Men's Basketball Hosts Washington State Sunday at 7 pm
Santa Clara, 6-5 overall and 5-1 at home this season, will play its third Pac-10 team this year when it hosts Washington State, 7-1, in the Leavey Center on Sun., Dec. 19 at 7 pm. SCU will then play at CSU Northridge Dec. 22 before departing on Christmas break to return to host the 44th annual Cable Car Classic Dec. 29 and 30. This year's Cable Car Classic includes host Santa Clara, Delaware, Fordham and American.
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WSU is 2-0 vs. the WCC this year with an 84-68 win over Portland on Nov. 23 and an 81-59 win over Gonzaga on Dec. 8. In its other two games vs. Pac-10 teams, Santa Clara fell 86-73 at Southern California on Nov. 15 and then 82-59 vs. Arizona in Las Vegas on Nov. 26. The three games vs. the Pac-10 are the most times its played since it played at UCLA, vs. Oregon and at No. 6 Stanford in 1998-99. Santa Clara is 0-2 lifetime vs. the Cougars, falling 60-38 on Dec. 31, 1946 and then 82-71 vs. Washington State as part of the Rainbow Classic on Dec. 28, 1973.
Santa Clara started the 2010-11 season by playing seven games in 15 days. It was the most games a Bronco squad had played to start the year since the 2003-04 team played seven games in 14 days. Santa Clara, winners of its last two of three games, will be playing its fourth game in nine days while the Cougars, who have been off for finals, will be playing their first game in nine days. They defeated Texas-Pan American 74-52 in Spokane on Dec. 10.
Santa Clara has one player from the state of Washington: junior walk-on Phillip Bach comes to the Bay Area by way of Medina where he attended Bellevue High School in Bellevue, Wash. Washington State has two players from the Golden State: Klay Thompson is from Ladera Ranch and Faisal Aden is from San Diego. Both Santa Clara and Washington State have one player each who attended the Australian Institute of Sport. Santa Clara's is senior Ben Dowdell and the Cougars boast sophomore Brock Motum. Both Australian, Dowdell is from North Nowra and Motum is from Brisbane.
League Players of the Week Face Each Other
Kevin Foster was named the WCC Player of the Week on Dec. 9, 2010. It is the first time in his career he has been named WCC Player of the Week. Foster was a huge part of Santa Clara's 67-63 victory over cross-town rival San Jose State on Dec. 10. Foster scored a team-high 26 points, including hitting 9 of 11 free throws. It was the seventh time in his career that he has posted 25+ points. He played a team-high 35 minutes with a team-high four assists.
The same day Washington State junior guard Klay Thompson was named the Pac-10 Conference men's basketball player of the week. Thompson, projected to be a second round 2011 NBA pick in the preseason, helped lead the Cougars to wins over Gonzaga and Texas-Pan American last week. He scored 24 points against the Zags in an 81-59 victory, and 15 points in the 74-52 win over the Broncs. He finished the week with 1,189 career points, moving past Vince Hanson, Kyle Weaver and Terry Ball into 16th on the Cougars' all-time list.
It was the fourth weekly honor for Thompson, and he is the only Cougar to earn the award more than twice in his career. It also marks the second time Thompson has earned the honor twice in the same season.
Listen and Watch
The Washington State game will be broadcast 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 6:45 pm. Anthony Passarelli is in his fourth season as the Broncos' play-by-play announcer. With the exception of Sunday night due to the game with the Cougars, 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 with an interview done by Passarelli. If you are out of the listening area, KDOW is streamed online live at www.1220kdow.com.
In addition, Santa Clara will showcase each non-televised 2010-11 men's and women's home basketball game this season free of charge via Stretch Internet on www.SantaClaraBroncos.com.
With the help of the WCC, the Santa Clara University athletic department recently made several upgrades to its audio and video components in the Leavey Center and now has the ability to webcast games with a three-camera system. Radio feeds from the games will be integrated into the webcast when available.
Links to the webcast of each men's and women's basketball game can be found on either team's schedule webpage or on http://www.santaclarabroncos.com/livestats. You can also go directly to the Santa Clara Broncos portal on Stretch Internet by clicking http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/santaclara.portal?mode=link#.
44th Annual Cable Car Classic Dec. 29 and 30!
The 44th annual Cable Car Classic will be played in Santa Clara on Dec. 29 and 30. First round games include Santa Clara vs. Delaware on Dec. 29 at 6 pm and then American vs. Fordham on Dec. 30 at 8 pm. The consolation game will be played the following night at 6 pm and the championship game will be played immediately following it.
Delaware, which is currently riding a five-game winning streak and is 5-2, is receiving votes in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll released Monday and plays at No. 10/11 Villanova on Saturday. The Fordham men's basketball team, 5-4, defeated the Big East Conference's St. John's, 84-81, last weekend. American, 6-4, fell at Northwestern 78-62 Thursday.
