Saint Mary’s Gaels Men’s Basketball Tickets
The Saint Mary’s Gaels men’s basketball team is a Division I program for Saint Mary’s College of California. The team is located in Moraga, California and plays their home games at the McKeon Pavilion. The McKeon Pavilion has a capacity of 3,500 people and opened in 1978. The arena is one of the smallest in the West Coast Conference, and its small size can create a suffocating environment for opposing teams. The team plays in the West Coast Conference. The team is currently coached by Randy Bennett. In Bennett’s eleven years as coach, he has turned the Gaels from a struggling mid-major squad to a perennial NCAA Tournament team. In each of the last five years, the team has made it to the postseason, including three NCAA Tournament berths in that span, and four in his tenure as coach. Bennett is 235-117 at Saint Mary’s and has made it to the Sweet Sixteen once.
Historically, the Gaels have not been particularly good. In 1959, the team won its first conference championship, and made it to its first NCAA Tournament. During that year, they made it to their first and only Elite Eight appearance. It took thirty years for the team to return to the NCAA Tournament, and almost fifty before winning another game in the NCAA Tournament.
The Gaels are notable for extending their recruiting pipeline into Australia. As of 2012, the team featured five Australian players including four players from the Australian Institute of Sport, where Patty Mills, and 2012 WCC Player of the Year Matthew Dellavedova came from.
The Gaels have featured ten players that went on to be selected in the NBA Draft. Most recently, Patrick Mills was drafted in the second round by the Portland Trailblazers in the 2010 NBA Draft. The team has featured one player selected in the first round, Tom Meschery, who was taken seventh overall in the 1961 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia Warriors. The team’s biggest rivalry game is between the Gaels and the Gonzaga Bulldogs. These two teams have fought fiercely over the past decades for dominance in the West Coast Conference.
