SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The 2023-24 Santa Clara men's basketball roster has officially been finalized. A total of eight newcomers consisting of five transfers and three freshmen will join the Broncos for the upcoming season.
"We are thrilled with our roster for the 2023-24 season," head coach Herb Sendek said. "Our returners have worked really hard this spring and demonstrated marked improvement. At the same time, we have a versatile and talented group of newcomers joining us. We are excited to get the team together this summer and get to work together."
Here are the eight new faces joining the Broncos in 2023-24.
Adama Bal | Guard | 6-7 | 190 | Transfer from the University of Arizona
Bal joins the Broncos after a two-year stint with the Wildcats where he appeared in 49 career games. As a sophomore he averaged 2.5 points in 8.2 minutes of action per game with a 39.2 percent shooting clip and a 12-of-34 mark from beyond the arc. In his two seasons, Bal shot 39.2 percent from 3-point range and 42.3 percent from the floor. His career-high came in the 2022-23 season-opener vs. Nicholls in which he scored 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting in 17 minutes of work.
Originally from Le Mans, France, Bal initially joined Arizona after a great career with the CFBB Academy team in Paris. He averaged 9.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 18 games in 2020-21 and helped France to a second-place finish at the FIBA U16 European Championship in 2019.
Bal joins Santa Clara as a junior with two years of eligibility remaining.
Jalen Benjamin | Guard | 5-10 | 160 | Transfer from Mount St. Mary's
Santa Clara will be Benjamin's third and final stop of his collegiate career after very successful stints at UAB and, most recently, Mount St. Mary's. A native of Raleigh, N.C., Benjamin originally signed with the Blazers of UAB and played in 60 career games with 29 starts in two seasons. He was a Conference USA All-Freshman Team pick after started 26 of 31 games in 2019-20 with a career-high 29 points on nine field goals against Southern Miss. In two seasons in Birmingham, Benjamin averaged 10.6 points with 32 double-figure scoring efforts, including five 20-plus point outings.
Benjamin transferred to Mount St. Mary's as a junior and played two seasons in which he earned all-conference honors in both years. He started 28 of 29 games in his first season (2021-22) and led the team with 13.3 points and 4.0 assists per game en route to earning Second Team All-Northeast Conference honors. That season was also the guard's first encounter with Santa Clara when the programs met on Dec. 7, 2021. Benjamin finished with eight points and eight assists against the Broncos.
Benjamin saw his production numbers bump even higher in his final season with the Mount. Starting all 31 games, he averaged 16 points on 41.8 percent shooting while pulling down 2.8 boards and dishing out 3.8 assists. He had a total of nine 20-point games including a high of 28 at Saint Peter's and 27 in the season-finale against No. 1-seeded Iona in the MAAC Tournament. Benjamin was named a third team all-conference selection at season's end. In total, he has scored 1,519 career points, an average of 12.7 per game in 120 appearances. Benjamin now joins Santa Clara as a graduate transfer where he will look to conclude his collegiate career.
Tyeree Bryan | Guard | 6-6 | 202 | Transfer from Charleston Southern
Bryan joins the Broncos after one season at Charleston Southern where he started 28-of-29 games, averaging 31.4 minutes per contest. The Orlando, Fla. product averaged 10.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists while shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 42.1 from 3-point range. Bryan had 17 double figure scoring efforts with three 20-point games. His season-high was 23 points, achieved against both Kennesaw State (12/5/22) and Winthrop (2/18/23).
Bryan will join Santa Clara as a junior with two years of eligibility remaining.
Francisco Caffaro | Center | 7-1 | 254 | Transfer from the University of Virginia
Caffaro, originally from Argentina and a member of the Argentinean National Team, joins Santa Clara after a successful four-year career with the Virginia Cavaliers. First joining Virginia as a redshirt for their national championship-winning 2019 campaign, the big man saw his first action with the Cavaliers in 2019-20 with 20 appearances and a pair of starts. In total, Caffaro made 92 appearances and 21 starts during his time in Charlottesville. His most productive season came in 2021-22 where he made 16 starts and 35 total appearances, averaging 4.3 points and 4.6 rebounds. He had a career-high 16 points in 31 minutes vs. Virginia Tech (1/12/22) and posted his first career double-double with 11 points and a career-best 12 rebounds vs. Notre Dame (1/29/22).
Caffaro will play his final collegiate season with the Broncos as a graduate transfer.
Christian Hammond | Guard | 6-3 | 180 | Dream City Christian (Glendale, Ariz.)
One of two early signees, Hammond officially signed with the Broncos in November 2022. Originally from Denver, the point guard finished his high school career at Dream City Christian in Glendale, Ariz. He was a second team all-conference pick as a sophomore at Cherry Creek High in Greenwood Village, Colo. and transferred to Colorado Prep for his junior season. In his one year there, he averaged 20 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the field and 43 percent from beyond the arc.
Hammond played at the Adidas All-American Camp where he was among the top performers for the class of 2023. His performance included an impressive 39-point outing as part of his 20 ppg average at the event.
Luke McEldon | Center | 6-10 | 225 | Cushing Academy (Ashburnham, Mass.)
Like Hammond, McEldon signed on with the Broncos in November 2022. A three-star prospect, he was rated as among the top players in New England for the 2023 recruiting cycle. The big man was rated the No. 4 overall prospect for the state of Massachusetts and 12th in New England by the New England Recruiting Report.
Bukky Oboye | Center | 6-11 | 200 | Clements HS (Houston, Texas)
An underrated prospect from the Lone Star State, Oboye joins the Broncos as a true freshman. Prior to 2020, he was a 6-foot-4 point guard, but had a major grow spurt that he has used to develop into a front court player. He recently played in the Adidas 3SSB Live Period Event at College Station, Texas where he turned heads. Oboye is rated as a three-star prospect by ESPN and the 28th best player from Texas for the 2023 recruiting cycle.
Johnny O'Neil | Forward | 6-10 | 200 | Transfer from American University
The final transfer of the bunch, O'Neil joins Santa Clara after three seasons of work at American University where he was an all-league performer. O'Neil signed with American as one of the top players from the state of Florida at Chaminade-Madonna College Prep in Hollywood, Fla. In his first season with American, he was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year and earned a spot on the Patriot League All-Rookie team after ranking third in the league with 1.5 blocks per game. He went on to start 31-of-32 games as a sophomore and is coming off his best season in 2022-23 where he averaged 11.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and tallied 51 blocks in 30 appearances. O'Neil was named to the Patriot League All-Defensive Team was the league's player of the week for Dec. 12.
In his three seasons, O'Neil started 60-of-70 games played with an average of 10 points and 5.7 boards per contest. He ranks seventh on American's career block list with 96 and posted 38 games of double-figure scoring.
O'Neil has two years of eligibility remaining.
This impressive crop of newcomers joins returners Brenton Knapper, Carlos Marshall, Jr., Kosy Akametu, Christoph Tilly, Camaron Tongue, Malachi Douyon, Jake Ensminger and Brendan Yarusso to make up the 2023-24 roster.
