Aussie connections fuel No. 20 Saint Mary’s

Inside Saint Mary’s McKeon Pavilion, the Australian flag hanging up might be just as important as the American one.

A school-record seven of the Gaels’ 15 players are from Australia, and many of them have contributed to the best regular season in program history.

Recruiting Aussies long has been a part of coach Randy Bennett’s philosophy, one that this year’s 20th-ranked team is hoping pays off with a West Coast Conference tournament championship at Orleans Arena.

Second-seeded Saint Mary’s first game is a quarterfinal matchup with 10th-seeded Portland at 9 p.m. Saturday.

“It’s just something coach Bennett has stressed for his program,” said junior center Jock Landale, a native of the Melbourne suburb Malvern East. “I think he likes the way we play. Australians kind of pride ourselves on our toughness, so I think he likes our grit on the court.”

Bennett’s first Australian recruit was Adam Caphorn, who joined the coach in his first year at the program in 2001. Since then, Saint Mary’s has had an Australian player on every roster, including future NBA players Matthew Dellavedova and Patty Mills.

The pipeline continues in part because of the comfort level recruits get when they see players from their own country on their visits to the school in Moraga, California.

“That was huge, probably one of the biggest things,” said junior guard Emmett Naar, a Sydney native. “Being able to fit in easily, people take it for granted, but it’s a big thing when you’re deciding on a school.”

Naar said he played with or against many of his future teammates in Australia despite the country being about three-quarters the area of the United States. While the basketball community there is still relatively small, Naar described it as “tight-knit.”

”It’s never been the biggest sport over there, we have Aussie rules football and rugby, but I think it’s on the rise,” Naar said. “People are seeing that it’s a great experience to come over here to play college, so that’s what more people are trying to do now.”

Playing at Saint Mary’s has led to plenty of success for Landale and Naar, who have kept the Gaels in the Associated Press Top 25 poll every week this season for the first time in school history. Landale was one of the team’s three All-WCC first-team selections, while Naar is its top shooter from 3-point range (44.4 percent).

Fellow Aussies Dane Pineau, Tanner Krebs and Kyle Clark are key reserves and have contributed to a defense that ranks second nationally at 56.1 points allowed per game.

The reasons for the defensive success: hard work, preparation and probably just a little bit of Australian grit.

“We have confidence that the numbers show we can defend the ball really well,” Landale said. “Given the position we’ve been in, being ranked the entire season, I think everyone’s pretty happy. We’re comfortable going into the postseason.”

Contact reporter Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.