ST. LOUIS - Santa Clara has officially arrived in St. Louis for March Madness. The Broncos (26-8) are set to take on Kentucky (21-13) in the opening round of the 2025-26 NCAA Tournament on Friday, March 20, at 9:15 a.m. PT. The game will air live on CBS/CBS Sports with Spero Dedes, Jim Spanarkel and Jon Rothstein on the call. Anthony Passarelli and Henry Caruso can be heard exclusively on the Varsity Network App (link above).
SERIES HISTORY VS. KENTUCKY
Santa Clara and Kentucky are squaring off for just the second time. The teams first met on December 19, 2006, in Lexington - a game in which the Wildcats won 74-60.
SANTA CLARA VS. THE SEC
Santa Clara is 5-16 all-time against current members of the Southeastern Conference. The Broncos’ last win came on Dec. 29, 1999 against Texas A&M (then a member of the Big 12). This will be their first meeting against an SEC team since Nov. 25, 2016 when SCU hosted Vanderbilt at Leavey Center in a 76-66 defeat.
PARTY LIKE IT’S 1996
Santa Clara is in the Big Dance for the first time since 1996 - the last of a four-year stretch in which Steve Nash and Co. qualified for the NCAA Tournament three times. The Broncos won their opening game of that tournament, 91-79, over Maryland before falling to No. 4 Kansas in the round of 32.
SANTA CLARA IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
The Broncos are making their 12th appearance in the NCAA Tournament all-time. SCU first made the Big Dance in 1952 and made it all the way to the Final Four. They would go on to advance to the Sweet Sixteen six more times over an 18-year stretch, advancing to the Elite Eight in four of those appearances (1953, 1954, 1968 and 1969).
Santa Clara made the tournament just once over the next two decades (1987) before Steve Nash found his way to the Mission Campus. Nash and head coach Dick Davey made three Tournament appearances in 1993, 1995 and 1996. The 1993 team was particularly memorable as the freshman Nash helped lead the Broncos to one of the most iconic upsets in NCAA Tournament history with a 64-61 win over No. 5 2-seed Arizona.
26 AND COUNTING
Santa Clara’s 26 wins are tied with the 2012-13 CBI Champs for the second-most in program history and the Broncos are only one game shy of tying the program record of 27 wins set in 1968-69. They are also the most Herb Sendek has ever won in a season throughout the entirety of his 32-year career.
600 FOR THE PRIDE OF PITTSBURGH
Speaking of Sendek, he could not have planned out a better time to pick up the 600th win of his career. The Pittsburgh native reached the milestone in the Broncos’ semifinal victory over rival Saint Mary’s and surpassed Oregon State legend Slats Gill for sole possession of the 45th-most wins in NCAA Division I history.
LOOKING BACK AT THE REGULAR SEASON
With a 24-7 record, Santa Clara posted the second-most regular-season victories in program history, just two behind the program record of 26 set in 1968-69 when the Broncos reached No. 3 in the AP Poll en route to a 26-1 regular season before falling to Lew Alcindor and the UCLA Bruins in the NCAA Tournament.
A NEW RECORD FOR CONFERENCE WINS
Santa Clara set a new program record for conference victories with a 15-3 mark in WCC play. The mark was previously held by the 1967-68 and 1968-69 squads who both finished 13-1.
ELITE NUMBERS IN CONFERENCE PLAY
Santa Clara averaged 87.2 points per game in their 18 games of WCC action. That number not only led the WCC, but was the nation’s fifth-highest scoring average in conference games. The Broncos also boasted the 11th-best margin of victory (13.3) in league play.
SENDEK AGAINST RANKED OPPONENTS
With the victory over the 21st-ranked Gaels, Sendek’s Broncos have defeated a ranked team in each of the last three seasons and have four such wins over the last five seasons. The first of the group was also against the Gaels on Feb. 8, 2022, which broke a 46-game losing skid for the Broncos against ranked opponents that dated back to 2004. Since then, the Broncos have twice taken down ranked Gonzaga teams with a 77-76 home win in 2024 and an unforgettable 103-99 triumph in the Kennel in 2025.
