Dec. 19, 2000
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Despite a severe winter storm that has several major highways closed, the Santa Clara men's basketball team had a relatively uneventful arrival in Indianapolis today for its Wednesday night contest against the Butler Bulldogs.
Santa Clara left its hotel in West Lafayette at about 11 a.m. via bus and arrived in Indianapolis at roughly 12:45 p.m. Parts of Interstate 65 were closed, prompting the bus driver to take an alternate route for the final one-half hour of the trip.
"This has certainly been a difficult road trip thus far," said Santa Clara head coach Dick Davey. "The weather has been awful. We haven't had our team at full strength for a variety of reasons. And, frankly, we didn't play very well against Purdue last night. We have to put Monday's game behind us and focus on Butler. They are an experienced team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament last year and they will be a difficult test for our team."
The Broncos (4-5) will be looking to forget last night's loss to Purdue and prepare for its third straight opponent that played in last year's NCAA Tournament. The Broncos suffered the worst defeat in school history against the Boilermakers on Monday, dropping a 98-52 decision Monday in West Lafayette.
Butler enters the game with a 4-3 record after knocking off Tennessee-Martin by a score of 77-48 on Monday night. The game was delayed by about one-half hour due to travel difficulties by UT-Martin. Senior LaValle Jordan scored 21 points to lead the Bulldogs, who lost its first-round contest in last year's NCAA Tournament on a last-second shot against the University of Florida.
The last-second loss to Florida was not the only heartbreaker of the 1999-2000 season for Butler. Santa Clara's Brian Jones nailed a three-pointer with just seconds left on the clock in the Broncos' win over Butler in last season's Cable Car Classic.
Following the Butler contest, Santa Clara returns home for a 7:30 p.m. contest Saturday against the University of Nevada. Tickets will be available at the door or via the web by clicking on the tickets link on the left side of this page.