Dec. 8, 2006

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Next Up for the Broncos
Santa Clara University takes on one of its oldest rivals this Saturday, Dec. 9 as Dick Davey's squad travels to Stockton to play the Pacific Tigers. The game tips off at the Alex G. Spanos Center at 7:00 p.m. PT and will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet. Last season, the Broncos came back from a 14 point deficit to beat the Tigers, who went on to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Pacific won the last meeting between the teams in Stoctkton 71-65 in 2004. SCU will be seeking its first road win of the year on Saturday.

Last Game for the Broncos
Santa Clara fell 78-51 to Missouri State in the Price Cutter Classic in Springfield, Mo. Playing their fifth game in eight days, the Broncos could not overcome the hard-charging, hot-shooting Bears. After a late first half run to get within seven, the Broncos could not keep pace in the second half. Brody Angley led the team with 14 points and was named to the All-Tournament team. Josh Higgins had nine points and six rebounds in a losing effort.

Head Coach Dick Davey
In his 15th season as the head coach at Santa Clara, Dick Davey has compiled a career record of 235-183 (112-84 WCC), which includes three 20-win seasons. Davey has also posted a 133-59 record at home for a .692 winning percentage. He owns the most WCC wins among active coaches and is the first Bronco coach to lead Santa Clara to four 10-plus win seasons in WCC play. A three-time conference Coach of the Year, Davey has coached Santa Clara to three regular season league titles, one WCC Tournament title, three NCAA Tournament appearances and five wins over top-25 teams. Davey served as a Bronco assistant for 15 seasons (1977-92) under former head coach and athletic director Carroll Williams and is a member of the prestigious Board of Directors for the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

Bronco's 100th Season
2006-07 marks the 100th season of men's basketball at Santa Clara. The basketball team at Santa Clara first started in 1905 and became a varsity sport in 1917-18. In their 99 seasons, SCU has had seven All-Americans, 15 postseason appearances (11 NCAA, 4 NIT), three WCC Coaches of the Year, and one visit to the Final Four (1951-52). In 2006-07, the Broncos again face some of the top competition in the country as they attempt to earn their 16th postseason appearance.

SCU vs. Pacific
Series Record: SCU leads 85-37
First Meeting: 1905 - Result not available. SCU won 7-6 on Dec. 14, 1905 in second game.
2005-06 at SCU: SCU won 63-60
Record at SCU: SCU leads 47-13
Record at Pacific: SCU leads 33-23
Record at Neutral Site: SCU leads 5-1
Biggest SCU Win: 76-13 (66) on Jan. 23, 1918
Biggest Pacific Win: 39-13 (26) in Feb. 1914
Dick Davey vs. Pacific: 7-5
Notes: Santa Clara head coach Dick Davey lettered in both basketball and baseball at Pacific, graduating in 1964 ... Davey earned All-WCC honors as a catcher as a juior and senior ... The series between the Broncos and Tigers has been close recently as the schools have split the past 10 games 5-5 ... SCU has won four of the past five meetings played at the Alex G. Spanos Center ... Pacific was an original member of the West Coast Athletic Conference (now the WCC) in 1952 along with Santa Clara, but the Tigers left the conference in 1971 to join the Big West ... SCU has a 20-12 record against the rest of the Big West, not including Pacific ... last season, SCU played three Big West teams, beating Pacific (63-60) and UC Riverside (63-61) and losing to UC Irvine (78-70).

Last Meeting Against Pacific
The Bronocs beat the Tigers 63-60 in front of 1,641 fans at the Leavey Center on Nov. 26, 2005. Travis Niesen led the Broncos with 28 points, while Brody Angley chipped in with a double double, 12 points and a career high 11 rebounds. Santa Clara rallied from an early 14-point deficit to overtake the Tigers in the second half. Johnny Gray had 20 points for Pacific, while Mike Webb had 16 in the loss.

Angley All-Tournament
Brody Angley had two solid games at the Price Cutter Classic last weekend and was named to the All-Tournament team. After scoring five points and dishing out five assists in a 71-45 win over Alabama State, Angley matched his season high with 14 points against Missouri State. His four-point play against the Bears started the rally that brought SCU to within seven points at halftime. Angley also had five rebounds against Missouri State in the loss. He was the only Bronco to be named to the All-Tournament team. After a slow start, Angley has scored 14 points in two out of the past three games to raise his scoring average to 8.3 and get his shooting percentage to 40 percent.

Big Men Shooting The Ball
Santa Clara boast three players 6-10 or taller in John Bryant, Sean Denison and Josh Higgins. All three have started the season shooting the ball extremely well. The trio has combined to shoot 57 percent from the floor through eight games.

The Longest Day
The Broncos met at the Leavey Center on their campus to begin their trip to Springfield, Mo. at 5:45 a.m. PT on Nov. 30. Little did the team know that they would arrive in Springfield the next morning at 5:33 a.m. CT after 22 hours of travel. The Broncos took off from San Jose International Airport at 7:30 a.m. PT and arrived with no problems at Denver International Airport at 10:45 a.m. MT. However, after waiting for an hour for their flight to Springfield, the team learned that its flight had been canceled due to a snowstorm across the entire region. The coaching staff then began looking at different options: flying to Tulsa and taking a bus to Springfield, flying to St. Louis and busing to Springfield. In the end, the team caught a 6:45 flight that was delayed until 7:10 to Kansas City that arrived at about 9:45. The team then waited for the bus, which had driven through the snowstorm from Springfield to Kansas City. The bus arrived, but the team's bags had not been put onto its flight. Without their bags, the Broncos boarded the bus for Springfield. After a short pit stop for dinner at Denny's and a Waffle House, the Broncos got on the road at 12:25 and drove through a snowstorm for five hours to arrive at their hotel in Springfield at 5:33 a.m. CT, 14 hours after their scheduled arrival. The bags, which had come in on the next flight, arrived midmorning on Friday to complete the team's travel saga.

