Dec. 18, 2006

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Next Up for the Broncos
Santa Clara University heads to Lexington, Ky. for its toughest test of the season. The Broncos face the Kentucky Wildcats for the first time in program history on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 4:00 p.m. PT. SCU enters the game having won six out of its last seven games, including two straight wins on the road. Kentucky has won three straight games, including back-to-back wins against Indiana and Louisville this week to raise its record to 7-3. Following the game at Kentucky, SCU will play six straight games at home.

Last Game for the Broncos
Santa Clara won for the sixth time in seven games on Saturday night, beating Stanford 62-46 on the road. The win was the first for Santa Clara at Stanford since Dec. 1, 1987. Danny Pariseau led the way with 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists, while Brody Angley and Sean Denison each scored 10 in the win. Santa Clara has now won two straight games against the Cardinal. The Broncos led by as many as 22 in the second half and held Stanford to 28 percent shooting.

Head Coach Dick Davey
In his 15th season as the head coach at Santa Clara, Dick Davey has compiled a career record of 238-183 (112-84 WCC), which includes three 20-win seasons. Davey has also posted a 134-59 record at home for a .694 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. Kentucky
Series Record: First Meeting.
Notes: Santa Clara has won only once in nine games against Southeastern Conference opponents ... the Broncos beat Alabama on Dec. 28, 1996 77-62 in the Cable Car Classic ... SCU has faced Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana State, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee in its history, but has never faced Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, or Vanderbilt ... the Broncos last played an SEC foe last year when they lost 82-69 in overtime at Mississippi State on Dec. 3, 2005 ... Brody Angley had 17 points, six rebounds and six assists against Mississippi State in that game.

Scouting Kentucky
The Kentucky Wildcats are the winningest college basketball program of all time as they have won 1,933 games in their history. They have won seven national championships, while appearing in the NCAA tournament 47 times. Prior to this year, Kentucky had won 97 NCAA tournament games. This season, the Wildcats are off to a 7-3 start and beat Indiana and Louisville in their past two games. The team is led by head coach Tubby Smith, who led Kentucky to the 1998 national championship. Junior center Randolph Morris is averaging 15.4 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, while Joe Crawford (13.1) and Ramel Bradley (12.7) are also scoring in double figures for the Wildcats.

Pariseau Another Career High
In the past three games, Broncos senior Danny Pariseau has set career highs in points, rebounds and assists. On Dec. 9, he scored a career-high 20 points at Pacific, before dishing out a career-high nine assists on Dec. 11 versus Eastern Washington. On Saturday against Stanford, Pariseau led SCU with nine rebounds, setting another career high. Pariseau also scored 16 points, had four assists and made three steals to lead the team in four categories overall against Stanford. Pariseau is now shooting 53 percent from the floor.

Beating Stanford
The Broncos' win over Stanford was their second straight against the Cardinal after beating them 86-76 in 2004-05. The 16-point margin of victory was the biggest since Jan. 26, 1957 when SCU defeated Stanford 77-61. The margin of victory was the second largest ever for Santa Clara at Stanford. Prior to the win in 2004-05, SCU had lost eight straight to Stanford. Also, Santa Clara had not beaten a Pac-10 opponent on the road since Nov. 29, 1997 when Dick Davey's squad beat Oregon 67-58. SCU had not beaten Stanford on the road since a 72-71 win on Dec. 1, 1987.

Defense Steps Up
The Broncos defense had another dominating performance against Stanford, holding the Cardinal to just 46 points and 28 percent shooting. Stanford scored only 12 points in the first half against the Broncos. For the season, opponents are now shooting only .387 against SCU and scoring 61.6 points per game. Santa Clara has now held five of its past seven opponents to under 40 percent from the floor. Three of those opponents shot under 30 percent from the floor.

Higgins Back In Kentucky
Junior center Josh Higgins returns to the state where his college basketball career began. The 7-foot center spent two seasons at Western Kentucky in 2003-04 and 2004-05 before transferring to Santa Clara prior to last season. Higgins is having a breakout year for the Broncos, averaging a career-high 6.9 points per game.

Non-Conference Wins
The Broncos now have eight non-conference wins this season after beating Stanford on Saturday. Under Dick Davey, the team record for non-conference wins is nine, set five times (1994-95, 1995-6, 1997-98, 1999-00 and 2002-03). SCU needs two wins in its four remaining non-conference games to reach 10 non-conference wins for the first time under Davey.

