Santa Clara Hosts Vermont In College Basketball Invitational presented by Buick

Santa Clara Hosts Vermont In College Basketball Invitational presented by Buick

Click HERE to view the complete bracket for the tournament.

Click here to order tickets for Tuesday's CBI game with Vermont!

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Santa Clara Game Notes

PARKING: Bronco season ticket holders can park for free in the Leavey Center lot. All others can park for free in the main structure on campus.

After their most successful regular season in almost 20 years, the Broncos (21-11, 9-7) will host Vermont (21-11, 11-5) in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational presented by Buick on Tues., March 19 at 7 pm in the Leavey Center. It will be the first meeting between the two schools.  The game can also be heard live on www.SantaClaraBroncos.com with KDOW 1220 am running the live broadcast locally at 7 pm. Anthony Passarelli is in his sixth season as the Broncos' play-by-play announcer.

Santa Clara had a nine-game improvement in conference play, going from 0-16 last year to 9-7, the second-best single-season turnaround in WCC history. The Broncos fell one victory shy of tying the all-time league mark, established in 1988 by LMU. They reached 21 victories for just the 13th time in school history and their win total matches the second-highest recorded over the last 29 seasons, behind only the 2010-11 squad that posted 24 wins.

Santa Clara last played in the post-season in 2011 when the Broncos won the CollegeInsider Tournament (CIT) by winning its last three games on the road, including a thrilling 76-69 victory at Iona. The Broncos are led by two All-WCC first team members in Kevin Foster and Marc Trasolini.  Both in the top nine of Santa Clara's all-time scoring list (Foster, No. 1, 2,265; Trasolini, No. 9, 1,610), Foster set the school record for career starts Feb. 28.  Trasolini and Raymond Cowels III broke the school record for career games this season as well.

Vermont will make its fifth postseason appearance, and ninth in 11 years, when it travels almost 3,100 miles across the country (3,095.44 miles exactly) to play the Broncos. The Catamounts, who earned their eighth trip to the America East Championship game in 12 years, fell 53-49 to Albany in the league finals on March 16.  With a 21-11 record this year, Vermont posted its 10th 20-win season in the last 12 years.

Vermont is making its second appearance in the CBI with its first appearance coming in 2009. The Catamounts traveled to Wisconsin Green Bay and defeated the Phoenix, 76-72, for the program's second postseason victory. Vermont advanced to the quarterfinals where it fell at Oregon State, 71-70 in overtime. 

Bronco Post-Season

It is the second time in three years and just the third time in 17 years that Santa Clara has played in the post-season.  It is the 17th post-season appearance in school history (18-17: 11-13 NCAA; 2-4 NIT, 5-0 CIT).  Santa Clara posted a 5-0 record to win the 2011 CIT with wins against vs. Northern Colorado and Air Force and wins at San Francisco, SMU and Iona to win the title.  In its previous post-season appearance Santa Clara defeated Maryland 91-79 in the first round of the 1996 NCAA Tournament before falling 76-51 to Kansas in the second round, who advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to eventual NCAA runner-up Syracuse. 

In 2011 Santa Clara won five games in the post-season for the first time in school history.  The last time it played at least four post-season games was in 1952 when the Broncos advanced to the NCAA Final Four in Seattle with wins over UCLA (68-59) and Wyoming (64-53).  It dropped games to Kansas (75-55) and Illinois (67-64) at the Final Four that year.  Kansas, coached by Phog Allen, won the national title with a 80-63 victory over St. John's, coached by Frank McGuire.  The tournament that year was the first to have a true "Final Four" format, with the winners at four regional sites advancing to the final site.

School Records

Marc Trasolini (102), Raymond Cowels III (82) and Kevin Foster (119) have started all 32 games for SCU this season and have combined for 304 starts in their Santa Clara careers. Evan Roquemore has started 31 of 32 games and has 85 career starts under his belt.  The remaining nine players on the roster have a total of 127 career starts with Niyi Harrison leading the group with 45.