BIG NUMBERS IN THE WCC CHAMPIONSHIP
Four Broncos averaged double-figure scoring in their run to the WCC Championship title game: Hammond (15.0), Gavalyugov (14.0), Graves (13.3) and Mahi (13.0). Gavalyugov also averaged a team-best 5.7 assists over the three games while Mahi pulled down 7.7 rebounds.
GAVALYUGOV BURIES THE GAELS
Redshirt freshman Sash Gavalyugov has a knack of putting together monster performances when you least expect it. The Bulgarian native did it for the first time on Jan. 10 when he made just his second start of the year in place of an injured Brenton Knapper and took full advantage with a whopping 37-point effort at home against LMU - a tally that stands as the second-most a Bronco has ever scored in Leavey. Sash had a similar performance in the Broncos’ semifinal win over Saint Mary’s, but this time after coming off the bench and connecting on 5-of-9 3-point attempts for a team-best 23 points. None of those treys were bigger than the last one, which came with just 12 seconds remaining and the Broncos clinging to a two-point lead. The deep trey was the dagger SCU needed to officially put the 21st-ranked Gaels to rest and punch their ticket to the WCC Championship title game for the first time since 2007.
NABC ALL-DISTRICT
Santa Clara’s First Team All-WCC Trio of Hammond, Graves and Mahi also found themselves garnering NABC All-District honors. Hammond was a first team pick while Graves and Mahi were both on the second team. It is the most all-district honorees the Broncos have had in a single season in program history. Hammond is the first Bronco to garner first team honors since Brandin Podziemski in 2022-23.
TOP FOUR YET AGAIN
Santa Clara posted a top-four finish in the WCC standings for the fifth-consecutive year - the program’s longest streak since an eight-year stretch from 1995-2002. The Broncos finished in third place for the first time since doing so in back-to-back years in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
SENDEK JOINS ELITE COMPANY WITH 4TH COTY AWARD
Herb Sendek was voted by his peers as the 2025-26 WCC Coach of the Year. It is his first COTY Award in his 10-year tenure with the Broncos, and the fourth COTY Award of his 32-year career in total. Sendek has won the award at four different schools (Miami (OH), NC State, Arizona State, SCU) in four different conferences (MAC, ACC, PAC 10, WCC), and is one of just three coaches to do so in NCAA Division I history along with Dana Altman and Rick Pitino.
GRAVES TAKES HOME MULTIPLE MAJOR WCC AWARDS
Allen Graves earned a pair of major awards from the WCC after a sensational conference slate. The big man took home WCC Freshman of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year honors. He is the 10th Bronco in program history to win freshman and/or newcomer of the year honors - the first since Brandin Podziemski was both the league’s newcomer and co-player of the year in 2022-23 - and the first freshman to win the award since Jared Brownridge in 2013-14.
Graves came off the bench in all 18 of SCU’s conference games to average 13.5 points and 6.6 rebounds. He is the first Bronco to win the league’s sixth man award in its six years of existence.
A TRIO OF FIRST TEAMERS
Graves was one of three Broncos that earned a spot on the WCC’s 10-man all-conference first team, joining Christian Hammond and Elijah Mahi. It was the first All-WCC honor for all three players in their respective careers. The three honorees tied the 2006-07 squad’s total for the most first teamers in program history, and it is the first time that multiple Broncos have earned first team honors since 2022-23 (Podziemski and Carlos Stewart).
Santa Clara and Gonzaga are the only teams to have at least one player on the All-WCC First Team in each of the last six seasons dating back to 2020-21.
OFFENSE ON HISTORIC PACE
At 82.9 points per game, Santa Clara’s offense is going toe-to-toe with the 1969-70 team (83.7) for the best average in program history. Their 10.4 scoring margin currently checks in at No. 4 on the all-time list. Both figures rank top-three in the WCC and top-40 nationally this season.
SCU is just 10 points away from tying the 2012-13 for the most points in program history.