Rebounding
Despite losing to Missouri State, SCU still out-rebounded the Bears 43-38 in the game. So far this season, Santa Clara has out-rebounded its opponent in six of eight games, while grabbing 40 or more rebounds in six games. The team holds a 310-242 edge in rebounds on the season and a plus-8.5 rebound margin. Five different players are averaging more than four rebounds per game, including point guard Broday Angley (4.0). The team has recorded more than 40 rebounds in four straight games.

Defense Steps Up
The Broncos held Alabama State to 28 percent shooting from the floor on Friday night in their 71-45 win. SCU has now held three of their past four opponents to under 40 percent from the floor. Also, the 45 points scored by ASU was the lowest total scored against Santa Clara this year. The strong defense led the Broncos to three straight wins. The team last won three in a row from Feb. 20 - March 3 last year when they won four in a row. On the season, SCU has held opponents to 40 percent shooting from the floor and just 63.6 points per game.

Higgins Impressive
Junior Josh Higgins has been making a big impact so far for the Broncos. He scored a career high 17 points against Alabama State on Friday and then put in nine versus Missouri State Saturday to up his season average to 8.6. He is now third on the team in scoring and is shooting 59 percent from the floor.

Dougherty Does It
Scott Dougherty missed all of last season with a foot injury but has been a key reserve off the bench for SCU this year. He is averaging career highs in points (4.3), rebounds (2.4) and minutes (17.8). Against Alabama State, he grabbed a career high eight rebounds and then dished out a career high three assists against Missouri State.

Scorching Second Half
Santa Clara started slowly against Alabama State shooting 11-33 in the first half on Dec. 1. However, Dick Davey's squad turned it around in the second half, shooting 76 percent in the second half (16-21) to turn a seven-point halftime lead into a 26-point victory.

Home Cooking
Santa Clara has gotten off to good starts at the Leavey Center the past few years. Last year, the Broncos started out with four straight wins at home and in 2004-05 they won their first five at home. Three years ago, the team won five out of six at home to start the year. This season has been no different as SCU has won four out of five so far at the Leavey Center.

Backcourt Combo
Senior Danny Pariseau and junior Brody Angley have proven to be a dangerous combination in the backcourt together. The pair has started the past seven games together and in those games, both players have averaged over five assists a game. For the season, they are combining for 17.7 points, 8.4 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game from the guard spots. The pair has also combined for 17 steals on the season. Pariseau has a 2.1-to-1 assist-to-turnovver ratio while Angley is at 2.4-to-1 for the season.

Home and Away
The Broncos started the season with a stretch of five out of six games at home, including three home games in five days that began Nov. 25 against Nevada. Following the game against Hawai'i on Nov. 29, SCU now plays five out of six games on the road, beginning with the Price Cutter Classic in Springfield, Mo. on Dec. 1 and 2.

Kaempf Out
Senior guard Joey Kaempf has missed the past five games with a foot injury after making his season debut against California on Nov. 20. He has been diagnosed with a sprained right foot and could be out 2-3 weeks. The senior guard previously missed the game on Nov. 14 against Holy Names due to a concussion.

Parham Surgery
Senior forward Tristan Parham had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Nov. 28 and is expected to be out of action for 2-3 weeks. Parham missed all of last year with knee problems, but played in the first four games this season. He missed all four games last week.

Angley Aims For Top 10
Junior point guard Brody Angley has 37 assists on the season, giving him 260 career assists and leaving him less than 50 assists away from cracking the Broncos all-time top 10 in that category. He needs 49 assists to pass Chris Lane (1984-88) and move into 10th all time.

Rivalry Series
With a win over the Spartans on Nov. 27, SCU extended its lead in the annual Rivalry Series between San Jose State and Santa Clara with a win over the Spartans on Nov. 27. The Series was created in 2002 and the Broncos have won it every year since its inception. The Broncos now lead 12.5 - 3.5.

Good Start
Santa Clara got off to a hot start against the Wolf Pack on Nov. 25, knocking down its first seven shots of the night. John Bryant, Sean Denison and Danny Pariseau all made two baskets in that stretch.

Familiar Face
Bronco fans may recognize a familier face on the Broncos staff this season. Jamie Holmes, who played four seasons for the Broncos before graduating in 2001, is now the team's director of basketball operations. Holmes averaged 9.8 points per game for his career, including 13.6 his senior season. In his final year, he helped lead SCU to a 20-win season playing alongside the school's No. 3 all-time leading scorer, Brian Jones. Following his time at Santa Clara, Holmes played professionally overseas, including stops in the Netherlands and Australia.

Television Appearances
Santa Clara will be making 11 television appearances in 2006-07 both regionally and nationally. The Broncos are scheduled to appear three times on ESPN channels. SCU appears on ESPNU on Jan. 29 against the Pepperdine Waves and on Feb. 5 against the University of San Francisco Dons. Both games tip off at 8:00 p.m. PT. Santa Clara will then appear on ESPN2 on Feb. 12 at Gonzaga at 9:00 p.m. PT. Locally, Santa Clara has six television appearances on Comcast SportsNet, a package which includes non-conference games against California and Pacific and West Coast Conference games against Saint Mary's (twice), San Francisco and San Diego. SCU will also make one appearance on CSTV on Feb. 24 at Loyola Marymount and one appearance on Fox Sports Net (Bay Area) on Jan. 13 vs. Gonzaga. The total package is one of the most comprehensive in recent history for the Broncos.