90
Santa Clara scored 90 points vs. Houston Baptist on Dec. 17 and it was the most points for the Broncos since they scored 101 in a 101-86 win vs. Pepperdine Jan. 21, 2008. Santa Clara defeated UTEP in overtime 89-88 to win the 42nd annual Cable Car Classic on Dec. 30, 2008.
Santa Clara is 11-1 under head coach Kerry Keating when scoring 80+ points. Santa Clara is 4-0 this year in games decided by five points or less. The Broncos are 2-5 in games decided by 10 points or more.
Looking Closer
Santa Clara is looking for its first career win vs. Washington State, with the Cougars boasting a 2-0 series record. The Broncos are scoring 72.6 ppg while giving up 73.8 ppg. They are rebounding 34.7 to their opponents 31.2 and shooting 44.6 percent, including 37.4 percent beyond the arc. Washington State is averaging 77.6 ppg while giving up 56.4 ppg. They are shooting 50.5 percent from the field, including 39.0 from beyond the three-point line and rebounding 34.6 boards, giving up 35.1. They are averaging 11.9 turnovers per game compared to Santa Clara's own 16.2 turnovers per game.
Individually, Santa Clara has three players in double figures: Kevin Foster (17.9), Marc Trasolini (11.7) and Evan Roquemore (11.1). Foster leads the WCC and is eighth nationally this week in threes made, has a team-leading 3.9 apg and 1.4 spg; and he has scored double figures in 11 of 11 games this season, adding nine vs. Rice. Trasolini leads the team with 6.4 rpg and .82 bpg. Trasolini collected his fifth career double-double vs. CSU Bakersfield and had a season-high three blocks in the Rice win, hitting a season-high 19 vs. Arizona and vs. Ohio in Las Vegas.
Washington State has two players in double figures: Klay Thompson (20.8) and Faisal Aden (18.3). Thompson's older brother Mychel plays basketball at Pepperdine University. Marcus Capers leads the team with 6.1 rpg and Thompson dishes a team-leading 4.9 apg and Aden grabs a team-high 2.0 spg
Youngster
Freshman Evan Roquemore has made very good after being inserted into the starting line-up three games ago. He scored 14 points with five rebounds at San Jose State, added 12 points with four rebounds at Pacific and then broke away to score 17 points with a career-high seven assists. Roquemore is second on the team this season at the free throw line, shooting 82.1 percent (45 of 56). He has been perfect at the free throw line in three games this year: 6 of 6 vs. Rice, 10 of 10 vs. Northern Colorado and 6 of 6 at San Jose State. Averaging 11.1 ppg, he also adds 2.9 rpg and is second on the team with 2.6 apg.
Starters
Santa Clara started a new line-up vs. Houston Baptist with Raymond Cowels III starting in place of the departed Robert Smith. It was Cowels first start this season and his 12th career start. Evan Roquemore (third career start) and Chris Cunningham (seventh career start) have both worked their way into the starting line-up, replacing Troy Payne (40 straight) and Marc Trasolini (21 straight) who have come off the bench for the Broncos the last three games.
Santa Clara had gone with the same line-up for the eighth straight game vs. UC Santa Barbara. It was the second time in head coach Kerry Keating's four years at Santa Clara that he had started the same line-up eight straight games. In 2008-09, he started the same line-up nine straight games. From Jan. 17, 2009-Feb. 14, 2009 he started John Bryant, Marc Trasolini, Kevin Foster, James Rahon and Calvin Johnson.
Ben Dowdell has a chance to crack the top 10 this year in career games played. He has played in 101 career games and the top 10 begins with Mitch Henke, Brian Jones and Travis Neisen all playing in 117 games. Trasolini has a chance to hit that career list in the next two years and also career starts as he has started 55 of the 73 games he played in. The career starts top 10 list has Jens Gordon at No. 10 with 91 starts.
Announced
Sophomore guard Robert Smith has left the Santa Clara University men's basketball team effective immediately head coach Kerry Keating announced on Dec. 17. Smith averaged 5.5 ppg and 3.7 apg as a starter in all 10 games this season.
"Robert is currently in good academic standing," said Keating. "I'm disappointed Robert felt he could not succeed here. Having known Robert and his family for a long time, I wish him the best in the future."
Conferences
Santa Clara will have played 12 games by the end of the weekend. Of the 10 games, three were vs. the Pac-10 (at USC, vs. Arizona in Vegas and vs. Washington State) and two were vs. the Big West (vs. UC Santa Barbara and at Pacific). They have also played one vs. the following conferences as well: Conference USA (vs. Rice) the Big Sky (vs. Northern Colorado), the WAC (San Jose State), the MAC (vs. Ohio in Vegas), the Great West (Houston Baptist) and the MEAC (Bethune-Cookman). CSU Bakersfield is an independent.
Side Notes
** Evan Roquemore and Raymond Cowels III both led the team with 17 points each vs. Houston Baptist on Dec. 17. Nate Mensah scored his first two points of his career in the final three minutes of the game. Two other walk-ons, Phillip Bach and Kyle Perricone also added two points and freshman walk-on Beau Gamble picked up a charge in the final minute. The underclassmen scored almost 65 percent of the Broncos points and grabbed 41.6 percent of the rebounds.
