Santa Clara Head Coach Herb Sendek is this week's featured guest on the Field of 68's West Coast Conference Insider Men's Basketball podcast. The Broncos (16-5, 7-1) have won seven of their last eight games, which includes a 62-54 Quad 1 win at home against Saint Mary's (18-3, 7-1). SCU held the Gaels to shooting just 32 percent from the field. Christian Hammond scored 25 points with five rebounds, two assists and a steal. Elijah Mahi tied his career high with three steals to go with his eight points and six rebounds.        

The West Coast Conference currently boasts six programs in the top 118 in the NET rankings - No. 4 Gonzaga, No. 28 Saint Mary’s, No. 44 Santa Clara, No. 108 San Francisco, No. 109 Pacific, No. 118 Seattle U. 
 
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 December 2025, The Field of 68 has built a combined audience of over 245,000 followers across its primary social media platforms. It currently boasts over 140K followers on X, over 68K on YouTube and over 41K on Instagram.
 
Timestamps are listed below for efficient viewing:

1:00 - Santa Clara's victory over Saint Mary's
"That was a big win that Santa Clara needed... I don't think you can overstate how big that win is for Santa Clara." - Rob Dauster

5:40 - Overall play of the West Coast Conference
"The middle of this league has gotten much better. And I think you can point to Seattle U and Pacific and those coaches doing a heck of a job with the programs." - Jeff Goodman

6:50 - Herb Sendek joins the show

7:25 - The importance of the win over Saint Mary's
"It was a great win and it's only amplified by... Saint Mary's has been amazingly good, year over year... What Coach (Randy) Bennett has done there over the last now going on three decades, is in its own right, one of the big stories of college basketball." 

10:45 - Christian Hammond's development, rise and what it's meant for Santa Clara
"First, let me say it's not a surprise. When we recruited Christian we had high expectations... He is a tough competitor, plays both ends of the floor. Is it a surprise to any of us that are here every day? Absolutely not."

14:10 - Allen Graves impact as a redshirt freshman
"But the shooting is just a small part of Allen's impact on winning. He hasn't taken to this date a high volume of three's, but his ability to impact winning on both ends of the floor is extraordinary."

15:10 - The analytics of this era of college basketball

21:50 - Sendek's approach to "looking ahead"
"We are totally immersed in the present moment. We don't look past today, let alone to Saturday... We are 100 percent immersed in the moment and we don't talk about the future, we don't spend a lot of time other than what we can learn from it, the past. There's too much to do today." 

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

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