point range with four 3-point baskets from Keshawn Justice and establishing an inside presence with Parker Braun and Jaden Bediako. Despite the good offense, Santa Clara struggled on defense, letting several Nevada shooters get loose for 3 point baskets that either weren’t guarded or were slow to rotate to a shooter. This resulted in the Wolfpack shooting 7-16 (43.8%) from 3-point range in the first half, and led to a 42-39 lead at the break for the visiting Wolfpack.
Needless to say, the Broncos needed to clean up everything on defense, from 1-on-1 coverage, to rotations, to the ongoing issue of giving up offensive rebounds — and they did just that. After some back and forth for the first nine minutes in the 2nd half, Santa Clara and Nevada were knotted up at 57 with 11 minutes to go. Santa Clara would then go on to take full control of the game with a 23-5 run over the next 5 minutes. The run was led by Jalen Williams and Parker Braun, who each had emphatic slams in transition that sent Leavey Center into a bonanza. In addition to the offensive explosion, the Broncos played tougher defense on the Wolfpack, signaled by the complementary play of PJ Pipes and Josip Vrankic.
After all was said and done, the Broncos came out with a 96-74 victory over Nevada, a score that wasn’t necessarily indicative of how close the game was, but also illustrated how much Santa Clara put their foot on the pedal over the final 10 minutes of the game.
Santa Clara has the attention of analysts now, with renowned analyst Jon Rothstein clamoring about the Broncos on Twitter.
Up next for the Broncos will be their first tournament of the season: the SoCal Challenge. The first round of that tournament will be against Cal Poly on November 19th at Leavey Center, before Santa Clara heads on a plane to play the final two games in San Juan Capistrano on Nov. 22 and 24 against TCU and Fresno State.
Can the Broncos keep this energy and execution up? Time will tell, and the community looks forward to seeing what Santa Clara will do next.