Feb. 13, 2009
Winning six straight games before falling 66-62 at Pepperdine on Thursday, Santa Clara travels to Los Angeles to play Loyola Marymount on Sat., Feb. 14 at 7:30 pm on FSN PT. The game will be called by Paul Sunderland and Sean Farnham.
Santa Clara defeated LMU by 26 points on Jan. 29, winning 82-56. James Rahon scored 25 points for the second straight game in the win, with Kevin Foster adding 20 and John Bryant grabbing a double-double by tying the Leave Center record with 22 rebounds and 12 points.
Against LMU, SCU had a nine-game winning streak in the series between 1999-02. The two split the season series last season with each winning in the other's gym and LMU swept the season series in 2006-07, winning two games by a total of four points.
The Broncos, 13-14 and 5-4 in the WCC. The Broncos had won six straight, including wins at San Diego Feb. 5 and vs. Saint Mary's Feb. 7 before falling at Pepperdine on Thursday evening.
The Broncos are led by one of the leading WCC Player of the Year candidates, Bryant, who averages a double-double with 17.7 ppg and 13.7 rpg. Freshmen Kevin Foster, James Rahon and Marc Trasolini continue to make quick work of the SCU freshmen records with all three climbing up the top 10 lists of a number of categories and on pace to break at least five freshman records (see page 7). Foster is second on the team with 13.8 ppg and Rahon is No 3 with 11.1 ppg. Trasolini is No. 2 on the team with 4.5 rpg and 1.4 bpg.
Lion Head Coach Bill Bayno, who had been serving a leave of absence since Nov. 24, officially resigned from the position, Athletics Director Dr. William Husak announced Jan. 12. Husak also announced that Max Good, who has been the acting head coach during Bayno's leave, has agreed to a multiple-year deal to be the head coach of the Lions. Good is 2-19 thus far and 243-243 in his 15th season as a head coach.
The Lions are 2-23 and 1-8 in the WCC this season. They are coming off a 65-57 win over San Diego at home on Thursday night. They were led in the game by four players in double figures, including Vernon Teel, who scored 21 points. Kevin Young grabbed a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. On the season, they are led by Vernon Teel (16.0 ppg), Kevin Young (7.4 rpg) and Jarred DuBois (2.9 apg).
On the road
Ten of Santa Clara's 12 losses on the road this season were lost by a combined 37 points, averaging 3.7 more points for the opposition. The Broncos lost by one at Saint Mary's (63-62) and at Portland (53-52); three vs. UAB (64-61) and vs. Arizona (69-66); by four vs. Florida Atlantic (65-61), at New Hampshire (58-54) and at Pepperdine (66-62); by five at Harvard (73-68); and by six at Georgia (64-48) and at Pacific (63-57).
Their three wins on the road were by a total of eight points: a 71-68 win at Montana, a 59-56 win at San Jose State and a 64-62 overtime win at San Diego.
Two games were a bit different. Santa Clara lost 95-53 at Gonzaga on Jan. 15, its worst loss ever in WCC play. Santa Clara gave up 78 points in its 78-66 loss at UNLV on Dec. 17. The Runnin' Rebels scored a season-high 42 points in the first half, but were out-scored by the Broncos 38-36 in the second half.
Close
John Bryant has 44 double-doubles in his career, which is No. 2 of active players this season behind Washington's Jon Brockman, who has 53 career double-doubles. Bryant's 20 double-doubles this year: vs. CSU East Bay, vs. UAB, at Georgia, at Montana, at San Jose State, vs. Sacramento State, at UNLV, vs. Stanford, vs. UTEP, at Harvard, vs. San Diego, at Gonzaga, at Portland, vs. USF, vs. Houston Baptist, vs. LMU, vs. Pepperdine, at USD, vs. Saint Mary's and at Pepperdine.
He notched 15 double-doubles last season, five double-doubles in 2006-07 and had four double-doubles as a freshman during the 2005-06 season.
Monsters
Both John Bryant and Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, a 6-10, 251lb. sophomore forward for the No. 2 Sooners, continue to have monster seasons. Bryant has 20 double-doubles this season and is No. 2 nationally behind Griffin, who has 21 (as of Feb. 13).
Bryant leads the country in total rebounds (370) and has already topped his total of 298 rebounds from last year already. This season he is leading the WCC in field goal percentage, rebounds, defensive rebounds, offensive rebounds and blocked shots this season; and he is No. 3 in scoring.
Bryant is No. 2 in rebounds per game behind Griffin. Bryant is No. 13 in blocks nationally, No. 14 in field goal percentage and No. 78 in points per game.
