Tracking the Broncos: Sendek News Conference, Campus Introduction

Herb Sendek at his introductory news conference

Posted: Mar 30, 2016

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. – One day after being hired as Santa Clara men's basketball coach, Herb Sendek held his first news conference and was introduced to the University and community.

Sendek, director of athletics Renee Baumgartner and University president Father Michael Engh all had remarks on Wednesday.

Sendek and Baumgartner visited with the media at Leavey Center before all three spoke to the campus gathering at Locatelli Center.

Quotes

Head Coach Herb Sendek

On joining Santa Clara…
"I'm honored to be apart of Santa Clara University athletics. I want to thank Father Engh and Renee for giving my family and myself this wonderful opportunity. We're really excited to be here."

On his assistant coaches…
"Barret [Peery] was with us last year at Arizona State. He's been at several Division I programs. He's led his own junior college programs. He's only won about 85 percent of his games as head coach. And then we have one of our former players back on staff, Julius Hodge. Julius was an ACC Player of the Year for us at North Carolina State. He's one of three players in the Atlantic Coast Conference to score 2,000 points, grab 800 rebounds and dish out over 500 assists. Julius has played professionally for many years. This past year, he was on staff at the University of Buffalo."

On the West Coast Conference…
"I think the West Coast Conference is a premier Division I conference. Having been in the Pac-12 the last nine years, I had firsthand working knowledge of this conference because we would play teams from the league and we would also scrimmage them. I know firsthand through those competitions how really, really good it is. Obviously the last several years, the top third of the league has created a gap. What Gonzaga, Saint Mary's, and BYU have been able to do is remarkable. Those are outstanding college basketball programs. They're programs that can compete in any league in America. We have to just take it one step at a time. I do think it's important when you start a program that you're very aware and you're prepared to lift all of the efforts that have come before. Obviously with what [former coach coach Carroll] Williams did here at Santa Clara, Coach [Dick] Davey and then coach [Kerry] Keating, has a special place. We're going to get on the shoulders of those coaches and try to build on what they've done and I think that's really important for us. We're not starting from scratch. A lot of hard work from former players and former coaches has gone into this endeavor. We're just going to come and try to add to that in whatever way we can."

On his year off from coaching…
"It was a tremendous opportunity to learn and grow. I had a chance to visit a number of programs and sit in on meetings and team practices. I was able to have my computer downloaded with games of film that I wanted to watch, teams that I wanted to study. I obviously stayed connected and talked with coaches on a regular basis, spoke at some clinics and really had a chance to dissect everything we do, line by line, in every aspect of the program. I would say one fundamental difference was that every offseason you take a step back and take inventory. You evaluate everything in your program but you're typically doing that through the lens of the team that you're going to have next season and you also do it through the lens of the particular institution you represent. This year, as I took a step back and I studied the game, I had a much broader lens. I wasn't trying to fit it in to any particular team or personnel. I wasn't representing a particular school that maybe provided a unique framework so it allowed me to look at things with a much broader perspective so that was really healthy too.

On his expectations for the team…
"I think it's important to refrain from jumping to conclusions. I think there's a sense of a new beginning for the players and I want to honor that as opposed to relying on somebody else's opinion. I think to build trust with those guys and to be fair, the less clouded my judgment is ahead of time, the better it's going to be. We met yesterday and briefly today and I've been extremely impressed with their character quotient. They are gentlemen. Coach [Kerry] Keating and his staff did a remarkable job of assembling real good people."

On his coaching tree and his Santa Clara staff…
"We've been blessed to have superstars on our coaching staff through the years. That's something that has been a constant for us and I could tell you unequivocally that the staff we have now is as good as any. We're bringing tremendous people and coaches to the Santa Clara staff."

"We always try to hire the strongest possible coaches. We don't pigeonhole them into any small part of the program but we ask them to take ownership of every aspect of the program. We ask them to coach and lead and I've just been tremendously lucky to learn from them, to be along their side. I couldn't be more excited about a staff than I am the one we've assembled here at Santa Clara. Taking these steps right now, I'm fortified by the staff that we have. They give me confidence to do this job."

