Loyola Ramblers Preview – https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2025/12 ... clara.aspx

Santa Clara Stats and Intel - https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sc ... /2026.html

Record: 9-3 (WCC MBB)
Coach: Herb Sendek
PS/G: 79.2 (149th of 365)
PA/G: 69.6 (97th of 365)
SRS: 12.95 (63rd of 365)
SOS: 5.23 (47th of 365)
ORtg: 113.3 (122nd of 365)
DRtg: 99.5 (101st of 365)
Preseason Odds: Championship +50000


Loyola Chicago Ramblers (3-9) at Santa Clara Broncos (9-3) – 4:00pm CST, Kaiser Permanente Arena, Santa Cruz CA

The Ramblers finish the California trip today at Santa Clara University. Loyola has lost 2 in a row while Santa Clara defeated North Texas (63-60) 3 nights ago on neutral floor.

Wednesday night the Ramblers dropped another game to San Francisco, 85-71.

"Our intensity wasn't where it needed to be in the first half and the second half had a lot of mental errors," said head coach Drew Valentine. "That said, I have to give the guys credit. They found a way to compete and even when San Francisco went on runs, I thought we responded better than we have some other times this season. Losing is never positive, but we took some positive steps today."

Santa Clara is 9-3 heading into Saturday's contest and has gone 2-2 over the last two weeks of action. The Broncos bounced back from a two-loss skid earlier this week with a 63-60 win over North Texas. Santa Clara is one of the nation's best offensive rebounding teams, averaging 14.92 boards on the offensive end to rank eighth in the NCAA.

Christian Hammond leads the Broncos in scoring with 16.6 PPG along with 3.5 RPG and 2.5 APG while Elijah Mahi has 13.8 PPG with 4.8 RPG and 2.6 APG as the only other double-digit scorer for Santa Clara so far this season. Bukky Oboye has 9.3 PPG with 3.6 RPG and Allen Graves has 8.8 PPG with 6.3 RPG and 2.1 APG. Brenton Knapper has 7.5 PPG with 3.1 APG and Sash Gavalyugov has 7.3 PPG with 2.3 RPG and 2.7 APG. Jake Ensminger also has 6.9 PPG with 6.6 RPG and 3.8 APG to lead Santa Clara in rebounding and assists so far this season. As a team, Santa Clara is averaging 79.2 PPG on 45% shooting from the field, 31.2% from three and 67.7% from the foul line so far this season.

Herb Sendek is in his 10th season with Santa Clara and holds a 170-123 record.

Santa Clara Probable Starters – 6-4 G Christian Hammond, 6-7 F Elijah Mahi, 6-9 G Jake Ensminger, 6-0 G Brenton Knapper, 7-1 C Bukky Oboye

Loyola Probable Starters – Rubin, Houinsou, Dotson, Moore, Amos

LAST 10 GAMES FOR BOTH SQUADS

Broncos: 7-3, averaging 78.8 points, 31.3 rebounds, 17.7 assists, 8.4 steals and 5.1 blocks per game while shooting 45.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.5 points per game.

Ramblers: 2-8, averaging 66.6 points, 30.4 rebounds, 12.7 assists, 3.2 steals and 3.3 blocks per game while shooting 41.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.9 points.


Watch / Listen – Saturday evening’s game will air on BallerTV and can be listened to Rambler Sports Network with our friends Sudikoff and CT.

Postgame Show - Tune in to Sudikoff on RSN, followed by TalkinBlers Spaces on the X: https://x.com/blerstalking?s=21


Odds: Santa Clara -15.5

A better night of basketball

Loyola to SC
FG% 49 to 40
3% 37 to 32
FT% 78 to 78
TotReb 30 to 33
DefRb 22 to 19
OffReb 8 to 14
2nd ch 6 to 18
PaintPts 28 to 28
FastBrk 7 to 16
Leadtime 24 to 12

Tavarez 3 of 4 from deep
Dotson 26 pts 41% from deep and 7 of 8 in FTs
Richardson, 11 plus in +/-

Hopefully a start to winning ways
On to A10 play

Good win!

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

I played on a mid-level D1 team in the early 90’s that quit on a coach and man it was awful to ride that season out. I am not a Drew fan, but they don’t win this game if he had lost his team. Two comments:

1) Much needed confidence boost W
2) Rubin’s P5 value is going down the drain with Amos in the lineup. I would never have thought this team could get a W against a decent team with his stat line today.

Solid win.

Rambling0101 - Please explain your comment about Amos in the lineup. I didn't see the game, but I did see that Rubin had limited minutes and low production.

Regarding Miles,
I have been seeing less effort to get him involved in the offense. The pick and roll action Miles had with Sheldon, for example, or with Norris is not there with J Mo. I have seen numerous spots of Miles dropping down from high screen and not getting the ball. To me it seems J Mo is either not seeing it or is reluctant to make the pass. Seems we would want to establish that play was it would help open the perimeter more often. I think Miles development has slowed in the current offense and he should be more of a force and not just a rebound and put back kind of center.
Great to see the Santa Clara win, but defense needs work. Especially going over screens vs. under. We give too many open looks. That will be important when our 3’s are not dropping on the offensive end.
Team seems to be developing a better flow and I hope it continues into conference.

A couple of weeks ago I watched Santa Clara really smack down Xavier-- by 19 points-- in Cincy. A few days later, they beat Nevada by 15. Since then, I thought Santa Clara was the best team we were going to face in the non-con, and the record (and KenPom) confirmed it. To beat this team (who also beat Minnesota by double digits, beat North Texas, and lost to SLU by 1) is really surprising given how bad we've looked for most of this season. Even after losing to us, Santa Clara is still top 50 in Bart Torvik and #80 in KenPom.

The pieces and raw talent are there. After losing to USF on Wednesday, it would have been easy to lay down against Santa Clara, but they didn't. We were never going to get an at large with our schedule unless we went 30-4 or better. But we can angle for some improved play next year, get the super-talented freshmen some minutes in tough competition, and show that we're not ever to be underestimated.

So let's salvage some dignity from the season and keep the fans on our side with a solid conference run. Shoot for 9-9 in conference play-- I would call that a big success given the strength of the conference.

Per my Miles comment - Amos (an afterthought at 10min a game at Wisco) shows a far more versatile game - absent shot blocking - versus Miles.

So, if you are a P5 guy, you had Miles circled as a get at the end of the season, but now you are watching a well traveled, not overly successful P5 player show more than the recruit you had circled. Hence the stock drop.
In my opinion, he may still get a look (NW?) but his lack of offense will hurt him if he enters the portal and in my opinion Amos’ production shows just how far he is from that level (which surprises me a bit and makes me question player development on the staff).

Happy for the team and the coaching staff. A good way to end a miserable non-conference slate. Santa Clara is a really good mid-major. Let's go run the table in A10 play and piss off all the A10 fans.