Mark Pope shares his thoughts on Santa Clara and what makes them tough

Kentucky coach Mark Pope shared some high praise for the Santa Clara Broncos.

Feb 7, 2026; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope reacts to the action during the first half against the Tennessee Volunteers at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

The bracket is set as the Kentucky Wildcats are getting ready to take on the Santa Clara Broncos in the NCAA Tournament. The Broncos taking down the Wildcats has been a popular upset pick in college basketball, as we do see a lot of ten seeds beat seven seeds.

The Broncos play in the WCC with Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, which was a three-bid league this year. The Broncos lost to Gonzaga three times and beat Saint Mary’s. While Santa Clara did lose to Gonzaga three times, they played the Bulldogs closer all three times than Kentucky did in Nashville in December.

March 10, 2026; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Santa Clara Broncos guard Christian Hammond (1) celebrates against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the second half at Orleans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Santa Clara is a team that doesn’t have a ton of Quad 1 wins, as they are only 1-4 in these matchups, but the metrics really like them. The Broncos are 35th in KenPom, which has them higher than all of the other ten seeds, which includes two SEC teams.

On Monday night, Mark Pope talked a little bit about the Broncos, and he had some really good stuff to say about the team from the WCC.  

Here is what Coach Pope had to say about the Broncos: "They have tremendous length. They're shooting the ball at a tremendous clip. They'll put five guys on the floor that all really shoot it. Size-wise, their front line, three, four, and five, is so big, and their guards are really effective at getting downhill."

Mar 7, 2026; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope claps during the first half against the Florida Gators at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

As Coach Pope said, the Broncos are a very big team, and they shoot the ball well. Just about every player who gets minutes on this team is capable of making the three-ball, and this will be a concern for a Kentucky team that has struggled to defend the three.

Due to the size of this Santa Clara team, they do well on the glass, especially on the offensive glass, so Kentucky needs to make sure that they are boxing out and being ready for long rebounds. Offensive rebounds lead to good looks from deep, so Kentucky needs to make sure this doesn’t happen much on Friday.

The reality of this game for Kentucky is very simple: If they play well on Friday, they will beat Santa Clara. The problem with this Kentucky team is that fans never know which version is going to show up. Kentucky fans are very hopeful that the team that beat Arkansas, St. John’s, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt shows up. If this team does show up Kentucky will likely have a Round of 32 date with two-seed Iowa State.