Saint Mary’s David and Goliath Basketball Success Story Continues

    Saint Mary’s College (SMC), the alma mater of myself and what the school’s alumni office estimates as 400 Orindans, tips off its men’s basketball schedule Nov. 6 in Moraga. These Gaels have secured a preseason “top 25” national ranking.
    In both 2022 and 2023, Orinda’s neighboring college with among the five smallest undergraduate enrollments of 350+ D-1 [top tier] hoops programs, earned a five-seed [top 20 teams] during March Madness. Both years, the Gaels won first-round match-ups but didn’t advance further, losing to four-seeds UCLA and UConn respectively.
    Bad draws? The Gaels vanquished another 2023 five-seed, San Diego State, 68-61, last December, yet the Aztecs advanced to play UConn for the NCAA championship, falling to UConn by a bigger margin than SMC two weeks before.
    The Gaels had led the eventual national champion Huskies into the second half, even after losing best shooter Alex Ducas to an early injury.
    During the last 22 years with Coach Randy Bennett, abetted by an Australian player pipeline including NBA stalwarts Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Jock Landale, the Gaels have gone 507-208. They have been to nine National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and seven National Invitational Tournaments. Not bad for Lamorinda’s tiny D-1 school.
    Though not making long NCAA tourney runs like fellow West Coast Conference (WCC) rival Gonzaga, the Gaels have beaten the WCC behemoth 10 times since 2009. ESPN correspondent, Jay Bilas, rates the Gaels/Zags rivalry among the five best nationally.
    As a 1950’s San Francisco youth, I marveled when my dad took me to see Bill Russell’s University of San Francisco (USF) Dons play at Kezar Pavilion. USF ran off a 60-game winning streak and claimed two national championships.
    Subsequently, my Gael-love blossomed when a neighbor took me and his son across the Bay to the same Slip Madigan Gym where I would lead taunting cheers my senior year aimed at famous future UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian.
    My favorite Gael as a youth was Tom Meschery, later a Warrior legend who would become the first foreign-born (in China, of Russian ancestry) NBA all-star.
    Meschery’s 1959 Gaels advanced to the Elite Eight, but lost to Cal, which then triumphed over Oscar Robertson and Jerry West teams to claim the NCAA Championship.
    Though the WCC afterward featured great players such as Bill Cartwright, Steve Nash and John Stockton, the Gaels often spent the ‘70s to ‘90s as conference afterthoughts.
    Out of this often-bleak basketball wilderness, two fascinating Gaels emerged in the 1990s.
    “Big Continent” Brad Millard, 7’3” and 345 pounds, helped muscle the Gaels to a 1997 March Madness invite. They lost to Wake Forest and eventual NBA Hall-of-Famer Tim Duncan.
    That same era’s Hershal Gilmore has since changed his name to today’s more recognizable Mahershala Ali, an award-winning actor.
    In 2001, the Gaels changed acts when Bennett took the helm after a 2-27 season.
    This century’s Gael success reverberates most personally: SMC won a TOTAL of 17 games during my 1967 to 1970 undergrad years.
    Fewer than 20-plus wins THIS SEASON will disappoint Gael fans, inspired by last season’s freshman prodigy, Campolindo High School alum Aidan Mahaney. An ESPN article calls Mahaney the “face of the WCC,” Gonzaga blue chippers notwithstanding.
    Newcomers, including a top-ranked point guard, a frontcourt Harvard transfer and Mahaney’s fellow Campo grad (coach’s son) Cade Bennett, a redshirt last year, will augment Gael stalwarts during the coming campaign.
    They will join Ducas, Mitchell Saxen, Augustas Marciulionis, himself the son of a Warrior icon, and other proven returnees.
    The 2023-24 Gaels will entertain, while further purging my long-dreaded undergraduate basketball memories.
   
Ken Hogarty is husband to Sally, the former Executive Editor at The Orinda News for 28 years. His first novel, Recruiting Blue Chip Prospects, is launching this month.