Among all his other accomplishments Foster became the all-time leader in games started when he took the court in SCU's win over LMU on Feb. 28. He broke a tie with Brian Jones, who started 116 games from 1996-01. At Saint Mary's on March 2 he broke the school record for field goals made, topping Londale Theus who held the record since 1980 (Foster has 720, Theus had 712 from 1976-80). Foster also has the career school record in points scored, field goals attempted, three pointers made, three pointers attempted and minutes played.

Foster may well go down as one of the greatest all-around players to ever compete in the WCC. One of just three players to score over 2,200 career points, Foster leads the WCC this year in steals and is No. 5 in assists. Foster has collected 2,265 points (second best in WCC history), 435 assists and 217 steals joining LMU's Terrell Lowery as the only players in WCC history to accumulate more than 2,000 points, 400 assists and 200 steals (Lowery recorded 2,201 points, 689 assists and 231 steals).

Trasolini and Cowels III each have played in 131 career games and own the school record in that category, surpassing Ben Dowdell as he participated in 128 games from 2007-11.  

Foursome

There have been 31 players in the history of SCU basketball to score 1,000 career points and four of them are on the current roster. SCU was the first Division I school with three 1,000 point scorers on its roster on Dec. 15, 2012 when Evan Roquemore scored his 1,000th career point; and Santa Clara was the third school in Division I this season to have four active 1,000 career point scorers after Raymond Cowels III joined the club in the win over Pepperdine on Feb. 16.  

Santa Clara is the first team in West Coast Conference history to have four 1,000 point career scorers in the same season. There are now three other teams nationally with a quartet of 1,000 point scorers: N.C. State accomplished the feat on Jan. 22, 2013 vs. Wake Forest, Davidson matched them on Feb. 9, 2013 vs. App. State and No. 1 Indiana accomplished this as well a few nights after Santa Clara on Tues., Feb. 19 vs. Michigan State.

Three of the four 1,000-point scorers are averaging double figures with Kevin Foster at 17.9 ppg (2,265 career points), Marc Trasolini at 15.6 ppg (1,610) and Evan Roquemore at 11.8 ppg (1,237). Raymond Cowels III averages 9.5 ppg and has 1,039 career points. Foster is No. 2 nationally in active career points scored behind Lehigh's C.J. McCollum (2,361) who is out for the season with a broken foot.

Foster became SCU's all-time scoring leader, surpassing 1980 WCC Player of the Year and former NBA star Kurt Rambis, in a win at St. Louis on Nov. 14 and became the third player in WCC history to score 2,200 career points with 20 at Portland Feb. 23. Not even ranked in the top 25 career scorers in WCC history when the season began, Foster sits at No. 2 after passing LMU's Terrell Lowery, who scored 2,201 from 1988-92. Foster has 27 double-digit scoring games this season and 109 in his 127 game career. 

Marc Trasolini became the 11th Bronco to score 1,500 career points when he tallied 13 vs. Saint Mary's on Feb. 7. He broke into the top 10 surpassing Kyle Bailey, who scored 1,571 (2001-05) when he dropped in a game-high 26 in a win over LMU on Feb. 28. With 21 points at Saint Mary's on March 2, Trasolini became the ninth player in school history with 1,600, and he currently has 1,610.  He needs 80 more points to jump into the top 5 and pass Steve Nash (1,689, 1992-96).  He joins former Broncos John Bryant, Dennis Awtrey and Kurt Rambis as the only four to have collected 1600+ points and 800+ rebounds in their SCU careers.  

Evan Roquemore joined the 1,000-point club this season, reaching the plateau in a win at Pacific on Dec. 15. He scored his 1,100th career point at LMU on Jan. 10, becoming just the 25th player in school history to score that many. He scored career point No. 1,200 at Gonzaga on Feb. 20 and currently sits at No. 23 with 1,237. Roquemore needs 22 points to pass Mitch Burley (1,258, 1985-89) for No. 20 all-time.

