West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson and Santa Clara's Elijah Mahi are the featured guest on this week's edition of the Field of 68's West Coast Conference Insider podcast. Santa Clara is 3-0 to start the 2025-26 campaign, most recently garnering an 87-68 victory at Xavier on Monday. Mahi led the charge in the victory with 18 points and three assists. He’s scored at least 14 points in each game this season.

In addition to Mahi leading the charge in Santa Clara's win over Xavier, West Coast Conference men's basketball teams went 4-0 on Tuesday night, including No. 19 Gonzaga defeating No. 23 Creighton. The West Coast Conference is 2-0 thus far against Big East Teams. 

The Field of 68 network hosts the West Coast Conference Insider podcast, featuring interviews with head coaches and student-athletes from men's basketball programs around the conference each week. Hosted by Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster, the Field of 68 is a men's college basketball-centric network of podcasts and content. As of October 2025, The Field of 68 has built a combined audience of over 225,000 followers across its primary social media platforms. It currently boasts over 131K followers on X, over 59K on YouTube and over 38K on Instagram.

Timestamps are listed below for efficient viewing:

0:20 - Show opens discussing Santa Clara
"They've beaten McNeese State, one of the better mid-majors in the country. They went on the road and took down a Big East opponent in Xavier. Elijah is averaging 18 points per game and he had 17 in the win against Xavier. It looks like Santa Clara is a team that's going to be able to make some noise in a conference that's stacked at the top. "
- Rob Dauster 

1:00 - Rob and Jeff debate who is the best in the league right now
"Santa Clara's the one, Herb has been knocking on the door for a few years now and I think this might be the time that they bust through and get that NCAA Tournament berth. Certainly, it sounds like they've got the right group chemistry-wise. We know they've got the talent, but I think the chemistry on this team from listening to Elijah is at an elite level."
- Jeff Goodman

3:25 - Santa Clara's Elijah Mahi joins the show

4:30 - Mahi on his role on the team

5:25 - Mahi on if he expected this hot start
"We expected this, we worked for this, we practiced for this, we planned for this. We expected everything that's happening right now. We're just going to keep working, keep practicing and just keep going one game at a time." - Elijah Mahi

6:00 - Mahi on how he ended up at Santa Clara

8:25 - Mahi on his father

9:35 - Mahi on Toronto winning the NBA title 

11:20 - Mahi and his connection with Canadian players

14:05 - Mahi on the win over Xavier

15:40 - Mahi on music

18:50 - Mahi on his favorite Herb Sendek story

19:45 - Mahi on the most important thing for the Broncos to accomplish this season in order to compete for the West Coast Conference Championship
"Competitiveness. Going out there and wanting to be the best, wanting to play the best, wanting to have this school at a place that it hasn't been in years. That's what's going to help us when we play all the other teams (in the conference). Be ready to embrace whatever moment comes and be ready to be one as a team. After that, we'll be fine. We are so competitive." - Elijah Mahi

22:10 - West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson joins the show

22:20 - Jackson on how many games he's watching right now an NCAA Committee member

23:15 - Jackson on the addition of the University of Denver
"Our presidents made a decision that they wanted to expand our conference to 12 members. At the time, we knew we would be potentially at nine beginning with next season. In the last two months, we've had two schools in UC San Diego and now the University of Denver. Denver, in particular, to add to the stability of our conference and increase our members. With Denver, we get another institution that is within our region, we get another institution with a history of high academic performance and in athletic performance, albeit not in basketball just yet. It gives us another market from a broadcast standpoint." - Stu Jackson

25:45 - Jackson on when a 12th team could be finalized

27:00 - Jackson on some good early wins

28:25 - Jackson on all of the international student-athletes in the league

30:20 - Jackson on which games he's locked into this week

31:35 - Jackson on Santa Clara adding an NBA G League player
"I'm all about student-athletes that want to be student-athletes getting an opportunity to play. The situation at Santa Clara, what happened with Thierry Darlan is the same thing that's been happening with international players over the years. International players, many of whom signed contracts at a young age, much younger ages than even G League players, are now permitted to enter the NCAA and still have remaining eligibility. One of the reasons why those international players are being ruled eligible is because the NCAA has relaxed the definition of actual and necessary expenses. Fast forward to Thierry Darlan, he played in the G League, so the question becomes what's the difference? There really is no difference and that's the question that Thierry decided to ask the NCAA, and fortunately for Santa Clara, the NCAA decided 'You know what? You're right. You are eligible and you have two years remaining.' I don't have a problem with that." - Stu Jackson

To watch the complete episode on YouTube, click here. To listen on Spotify, click here. 

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