MORAGA — Bay Space faculty basketball followers shouldn’t take as a right Saint Mary’s incomes its fourth consecutive NCAA event berth on Sunday.
The Gaels (28-5) landed a No. 7 seed and can open on Friday in opposition to No. 10 seed Vanderbilt (20-12) at Cleveland in a time to be introduced. It’s their eleventh trek into the NCAAs underneath coach Randy Bennett, and their 14th in program historical past. A victory would ship them right into a second-round matchup in opposition to both No. 2 Alabama 25-8) No. 15 Robert Morris (26-8) on Sunday.
Not solely is the Gaels’ four-year run unprecedented in program historical past, however no native group has matched it since Stanford went 11 years in a row by 2005.
Cal made it to the NCAAs 4 years in a row underneath legendary coach Pete Newell, however that stretch ended 65 years in the past. San Francisco hasn’t achieved it because the days of Invoice Russell within the Nineteen Fifties. Santa Clara and San Jose State haven’t made it even as soon as since 1996.
“Three years in a row was the first time in school history,” Bennett mentioned. “Four years is incredible. This is hard to do.”
Senior level guard Augustas Marciulionis, the two-time West Coast Convention Participant of the 12 months, mentioned this implies quite a bit.
“The first couple years you don’t know really what’s going on. You make the tournament . . . and I thought it might be normal,” mentioned Marciulionis, whose father Sarunas performed for the Warriors and is a Naismith Corridor of Famer. “Once you learn more about college basketball, you realize how difficult it is, how small the room for error is.
“Four out of four is amazing. Hope we end it with a blast.”
For the third straight yr, the Moraga squad is the one Bay Space males’s group to safe a spot in March Insanity.
Saint Mary’s comes off a season wherein it set a program report with 17 West Coast Convention victories, two of them over perennial WCC heavyweight Gonzaga, on the way in which to a second straight regular-season title. The Zags avenged these defeats with a 58-51 win within the convention event championship sport, simply the Gaels’ second loss since earlier than Christmas.
The Gaels’ spot within the 68-team area was by no means in query. Their sturdy No. 21 nationwide rating within the NET pc is the results of a 10-5 report within the tougher Quad 1 and a pair of video games and no dangerous losses.
Saint Mary’s landed a decrease seed Sunday than the earlier three seasons, the place it was a No. 5 every time. That didn’t do the Gaels any favors final yr once they misplaced 75-66 of their first-round sport in opposition to Twelfth-seeded Grand Canyon.
They gained their opening NCAA video games in 2022 and ’23, however haven’t superior previous the primary weekend of the event since attending to the Candy 16 in 2010.
Vandy, which secured its first NCAA bid since 2017, was 8-10 and in ninth place within the Southeastern Convention, which earned 14 NCAA bids.
“I don’t know much about Vanderbilt,” Bennett mentioned, “but I know they’re good.”
The Commodores opened the season 6-0 then beat 5 Prime-25 opponents in SEC play, together with Tennessee and Kentucky. The Commodores misplaced their three most up-to-date video games, together with 77-72 to Texas within the first spherical of the SEC event.
Junior guard Jason Edwards is Vandy’s high scorer at 17.0 factors per sport, with 10 video games of no less than 20 factors. He scored 30 factors in a win over TCU.
The Gaels don’t desire a repeat of final yr in opposition to Grand Canyon. And the dangerous style left of their mouths after the Gonzaga loss ought to present further gas.
“It’s always easier, I think, having better practices coming off a loss,” mentioned senior middle Mitchell Saxen, the two-time WCC Defensive Participant of the 12 months. “I think the Gonzaga game exposed some things offensively that we need to work on, in terms of taking care of the ball and our spacing.
“It’s one thing to go to the tournament but you want to win games in the tournament,” he added. “We’ve really got our goal set on breaking through to the Sweet 16.”
Initially Revealed: March 16, 2025 at 5:34 PM PDT
