The Santa Clara Broncos are going to the big dance! For the first time in 30 years, the Santa Clara University men’s basketball team received an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. On Sunday, the selection committee selected the Broncos for an at-large bid to the tournament and seeded the team No. 10 in the Midwest Region. SCU will play the Kentucky Wildcats on Friday in St. Louis.

The last time SCU received a bid to the tournament was in 1996 when former player and now NBA Hall of Famer Steve Nash wore a jersey for the Broncos. Head Coach Herb Sendek understood that representing the university at the tournament is a great honor.

“We’re very aware that we come to this moment standing on the shoulders of many who have come before us, coaches, former players, alumni supporters, the administrations and to make this season in particular possible, it took the support and hard work of so many, not the least of which, obviously are the players,” said Sendek. “My heart is full of gratitude for the opportunity to be shoulder to shoulder with these men every day.”

For the players, this invitation is something they felt was a possibility from the very beginning of the season.

“I feel like at the beginning of season, we all set that goal of making the NCAA tournament. We all wanted that was our end goal. We wanted to make the NCAA tournament,” said freshman guard Allen Graves. “Obviously, we prepared for it. We put the work in for it. And as the season went on, we knew that we could just the way that we were playing, the games that we were winning, and then even the games we were losing.

“We knew that we were right there. In order to win those games, it was up to us, though. It wasn’t nobody else’s fault, but it was on us,” Graves continued. “And we knew that we were a team that could be here. And I feel like that confidence has continued to just rise as the season went on, and as we’ve gotten closer to this point, it’s just continued to go up. And now we’re here, now, in this moment.”

Senior Elijah Mahi, who is in his second season on the team, transferred to SCU in 2024 from West Valley College.

“It’s obviously amazing winning games and stuff, and definitely a big growth from last year’s team, which is a really good team, to this year’s team, which is just a whole different dynamic and a whole different culture that we have. But it feels great for sure winning games,” said Mahi.

Sendek has taken three other teams to the NCAA tournament — Miami University of Ohio, University of North Carolina and Arizona State.

For more than ten years, he’s been building SCU’s men’s basketball program to where it is now. In 2022, SCU returned to the NIT for the first time since the 1980s. That same year, star player Jalen Williams was drafted in the first round (12th overall) in the NBA. The next season, Brandin Podziemski was drafted 19th overall by the Golden State Warriors.

The Broncos went 26-8 overall this season and finished third in the WCC behind Gonzaga and St. Mary’s. The team lost to Gonzaga in the West Coast Tournament 79-68.

The team practiced at SCU on Wednesday morning and then received a hero’s send-off before flying out midday.

Friday’s game against Kentucky is at 9:15 a.m. PT.