Every season, there is always at least one team that surprises everyone and goes a long way in the NCAA Tournament. We are putting our money on the St. Mary’s Gaels, a program many of you may not have even heard of. It’s a small program out of Northern California and their home venue conjures up memories of the small but quant gym in the hit motion picture “Hoosiers.” But they have been quietly making noise in the West Coast Conference for the past few years and have become the rival of the group’s most popular school Gonzaga.
St. Mary’s is having a very good campaign so far with a 17-2 record (6-0 in the all-important conference play) and head coach Randy Bennett – who has been there since 2001 – has three seven footers on his squad (7’3″ center Andrew McKeever, 7’1″, who has 20 blocks on the season, center Harry Wessels with 16 blocks and 7′ forward/center Jazz Gardner. Perhaps their most talented overall player is 6’8″ forward Paulius Murauskas, a junior out of Lithuania who is averaging 19.6 points per game.
As of this writing, the Gaels have run off eight wins in a row and are undefeated at home (11-0) and the road (4-0), but have a 2-2 mark at neutral sites. Their first matchup against Gonzaga is on January 31 and they wrap up the regular season on February 28 in a rematch. St. Mary’s has made The Big Dance in the past four consecutive Marches and have yet to get passed the second round. But this is a team that has been improving every year and had a 29-6 record in 2024-25. They have won the WCC the last two seasons and the conference tournament championship in 2022-23. So they are in place to take that next step.
On Draft Kings, they have +25000 odds to win it all and +6000 to reach The Final Four.
Worth a flyer, right?
