Senior Send-Off: Santa Clara’s Brandon Clark

Brandon Clark’s career at Santa Clara was a roller coaster to say the least.

When Clark was a freshman in the 2011-12 season, he had to suffer on a 8-22 Broncos team that did not win one conference game. As as freshman, he averaged seven points and 1.8 rebounds per game on 38.7% shooting.

With such a tough freshman season, Clark had ample room and motivation to improve his game so that his team could do better. In his sophomore year, Santa Clara turned things around and had their best season under head coach Kerry Keating. The Broncos finished 26-12 and went on to win the CBI Championship. Clark’s shooting percentage jumped up to 43.0% and his three-point shooting went up to 41.5%.

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In his junior season, Clark got more playing time, as he averaged 32.1 minutes in the 2013-14 season. With that extra playing time, his stats changed dramatically. While he averaged a career-high 16.9 points per game, his three-point shooting percentage went down to 35.0%. With a lack of supporting cast of players, the Broncos finished 14-19 and were tied for eighth place in the West Coast Conference standings.

As a senior, a lot of things went south for Clark. He finished the season with career lows in field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, and turnovers. Despite this, Santa Clara managed to finish the season 14-19 in a tie for sixth place.

Despite his struggles, Clark left a huge impact on the program. He endured Santa Clara at its lows and flourished in its highs. It would have been easy for him to transfer to another program. However, he decided to stick it out, and that should be commended.