Forty years later, Herb Sendek and Richard Pitino met again on Monday night, this time as rival head coaches. Back in 1985, Sendek was a graduate assistant for Rick Pitino at Providence and Richard, Rick’s son, was a 3-year-old toddler.
 
During the TV broadcast of the game between Sendek’s Santa Clara team and Pitino’s Xavier squad, the announcers shared what sounded like a cute story about Sendek babysitting young Richard. “I never babysat for him, thank goodness,” Sendek said, laughing. 
 
“I wasn’t babysitting. I was playing catch with him in the backyard with a baseball,” Sendek explained. We were tossing the ball back and forth. I threw it to him and he got distracted and the ball hit him in the head and he ran into the house crying. I thought for sure that was the end of my short-lived coaching career.”
 
Nearly 1,000 games and now 577 coaching victories later, Sendek was pleased to the catch up with Richard, who is 43 and showing no permanent effects from the decades-old backyard mishap. “The lump is going down daily,” Sendek reported.
 
On Monday night, in a facility where the visiting team often absorbs a few lumps, it was the Broncos who emerged unscathed after a decisive 87-68 victory. Both teams entered with 2-0 records after the season’s first week, and this figured to be a serious test for Santa Clara at the Cintas Center, where Xavier had forged an imposing 340-64 home record over the building’s 26-year history.
 
“Our guys brought a really good mindset into the game,” Sendek said a day later. “We prepared well. We clearly have long-standing respect for the Xavier program. It was a great opportunity for us and our guys seized the moment.”
 
Xavier has an impressive basketball resume, with 20 NCAA Tournament appearances since the most recent one made by the Broncos in 1996 with future Hall of Fame guard Steve Nash. 
 
Santa Clara handed Xavier its most lopsided non-conference home defeat in 14 seasons, and that span could have been much longer, considering the Broncos led by 30 points with less than 3 minutes left.
 
“We knew Santa Clara was going to be a good team. I’ve obviously got a lot of respect for Coach Sendek and the consistency he’s built in that program,” said Pitino, who came to Xavier this season from New Mexico and has 11 new players. “They’re a good team, but we just kind of let (them) do whatever they wanted. They were throwing haymakers for 40 minutes and we weren’t responding.”
 
It was an encouraging early-season performance by the Broncos, picked fourth in the preseason West Coast Conference coaches poll after posting their fourth straight 20-win season a year ago. 
 
Santa Clara never trailed, led 39-20 at halftime and won virtually every statistical comparison. The Broncos shot 55 percent to 34 percent for the Muskateers, outrebounded them 42-33 and outscored them 52-22 in the paint. Santa Clara held Xavier senior guard Malik Messina-Moore, the team’s leading scorer, without a field-goal attempt. 
 
The Broncos got contributions up and down the lineup, starting with senior forward Elijah Mahi, a preseason all-conference selection from Toronto, Canada, who had 18 points and three assists. Sophomore guard Christian Hammond scored 15 points, including nine of the team’s first 13 to get things rolling.
 
Senior guard Brenton Knapper scored 10 points, redshirt freshman forward Allen Graves had his first career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds and Sash Gavalyugov, a redshirt freshman guard from Bulgaria, posted 10 points off the bench. 
 
The Broncos blocked 11 shots, including four by first-year college player Thierry Darlan, who came to Santa Clara after two seasons in the NBA’s G League, and three more blocks along with nine points from 7-foot-1 sophomore center Bukky Oboye. Another key player is 6-9 Jake Ensminger, a junior forward from Germany, who contributes 9.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. 
 
Hammond, who redshirted last season, is among five rotation players who either weren’t part of the program or played minor roles last season. “He’s really worked hard to improve,” Sendek said of Hammond. “He’s an integral part of our program because he adds to our culture as well as our play on the floor. We love the fact that he plays both ends of the floor and impacts winning in a multitude of ways.”
 
Hammond was born into basketball, both his parents having played college ball. Older brother Jullian III played four seasons at Colorado. His late grandfather, Julian, averaged 10.8 points over five seasons (1968-72) with the Denver Rockets of the old ABA and once scored 30 points in a playoff victory over Hall of Famer Rick Barry and the Washington Capitols. “It definitely started with him,” said Hammond, who has a basketball card of his grandfather.
 
Hammond, who is averaging 13.3 points and 6.7 rebounds, said he is feeling more confident and comfortable in his expanded role. “During the game, it wasn’t really me doing anything different or anything special,” he said. “Everybody on the team is really unselfish and doesn’t force shots. We all know what we’re good at and we all play for each other in that way.”
 
Sendek has been gratified by the players’ chemistry on and off the floor. “Our guys have done a really nice job of coming together. They’re very close,” he said. “They celebrate for each other; they cheer for each other. I really like the dynamics right now. We’re getting contributions from everybody, given their roles. At the same time, we’re very much still a work in progress. We have a whole season in front of us.”
 
Sendek and Hammond both said newcomer Darlan, a 6-8 guard with a high upside, has fit into a college setting smoothly after two seasons as a pro. Coming off the bench so far, Darlan is averaging 8.3 points and 7.3 rebounds.
 
“His talent level, the sky’s the limit for him. He has all the tools,” Hammond said. “He’s in a very hard position, honestly. The expectations and probably the pressure he feels is through the roof, coming from his background in the G League. I just commend him for how he’s handed it all. He’s a really good guy. He’s all about winning. He’s not about stats, not about himself at all.”
 
It all clicked for the Broncos at Xavier, where their fast start quieted the often intimidating home crowd of 9,830.
 
“There were definitely some nerves with everybody going into it . . .on the road, a Big East team, being a fairly new group of guys,” Hammond said. “We put some things together early in the game to where the crowd really couldn’t get into it. It was pretty tame the whole game.”
 
The victory provided some validation for the work the Broncos have done and now they return home to face Nevada in a Saturday late afternoon game. Hammond hopes they can keep things pointed toward their ultimate goal of ending a three-decade drought in the NCAAs.
 
“It’s about us buying into the process and sticking to what we do every day,” he said. “All we can control is our attitude, our effort, playing for each other, playing together. I think if we do all those things, which we have been, then I definitely do think we have a chance.”
 
Asked if he likes this team’s NCAA Tournament prospects, Sendek wouldn’t take the bait. “We’ll see,” he said. His focus is on the next practice, the next game. “It doesn’t serve any purpose to consume any energy worrying about tomorrow.”