By Jeff Faraudo
#WCChoops columnist | ARCHIVES
 
The season hasn’t been all bad for the Santa Clara men’s and women’s basketball teams. Yes, they’ve been exiled from their campus base because of COVID-19 restrictions in Santa Clara County, with both now setting up shop 30 miles to the south.
 
The Broncos’ men haven’t played a game at the school’s Leavey Center since Nov. 28, just as the latest county health mandate arrived. The women haven’t played at all on their home floor — and probably won’t. They spent consecutive 30 days on the road, jumping from Bakersfield to San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara to San Diego to Provo before December came to a close.  
 
Earlier this week, while discussing this strange odyssey, Santa Clara women’s coach Bill Carr described his view from the team hotel in Capitola.  “As we’re talking, I’m watching surfers,” said Carr, hardly complaining about the setting.
 
Josip Vrankic, a senior forward on the SCU men’s team and a preseason All-West Coast Conference selection, is holed up with teammates at a hotel  four miles up the road in Santa Cruz. 
 
To break the routine, Vrankic said the team headed out to the beach one day for an impromptu volleyball game. “It was fun,” he said. The women have done the same thing, Carr confirmed. “You try to change up some things.”
 
Actually, change has been the only constant for these two teams. The Broncos’ home court is now the Kaiser Permanente Arena, which normally houses the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA’s G League. Santa Clara and its county neighbor, Stanford, are sharing the facility.
 
For the most part, Santa Clara’s men and women have successfully navigated much of this season.
 
The Broncos’ women played just their second home game of the season on Thursday, losing 71-52 to No. 20 Gonzaga. Strangely, they are 0-2 at home, but 7-3 on the road and 3-3 in conference play.
 
After winning at Saint Mary’s last weekend, the men dropped to 7-3 overall, 1-1 in the WCC with their 79-58 loss at Pacific on Thursday. 
 
Throughout this unusual season, two themes have emerged with both Santa Clara teams. They have responded to each new set of circumstances, and they haven’t whined about it.
 
“We get to play and we’ll do just about anything to get the opportunity to play,” Carr said. “There’s been absolutely zero complaining, zero excuse-making. Affectionately, they’re calling themselves the Road Warriors. They’ve done a really good job of not being distracted. I’m really proud of them.”
 
Santa Clara opened its new $37 million, 50,000-square foot Stephen C. and Patricia A. Schott Athletic Excellence Center this fall, and the basketball teams have had virtually no access to it. From his hotel room in Santa Cruz, it’s not possible for Vrankic to simply dash over to the practice gym on an off night to get up extra shots. Everything has to be scheduled and cleared.
 
Vrankic says there have been challenges at every step but also aspects of this he appreciates. The Kaiser arena and staff are “awesome,” he said. “All we need is a court with two nets,” he said, “but it’s a beautiful gym.”
 
And he says the Broncos are experiencing team bonding at a whole new level. 
 
“We’re in a nice little bubble. It’s pretty much us and that’s it,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade this team for any other team in the world. You’re being thrown in with new roommates, you see the same faces every day but there’s a lot of new relationships I’m very thankful for.”
 
Like every team in the country, the Broncos have learned to deal with uncertainty. The men have had eight games canceled or postponed. Vrankic was surprised when presented with that number. “Eight sounds insane,” he acknowledged. 
 
He also keeps a healthy perspective that takes in a broader view.
 
“A game gets canceled, but life can get much worse,” he said. “We’re grateful for the opportunity we’re given. That’s how we treat every single day. It helps us a lot mentally to stay ready.”
 
From the view of a coach, Carr says the 30-day road trip made scheduling practice difficult. The team was able to practice on three straight days last week for the first time in a month.
 
He doesn’t bother to speculate how long the new normal will endure. “I expect to do this as long as they tell us to do it,” Carr said. “That’s the way we have to look at it.”
 
The changed routine impacts those beyond the roster. Vrankic said his father Vlatko, who was his coach as a youngster, plans a trip to the Bay Area each year from the family home in Toronto, Canada, to watch Josip play. Last year Vrankic was injured and on the shelf when his dad came. 
 
And this year there will be no visit. “He’s going to have to sit this one out,” Vrankic said.
 
Carr said his family has been entirely supportive, acknowledging that his wife, Pam, understands the life a coach leads with its late nights and road trips. 
 
“She’s been in this for 30 years plus, but this is different,” he said. “You go on a 30-day road trip . . . that’s not like a weekend. There’s nothing I’ve seen that can prepare you for this.”
 
NO. 17 MADE ‘EM SWEAT: With its 95-70 win over Pepperdine on Thursday night, the nation’s No. 1 team moved to 13-0 on the season, 4-0 in the WCC and won for the 17th straight time dating back to last season. 
 
But this one was hardly as easy for Gonzaga as the final score suggests. The Zags led just 43-39 at halftime. Coach Mark Few credited the Waves with a strong effort but said his team “lost our way” defensively in the first half and was sloppy at times on offense.
 
“We’re not just going to blow everybody out in the first half. It’s just not going to happen,” Few said. “We’re going to be in battles. But we responded in the second half. We ended up with 95, so it’s hard to complain too much about the offense.”
 
CLASH OF STYLES: Gonzaga will bring the nation’s highest-scoring offense (96.0) to Moraga on Saturday to face Saint Mary’s, which faces a tough assignment after falling to 0-2 in the WCC with its 62-52 loss to BYU.
 
The Gaels led 50-43 with just under 11 minutes left but were outscored 19-2 the rest of the way, going scoreless during a stretch of nearly 10 minutes. BYU won at Saint Mary’s for just the second time since joining the conference in 2011-12.
 
Regardless, Few knows what awaits the Zags: A Gaels team that will try to stretch possessions and “shorten” the game. He compared what Saint Mary’s does to Virginia, which also plays a deliberate style.
 
Gonzaga crushed Virginia 98-75 the day after Christmas, turning 15 turnovers into 27 points. Few hopes the Zags can replicate that scenario.
 
“It’s a shame there won’t be any fans there. That’ll certainly be different because that’s usually one of the better environments we play in,” he said. “Our guys, I know Saint Mary’s has their full attention.”
 
BELL RINGS FOR TIGERS: Pacific hadn’t played since Dec. 20, but all Jordan Bell needed was a chance. The graduate transfer forward, making his first start for Pacific, delivered 17 points and 11 rebounds in the Tigers’ 79-58 win over Santa Clara.
 
On Saturday, Bell will have a reunion with his former team, Loyola Marymount, which visits Stockton for a 3 p.m. matchup of teams sporting 1-0 WCC records.