Go Gaels! Fans cheer as Saint Mary’s defeats Gonzaga to win a share of the West Coast Conference Title. / Photo by Bryan Navarro
Kroner’s Corner: Selection Sunday, Here We Come
The Gaels won the West Coast Conference Title and are headed for an unprecedented fifth straight NCAA Tournament. On March 15, Saint Mary’s finds out where they’re headed for the first round. Plus more accolades for Paulius Murauskas and Harry Wessels.
Once more, Saint Mary’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach Randy Bennett and his staff must deal with the rest versus rust dilemma in March. The Gaels knocked off Gonzaga 70–59 in Moraga on February 28 to earn a share of the West Coast Conference regular-season title. Then on Monday, SMC fell 76–71 to Santa Clara in the semifinals of the WCC conference tournament in Las Vegas.
That means the Gaels will have played only one game in 2 1/2 weeks once they return to the floor either Thursday or Friday of next week for their NCAA Tournament opener. “To motivate the kids to really get after it in practice, you kind of need to know who you’re playing, but we’re going to find a way to get motivated,” Bennett said after the Gaels’ loss Monday evening.
“We’ve got plenty of reasons. We didn’t play great tonight, and the next game we play will be probably as tough or tougher.”
Bennett wasn’t happy with his team’s defense against the Broncos, particularly in the second half, when Santa Clara went 17-for-29 (58.6%) from the floor, including 8-for-14 (57.1%) from beyond the arc.
“We have to have some good practices between now and Sunday,” Bennett said. “If you get your name called [on Selection Sunday], the time elapses very quickly. You don’t have much time for a good practice.”
The announcement comes Sunday at 3 p.m. The games in the first round are March 19 and 20.
“If you play Thursday, you’re travelling Tuesday,” Bennett said. “And once you get there, there aren’t many quality practices. We’ll figure it out. Fortunately, we’ve been in this situation a number of times.”
Season Assessment: An Unqualified Success
The Gaels had reached the conference-tournament final in each of the past four seasons, so they had played two games in 2 1⁄2 weeks heading into their NCAA opener. SMC was a No. 7 seed last year and a No. 5 seed in each of the previous three years. As of Wednesday, with a NET ranking of 22—the metric that is the primary tool for sorting teams in Division I basketball—a semi-educated guess at their seed in 2026 is 7, 8, or 9.
Despite the loss in the WCC tourney semifinals, this season again ranks as an unqualified success for the Gaels. They’re 27–5 and went 16–2 in the WCC. Three players—junior forward Paulius Murauskas and sophomore guards Josh Dent and Mikey Lewis—were named to the 10-man All-WCC team.
After leading the WCC in points scored throughout the 2025–26 season, Murauskas has also been named a finalist for the 2025–26 Lou Henson Award. The Lou Henson Award is presented annually to the top player in mid-major college basketball. This is the second time in as many years that Murauskas has been named a finalist for this prestigious award.
Swingman Dillan Shaw made the conference’s six-man All-Freshman team as he combined strong defense and rebounding with an evolving offensive game. Centers Harry Wessels and Andrew McKeever combined to average 14.4 rebounds per game; McKeever leads the WCC at 9.2 boards per game. Wessels has also been named a finalist for the Nolan Richardson Award. The award is presented annually to a Division I player who is the heart and soul of his team and a leader on and off the court.
“Our guys have confidence that they can play with about anybody,” Bennett said.
Which team that anybody is will become known Sunday afternoon as SMC again holds a Selection Sunday watch party for fans at UCU Pavilion. Doors open at 2:30 and the show starts at 3.
“I’m proud of these guys. They’ve done a great job,” Bennett said about his players. “We’ll try to fix some things that we didn’t do well [against Santa Clara] and next time we play, hopefully, we’ll get better.”
High Praise
Saint Mary’s Randy Bennett and Santa Clara Head Coach Herb Sendek are both 63 years old, and each has put together a distinguished career. They have combined for 1,189 victories. Sendek earned win No. 600 on Monday night. In his postgame news conference, Sendek—unprompted—gave Bennett quite a compliment.
“What Randy has done at Saint Mary’s is as remarkable and as incredible as any job that’s been done in men’s college basketball in the last 30 years,” Sendek said. “We really need to pause and think about that and appreciate it…The consistency is just utterly remarkable. They’re annually a Top 20 program in the country and I stand in awe. I really do, and [I] try to learn as much as we can by playing them, by watching tape.
“What Randy [Bennett] has done at Saint Mary’s is as remarkable and as incredible as any job that’s been done in men’s college basketball in the last 30 years.”
—Santa Clara Head Coach Herb Sendek
“I’d love to be a fly on the wall sometimes, because in every facet—their ability to evaluate, their ability to recruit, their ability to teach, to get guys to accept roles, even roles that aren’t always glamorous—it’s just remarkable.”
Steve Kroner has covered Bay Area sports for more than four decades, mainly for KPIX-TV and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is in his second season as an analyst alongside Brian Brownfield on SMC Men’s Basketball telecasts on ESPN+. His “Kroner’s Corner” columns were recognized in the 2025 Bay Area Journalism Awards.
Feel the GaelForce!
Scenes from Saint Mary’s victory over Gonzaga to win a share of the WCC Title. And what makes being a part of the Gael community something special.
