Men's Basketball
The men's basketball team has become recognized nationally as one of the top mid-major programs in the country, appearing in five NCAA tournaments since 2005 and making appearances in both the Associated Press and ESPN Top 25 polls. The team received at-large bids to the NCAA tournament in 2005 and 2008 but lost in the first round. In 2008-2009, the team got off to a strong start and at one time had the longest active winning streak in the nation before an injury to star guard Patty Mills, who was their leading scorer at the time. Mills came back in time for the West Coast Conference Tournament, but after a loss to Gonzaga in the WCC tournament finals, the team was not selected for the NCAA tournament.
In March 2010, the Gaels received an automatic bid to the 2010 NCAA Tournament, after defeating Gonzaga in the championship game of the WCC Tournament, the Gaels' second WCC tournament title since 1987. They then won their first NCAA Tournament game since 1959, defeating the Richmond Spiders. On March 20, 2010, the Gaels, led by Omar Samhan's 32 points, defeated #2 seed Villanova 75-68 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, where they would fall to three seed and AP #19 Baylor to end their season 28–6.
The Gaels shared the regular season WCC title with Gonzaga in 2011, but lost to Gonzaga in the WCC tournament and were not invited to the NCAA Tournament. In 2012, Saint Mary's claimed both the regular season WCC title and the tournament title and received a seven seed in the NCAA Tournament but lost to #10 seed Purdue in the first round. The Gaels finished second in the WCC in the 2012-13 season and received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, defeating Middle Tennessee State in a "First Four" matchup before losing in the second round to Memphis.
During the 2012-13 season, the NCAA sanctioned the men's basketball program for recruiting violations stemming primarily from a former assistant coach and his attempts to recruit players from France. Penalties included a reduction in scholarships, four years probation and a five-game suspension for head coach Randy Bennett.
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Famous quotes containing the words men and/or basketball:
“What says she, fair one? That the tongues of men are full of
deceits?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
—Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)