Arizona Basketball will spend Thanksgiving night against a team that's given them a stomach ache on two separate occasions.
Santa Clara had that famous upset over the Wildcats in the first round of the NCAA Tournament back in 1993, and the Broncos took the Wildcats to overtime, last season, before Arizona prevailed by two points in overtime. Jared Brownridge had 44 points in that game.
"They should have beaten us last year," Arizona coach Sean Miller said. "No one knows that more than they do."
This years Broncos are coached by Herb Sendek, for whom Miller was once an assistant coach. Two two then coached against each other when Sendek was the bench boss for Arizona State.
"I respect Herb Sendek as much as any coach in our game. Consider him a friend," Miller said of the fellow Pittsburgh native. "Santa Clara is lucky to have him as their coach. He returns to the game probably a better coach than he was in the last 20 years, and he has been a heck of a coach before he got to Santa Clara."
The Wildcats come into the game with a 4-0 record as the eighth ranked team in the country.
Tipoff is 8:30 pm Arizona time. The winner of Thursday night's game plays the winner of Vanderbilt and Butler on Friday in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational title game.
