In Defense of Praise of Saint Mary’s
Last week I came across a forgotten text message from June which said, “give them their due,” and nothing more.
I was confused, because I didn’t understand it. Also, I had sent it to myself.
Then it hit me …kinda. I had been listening to some college basketball podcast, specifically which one I can not remember, and the hosts were talking about some player, or some team, or something (I wasn’t kidding when I said kinda) that had been largely forgotten and lost to the sands of time. They waxed poetic about how great that player, or team, or whatever, was, and how they wished that, to use my words, how they wished that someone would give them their due.
As an aside, I am genuinely hoping that this idea did not come from the CBS Eye on College Basketball podcast’s running joke about how Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann doesn’t get enough credit, but it’s entirely possible that’s where this came from.
Anyway, even if that is what spawned the idea, this isn’t a joke. It might become a series of articles on players, teams, coaches, whatever who deserve their due, or it might not, who knows. But whatever it becomes, it is not a joke.
In fact, I’m dead serious here so let’s get into it: Saint Mary’s is one of the best programs in the country, the Gaels are among the elites outside of the sport’s power structure and Randy Bennett straight up might be the most underrated, overlooked coach in the entire sport.
So, let’s give the Gaels their due in the form of a critical and analytical, but also gratuitous showering of admiration.
When Randy Bennett took over in Moraga two decades ago, ahead of the 2001–2002 season, Saint Mary’s was an afterthought not only nationally, but in the WCC as well. The Gaels were winless in the league the season prior, and a dreadful 2–27 overall. That season was the low water mark in their then 49-year run as a member of the WCC. A nearly half-century which saw just 16 winning seasons for the Gaels. Of those 16 winning seasons, it’s worth noting that seven occurred over the Gaels’ first 11 years in the league. For context, those seven all came before the start of the Johnson administration.
From when Saint Mary’s joined the WCC (then known as the California Basketball Association) as a founding member for the 1953 season up until Randy Bennett took over the program in 2001, the Gaels went 573 and 734 overall for a winning percentage of .438, according to Sports-Reference data.
Since Bennett took over, the Gaels have posted a .703 winning percentage and won 454 games to just 192 losses. Give him another five years at this pace and Bennett will not only be the winningest coach in Gaels’ history, a title he’s owned since 2007, but he will have more wins by himself than the program totaled from when it helped found the WCC in 1953 all the way through when it hired Bennett in 2001. That’s nuts.
It’s not just the wins, though. The Gaels have become a legitimate national brand — international, even, with NBA Champions Matthew Dellavedova (third time) and Patty Mills (fourth time, and first-time flag bearer) representing Australia in the Tokyo Olympics. They’re one of the handful of mid-major teams that matter, that are competitive, that are legitimately good, on a consistent, year-over-year basis.
That wasn’t true before Randy Bennett. As I’ve already explained, it’s clear that he brought consistent winning ways to the East Bay. Prior to Bennett, there was a decent run in the 1950s, and then the occasional breakthrough year over the following decades. However, those breakthrough years were always, inevitably followed, within a season or two at most, by a sharp regression to the program’s mean.
Saint Mary’s made just three NCAA Tournaments prior to Bennett’s tenure. They hadn’t won a game in the dance since the 1950s. No, they’re not making deep runs and competing for championships on an annual basis like Gonzaga, but they’ve become about as consistent as any other mid-major program could ever hope to be.
The Gaels have made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament since Bennett arrived. Throw in the NIT and they haven’t missed the postseason since 2007 — their NCAA appearances would likely be at eight instead of seven had the 2020 postseason not been cancelled due to, you know, a pandemic that we’re somehow still dealing with well over year later.
I’m not kidding when I say they’re among the most consistently good non-power conference teams in the country. Here’s a list of every team since the 2001–02 season to have made at least 7 NCAA appearances, with at least 2 coming from at-large berths, while being a member of a non-power conference.
It’s just 15 teams, and the Gaels are one of them.
Why the two at-large caveat? Because, frankly, and no disrespect, but Vermont and New Mexico State and Montana and Winthrop and whoever else I’m forgetting don’t deserve to be on this list. The teams listed are the mid-majors who, yes, play in mid-major leagues, but they don’t operate as auto-bid-or-bust programs like the Catamounts and Aggies and Grizzlies and the whatever Winthrop’s mascot is.
Programs like BYU, Dayton, San Diego State, Temple and Saint Mary’s have shown that they’re good enough to earn a trip to the big dance based upon their own merit, and not just during those rare blue moon seasons where everything comes together except for the conference tournament title. Before Randy Bennett came around, Saint Mary’s was very much the opposite of that. In fact, they were rarely even in consideration for an auto-bid to begin with, much less an at-large.
