San Francisco’s Jamaree Bouyea lays in two of his game-high 21 factors in entrance of Dan Fotu of Saint Mary’s Saturday evening. Nevertheless, the Gaels beat the Dons 67-63 at Battle Memorial. (Picture courtesy of USF Athletics)
Almost twenty years after waltzing into the NCAA Match collectively, Randy Bennett and Todd Golden are as soon as once more getting ready to slide on their dancing sneakers.
This time round, the get together seems just a little totally different.
“We see (Todd) as a Gael,” Bennett mentioned. “However proper now, he’s teaching for USF. And we’ve bought to match up towards him.”
Golden, 36, was the captain and level guard for Saint Mary’s in 2005 when he led the Gaels to their fourth-ever NCAA Match berth and first of seven below Bennett’s watch.
On Thursday evening, Golden’s Dons will cross the Bay Bridge and head to Moraga with an opportunity to comply with within the footsteps of their head coach. Seventeen years after Golden made his March Insanity debut as a participant, the third-year coach has San Francisco inside placing distance of snapping its 24-year NCAA Match drought.
“Merely put, that is the perfect workforce that USF has had in 40 years,” Golden mentioned. “We’re on the precipice of constructing the NCAA Match for the primary time since 1998. We’re 21-6 with a possibility to go, so it’s a reasonably good time to get to know the Dons.”
Longtime school basketball followers know that even within the West Coast Convention’s finest years, just one program usually has an opportunity of accompanying Gonzaga to the NCAA Match. Once more the top-ranked workforce within the nation, the Bulldogs have represented the WCC in 22 consecutive tournaments and are on the verge of incomes a No. 1 seed for the fourth time of their final 5 journeys.
Gonzaga’s overwhelming dominance in a convention stuffed with mid-majors typically provides its WCC friends no margin for error, which is why a late-season showdown between a pair of 20-win groups carries a lot weight.
“It’s an enormous sport nationally,” USF star guard Jamaree Bouyea mentioned. “And the winner of this sport may truly cement their means into the match.”
Bouyea isn’t mistaken, however not like most years, even the workforce that loses Thursday’s high-stakes affair nonetheless has a robust shot at securing a coveted bid to March Insanity.
In response to NCAA Internet rankings, Saint Mary’s is the No. 22 workforce within the nation whereas USF is No. 32. ESPN school basketball analyst Joe Lunardi at the moment tasks the Gaels to make the sphere of 68 as a No. 8 seed with the Dons sliding in as a No. 11 seed.
Every Bay Space workforce has a house date subsequent week with Gonzaga, providing one other shot at a signature win, or at the least a loss that doesn’t hurt their match hopes an excessive amount of.
In what’s thought of the convention’s finest 12 months so far, Brigham Younger can also be a possible match workforce because the Cougars are No. 53 within the NET rankings and one in all Lunardi’s “Final 4 In.”
“There’s little doubt that top-to-bottom, that is the perfect the league has ever been and it’s not shut,” Golden mentioned.
Bennett echoed the sentiment, noting that the WCC is more and more seen as one in all school basketball’s best conferences.
“You recognize what’s cool is we’re in among the best leagues within the nation and it’s not only a one-year deal,” Bennett mentioned. “Hastily, you're just like the Large East or the American. I’m not making a gross sales pitch for our league, however you're a Pac-12 — your league is nearly as good because the Pac-12. It’s enjoyable to be a part of that.”
Saint Mary’s rise below Bennett is properly documented because the 21-year head coach has loved spectacular success establishing a global recruiting pipeline. Former Gaels-turned-NBA gamers Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Jock Landale all hail from Australia whereas three of the highest 5 scorers on this 12 months’s workforce come from abroad.
Beginning guard Logan Johnson, a St. Francis (Mountain View) product, discovered his means again to the Bay Space after beginning his school profession at Cincinnati and takes satisfaction in representing a neighborhood program.
“At St. Francis, I wasn’t in a position to make it to a state title sport, which actually irked me,” Johnson mentioned. “It pissed off me for just a little, nevertheless it appears like redemption having the ability to play for Saint Mary’s and be on a workforce this profitable.”
The Gaels have gained at the least 20 video games in every of their final 14 full seasons, whereas a once-proud Dons program that gained back-to-back NCAA titles in 1955 and 1956 has struggled to maintain tempo. That started to vary below present Washington State coach Kyle Smith, who changed Rex Walters in 2016 earlier than leaving for a Pac-12 job and making a emptiness crammed by one in all his assistants in Golden.
The previous Gaels star has maintained the momentum created below Smith thanks largely to Bouyea, a fifth-year participant and grad scholar with NBA potential who went from being an un-recruited native product to a First Crew All-WCC guard.
“I’ve had a chip on my shoulder since I used to be in highschool,” the Palma Excessive (Salinas) grad mentioned. “To be under-recruited is difficult to take care of, however now that I’m right here, I’ve labored so onerous and it’s made me a greater basketball participant.”
With the assistance of an intraconference switch from San Diego, ahead Yauhen Massalski — who's averaging almost 15 factors and 10 rebounds per sport — San Francisco is without doubt one of the most well-rounded groups on the West Coast and ready Saint Mary’s followers know fairly properly.
The Dons live life on the bubble, which is how Bennett and the Gaels have spent the higher a part of twenty years.
“We've got been there most likely greater than any workforce within the nation,” Bennett mentioned. “Proper there. Generally we win the league match, typically we’re in, however lots of instances we’re in that vary.”
Because the Dons and Gaels put together for Thursday’s showdown, gamers on either side perceive what a win will do for his or her possibilities of residing out their school basketball goals. Maybe extra importantly, they’re keenly conscious of constructing an excessive amount of of a loss, which gained’t wipe out their match hopes this 12 months.
“Why we’ve been so good is we haven’t bought caught on losses,” Johnson mentioned. “We haven’t misplaced two in a row. We simply proceed to fret about what’s vital and that’s the web page all of us are on.”
Historical past signifies a mid-major program in San Francisco or Saint Mary’s place gained’t attain the NCAA Match with out at the least another signature victory or securing the automated berth awarded for successful the WCC Match title.
Whereas this 12 months’s NET rankings and the improved fame of the WCC counsel in any other case, every workforce brings an identical mindset into one in all school basketball’s most compelling February matchups.
“I don’t see it as stress,” Bouyea mentioned. “I see it as a possibility.”