** Evan Roquemore and Chris Cunningham both started again in place of Troy Payne and Marc Trasolini at Pacific on Dec. 17. Kevin Foster scored 17 points in the game, including 15 in the first half, hitting 7 of 7 from the free throw line.
** Evan Roquemore started his first career game and Chris Cunningham started for the first time this season in the win at San Jose State. Cunningham tied his season-high with four rebounds and Roquemore scored 14 points. Kevin Foster tied a season-high with 26 points. In the first half Santa Clara turned the ball over 13 times, but just five times in the second half.
** In a sign of what the Bronco coaches hope is to come, rookie John McArthur scored a career-high six points with a career-high six rebounds in a career-high 14 minutes vs. UCSB.
** Kevin Foster hit six three-pointers in the first half of the UC Santa Barbara - a career-high - and he finished the game with 25 points. The six threes overall tied a career-high set vs. Buthune-Cookman on Nov. 21, 2010.
* Chris Cunningham, making some nifty post moves, tied a career-high with eight points, making a career-best of 4 of 4, vs. Ohio.
** Marc Trasolini scored 19 points in back-to-back games vs. Arizona and Ohio in Las Vegas. Trasolini has scored 15+ points 17 times in his career. He has scored double digits in five of Santa Clara's nine games this season after leading the team in ppg, rpg and bpg last season.
** Marc Trasolini hadn't blocked a shot in four games heading into the SJSU game when he blocked two. It was the first time since his freshman year he had gone four plus games without a block. He went five games spanning the end of his freshman year (four games: Feb. 21, - March 8) to the second game of his sophomore year (Nov. 16, 2009) when he collected three blocks.
** Evan Roquemore tied the Bronco freshman record when he hit made 10 free throws vs. UNC on Nov. 23. He was a perfect 10 of 10. Then-Bronco freshman Jordan Legge made 10 free throws for the Broncos on Nov. 27, 2001 in Santa Clara's 65-61 win vs. San Jose State.
** SCU and UNC combined for 171 points, but zero blocks on Nov. 23. The last time that happened: in Gonzaga's 80-64 win over the Broncos in Spokane on Feb. 28, 2004.
** In its game with B-C, the bench out-rebounded the starters. Against UNC, led by a pair of Broncos collecting 18 points each, the bench outscored the starters. The starters, paced by Kevin Foster's 19 points and tying a career-high with seven assists, scored 42 points. The bench, led by Cowels and Roquemore, scored 45.
** Kevin Foster collected six assists and the Broncos had 23 assists in SCU's 75-61 win over Bethune-Cookman on Nov. 21. It was the most assists for the Broncos since they collected 24 assists in an 83-80 win vs. Belmont on Dec. 29, 2008. The most under Keating?: SCU had 29 assists vs. Pepperdine in the Broncos' 101-86 victory on Jan. 21, 2008.
** The Bronco bench collected 16 rebounds vs. Bethune-Cookman while the starters pulled down 13. That's the first time that happened this year.
School Records
After breaking Steve Nash's single season record for three-pointers made as a freshman in 2008-09 with 85, it's no surprise Kevin Foster is already climbing up the three point career lists. Foster also owns the record for three-pointers attempted with 232 shot his freshman season.
Foster is No. 6 with 389 three-pointers attempted. His next milestone is down the road: he needs 94 attempts to pass No. 5 Ethan Rohde at 490 (2002-05). Foster has made 144 career threes and is No. 6 on the career list. With three threes at San Jose State, he passed No. 7 Nathan Fast (136, 1996-00) and No. 6 Mitche Burley (137, 1985-89). He needs 22 to pass Brian Jones at No. 5 (165, 1996-01).
The career record for three pointers made is Steve Nash's 263 from 1992-96. The career record for three-pointers attempted is 679 by Kyle Bailey from 2001-05. Foster will have a leg up on the competition, career-wise, as his six games last season will count towards his career totals as well.
Foster has quite a ways to go to reach Kurt Rambis' school record 1,736 points scored (1976-80). But, if he does collect the record, he can thank Southern California's big men for two points scored. The Trojans were whistled for a technical foul in pre-game warm-ups when a player dunked while the officials were out on the floor (against NCAA rules). Foster then shot and made two free throws prior to the start of the game.
Foster: 21 x 19
Kevin Foster scored 19+ in six of 11 games this season, hitting double-figures in 10 of 11 games (scoring nine vs. Rice). He scored a season-high 26 points in the win over San Jose State. Only playing in six games last year before breaking his foot, he scored 19+ points four times last season. Foster scored 19+ points 11 times in 2008-09, including five of the last eight games of the season. He hit a career-high five three-pointers four times before hitting a new career-high six three-pointers vs. Bethune-Cookman and six vs. UC Santa Barbara.
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.
He has scored 15+ points in 29 of 50 career games.
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