We are less than 6 weeks away from the tip-off of the new college basketball season, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek, who talked about dealing with conference realignment and his expectations for this season.
You played basketball at Carnegie Mellon: how good a player were you back in the day? Not very good.
You were valediction of your high school and graduated summa cum laude from college: how much importance do you place on academics? It was important to me: I was a dedicated grinder because I wanted to get a good job.
Your father Herb Sr. was a high school and junior college basketball coach: how much of an influence was he on your own decision to become a coach? Tremendous: from the time I was in diapers, I was in gyms. He always made time for me and let me tag along. I was also surrounded by other amazing people who were coaches, and they all had a great impact on me, so I took a sizable gamble and entered the coaching profession.
In the 1992 Elite 8 as an assistant to Rick Pitino at Kentucky, Christian Laettner made the game-winning jump shot at the buzzer in a 1-PT OT win by eventual-champ Duke (www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH5ltiHSJqE): where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? In the moment it was very painful. We have had others along the way, but we have also had some last-second wins along the trail.
In the 2005 NCAA tourney as coach at NC State, Julius Hodge made the game-winning 3-PT play with 4.3 seconds left in a 3-PT upset of defending champion UConn to advance to the Sweet 16 (www.youtube.com/shorts/fui2lZ-C4zg): where does that rank among the greatest wins of your career? It is up there. It was an amazing finish by Julius to beat the defending champs. UConn was as strong as any team in the country that year, so it was a great win for us.
You were named conference COY at each of the 4 colleges you have coached at (Miami OH/NC State/ASU/Santa Clara) and got your 600th career win last March in the WCC tourney semifinals: how have you been able to have so much success at so many different schools? I have been blessed with great staff and tremendous players. It is great to have the opportunity to work with so many great people.
In the 2026 NCAA tourney you had a 5-PT OT loss to Kentucky: what do you think your team learned from that game that will help them this season? We are going to have a completely new team so I do not know how much it will matter. This is a new chapter/clean slate, so we are not spending time revisiting any games from last year.
1 of your new additions this year is Kansas State transfer David Castillo: how is he looking so far? David is doing very well, and we are excited to have him in the program. We recently started fall practices and are still in the beginning stages as a team.
The WCC went through some big changes last summer by adding Denver and losing Gonzaga/Oregon State/Washington State: what is the biggest impact that all this realignment has had on you and/or your school? It is incumbent upon us to play the most rigorous schedule that we can. We are ambitious in non-conference play and want to challenge ourselves. The committee looks at the total of each of your 32 games and the mandate is to win as many as you can to give yourself the best shot.
What are your goals for the upcoming season, and what are your expectations for the upcoming season? I do not live in that space: I am just trying to have fun/learn/get better.
