Senior Series: Ken Rancifer

Ken Rancifer's college basketball career went the way college basketball careers used to go. Four years spent at the same school, with steady improvement each season. His four year career culminated in being a full time starter and team captain.

The 6'5'', 205lbs native of Oakland attended El Cerrito High School. ESPN gave Rancifer an 84/100 grade as a recruit. Along with San Diego, he was recruited by Fresno State, Weber State and Cal State Northridge.

Hover over the graph above for more information. For the sake of keeping the Y-axis a reasonable height, "Minutes" data represented in the chart is actually Min% rather than total minutes. Then, click read more for even more information!

As a freshman, Ken Rancifer was one of 15 players on the Toreros' roster. The roster was deep. Of those 15, 13 saw action in 10 or more games. He had to fight for playing time. He did, and he got minutes. Over the course of the season he averaged just 12.9 MPG. During the final six games of the season however, Rancifer played nearly 10 more minutes per game, average 22.6 MPG during that span.

Against Gonzaga on February 13, 2010, Rancifer came off the bench and pitched in 13 points (2nd on the team), in 18 minutes of action. Two games later he won a spot in the starting lineup for the remaining four games of the season. Against Portland in WCC Tournament, he scored a game high 20 points but the Pilots were too much for the Toreros and advanced to the WCC Semis.

In his sophomore year Rancifer continued on his upward trajectory. He moved to fourth on the team in minutes per game, up from his position in tenth the previous season (9th if counting only players who appeared in at least 20 games). Despite his personal improvement, the team continued on a downward trajectory. With just six wins, 2010-11 was the second worst Toreros team of the past 20 years.

That changed for his junior season, as the Toreros posted the most wins of Rancifer's three year career with 13. You'll notice a slight dip in his scoring as a junior, but a continued improvement in the other statistical categories. This dip in scoring is more attributable to the addition of freshman backcourt duo Christopher Anderson and Johnny Dee (9 and 13.7ppg respectively) than a regression on the part of Rancifer.

This past season Rancifer was one of only three seniors on a team otherwise laden with young talent. He was named a team captain for his final campaign. The improvement, both personal and by the team, you guessed it, continued. Rancifer put up career bests in points, assists, rebounds, minutes, games and starts (he started every game). The Toreros, with 16 wins, were the most successful team of his career.

In the WCC Semifinals against Saint Mary's Rancifer hit a three with 1:12 remaining to give the Toreros a one point lead. Unfortunately, Matthew Dellavedova would return the favor with ten seconds remaining to send the game into overtime, during which the Gaels would prove to be too much for the Toreros.

Ken Rancifer began his career at San Diego while the program was a shambles. His consistent effort and improvement paid off. As an upperclassman, he saw the program begin to follow a trajectory similar to his own, upwards.