Dunn’s Decrees

With college basketball wrapping up this past weekend, the dominoes are already starting to fall for next year. And Santa Clara is no exception.

Seen as one of the best mid-major guards in the country, Santa Clara women’s basketball star Tess Heal entered the portal not even two days after the Broncos season ended in the WBIT postseason tournament.

Next year’s team will hardly be recognizable from the 25-win roster that took the floor this year at the Leavey Center. Santa Clara was already going to lose half of their rotation to graduation, so Heal’s departure leaves head coach Bill Carr with a tough rebuild ahead of him.

But that’s not all.

Sophomore forward Marya Hudgins also reportedly entered the portal, depleting the already thin returning production for the Broncos’ next season. That leaves Olivia Pollerd and Maddie Naro as the only players who saw significant action this season on the roster next year. 

In the past, I’ve lauded the gains that the men’s basketball team has made in regards to landing players out of the transfer portal, Brandin Podziemski and Adama-Alpha Bal among them. Bal recently declared for the NBA Draft while retaining his college eligibility, strengthening the Broncos’ grip on scouting players in the portal.

Now, it’s the women’s basketball team that will look to have the same fortune. For a program that hadn’t won 20 games since the 2015-16 season, it is a daunting task to try and reach that mountaintop again without the nucleus that got you there in the first place. 

That’s the reality of college athletics in this age. Santa Clara doesn’t have the luxury to retain players when big-time programs covet a star player like Tess Heal. The teams we love over the course of the season won’t be the ones to take the floor the next. And now Santa Clara women’s basketball is staring that reality dead on, and how they will power through remains to be seen. 

For a program that hadn’t won 20 games since the 2015-16 season, it is a daunting task to try and reach that mountain top again without the nucleus that got you there in the first place. 

That’s the reality of college athletics in this age. Santa Clara doesn’t have the luxury to retain players when big-time programs covet a star player like Tess Heal.