Rebounding
Going into Saturday's game with Stanford, both the Broncos and Cardinal were in the top 20 in the country in rebound margin at over plus-9 per game. Santa Clara used a total team effort to win the battle of the boards 39-37 for the ninth time in 11 games. The Broncos have grabbed more than 40 rebounds seven times this season and have outrebounded their foes 431-336 on the year. They now possess a +8.6 rebound margin. Five different players are averaging more than four rebounds per game, including point guard Broday Angley.

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. SCU is now in the midst of a stretch where it will play five out of six on the road. Following the game against Kentucky on Dec. 19, Santa Clara will then play six straight games at the Leavey Center.

Big Men Shooting The Ball
Santa Clara boasts 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 11 games. Denison leads the way as he has hit 60 percent of his shots this year.

Six Out of Seven
After starting the season 2-2, Dick Davey's team has won six out of its past seven games. SCU has beaten San Jose State, Hawai'i, Alabama State, Pacific, Eastern Washington and Stanford, while losing to Missouri State during the stretch. The Broncos are now 8-3 on the season and off to their best start since 2002-03. SCU started 9-3 that season.

WCC Leaders
Individually and as a team, Santa Clara currently ranks among the best in the West Coast Conference in a number of statistical categories. As a team, SCU is first in scoring defense (61.1), first in rebounding margin (+8.6), first in assists (16.0), tied for first in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.02), and second in offensive rebounds (14.3) and field goal percentage defense (.387). Sean Denison leads the conference in field goal percentage at .598, while Danny Pariseau (.530) and John Bryant (.529) are also in the top-10. Brody Angley and Pariseau are tied for second in assists at 4.4 per game. The pair are first and second in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.18 for Pariseau and 1.85 for Angley. Pariseau is third in the conference in three-point shooting, hitting 47 percent from behind the arc this year.

Beating Pacific In Stockton
Santa Clara pulled away to an 18-point win over Pacific on the Tigers home court on Dec. 9. It was the Broncos first road win of the season after dropping their first two road games. The margin of victory was the largest by a visiting team over the Tigers since Jan. 16, 1992 when UNLV beat Pacific 70-52. In non-conference games since 1989, Pacific had a 65-13 home record prior to Saturday night's game against SCU. Also, Pacific had a 123-27 record in the last 10 seasons at home.

Big Second Halves
Against Pacific on Dec. 9, Santa Clara withstood an early run in the second half before outscoring the Tigers 16-1 to blow open the game and cruise to an 18-point win. SCU shot 54 percent in the second half to turn a close game into a rout. The Broncos repeated their second half success Dec. 11 against against Eastern Washington. SCU scored on eight of its first nine possessions in the second half to turn a one-point lead into a 12-point advantage. Santa Clara went on to hit 56 percent of its shots in the second half to pull away to a 23-point win over the Eagles.

Scoring
Santa Clara scored a season-high 91 points on Dec. 11 against Eastern Washington, surpassing the 83 points the team scored on Nov. 14 against Holy Names. In the second half of the game against Eastern Washington, the Broncos scored 52 points and shot 58 percent from behind the three-point arc.

Kaempf Returns
Senior guard Joey Kaempf returned to the court Dec. 9 against Pacific and played 11 minutes after missing the five games with a sprained right foot. He grabbed four rebounds in the game. On Dec. 11 against Eastern Washington, he scored his first points of the year on a three-pointer. He finished with three points and two rebounds. He had made only one other appearance this year, coming off the bench against California on Nov. 20. The senior guard previously missed the game on Nov. 14 against Holy Names due to a concussion.

Parham Back Also
Senior forward Tristan Parham made his first two appearances for the Broncos last week since Nov. 25 against Nevada. He had arthroscopic knee surgery on Nov. 28 and missed five total games. Parham played 12 minutes against the Eastern Washington, scoring four points and pulling down six rebounds and then played 14 minutes and had four points and three rebounds against Stanford.

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 five out of six 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. For the season, they are combining for 19.0 points, 8.8 assists and 6.9 rebounds per game from the guard spots. The pair has also combined for 28 steals on the season. Pariseau has a 2.18-to-1 assist-to-turnovver ratio while Angley is at 1.85-to-1 for the season.

Angley Aims For Top 10
Junior point guard Brody Angley has 48 assists on the season, giving him 271 career assists and leaving him less than 50 assists away from cracking the Broncos all-time top 10 in that category. He needs 38 assists to pass Chris Lane (1984-88) and move into 10th all time.

Perkins Has Break-Out Game
Former SCU guard Doron Perkins signed with Oldenburg in the Bundesliga 1 in Germany this fall and has played six games so far for the team. On Dec. 3, Perkins had a break out game against EWE Baskets scoring 27 points. He is now averaging 11.3 points per game this season.