Raymond Cowels III has played in all but one game during his four-year career (family funeral) and has started 62 straight times since the beginning of the 2011-12 season. He became the fourth member of the current roster to score 1,000 career points and the 31st in school history when he scored eight on Feb. 16 vs. Pepperdine. He scored his 1,000th point on a three-point basket vs. the Waves.  RCIII now has 1,039 career points and is sitting at No. 28 all-time.  He needs 82 points to pass Scott Lamson (1,120, 1981-85) and break into the top 25 all-time.

High Cotton

The Broncos won their 21st game of the season by beating LMU, 79-56, on Feb. 28, posting that many victories in a regular season for the first time since 1994-95 and reaching that total for just the 13th time in school history. The victory total matches the second-highest recorded over the last 29 seasons, behind only the 2010-11 squad that posted 24 wins under Kerry Keating.

After going winless (0-16) in the WCC in 2012, SCU enjoyed one of the greatest turnarounds in league history in 2013. Santa Clara's 9-game improvement ties for the second-best in WCC history, matching the 2012 LMU team. The Lions went 11-5 that year after a 2-12 mark in 2011. SCU fell a win short of equaling the WCC record, held by the 1988 LMU squad, which went 10-4 that year after a winless league slate in 1987.

Playing together for three full seasons, fifth-year seniors Marc Trasolini and Kevin Foster have combined for 61 victories.  Add in the four wins from Foster's sophomore year before he broke his foot in the win at UC Santa Barbara on Dec. 1, 2009 and the duo has won 65 games together during their time on the court (Foster played in six games in 2009-10 before being redshirted due to a broken foot that ended his season and Trasolini was redshirted due to a pre-season torn ACL in 2011-12).

Foster and Trasolini have scored 1,072 points between them this season, good for No. 6 on the top scoring tandems list.  They need 14 points between the two of them to move to No. 4 all-time, passing Dennis Awtrey (619) and Bud Ogden (466) for the No. 4 spot with 1,085 points in 1968-69.  Foster and Trasolini became the eighth Bronco twosome to score 1,000 total points in a season on Feb. 28.  The duo already holds the school record with 1,238 points scored between them in 2010-11 (Foster, 766 and Trasolini, 472).

Trasolini's 246 rebounds combined with Yannick Atanga's 197 put the duo at a tie at No. 16 on the top rebounding tandem list with 443 boards between them (tied with Kurt Rambis and Gary Carpenter, 1979-80).  Trasolini is already on the list at No. 3 with John Bryant in 2008-09 (610) and with Troy Payne in 2010-11 at No. 14 (451). 

Present vs. Past

As expected with four players scoring 10+ points per game in West Coast Conference play, they are moving up the Bronco single season records list. Kevin Foster has already jumped up to No. 7 on the scoring list with his 574 points (tied with Harold Keeling, 1984-85). Foster is No. 2 in threes made and threes attempted and No. 3 in field goal attempts and steals.  Marc Trasolini is tied for No. 6 in blocked shots.  Raymond Cowels III is tied for No. 8 for threes made and tied for No. 2 in free throw percentage.  Evan Roquemore is No. 4 in assists.

The Broncos 21 wins are tied for No. 6 on the all-time wins list for a single season.  Additionally, the Broncos are No. 2 in blocked shots, steals, threes made and threes attempted, No. 3 in points scored and assists, No. 5 in three point percentage and free throw percentage, No. 9 in field goal attempts and No. 10 in scoring margin and fewest disqualifications.

