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With a resume that includes 19 postseason appearances and three conference coach of the year awards, along with demonstrated player and staff development, Herb Sendek is entering his seventh season as Santa Clara's head men's basketball coach in 2022-23. In his six previous seasons, he has accumulated a 97-84 (.536) record. 

He was hired on March 29, 2016 as the 15th head coach in school history.

Sendek, who was one of the three youngest coaches with 400 or more career victories, has had tremendous success in all four of his head-coaching tenures. He is in his 29th season as a collegiate head coach with stops at Arizona State, North Carolina State and Miami (Ohio). In those three stints, Sendek compiled a 413-295 (.583) record, including 39 victories against top 25 teams. He earned coach of the year in the Pac-10, Atlantic Coast Conference and Mid-American Conference.

During his time at the helm at Santa Clara, he has led the Broncos to five winning seasons, including four-straight. That serves as the longest winning season stretch since Dick Davey led the team to seven-straight from 1994-95 through 2000-01. Sendek is coming off the best win total of his six-year career at SCU with 21 victories in 2021-22, and has now guided the program to two 20-win campaigns in the last three seasons. It is the first time the program has had multiple 20-win seasons in a span of three years since 2010-11 and 2012-13. 

The 2021-22 season was certainly one to remember for the Pittsburgh native. The Broncos finished the year with a 21-12 record and earned a bid to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) for the program's first postseason appearance in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT since 1996. Among those 21 wins was victory No. 500 for his illustrious career, making Sendek one of just two active coaches in the West Coast Conference to reach the 500-win mark (Gonzaga's Mark Few). The team posted 10 victories in conference play, the most for Sendek since his first season in 2016-17, and closed the regular season with a 12-3 record over the last 15 games to lock up third place in the WCC standings, Santa Clara's best finish in the WCC since 2006-07. 

Last season also saw another major milestone for the program as Sendek guided the Broncos to their first victory over an Associated Press ranked opponent since 2004. The Broncos defeated No. 22 Saint Mary's at home, 77-72, on February 8th, breaking a streak of 43 consecutive losses to AP-ranked teams. The victory over the Gaels was just one of many standout wins for the Broncos in 2021-22. The team also took down Stanford, TCU, Nevada and BYU (first time since 2017) for marquee victories. The team was one of the top shooting teams in all of NCAA Division I, finishing the year ranked 11th in field goal percentage (48.4) and 16th in 3-point shooting percentage (37.8). Three players earned All-WCC honors with Jalen Williams and Josip Vrankic earning a spot on the first team and Keshawn Justice securing a place on the second team. The Broncos were one of just four WCC teams with multiple players on the first team, joining Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and San Francisco. 

Williams would go on to be selected 12th overall in the 2022 NBA Draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder, becoming Santa Clara's highest draft pick of the modern era and second-highest pick of all time. He was Santa Clara's first draft pick since 1996 when Steve Nash was picked 15th overall. 

In 2019-20, Sendek guided the program to its first 20-win campaign in seven years and only the fourth in the previous 19 seasons. The team also had an historic run at home as it continued a 17-game winning streak, which is the third-longest in school history and the most ever in Toso Pavilion/Leavey Center. Despite players missing nearly 80 total games to injury, the Broncos, who did not feature a senior on the roster, downed Washington State and Cal, which gave them a pair of victories against the Pac-12 Conference in back-to-back years for the first time in school history. Three players earned All-West Coast Conference honors at the end of the season highlighted by Josip Vrankic (second team) and Jaden Bediako (all-freshman).

In the shortened 2020-21 campaign, despite navigating COVID-19 restrictions and a relocation for more than six weeks to practice and play in Santa Cruz, California, the Broncos were able to post a 12-8 record, which included winning their opening two games in the WCC Tournament for the first time since 2003-04.

Sendek and his staff navigated through an injury-filled 2018-19 season to post a 16-15 overall mark, including two wins over Pac-12 schools (USC and Washington State) for the first time since 1997-98. Six players missed time, including three (KJ Feagin, Matt Hauser and Juan Ducasse) who combined to suit up for only two games. With a starting lineup that featured two sophomores (Vrankic and Tahj Eaddy) and two freshmen (Trey Wertz and Guglielmo Caruso), the Broncos still managed to finish tied for fifth in the WCC. Wertz was voted to the WCC All-Freshman team, Eaddy claimed a second-team nod and Vrankic earned all-league honorable mention.

Despite having seven players miss more than a combined 70 games due to injury, Santa Clara posted a 17-16 record in 2016-17 and reached the WCC Tournament semifinals for the first time in six years. Sendek led the Broncos to a five-game overall improvement, tied for the best in the league with Gonzaga at the conclusion of the WCC Tournament. The Broncos, who were tied for fourth in the conference standings, finished above .500 in league play for just the third time in the last 10 years, including first since 2012-13. They also had the best turnaround in league play with a three-game improvement (7-11 in 2015-16).

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Sendek has recruited or coached a number of standout players, including NBA first-round draft choices James Harden (Arizona State), Julius Hodge (NC State) and Wally Szczerbiak (Miami). Sendek also has nine former assistant coaches, administrative assistants or graduate assistants serving as Division I head coaches (see chart below). In addition, there are nine other former head coaches - Jim Christian (Kent State, TCU, Boston College), Charlie Coles (Miami [Ohio]), Larry Hunter (Western Carolina), Thad Matta (Xavier, Ohio State), Dave Manzer (Messiah College), Archie Miller (Dayton, Indiana), Sean Miller (Xavier, Arizona), Mark Phelps (Drake) and Lamont Smith (San Diego) - who served under Sendek.

