Trivia time.
Question No. 1: Is Santa Clara, California in northern or southern California?
Question No. 2: Who is the former NBA MVP who played basketball there?
Question No. 3: What are the school colors of SCU?
If you have one of those questions correct, congratulations, you’re an NBA fan (and probably older than 40). If you answered correctly on two, you’re a sports fan with a good memory. All three? Impressive.
Santa Clara and Arkansas have met exactly once on the baseball diamond. That was back in 1995 and resulted in a 10-3 Arkansas win in San Jose, which, for the record is the nearest huge city with which most Arkansans are familiar. But Friday’s first-round game of the Fayetteville Regional will be just a touch more important than that previous encounter.
Not only are the Broncos not terribly familiar with the Razorbacks, they’re not familiar with the stage. The NCAA Tournament appearence is the first for Santa Clara in generations as their conference, the West Coast Conference, had long been dominated by a rotation of three other teams.
But with coach Rusty Filter’s experience at some of the top, major-conference programs in the West, his bunch is ready to maximize its stay time.
Let’s take a look at more about the school and the program.