This Year

Santa Clara is 18-2 this season when leading at halftime and has won its last seven games when holding an advantage at the break. SCU has outscored the opposition 1,152 to 968 (+184) during the first 20 minutes … SCU's nine WCC wins were its most under head coach Kerry Keating and the most since winning 10 league games in 2007 … The Broncos have their highest regular-season win total since 1994-95 and their 21 wins equal the 2006-07 and 1994-95 teams for the second-most in school history over the last 29 seasons. SCU won 24 games during the 2010-11 season under head coach Kerry Keating … SCU has held opponents to fewer than 20 first half points five times … The Broncos have nine wins by at least 20 points and four wins by at least 30 points … SCU leads the WCC in blocked shots with 143 and has three of the top-7 shot blockers in the league. Marc Trasolini is No. 2 with 49, Robert Garrett is No. 3 with 41 and Yannick Atanga is No. 7 with 31. The Broncos boast two players among the top five in the WCC in assists with Evan Roquemore at No. 4 and Kevin Foster at No. 5. Roquemore averages 5.25 per game (168 total) and Foster dishes out 4.38 per game (140). The two have combined for 308 assists, which averages out to 9.62 per game … Santa Clara swept four series during WCC action (Portland, USF, USD, Pepperdine), the most since getting four during the 2007 conference season … SCU has three winning streaks of five or more games this season … Brandon Clark is the only non-starter to have more than one double-digit scoring game off the bench. Clark has scored 10 or more points in six of his last 10 games and 10 times total this season … Kevin Foster is the only SCU player to attempt more than 200 three-point shots in a season. He's done it for a third time this season with 272 … Santa Clara has scored over 60 points in all but two games this season and their total of 2,356 points is the third-most in school history. SCU totaled 2,428 in 1969-70. The school record is 2,810 in 2010-11.

Well-Rounded

Marc Trasolini, named to the 2013 West Coast Conference Basketball All-Academic Team on March 1, is one of the 10 finalist's for the Senior CLASS Award nationally.  The men's Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2013 NCAA Final Four. Bronco fans are encouraged to vote for Trasolini every day at the following website through March 25 - www.seniorclassaward.com/vote. 

To be eligible for the award, the senior must have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition. The finalists were chosen by a media committee from the list of 30 candidates announced in October. 

Trasolini became the fourth player in school history to be named to the Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-American list on Feb. 19 when he was named third team nationally.  He is the only player in the WCC and Pac 12 to be named to the CoSIDA All-District Academic All-American list three straight competition years this Feb. (2010, '11, '13).  Trasolini is in his fourth quarter of MBA work and graduated cum laude in March 2012 with a degree in Finance (3.65 GPA).

Kerry Keating had this to say about Trasolini in the community.  "On our annual trip to the Great America park to spend the day with Courageous Kids (kids with cancer) Marc has been front and center each year.  At 6-9 240, he is easily visible, but the kids feel his heart when he spends time with them because he is a good person, not because he is a basketball player and tall. Marc has been a fixture at our annual summer camp and relishes his role as teacher and role model, and has developed a comfort in being easily noticeable but has more so developed strength in being a role model and good citizen."

 Microwave

Kevin Foster was nicknamed 'Microwave' by his father Rick Foster during his youth after the Detroit Piston's Vinnie Johnson.  Johnson earned the nickname 'the Microwave' from Celtics guard Danny Ainge for his ability to score many points in a short period of time, heating up the offense. Foster has scored 15+ points in 83 of 127 career games and he has scored 19+ in 59 career games.  Foster's 19+ games follow:  

Opponent/Date                    Pts. (3s)

1. vs. Arizona/Nov. 25, 2008 21 (5) 

2. vs. Belmont/Dec. 29, 2008 24 (3)

3. at Harvard/Jan. 2, 2009 20 (4)

4. at Saint Mary's/Jan. 9, 2009 31 (5)

5. at Portland/Jan. 17, 2009 20 (3)

6. vs. LMU/Jan. 29, 2009 20 (3)

7. vs. Saint Mary's/Feb. 7, 2009 26 (4)

8. at LMU/Feb. 14, 2009 26 (5)

9. at USF/Feb. 21, 2009 20 (2)

10. vs. Gonzaga/Feb. 26, 2009 20 (3)

11. vs. San Diego/March 7, 2009 21 (4)

12. at CSUB/Nov. 13, 2009 21 (3)

13. vs. Menlo/Nov. 19, 2009 19 (4)

14. at Pacific/Nov. 22, 2009 22 (5)

15. vs. Fresno State/Nov. 28, 2009 25 (5)

16. vs. CSU Bakersfield/Nov. 12, 2010 19 (4)

