Men’s basketball looks to reach great new heights.
At his first press conference, new men’s basketball coach Herb Sendek said, “Hiring a new coach is great, but you don’t perform magic just because you have a special out-of-bounds play.” He was talking about how it takes resources, not trick plays, to compete at the highest level of college basketball. A new commitment to athletics by the University’s leadership has already yielded new locker rooms for the men’s and women’s teams, a new floor for the Leavey Center depicting the Mission Church, and a boost in budgets. “We’re going to treat this as a top-20 program,” Athletics Director Renee Baumgartner says. Sendek has a career record of 413–295 spread over 22 seasons at Miami (Ohio), North Carolina State, and Arizona State, along with eight NCAA Tournament appearances. Lifting the Broncos, who haven’t danced in 20 years, will take a team effort, he said. “It starts with [University] leadership and carries right through the ranks,” he said. “We’re going to lock arms and do this together.”