Feb. 27, 2009
In its final home game of the year, Santa Clara will host Portland on Sat., Feb. 28 when it will honor its two seniors John Bryant and Calvin Johnson in a 3 pm game. The Portland game will be called by Greg Papa and Eric Musselman in the COMCAST regionally-televised game. Tickets remain for the game.
Santa Clara has won six of the last eight games in the Portland series, but fell in the last two meetings, including a 53-52 loss in Portland on Jan. 17. Santa Clara has held Portland below 60 points in four of five games as Portland scored 41 and 55 in 2007 vs. SCU, 50 and 64 vs. SCU in 2008 and then 53 in Portland on Jan. 17.
The Broncos are 14-16 and 6-7 in the WCC. Santa Clara fell in a heartbreaker of sorts vs. No. 17 Gonzaga on Feb. 26 with John Bryant picking up his 23rd double-double of the year with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman Kevin Foster led SCU with 20 points and is just three minutes from breaking Ben Dowdell's SCU freshman record with 890 minutes played in 2008.
Santa Clara is led by WCC Player of the Year candidate, John Bryant, who averages a double-double with 17.9 ppg and 13.6 rpg. Bryant, who leads the nation in total rebounds and is No. 2 with 13.6 rpg, is No. 10 in field goal percentage nationally at 61.4%. He is ranked No. 1 nationally in offense efficiency by bbstate.com (scoring efficiency based on number of possessions).
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 six freshman records (see page 4). Foster is second on the team with 14.6 ppg and Rahon is No 3 with 11.0 ppg. Trasolini is No. 2 on the team with 4.5 rpg and 1.4 bpg. According to bbstate.com, Trasolini is the No. 2 freshman nationally in points per shot and No. 19 nationally in all classes in field goal percentage.
Portland is 18-10 and 9-4 in the WCC and is led by Eric Reveno in his third season (36-55 in three years) and have four players scoring double figures: Nik Raivio (15.9), Jared Stohl (11.6), T.J. Campbell (11.2) and Robin Smeulders (11.2), Raivio leads all players on the boards with 6.6 rpg and Campbell is the team leader with almost 5.0 apg.
Bryant Balls
John Bryant has 47 double-doubles in his career and is No. 2 of active players behind Washington's Jon Brockman, who has 54 career double-doubles (see chart below). He has a national-leading 23 double-doubles this year, including a double-double in every WCC game. Oklahoma's Blake Griffin is second with 22 on the season and in the WCC Saint Mary's Diamon Simpson is 10 double-doubles behind Bryant with 13 this year.
Career Double-Doubles of D-1 Active Players
1. Jon Brockman, Washington 54
2. John Bryant, Santa Clara 47
3. Luke Harangody, Notre Dame 46
4. Jeff Adrien, Connecticut 44
5. Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina 42
*as of 2/27/09
Bryant's 23 double-doubles this year include (points/rebounds): vs. CSU East Bay (19/11), vs. UAB (17/15), at Georgia (13/12), at Montana (20/13), at San Jose State, (20/21) vs. Sacramento State (14/15), at UNLV (12/11), vs. Stanford (27/12), vs. UTEP (33/17), at Harvard (14/11), vs. San Diego (19/12), at Gonzaga (12/11), at Portland (15/16), vs. USF (18/10), vs. Houston Baptist (20/21), vs. LMU (12/22), vs. Pepperdine (19/10), at San Diego (23/20), vs. Saint Mary's (21/15), at Pepperdine (25/12), at LMU (25/16), at USF (17/12) and vs. Gonzaga (16/11).
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.
Bryant is No. 2 nationally in rebounds per game, No. 10 in field goal percentage, No. 17 in blocks nationally, and No. 74 in points per game. He leads the country in total rebounds (409) and has already topped his total of 298 rebounds from last year. This season he is leading the WCC in all games in field goal percentage, rebounds, defensive rebounds, offensive rebounds and blocked shots this season; and he is No. 3 in scoring.
Bryant was been named the WCC Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks on Feb. 9. Bryant averaged 17.5 rpg, 22.0 ppg and 2.5 bpg in 38.5 mpg last week in wins at San Diego (OT) and the 18-point win vs. Saint Mary's. It was the third time this season he has been selected as the Player of the Week in the WCC. Bryant was the WCC Player of the Week after averaging 18 rpg, 17 ppg and 4.5 bpg on Dec. 8; and again on Jan. 26 after averaging 19 ppg, 16.5 rpg and 3.5 rpg for the week.