17. at So. California/Nov. 15, 2010 26 (4)

18. vs. Bethune-Cookman/Nov. 21, 2010 21 (6)

19. vs. N. Colorado/Nov. 23, 2010 19 (4)

20. vs. UC Santa Barbara/Dec. 4, 2010 25 (6)

21. at San Jose State/Dec. 10, 2010 26 (3)

22. vs. Washington St./Dec. 19, 2010 29 (4)

23. at CSU Northridge/Dec. 22, 2010 22 (2)

24. vs. Bethany/Jan. 3, 2011 19 (6)

25. vs. USF/Jan. 8, 2011 26 (8)

26. vs. Gonzaga/Jan. 20, 2011 36 (6)

27. vs. Portland/Jan. 22, 2011 19 (3)

28. vs. LMU/Jan. 29, 2011 28 (3)

29. vs. St. Mary's/Feb. 10, 2011 25 (4)

30. vs. San Diego/Feb. 12, 2011 21 (3)

31. at Gonzaga/Feb. 17, 2011 27 (8)

32. at Portland/Feb. 19, 2011 29 (7)

33. vs. Air Force/March 18, 2011 36 (9)

34. at USF/March 22, 2011 27 (3)

35. at SMU (March 25, 2011 35 (5)

36. vs. New Mexico (Nov. 24, 2011) 26 (5)

37. vs. Oklahoma (Nov. 25, 2011) 19 (3)

38. vs. Cal State Northridge (Dec. 3, 2011) 20 (4)

39. vs. Pacific (Dec. 17, 2011) 26 (6)

40. at Houston Baptist (Dec. 21, 2011) 19 (3)

41. vs. Eastern Michigan (Dec. 29, 2011) 25 (6)

42. vs. Wagner (Dec. 30, 2011) 20 (4)

43. at BYU (Jan. 14, 2012) 22 (4)

44. vs. Saint Mary's (Jan. 21, 2012) 22 (5)

45. vs. Simpson (Nov. 10, 2012) 27 (7)

46. at Saint Louis (Nov. 14, 2012) 30 (2)

47. vs. Utah Valley (Nov. 21, 2012) 21 (1)

48. vs. Utah State (Nov. 28, 2012) 27 (5)

49. vs. UC Santa Barbara (Dec. 1, 2012) 28 (4)

50. at Pacific (Dec. 15, 2012) 31 (4)

51. at Duke (Dec. 29, 2012) 29 (5)

52. vs. USF (Jan. 2, 2013) 21 (5)

53. vs. Gonzaga (Jan. 5, 2013) 29 (2)

54. vs. BYU (Jan. 12, 2013) 22 (3)

55. at USF (Jan. 17, 2013) 27 (6)

56. at Pepperdine (Jan. 19, 2013) 29 (6)

57. vs. Pepperdine (Feb. 16, 2013) 22 (5)

58. at Portland (Feb. 23, 2013) 20 (4)

59. vs. LMU (March 8, 2013) 23 (3)

 

Climbing the Three-Point Ladder

Kevin Foster is the WCC's career leader with 407 after breaking a tie with LMU's Jeff Fryer vs. BYU on Jan. 12. Foster hit his record 364th career three knocking down a shot from the corner with 10:44 left in the first half vs. the Cougars.  Foster is No. 9 on the NCAA Division I all-time threes made list.  He needs to hit eight more threes to move to No. 5 and pass Davidson's Stephen Curry (now starring with the Warriors) who made 414 career threes from 2007-09.  

Foster's 152 made threes in WCC games is No. 3 all-time in league history as he passed Gonzaga's Blake Stepp with 143 threes made in WCC games (2000-04) at Portland on Feb. 23 when he made four.  LMU's Jeff Fryer holds the WCC record in league-only games with 166 threes made in 49 games (1987-90) and Portland's Jared Stohl is No. 2 with 160 career WCC threes (2007-11).  Foster's three threes at BYU Feb. 2 broke two-time NBA MVP and former Bronco Steve Nash's school record for career WCC threes.  Nash made 132 in his 56 league games and is No. 2 all-time for the Broncos with 263 threes, a record Foster eclipsed early his junior year.  