Prior to arriving at Santa Clara, he served nine seasons (2006-15) at Arizona State, posting five 20-win campaigns and making five postseason appearances, including two trips to the NCAAs for a program which had only three in the previous 25 years. In addition, the Sun Devils produced just three 20-win campaigns in the prior 25 seasons to his arrival.

Sendek, who posted a 159-137 (.537) record at the school and has a 489-367 (.571) career mark at the conclusion of 2020-21, led ASU to three straight 20-win seasons - 2007-08 (21-13), 2008-09 (25-10) and 2009-10 (22-11) - which had not happened since 1961-63. He was the Pac-10 Coach of the Year in 2009-10 when the Sun Devils went 25-10.

Sendek, 56, had a successful 10-year tenure (1996-2006) at North Carolina State, which finished with five straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including four with at least one victory.

He amassed a 191-132 (.591) mark with the Wolfpack, earning 2003-04 Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year. In his final five seasons, NCSU won 53 league games, with only Duke totaling more (76) in that time frame.

Sendek earned his first head-coaching job at Miami University when he was just 30 years old. He led the now RedHawks to the postseason in each of his three seasons (1993-96) and his winning percentage (.708/63-26) remains first in school history (minimum three years).

After winning the 1994-95 MAC regular-season title, Miami (Ohio) earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where Sendek's 12th-seeded squad defeated No. 5 seed (and 15th-ranked) Arizona before losing to 13th-ranked and fourth-seeded Virginia in overtime.

He is the only coach ever to lead Miami to postseason play in each of his first three seasons, and he reached 50 victories quicker than any other coach at the school.

After finishing at Carnegie Mellon University in 1985, which included a stint as a volunteer assistant at Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Sendek began an eight-year stint as a Division I assistant coach.

He served as an assistant coach at Providence College for four years (1985-89), starting under Rick Pitino and helping the Friars earn a trip to the 1987 Final Four. He spent his final season under head coach Rick Barnes with the Friars again landing in the NCAA Tournament.

With a reputation as a standout recruiter, Sendek joined Pitino at Kentucky for the 1989-90 season and remained for four years. Sports Illustrated named him one of the top 10 recruiters in the nation during 1992-93, which ended in a Final Four run for the Wildcats.

Coming off two years probation, Kentucky also made a trip to the 1992 Elite Eight, a run that ended in overtime against Duke on the famous Grant Hill-to-Christian Laettner last-second inbounds heave.

In addition to his on-court success, Sendek, who graduated from college with 3.95 grade-point average, has stressed academics. While at Arizona State, the program had a 100-percent senior graduation rate and the top graduation success rate in the Pac-12. He inherited a team with Academic Progress Rate (APR) scholarship penalties and posted a perfect 1,000 score in five reporting years, including each of the final four (2010-11 through 2013-14).

Four Arizona State players earned master's degrees in Sendek's final three seasons and six former players came back to finish their studies.

Sendek was one of only three coaches who had NBA first-round picks in both the 2005 and 2006 drafts, and then followed that up in 2009 with a top-three pick (Harden at No. 3) and the first pick of the second round (Jeff Pendergraph). Jahii Carson earned Pac-12 Co-Freshman of the Year in 2012-13, while Jordan Bachynski was the 2013-14 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.

Sendek is the co-author of Gen Y Now – Millennials and the Evolution of Leadership and is a member of the NCAA Ethics Coalition. He and his wife, Melanie, have three daughters - Kristin, Catherine, Kelly.

What They've Said About Sendek…

"My family and I couldn't be more excited for Coach Sendek and his family. First of all, he is a great coach. Santa Clara University should be so excited.  He brings an unmatched commitment level to work every day. He takes tremendous pride in the development of his players, coaches, and staff in all areas of their life. He impacted me in so many ways and continues to do so to this day. The University as a whole, alums and the campus community will not have a better advocate on their behalf, he represents character and class at all times"
- Archie Miller, former head coach at Dayton and Indiana who served as a Sendek assistant at NC State and Arizona State

"Santa Clara hit a grand slam. I've been very blessed to be friends with Coach Sendek for about the last 10 years. I would go down and watch his practices and the way he coached his team on a daily basis was impressive. He's a man of the highest integrity. His players are going to represent Santa Clara in the best of all ways. They're going to be well prepared on the court. I know it's a terrific academic school and coach's teams have always done well academically. He preaches balance to these young men in their lives in terms of being the best players they can be but also being the best students. He's the finest teacher of the game I've ever been around. There is nobody who cares more about doing things the right way than Coach Sendek. I hope Santa Clara knows how blessed they are to get a man of his stature. He's been a coach of the year in three different conferences. What he brings to the school is instant credibility and recognition."
- Doug Collins, former ESPN analyst and former head coach of the Chicago Bulls and All-NBA player

"In Herb Sendek, Santa Clara has hired one of the most respected head coaches in college basketball. He has the complete and total understanding of how to run a program. His teams always embody the qualities of unselfishness, purpose and great effort. This is a direct reflection of the experience and intelligence of Herb. Santa Clara will experience tremendous development under his guidance."
- Sean Miller, former head coach at Xavier and Arizona who served as a Sendek assistant at Miami (Ohio) and NC State

"I've known Herb for over 30 years, and I can truly say my relationship with him is one of my most cherished in the game of basketball. Herb is a great basketball mind, and I've learned an incredible amount about the game from him over the years, from my time playing for him in college, coaching alongside him at Kentucky, and most importantly as a friend just talking about the game."
- Billy Donovan, current Chicago Bulls head coach who played under Sendek at Providence and coached with him at Kentucky

#served as admin assistant; ^served as grad assistant