Basketball Plays at Southern California Monday
Santa Clara travels to Los Angeles to face the University of Southern California Trojans on Mon., Nov. 15 at 7:30 pm. Santa Clara returns 12 players from last season, including all five starters, and added five freshmen to its roster.
Santa Clara's roster features three Los Angeles area natives. Senior Troy Payne is from Los Angeles. He attended Dorsey and then Citrus College prior to coming to Santa Clara last season. Sophomore Robert Smith is from Riverside and attended Perris High School. Sophomore Chris Cunningham is from Diamond Bar, Calif. and he attended Diamond Ranch High School.
Both teams won their season openers with the Broncos defeating CSU Bakersfield 82-77 on Friday night and Southern California posting a 62-49 victory over UC Irvine on Saturday.
The Trojans returns two starters from last year's team which went 16-14 and tied for fifth in the Pac-10. The Trojans are led by forwards Nikola Vucevic (10.7 ppg, 9.4 rpg) and Alex Stepheson (8.4 ppg., 7.2 rpg), the top two returning rebounders in the conference Vucevic was named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 List.
Listen Here
The USC game will be broadcasted via the Bronco Radio Network on both KDOW 1220 AM and Broncos All-Access on the web at www.SantaClaraBroncos.com with the broadcast beginning at 7:15 pm. Anthony Passarelli is in his fourth season as the Broncos' play-by-play announcer. Coach Kerry Keating can be heard on KDOW 1220 AM on Sunday evenings from 9:10-9:20 pm in his radio spotlight on The Sports Ramble, hosted by Chetan Chaudhari. If you are out of the listening area, KDOW is streamed online live at www.1220kdow.com.
Name Changer
In 1985, in part to avoid confusion with the University of Southern California, the University of Santa Clara (it went by USC), as it had been known since 1912, changed its name to Santa Clara University and started to call itself SCU.
Beginning with the graduating class of 1986, diplomas began being printed with the new name, Santa Clara University. It was originally founded in 1851 as Santa Clara College, the state's first-ever college, but changed its named to University of Santa Clara in 1912 with the addition of the School of Engineering and the School of Law.
Jitters Out
Marc Trasolini's fourth career double-double paced the Broncos in their season opener as Santa Clara defeated Cal State Bakersfield 82-77 at the Leavey Center on Nov. 12. Kevin Foster added 19 points in 31 minutes for the Broncos in his first game since Dec. 1st, 2009. Bronco head coach Kerry Keating is now 4-0 in season openers as a head coach.
Santa Clara shot 43.9 percent, including 27.3 percent from beyond the arc. Santa Clara had 38 rebounds and seven steals with 16 turnovers. Cal State Bakersfield shot 46 percent, including 41.2 percent from beyond the arc. Bakersfield had 31 rebounds, one block and 12 steals with 21 turnovers.
Trasolini finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Evan Roquemore had 14 points and four assists in 27 minutes in his first career collegiate game. Ben Dowdell finished with 13 points and six rebounds.
Down in Los Angeles, USC hosted UC Irvine in its season opener on Saturday and won. The Trojans Nikola Vucevic scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half and Southern California defeated UC Irvine 62-49 in its season opener Saturday. USC dominated on the boards and out-rebounded UCI 47-26.
Vucevic and frontcourt mate Alex Stepheson helped the Trojans dominate the boards 47-26, with Vucevic snagging 14 rebounds and Stepheson 13 to go with six points. Bryce Jones added 14 points, including three 3-pointers, and Maurice Jones had 13 points.
Series Record
USC leads the series with Santa Clara 21-8. In the two school's first meeting, Santa Clara won 63-13 in Santa Clara on Feb. 1, 1917 (see game notes for complete list).
Santa Clara scored a 20-point victory in the two school's last meeting, with the Broncos winning 74-54 on Dec. 2, 1983 in Santa Clara. Santa Clara was led by Nick Vanos (17 pts., 8 reb.), Harold Keeling (13 pts., 8 reb.) and Scott Lamson (10 pts.).
Look Familiar?
Kerry Keating was named the 14th men's basketball coach in Santa Clara history on April 6, 2007. Keating came to Santa Clara after serving four seasons as an assistant coach at UCLA, helping the Bruins to Final Four appearances in 2006 and '07; and winning two Pac-10 titles.
Keating is only the fifth SCU head coach since Bob Feerick took the reigns of the program in 1950 and the first Bronco men's basketball head coach to be hired without having attended or coached as an assistant at SCU since 1926 when Harlan Dykes was hired as head coach.
Foster: 16 x 19+
Kevin Foster scored 19 in the opening game vs. CSUB. Only playing in six games last season before breaking his foot, he scored 19+ points four times last season and nine times in his last 14 games spanning his first three years. Foster scored 19+ points 11 times in 2008-09, including five of the last eight games of the season. He has a career-high five three pointers four times.
Foster was nicknamed 'Microwave' by his father during his youth the Detroit Piston's Vinnie Johnson. Johnson earned the nickname 'the Microwave' from Boston Celtics guard Danny Ainge for his ability to score many points in a short period of time, heating up the offense.
The 16 games Foster has hit 19+ in during his career:
Opponent/Date Points (3s made)
vs. Arizona/Nov. 25, 2008 21 (5)
vs. Belmont/Dec. 29, 2008 24 (3)
at Harvard/Jan. 2, 2009 20 (4)
at Saint Mary's/Jan. 9, 2009 31 (5)
at Portland/Jan. 17, 2009 20 (3)
vs. LMU/Jan. 29, 2009 20 (3)
vs. Saint Mary's/Feb. 7, 2009 26 (4)
at LMU/Feb. 14, 2009 26 (5)
at USF/Feb. 21, 2009 20 (2)
vs. Gonzaga/Feb. 26, 2009 20 (3)
vs. San Diego/March 7, 2009 21 (4)
at CSUB/Nov. 13, 2009 21 (3)
vs. Menlo/Nov. 19, 2009 19 (4)
at Pacific/Nov. 22, 2009 22 (5)
vs. Fresno State/Nov. 28, 2009 25 (5)
vs. CSU Bakersfield/Nov. 12, 2010 19 (4)
He has scored 15+ points in 21 of 35 career games.
In Spite of ...
In spite of the Roadrunners out-shooting the Broncos from the field, the three point arc and the free throw line, percentage-wise, Santa Clara scored 82 points to defeat CSUB 82-77 on Nov. 12. Bronco head coach Kerry Keating is 10-1 in his career when his team scores 80+ points.
Some
The Broncos return 11 players from their 2009-10 squad. SCU returns the following:
Stat Number (Percent)
Minutes 6184 of 6425 (96%)
Rebounds 1076 of 1091 (98.6%)
Assists 294 of 316 (93%)
Points 2013 of 2049 (98%)
Freshman Debut
Freshman Evan Roquemore was the last Bronco to sign in July of 2010, but he made the best of it in his debut on Nov. 12 vs. Bakersfield. Roquemore played 27 minutes off the bench to score 14 points, hitting 7 of 10 free throws, including four straight late in the second half to help out against the Roadrunners. He also picked up four assists.
The last time a Bronco freshman scored 14+ off the bench in their debut? Freshman Calvin Johnson scored 19 points in his Bronco debut on Nov. 19, 2005, including hitting five of eight from beyond the arc.