SAINT MARY'S GAELS
On a roll and the good times keep rolling

When Randy Bennett arrived in Moraga 10 years ago, the Saint Mary's College men's basketball program was coming off its fourth-straight losing season and had won just twice in its previous 31 games.

WCC champion Saint Mary's will enter the 2011-12 season with a target on its back. Photo: Saint Mary's Athletics / Tod Fierner

So, it wasn't too hard for the average fan to wonder why one of the country's most highly regarded assistant coaches would ever take such a job.

Apparently Bennett knew something the rest of the world didn't: that it was possible to create from scratch one of the country's top mid-major programs at a school that didn't have much of a tradition of basketball success. After all, Saint Mary's had earned only three invitations to the NCAA tournament in its history.

Despite the odds, Bennett won more games in his first 10 seasons than any other coach in Bay Area history. Of the 23 NCAA Division I teams in the state of California, the Gaels have won the most games over the last four seasons.

With past stars such as Diamon Simpson, Patrick Mills, Omar Samhan and 2011 West Coast Conference Player of the Year Mickey McConnell leading the way, it's no wonder the Gaels are now considered one of the top college basketball destinations in the country.

It's that rise to national prominence that has Bennett excited about having built a program in Moraga and not just the typical roller-coaster rides associated with many mid-major teams.

"I like to think we've built a program here at Saint Mary's," said Bennett. "Year in and year out, we have talented players who work hard, want to get better and expect to succeed. The postseason is an expectation for our program every year, for our players, our fans and our community. It's obviously an exciting time to be at Saint Mary's."

With the Gaels' success on the court has come overwhelming community support. Saint Mary's owns the second-highest attendance average in the WCC, despite the second-smallest venue in the league, and almost half of the student population attends its games.

It's no wonder that season-ticket demand is high for a program that owns an incredible 59-7 home record over the last four years. Due to the incredible demand, the SMC athletic ticket office kicked off the season-ticket renewal process on March 1 and new season-ticket sales start as early as July 1. For information, visit smcgaels.com or call 925-631-4689.

The Gaels have been to the postseason in each of the last four seasons and the wealth of returning talent in 2011-12 makes it appear that streak won't be ending anytime soon.

Despite the loss of McConnell, who is sure to go down as one of the school's greatest-ever players, the Gaels return four starters and nine letter-winners from last year's team, which ended the season with a 25-9 overall record and won the school's first regular-season league title since 1997.

Rising senior Rob Jones and junior Matthew Dellavedova each earned first-team All-WCC honors last season and were among the best in the league in nearly every statistical category. Jones, a San Francisco native, is the WCC's leading returning rebounder and is one of the area's best all-around players. Dellavedova, one of four of the program's talented Australian players, was among the nation's leaders in assists, 3-point shooting and free-throw percentage and, in just two seasons, is among SMC's career leaders.

With Bennett on the scene, this party is just getting started.