With 1,121 attempted, Foster is the SCU and WCC leader and he is No. 6 in NCAA Division I history. He needs 72 attempts to break the all-time NCAA record set by Keydren Clark in 2006 (1,192, Saint Peter's).  Foster has attempted 10 or more 3s in a game 12 times this season and 56 times in his 127 game career. 

 (1998-99 – sports-reference.com)

No. Player 3PA From To Last School

1. Keydren Clark 1192 2003 2006 Saint Peter's

2. David Holston 1147 2006 2009 Chicago State

3. Joe Zeglinski 1140 2007 2011 Hartford

4. Gerry McNamara 1131 2003 2006 Syracuse

5. J.J. Redick 1126 2003 2006 Duke

6. Kevin Foster 1121 2009 2013 Santa Clara

Foster was the WCC Player of the Week on Jan. 21 for the second time this season after he averaged 27.5 ppg, including 57.1 percent from beyond the arc (12-of-21), in a pair of road wins at USF, winning 85-54, and 83-76 at Pepperdine. Foster averaged 33 minutes per game hitting six threes in both victories. He also shot 62.5 percent for the week (20-of-32) and recorded his first career double-double with 27 points and 10 rebounds at USF.  On the week he averaged 6.0 rpg, 3.0, apg and 2.5 spg.

In SCU's 88-75 win over Air Force on March 18, 2011, Foster broke the school record with nine threes, tying a career-high with 36 points.  He also had a career-high 36 in Santa Clara's 85-71 win over Gonzaga on Jan. 20, 2011.  Foster shattered the WCC single season threes made record with 140 in 2010-11, leading the country, and grabbed the nation's top spot in threes made per game as well with 3.68.  

He has scored 574 points this season, which is currently tied for No. 7 on the all-time Bronco single season list. Foster's 768 points in 2010-11 were No. 6 on the WCC's single season points scored list as he finished as the leading scorer in a single season in the Bay Area as well.  He broke the school's single season mark for points scored, minutes played, threes made and threes attempted that year.  He was named first-team All-WCC and was named the WCC Player of the Month in February and March.  He was named the WCC Player of the Year by CollegeInsider.com.

 

One of the Bay's Best-Ever

With 15 points in a win at San Diego on Jan. 26, Kevin Foster passed former USF great Bill Cartwright for No. 3 on the WCC and Bay Area career scoring list. Foster, who has scored 2,265 career points, passed Terrell Lowery for the No. 2 spot on the WCC chart (2,201 points from 1988-92) with a game-high 20 at Portland on Feb. 23. Foster would need to score 226 points to take over the No. 1 spot from LMU's Hank Gathers, who scored 2,490 points from 1987-90. Foster became SCU's career points leader, overtaking 1980 WCC Player of the Year Kurt Rambis, in a 74-62 win at St. Louis on Nov. 14, 2012.

Foster has reached double figures 27 times in 32 games this season, has topped the 20-point mark 15 times, and scored at least 30 in a game twice to lead the Broncos in scoring. Foster became the seventh player in West Coast Conference history to score 2,000 career points, reaching that mark on a runner in the lane early in the second half vs. Gonzaga on Jan. 5. Against No. 10 Gonzaga on Jan. 5, he became the fourth player in Bay Area Division I history (includes Cal, Stanford, Santa Clara, Saint Mary's, USF and San Jose State), and the first in 21 years, to score 2,000 career points, joining Stanford's Todd Lichti (2,336) and Adam Keefe (2,319) and USF's Bill Cartwright (2,116). He needs 55 points to pass No. 2 Adam Keefe of Stanford.

Rank/Name School Years Total points

1. Todd Lichti Stanford 1986-89 2,336 

2. Adam Keefe Stanford 1989-92 2,319

3. Kevin Foster Santa Clara 2008-13 2,265

4. Bill Cartwright USF 1976-79 2,116