Oct. 11, 2001
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's basketball team will join 324 NCAA Division I basketball programs from across the nation Saturday as its conducts its first practice for the 2001-2002 season.
The opening practice of the year will take place Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Leavey Center. The Broncos will conduct 19 sessions prior to its exhibition opener on Nov. 6. Santa Clara opens its regular season on Saturday, Nov. 17 against the University of the Pacific in the Leavey Center at 7:30 p.m.
A variety of season, group, family plan and individual game ticket plans are available for the 2001-2002 season. For information or to purchase tickets online, click here or call the athletic ticket office at 408/554-4660.
Bronco Men's Basketball Links
Preseason Notes
Broncos Open Exhibition Season in Historic Style
One of the oldest men's basketball rivalries in the Bay Area will be renewed Nov. 6 when the Santa Clara men's basketball team opens its exhibition season against the Olympic Club. The first-ever meeting between the Broncos and the Olympic Club squad took place on Feb. 13, 1915 at the YMCA Gym in Oakland, Calif. with Santa Clara dropping the contest by a 35-30 score. Over the span of 86 years, Santa Clara has played the Olympic Club in a number of official and exhibition contests. This year's game will be played at the Compaq Center at San Jose and admission is free to the public. The exhibition contest will be the only collegiate event held in the Compaq Center at San Jose prior to the 2002 NCAA West Regional, which is being hosted and operated by Santa Clara University Athletics March 21 & 23.
Head Coach Dick Davey
In his nine seasons as Santa Clara's head coach, Dick Davey has a career coaching
record of 160-102 (84-44 WCC), which includes three 20-win seasons. Davey has compiled an 80-29 record at home for a .734 winning percentage. He is the West Coast Conference's winningest active coach and is the first Bronco coach to lead Santa Clara to four 10-plus win seasons in WCC play. A three-time WCC Coach-of-the-Year recipient, Davey has coached Santa Clara to three WCC regular season championships, one WCC Tournament title, three NCAA Tournament appearances and four wins over Top 25 teams. The dean of WCC head coaches, Davey served as an assistant coach on the Bronco staff for 15 seasons (1977-92). Last spring, he was named to the prestigious Board of Directors for the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
Broncos Picked Third in Preseason Poll of League Coaches
Despite losing two of the more dynamic players in the West Coast Conference last season in Brian Jones and Jamie Holmes, the Broncos were selected third in a preseason poll of league coaches. The breakdown: 1) Gonzaga, 2) San Francisco, 3) Santa Clara, 4) Pepperdine, 5) San Diego, 6) Loyola Marymount, 7) Portland, 8) Saint Mary's.
Santa Clara Noteworthy...
Broncos Return Three Starters in 2001-2002
The Santa Clara University men's basketball team returns three starters and 10 letterwinners from its 20-12 team a year ago that finished third in the WCC with a 10-4 mark and fell just three points short of advancing to the NCAA Tournament. The Broncos lose a pair of all-WCC performers in Brian Jones and Jamie Holmes. The duo accounted for 41.6 percent of the team's offensive output and 31 percent of the squad's rebounding a year ago. However, the cupboard isn't bare with the return of three starters, including Steve Ross, Brian Vaka and David Emslie, along with seniors Justin Holbrook and Jason Westphal. Ross has been tabbed as one of the league's top players, while sophomore Kyle Bailey is coming off one of the best freshman seasons in Bronco men's basketball history. Emslie is on the school's top-10 list for blocked shots and Vaka and Holbrook are two of the most experienced seniors in the WCC.
Davey is the "Dean" of WCC Coaches
Entering his 10th season at Santa Clara, Dick Davey owns the distinction of being the longest-tenured coach in the West Coast Conference. The current average tenure of head coaches in the league is just 3.1 seasons with three first-year coaches entering the WCC this season. Behind Davey's nine seasons are San Diego's Brad Holland (7) and San Francisco's Phil Matthews (6). Needless to say, Davey's 160 total wins is also a league-high and his 82 league wins is the fifth-most in WCC history.
Broncos Own WCC's Winningest Program
Historically speaking, the Santa Clara's men's basketball program owns the most victories of any team in the West Coast Conference since the league began play in the 1952-53 season. The Broncos have a league-leading 807 victories in 49 seasons for a 16.5 wins-per-season average. In league contests, Santa Clara has a league-leading 398 victories. Over the last seven seasons, the Broncos have won 64 percent of their games which is the second-winningest program in the WCC during that time behind Gonzaga.
