SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Coming off its first loss of the season, Santa Clara men's basketball will play at USC on Tuesday.

Tipoff between the Broncos and Trojans is set for 4 p.m. in Galen Center.

The Broncos (6-1) fell 70-57 to Colorado State on Dec. 22, in Santa Cruz, California. The Rams had five players in double figures and Santa Clara connected on just 5-for-28 from behind the 3-point line.

The Broncos' lone road game this season was a 76-69 triumph over Cal Poly on Dec. 9.

USC (3-1) has not played since a 91-56 win over UC Irvine on Dec. 8.

QUICK HITS...
• Santa Clara's 6-0 start was tied for the eighth-best in school history.
• The Broncos are 14-3 in the month of December over the last three seasons.
• Santa Clara has won 23 of its last 29 home games, including its first 15 last season in Leavey Center.
• The Broncos are coming off a 20-13 mark last season, their first 20-win campaign in seven years and just fourth occurrence in the last 19.
• Santa Clara returns four starters and seven of its top nine scorers from last season, including preseason All-West Coast Conference performer Josip Vrankic, a three-year starter. The senior ranked first on the team in scoring (12.5 ppg) and rebounding (5.4 pg) last season. DJ Mitchell was third in scoring (10.7 ppg) and second in rebounding (5.2 pg).
• Before his injury at the beginning of league play last year, junior Guglielmo Caruso was among the most productive and efficient big men in the WCC. He would have ranked first in the league in field-goal percentage (66.1) and third in blocked shots (1.1 pg) but did not appear in enough games to qualify.
• Mitchell and junior Keshawn Justice were two of the top three 3-point shooting threats in the league in 2019-20. They each shot 38 percent from behind the 3-point line.
• The Broncos had two of more productive first-year players in the WCC a year ago. Jaden Bediako was a member of the WCC All-Freshman team and Jalen Williams proved to be one of the most explosive first-year players in the league. Bediako was inserted into the starting lineup for Caruso as conference play opened and went on to average a team-best 11.9 rebounds per 40 minutes of play. Williams started the final 23 games and tallied the third-most steals (44) by a freshman in school history.
• Newcomers include freshman guard Trent Hudgens Jr. and three transfers in Christian Carlyle (Florida Gulf Coast), Joe Foley (Lehigh) and Vittorio Reynoso-Avila (Princeton). Carlyle and Reynoso-Avila are graduate transfers.

YEAR FIVE UNDER SENDEK...
The Broncos are in their 114th year, including fifth under Herb Sendek, who has been successful in each of his four head-coaching stops. With a resume that includes 18 postseason appearances and three conference coach of the year awards, Sendek has led the Broncos to three winning seasons, including a 20-13 mark in 2019-20. The program had not recorded three winning seasons during a four-year stretch since Dick Davey led it to seven in a row from 1994-95 through 2000-01. Sendek is in his 27th season as a collegiate head coach with stops at Arizona State, North Carolina State and Miami (Ohio).

THE USC SERIES...
The Trojans lead the all-time series 23-9 with the teams meeting for the third time in four years though only the the fourth time since 1983-84. The Broncos knocked off USC, 102-92, in double overtime at home two years ago. Santa Clara has won the last four in the series at home, but has just one victory in 14 games at USC. The programs met regularly in the 1950s and 60s and then played a pair of home and away series (1971-72/1973-74; 1982-83/1983-84).

RECENT SUCCESS VS. THE PAC-12...
Santa Clara had never posted two wins against schools from the Pac-12 Conference in back-to-back years until the last two seasons. The Broncos are 4-2 against teams from the leargue in that span, including wins against Washington State and Cal during 2019-20. Santa Clara knocked off USC and Washington State in 2018-19.

TEAM NOTES...
• The Broncos have played three home games at Kaiser Permanente Arena due to COVID-19 restrictions in Santa Clara County. There have been three cancellations (Dec. 5 vs. New Mexico State; Dec. 18 vs. San Jose State; Dec. 23 vs. Bethesda) and one postponement (Dec. 12 vs. Sacramento State) in games scheduled for the facility. The team is also practicing in Santa Cruz.
• The Broncos hold a +7.0 rebounding and +1.7 turnover margin against their foes. They have outrebounded all but one opponent (CSU Bakersfield, Dec. 2). Santa Clara leads the WCC in defensive rebounding percentage (81.3) and its turnover margin is third.
• Santa Clara has held the opposition to 60.0 points per game (No. 24 in the NCAA) and 34.7-percent shooting from the floor (No. 4 in the NCAA). Colorado State shot 41.7 percent from the floor on Tuesday, but it was the highest mark this season by a foe.
• Santa Clara is averaging 5.0 blocks per game, which ranks 26th in the nation. The Broncos have blocked 31 shots over the last five games (6.2 pg), including a season-high nine against Nicholls (Nov. 28).

INDIVIDUAL NOTES...
• Josip Vrankic ranks eighth in the WCC in scoring (16.6 ppg) and first rebounding (8.7 pg). Vrankic joins Drew Timme of Gonzaga as the only players in the WCC averaging at least 16.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Jaden Bediako is fourth in the league in rebounding (8.3 pg) and second in offensive rebounding (3.4 pg). Along with having 24 of the team's 75 offensive boards (32 percent), Bediako has two or more blocked shots in five of the seven games. His 2.0 blocks per game rank No. 41 in the NCAA.
• Keshawn Justice is second on the team in scoring (9.8 ppg) and third in rebounding (6.9 pg). Christian Carlyle, a graduate transfer Florida Gulf Coast, is the team's top distributor with 2.6 assists per game.
• Carlyle (concussion protocol) and Jalen Williams (foot) missed the previous two games, but returned to action against Colorado State (Dec. 22). Carlyle scored seven of the team's first 16 points and ended with 17. Williams, who averaged 13.5 points in the first two games of the season, played 21 minutes and scored three points.

RADIO/LIVE STREAM
Anthony Passarelli (play-by-play) calls the action for his 14th season. All Santa Clara home games and West Coast Conference contests (not on an ESPN platform, CBS Sports Network or BYUtv) will be streamed through WCC Network (local blackout restrictions apply for games broadcast over the air). In addition, audio for all home and most road games can be heard on the TuneIn app. The Lunardi's Market's Pregame Show begins 10 minutes prior to tipoff on TuneIn. However, there will be no audio stream for Tuesday's road game vs. USC.

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