Our past
Michael Santos had a few special fans in the stands at the Pepperdine game. Sitting with Santos' parents, Ron and Teres, were family friends Joe and Jennifer Montana. That's thee Joe Montana, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (2000) and a four-time Super Bowl Champion quarterback.
Santos isn't the only Bronco with famous folks around, having attended a couple football games at Notre Dame when he was younger with the Montana's. Nate Mensah trick-or-treated at Karl Malone's house while growing up in Salt Lake City, Troy Alexander played basketball at his gym in Dallas with Tony Romo, Phillip Bach's family is very familiar with Bill Gates and the list goes on.
Our needs
Kevin Foster has already broken the school record for threes made and threes attempted. At Pepperdine, James Rahon also broke the school record for threes made.
Foster needs 43 points to break Kurt Rambis' freshman points scored record. Rahon is on track to break the school record for three point percentage.
Marc Trasolini needs just four blocks to break John Bryant's blocks record from his freshman year. See page 7 for the complete list of top 10 freshman records the three freshman climb each game.
Rebounds
John Bryant grabbed his 1,000th career rebound in the second half vs. Pepperdine, a defensive rebound at 11:58. With that rebound, he became the third Bronco in school history to reach that milestone and the 14th in WCC history. Bryant is the 10th player in Bay Area history to reach 1,000 career rebounds, and the first since Stanford's Tim Young accomplished the feat in 1999. Bryant passed No. 2 Kurt Rambis (1,037 from 1976-80) in the Saint Mary's win and is No. 2 with 1,043 career rebounds. He needs 81 rebounds to break the school record set by Dennis Awtrey (1,135 from 1967-70). Playing the regular season out (four games) and at least one WCC Tournament game, Bryant will have to average 16.2 rpg to break the school record.
He has twice tied his career-high with 22 rebounds at the Leavey Center, also the facility record set by Kurt Rambis vs. Saint Mary's in a 90-73 SCU win on Feb. 5, 1977. He has six games with 20+ rebounds. Bryant has four games this year with 20+ points and 20+ rebounds.
Show No Fear 2
With Santa Clara and Saint Mary's as long-time rivals, freshman Kevin Foster must be a Bronco-fan favorite early. In his first trip to Moraga on Jan. 9 he scored a career-high 31 points. He was 11 of 19 from the field, including 5 of 9 from three point land. He also tracked down three steals and dished three assists.
In their second meeting, suffering from food poisoning for 24 hours prior, including spending game day in a hospital bed with an IV, Foster torched the nets again on Feb. 7 vs. Saint Mary's. Foster was 6 of 6 from the field, including a perfect 3 of 3 from beyond the arc in the first half, scoring 18 points. He finished the night with a second-best career effort of 26 points, on 9 of 12 from the field (4 of 5 from three point land).
After the game Foster said on playing through food poisoning: "The first part of the game was really tough. I couldn't really breath, so it made things hard. The trainers helped me out a lot, they were giving me a lot of water at timeouts. I was worried that I might not be able to play, but this was a game that I really wanted to play in. I played through it and we got the win."
On his success against SMC: "I try to treat every team the same and play the same way. I go out and play my own game and let things come to me through the game. My shot were falling tonight, so that helped me get going in the first half."
Trashing Them
Bronco fans remember these Diaper Dandies names: Kevin Foster, James Rahon and Marc Trasolini. They are making history in the SCU freshman record books.
In the LMU game on Jan. 29, Kevin Foster broke the school record for three pointers attempted and three pointers made. The previous records were 51 three pointers made and 145 three pointers attempted by Brandon Rohe in 2002-03. Foster has already racked up 67 makes on 178 attempts.
Rahon also broke the freshman record for threes made in the game at Pepperdine and has 52 this season (record was 51) and could break the freshman school record as he is shooting 42.6% from beyond the arc. The top three point percentage was set by Steve Nash in 1992-93 when he shot 40.8% from the three point line.
Maybe even more impressive for Foster and Rahon to be breaking the three point records: the three point line was moved out from 19 feet, 9 inches to 20 feet, 9 inches this season.
Trasolini is climbing up the rebounding and blocks freshmen school record charts as well. He needs seven more blocks this season to break the school record for a freshman. The record was set in 2006 when John Bryant blocked 37 shots his rookie campaign. Bryant is now the all-time blocks leader for the Broncos with 231 denies. Trasolini has 104 rebounds this season and needs 10 more to hit the top 10 for a freshman. See page 7 for complete list of freshman records.