Look again at that list. Two of those 15 teams, Xavier and Butler, no longer play at the mid-major level. They’re Big East teams now. So, the Gaels are actually among the top-13. And, again, that list goes back to Bennett’s first year. While his rebuild was incredibly fast, taking over a 2–27 team and getting them to the NCAA Tournament by just year four, he still had to rebuild. Almost every other team on that list had already established itself as a legitimate, year-over-year player in the non-power conference world when Bennett’s rebuild began.
Point being, if you ignore the first few seasons, when Bennett was hauling the Gaels out of a cellar without stairs let alone an elevator, and just look at the years since his first NCAA trip, the Gaels look even better.
Finally, there’s another thing that has made Bennett’s program so special: It’s his program. Look at that list one more time.
How many of those 15 schools would you use the word stability to describe when it comes to coaching or conference alignment? For me, the answer is four.
Dayton’s been in the A-10 forever, but it’s a launching pad for coaches on their way up. Same with VCU, but they’re new to the A-10 on top of that. Cincy, Temple, Memphis, Butler, Wichita State, Utah State, Nevada and BYU have all bounced around from conference to conference, usually because football tells them to. All of them, to varying degrees, have also seen coaching changes.
Then there are the other four.
Gonzaga’s been in the WCC since long before I was born, and Mark Few’s been there since before Bennett got to Moraga. Northern Iowa’s always been in the Missouri Valley, and after a decade-and-a-half, Ben Jacobson’s their greatest coach ever. San Diego State made a coaching change not long ago, but only after 18 years of Steve Fisher (who retired at 72 years old) and only to be replaced in house by longtime assistant Brian Dutcher. That’s the Aztecs showing how to use consistency in order to square the circle of change.
The fourth is Saint Mary’s. A founding member of the WCC, with a coach entering his 21st year at the helm, and a staff made up of what seems like an ever expanding list of former players. It’s Bennett and his players who immediately come to mind when you think about Saint Mary’s basketball — unless you’re some complete college hoops hipster who is lying or absolute old head who actually remembers Tom Meschery, in which case… I’m honestly honored you’re reading this.
Bennett hasn’t ever left for a bigger job, and at this point I wouldn’t bet on him ever jumping ship. Forget bigger job, the Gaels haven’t even needed to build him a bigger arena to keep him around. According to KenPom, McKeon Pavilion (I know, and I don’t care; it’s McKeon forever.) is the 283rd largest gym in D1. Flip that around, it’s bottom-100 in the country. When it comes to enrollment, Saint Mary’s ranks even lower than that! We’re talking around 30th smallest D1 school, give or take a spot or two, in any given academic year.
And you’re telling me that a school with a small student body and a small athletic department with virtually no history of success — let’s be real, they had virtually no history of mediocrity on the hardwood, let alone success — has spent the past two decades as one of the most consistently good, and sometimes great, basketball programs in the country?
That doesn’t get talked about nearly enough.
In part, that’s because of Gonzaga. A program that rose from greater obscurity to considerably greater heights than the Gaels have, and did so over the same time span but in a considerably more bombastic and in-your-face way than Saint Mary’s. Yeah, that would obscure the Gaels’ rise a bit. It would be easy to see them as the little brother who lands some punches, who can scrap with their big bro, but usually can’t beat them outright.
In sports fandom there is a very unfortunate mindset of, if you don’t win, who cares? Saint Mary’s is cursed by that (Gonzaga, too).
Saint Mary’s has benefited from Gonzaga’s rise, without question. People in and around the program will admit it, too. Without Gonzaga, there’s no Saint Mary’s. The Zags’ ascendance in the sport helped lift the floor of all WCC teams. Gonzaga also lifts these teams’ ceilings, while simultaneously reinforcing the newly raised ceilings with impenetrable cladding. Saint Mary’s is better than ever, their ceiling is higher than ever, but good luck breaking through it and overtaking the Zags. That’s the rough reality.
If winning, and by winning I mean wrestling control of the WCC from the Zags, is what it takes to get people to care about this story, then nobody ever will. And that’s a shame, and those people are stupid, because this is a fantastic story. You don’t need to be a Gaels fan to appreciate it. Even Zags fans, the arch-rivals, should be able to appreciate it. Sports fans in general, but especially college basketball fans who understand the nuance of this sport better than the rest, should be able to enjoy this.
Oh, and before I go, looks like Saint Mary’s is going to be good again next season. Who could’ve seen that coming?