Highs
The Broncos knocked down 12 three-pointers vs. Pepperdine on Jan. 31, its second-straight time to hit 12 three-pointers in a home game vs. Pepperdine. It was a season-high for the Broncos, and also ties a two-year high under Coach Keating.
Santa Clara collected 11 blocks vs. LMU, a two-year high under Keating. Santa Clara hit a season-high 89 points vs. UTEP.
Santa Clara had just 10 turnovers vs. Sacramento State, vs. Notre Dame de Namur, at Pacific and vs. Gonzaga, its lowest totals since the Broncos turned the ball over nine times vs. Saint Mary's on March 4, 2007.
The Broncos collected 48 rebounds vs. Houston Baptist, a high under head coach Kerry Keating; and the most since the Broncos grabbed 49 rebounds vs. Holy Names on Nov. 14, 2006. SCU held two straight home opponents to 14 points in the first half this year. SCU scored 14 in the first half and went on to score 18 points in the second half to finish 51-32 losers to SCU on Dec. 6. NDNU scored 14 points in the first half vs. Santa Clara and fell 67-47 to the Broncos on Dec. 13. The 14 points in the first half were the fewest a team has scored vs. SCU since Stanford scored 12 points in the first half of a 62-46 loss to SCU, at Stanford, on Dec. 16, 2006.
Career Lists
John Bryant is the only Bronco in school history to score 1,600+ points, gather 1,000+ rebounds and block 200+ shots. He needs 42 rebounds to top Dennis Awtrey's career school record 1,135 rebounds (1967-70);
He needs six rebounds to be the sixth Bay Area player (see chart on page 2) to grab 1,100 rebounds in his career and he needs just one rebound to break Awtrey's single season record for rebounds with 409 (1969-70).
Bryant is on a number of career top 10 lists at Santa Clara:
Blocks No. 1 (238)
Rebounds No. 2 (1094)
Field Goals Made No. 5 (639)
Field Goal Percentage No. 5 (58.1%)
Games Started T-No. 4 (103)
Games Played T-No. 2 (122)
Personal Fouls No. 7 (328)
Points Scored No. 7 (1,608)
He is also on a number of single season record lists as well: Blocks TNo. 1 (76)
(he holds the school blocks record with 76 (2007-08)
Rebounds T-No. 1 (409)
Field Goal Percentage No. 7 (61.4%)
Points No. 11 (537)
14x: 20+ some
20+ is a popular number of points to score three of Santa Clara's freshman have hit that number 14 times this season. Kevin Foster has scored 20+ 10 times, James Rahon 20+ three times and Marc Trasolini crossing the 20 point line once.
Kevin Foster hit a then-career-best 24 vs. Belmont on Dec. 29, scoring 8 of 17 shots, collecting on 5 of 5 at the free throw line.
Foster then turned it up a notch at Saint Mary's and scored 31 points, a career best. The last Bronco freshman to score at least 25 points was senior Calvin Johnson scored 25 vs. Cal Poly on Dec. 10, 2005 during his freshman campaign. He hit 9 of 14 shots in that game, including six three-pointers. Foster's 20+ games include 20 points vs. LMU, 26 in his second game vs. Saint Mary's, later 26 at LMU, and hit 20 at USF and vs. Gonzaga.
Marc Trasolini scored a career-best 24 points at UNH, knocking down 7 of 8 shots and hitting a career-best 10 of 12 from the charity stripe. It was Trasolini's first double-double of the year.
On Jan. 23, James Rahon topped the 20 mark for the first time in his career when he scored 21 points in the win over USF. Rahon hit 7 of 14 shots, including 4 of 7 from the three point line and 3 of 4 from the free throw line. He added a career-high five assists for good measure.
Not to be out-done on Jan. 25 Rahon scored a career-high 25 points, hitting 6 of 12, including 5 of 9 from the three-point line and 8 of 8 from the free throw line.
Rahon did it again on Jan. 29 vs. LMU, scoring 25 points for the second straight game, including hitting 5 three pointers.
