SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Due to adjustments in the schedule, Santa Clara men's basketball is not playing its first West Coast Conference home game until Thursday.

The Broncos (8-3, 2-1) will face San Francisco at 7 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, California. Due to Santa Cruz County guidelines, spectators will not be permitted inside the venue.

Santa Clara is coming off a 69-63 road win on Sunday at San Diego as four players scored in double figures led by 15 points apiece from Jalen Williams and Josip Vrankic.

The rival Dons (9-7, 3-3) have dropped two of three after winning three of their previous four.

QUICK HITS...
• Santa Clara has won at least eight of its first 11 games for just the fourth time in the last 18 seasons, including second year in a row. The Broncos were 9-2 in 2019-20 and in 2012-13, and 8-3 in 2006-07. The 6-0 start this year was tied for the eighth-best in school history.
• Santa Clara has won 23 of its last 29 home games, including a 5-1 mark this year.
• 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 has 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 Broncos had only three winning records in the previous 15 seasons, and the program had not recorded three winning campaigns 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).

��️ "Guys are getting increasingly more comfortable with where their shots are coming from within our offense"

The Broncos face San Francisco at 7 p.m. PT tonight. More from Coach @HerbSendek during the Lunardi's Markets pregame show on TuneIn (audio)! #TeamFirst #StampedeAhead pic.twitter.com/JjIhplixpN

— Santa Clara Men's Basketball (@SantaClaraHoops) January 21, 2021

THE SAN FRANCISCO SERIES...
The series began in 1908 and the Broncos hold a 116-111 lead. The 227 meetings are the second-most against any Santa Clara opponent (228 vs. Saint Mary's). San Francisco has won four the last five meetings, including two of the last three at Santa Clara.  

TEAM NOTES...
• Santa Clara's win at Saint Mary's on Jan. 9, was its second straight in Moraga, California. The Broncos hadn't won in back-to-back seasons at Saint Mary's since 2001-02 and 2002-03.
• The Broncos have played three home games at Kaiser Permanente Arena due to COVID-19 restrictions in Santa Clara County. There have been four cancellations (Dec. 5 vs. New Mexico State; Dec. 12 vs. Sacramento State; Dec. 18 vs. San Jose State; Dec. 23 vs. Bethesda) and one postponement (Jan. 2 vs. LMU) in games scheduled for the facility. The team is also practicing in Santa Cruz.
• Santa Clara has held the opposition to 37.7-percent shooting from the floor (No. 11 in the NCAA) and 64.7 points per game (No. 54 in the NCAA). On Thursday, Pacific shot 47.8 percent from the floor, the highest mark this season by a foe, but held San Diego to 34.8 percent, the lowest an opponent since the opening four games of the season.
• The Broncos have struggled shooting from outside, connecting on just 28.4 percent from behind the 3-point line (10th in the WCC) though they have connected on 41.1 percent (23 of 56) in the last three games. They had season-highs in percentage (55.0) and made 3-pointers (11) in Sunday's San Diego contest.
• Santa Clara is averaging 4.5 blocks, which ranks 40th in the nation, and 30.9 defensive rebounds, eighth most nationally, per game.
• The Broncos ranked third in the WCC in free-throw shooting (74.2 percent) in 2019-20, but have struggled overall this season, connecting on only 65.4 percent (ninth in the WCC). However, Santa Clara shot a season-best 77.8 percent (14 of 18) from the free-throw line against both Saint Mary's (Jan. 9) and Pacific (Jan. 16).

INDIVIDUAL NOTES...
• Josip Vrankic leads the team in scoring (14.3 ppg) and is tied for first in the WCC in rebounding (8.6 pg). Vrankic and Eli Scott of LMU are the only players in the WCC averaging at least 14.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Jaden Bediako is 10th in the league in rebounding (6.1 pg) and tied for fourth in offensive rebounding (2.3 pg). Bediako has two or more blocked shots in six games. His 1.7 blocks per contest rank No. 2 in the WCC.
• Christian Carlyle, a graduate transfer Florida Gulf Coast, is third on the team in both scoring (9.1 ppg). Keshawn Justice is second on the team in scoring (11.0 ppg), third in rebounding (5.8 pg) and first in assists (2.1 pg). Justice has carried the offensive load the last three games, averaging 17.0 points on 17 of 32 shooting from the floor (53.1 percent), including 8-for-15 on 3-pointers (53.3 percent).
• Carlyle has averaged 11.2 points on 22 of 43 shooting from the field (51.2 percent) over the last five games after missing the previous two due to concussion protocol. Jalen Williams (foot) missed the same two contests (Cal Poly, Dec. 9; Fresno Pacific, Dec. 15), and after struggling scoring may be rounding into form. His scoring has increased each game culminating with a season-best 15 points in Sunday's win at San Diego, including 2-for-3 from behind the 3-point line. He was just 3-for-26 on the year entering the game.

HOW TO WATCH ON THE WCC NETWORK
All Santa Clara home games and West Coast Conference contests not shown on a national platform (ESPN, CBS Sports Network or BYUtv) will be streamed through the WCC Network. Local blackout restrictions apply on WCC Network for regional TV broadcasts, including Thursday's matchup with San Francisco. All events that are not selected for a Stadium Plus broadcast or a national outlet, can be viewed on the following platforms:

• WCCsports.com
• Roku
• Android Device
• iOS Device: Mobile • tvOS
• FireTV

For home games not on national or regional TV, Anthony Passarelli (play-by-play) calls the action in his 14th season as Voice of the Broncos.

HOW TO LISTEN
All home games and most road contests can be heard on the TuneIn app. The Lunardi's Market's Pregame Show begins 10 minutes prior to tipoff with Anthony Passarelli (play-by-play) calling the action in his 14th season as Voice of the Broncos.

Connect with the Broncos on Social Media
• Athletics: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Snapchat
• Men's Basketball: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Snapchat