1. Leavey Center needs to silence the Zag fans
Santa Clara will be looking to start a new home win streak after their 17-game home win streak was snapped last week. The Bronco fans need to saddle into the gate early by filling the seats.
Gonzaga fans travel among the best in the nation. Santa Clara needs to have a capacity crowd with at least 75% of them cheering for the home team. There is not much more humiliating than to have your home fans out-cheered by the visiting team. The Broncos need to get off to a great start on Thursday, not only to boost their confidence but to get their own fans rocking while stifling the Gonzaga fans.
Santa Clara has had some decent wins at home this year. The Broncos defeated two Pac-12 clubs with their 70-62 win over Washington State (#108 NET) on Nov. 12 and 71-52 over California (#155 NET) on Dec. 7.
On the road, well, Gonzaga has been stellar all season of course. The Zags have the #43 best performance away from home, as rated by Haslametrics.com. Gonzaga has played consistent enough to not have any blemishes on their true road game record (6-0) with wins at Washington (#45 NET) and Arizona (#10 NET), although they have not yet played on the road against any of the teams in the top half of the WCC.