On where Santa Clara is in the West Coast Conference…
"The one thing about the sport of basketball, as teams in our conference have demonstrated, sometimes those lines get pretty blurry and then we have this thing called March Madness that confuses the whole issue. I think we're probably at a place and time where the labels may not carry as much weight as they historically have carried."

On why he's excited to join Santa Clara…
"One of the reasons I'm excited about this opportunity is Father Engh, Renee, and the rest of the university have committed to helping us move forward. We're going to be the benefactors of additional resources that some of the coaches before us maybe didn't have the luxury to enjoy. It really is a total team effort. It starts with leadership and it's carried right through the ranks."

On the style of play his teams employ…
"I think the most important style is to play hard. I think you start with how hard are you going to play? The second thing is, how are you going to play together? The third thing is are you going to play smart? To me, that's where the style really has the utmost importance. And then depending on your personnel, I think its good to be flexible enough to adjust to put them in positions to be successful. In the general sense, we are going to look to push the basketball. We want to strike in transition. We would like our offense to be free flowing where our guys play basketball and are able to make good decisions. Defensively, our staple will be man-to-man. That doesn't mean at times we might not give a different look. But before we get into the details of the style, I think it's most important that we establish playing hard and playing together."

Director of Athletics Renee Baumgartner

On the hiring of Herb Sendek…
"This is a really exciting day for Santa Clara University and for our athletic department to be able to hire an amazing individual and an amazing coach. He's a great fit for this university. I know that he cherishes the high academic values that this university has and he's also going to bring incredible athletic excellence to this program, a proven winner."

On why she chose Coach Sendek…
"Knowing what I knew about Coach Sendek when I was at Oregon watching him coach at Arizona State, I was very impressed. We needed to make sure that we have someone that was within our values and that cherishes our academics that this university has really achieved. We just wanted to make sure we could bring in a proven winner that could help us win some basketball games and that's Coach Sendek.

On what Sendek brings to Santa Clara…
"We have an amazing coach and an amazing person who is going to help elevate this University. He is going to continue to champion our academic excellence and he is going to bring athletic excellence. His record speaks for itself. He has 413 Division I wins. He was coach of the year three times, in three different conferences, two of which were Power Five Conferences. In 18 out of his 22 years as a head coach he led his team to postseason appearances. He has been to 10 NITs and eight NCAA Tournaments. I am really thrilled for our current student-athletes. You are going to have an amazing friend, an amazing coach, and an amazing mentor. He has recruited and coached some of the best individuals. Three of them are James Harden, Wally Szczerbiak, and Julius Hodge, one of our fabulous new assistant coaches."

On the recruiting process…
"During our recruitment we invited him and his wife, Melanie, to campus. We all learned more about him and he learned more about Santa Clara. It was clear in my mind and those that met with him that we wanted to offer him the job. Coach and I had several discussions over the next week and March 25 is a day I will never forget. We scheduled a call and coach said to me, 'when Melanie and I got off the plane in Phoenix after our visit, we said that Santa Clara gave us its best and I would be honored to be your next men's basketball coach.'"

University President Father Michael Engh

On hiring Herb Sendek…
"I've been very delighted with this selection. I've learned a lot about Coach Sendek and his exceptional coaching and teaching ability over 22 years as a head coach. When I had a chance to reflect on my interview with him, I found that he is someone who fully embraces Santa Clara values. He embraces our values of striving for excellence, striving for ethics, and seeing student-athletes succeed. Here at Santa Clara we are a student-centered University and students do come first. When I heard him talk about students he'd worked with before, I knew he was very true to what Santa Clara is all about. I'm very pleased we have students here who are going to benefit from the coaching ability he brings. We want to make sure they graduate on time, get the best coaching possible, have a clean program, and have someone who can win."