SCU Announces Formation of "Bronco Radio Network"
Santa Clara University men's basketball will enjoy the widest radio coverage area in its history this season due to broadcast agreements with KDIA-AM (1640 AM) in Vallejo, Calif. and KSCU-FM (103.3 FM) in Santa Clara. In addition, the contract of popular play-by-play announcer Dave Lewis has been extended through the 2002-2003 season. Every Santa Clara men's basketball game will be broadcast via the Bronco Radio Network, which currently consists of 10,000-watt KDIA-AM, Santa Clara University campus station KSCU-FM and via the Internet on the athletic department's official athletic website at www.SantaClaraBroncos.com.
Broncos Again Face Top Competition
One constant in the Bronco program is the appearance of some of the top teams in the nation on its non-conference schedule. This season will be no different with three teams from the Pacific-10 Conference (Stanford, Cal, Washington), a matchup at Ohio State from the Big Ten and games against Western Athletic Conference opponents Nevada and San Jose State. In addition, the Broncos will face NIT semifinalist Detroit in the Cable Car Classic and will play a road game at Wright State in Dayton, Ohio. Six of Santa Clara's opponents this season were among the top-75 in last year's ratings percentage index.
Leavey Center - Building for the Future
Last season, Santa Clara played nine of its first 10 games of the season on the road and moved its exhibition games to a local prep school duing the completion of the first phase of renovation of the Leavey Center. This season, the first month-and-a-half of the season will be affected due to the second phase that will provide new upper level seating, administrative offices, weight room, team rooms, an academic center and new concession areas. Phase II will continue through the spring but all interior seating areas are scheduled to open by December's Cable Car Classic. Once completed, the Leavey Center will be one of the best arenas of its size on the West Coast.
Santa Clara to Host 2002 West Regional
Santa Clara University is the host institution for the 2002 NCAA Men's Basketball West Regional, scheduled for March 21 & 23 at the Compaq Center at San Jose. The winner of the four-team event will earn a trip to the NCAA Final Four that will be played at the in Atlanta, Ga. The San Jose event officially sold out of its 17,757 tickets last June. Press credential applications will be sent to qualifying area media outlets in January. All press inquiries should be directed to media coordinator David Wahlstrom.
2000-2001 Wrapup
The Santa Clara University men's basketball team completed the 2000-2001 regular season with a 20-12 overall record and a 10-4 mark and third-place finish in the West Coast Conference standings. The Broncos won six of their last seven games, including a streak of six-straight, and advanced to the conference tournament championship game. The six-game win streak included victories over regular-season and tournament champion Gonzaga and second-place Pepperdine. Seniors Brian Jones and Jamie Holmes were named all-WCC, while Jones and junior Steve Ross earned all-WCC Tournament honors.
Ross Makes Immediate Impact for Broncos
Senior Steve Ross played just 24 games for Santa Clara last season after transferring to the Mission campus from the University of San Diego. His impact was felt immediately as he became the 10th-leading scorer in the WCC and was named the league's player of the week on Feb 19 after consecutive double-double performances at Saint Mary's and San Francisco. He is listed as a senior after sitting out his sophomore year with an injury and the next season due to NCAA transfer regulations.
Live Coverage of Bronco Basketball
This season Santa Clara athletics will enter its second season with a new feature that allows fans to follow each home game with a live statistics tracker. Users with Internet access can log onto the official athletic site for Santa Clara athletics (www.SantaClaraBroncos.com) and click on live box score to receive real-time updated statistics direct from the official courtside scoring computer. Santa Clara became the first school on the FANSonly Network to launch the new FANSlive service using a specially-designed browser which provides fans a visually compelling alternative to watch Bronco basketball on the web. Users can listen to the audio broadcast of the game and keep-up with the real-time statistics at once through the exclusive official site for Santa Clara athletics.
Seandel Named Associate Head Coach
Like his predecessor, Carroll Williams, Dick Davey has surrounded himself with a top-notch coaching staff consisting of Steve Seandel, Sam Scuilli and Antonio Veloso. During the summer, Davey received a contract extension ensuring his position as head men's basketball coach through the 2004-2005 season. At that time, Seandel was also rewarded with a promotion to associate head coach.