25. Saint Mary’s (6-0)
Randy Bennett can’t really surprise us at this point, as he’s spent a quarter century keeping Saint Mary’s as a prominent mid-major program. The Gaels have been awesome in recent years and certainly have gotten this year started on the right foot. In the early weeks of the season this team has been kicking butt against some strong mid-major foes, blowing out Ohio and North Texas this past week alone.
While it wasn’t as much of a blowout, the Gaels secured another solid win on Wednesday getting an 85-72 victory over Arkansas State. Paulius Murauskas had 24 points and 9 rebounds while Andrew McKeever starred with 16 points and 17 rebounds. Back in blowout form, Saint Mary’s used a strong second half to blow the doors off UC Merced in a 96-42 win on Saturday night. Joshua Dent led the scoring with 24 points as the Gaels coasted to 6-0.
Everything has gone according to plan and it’s hard not to give the Gaels some respect for their early work. Yes they aren’t beating ranked teams or power conference stalwarts but they’ve made strong opposition look insignificant and are riding quite the start to this year. They’re next off to the Battle 4 Atlantis while looking to make a real statement, starting Wednesday against Wichita State.