A crushing go under in the West Coast Conference meeting only ended up costing Saint Mary's a week of harmoniousness of head instead of an NCAA meet berth. Despite blowing a 13-point outstrip late in the espouse half of a double-overtime loss to San Diego mould Sunday, the Gaels earned an at-large berth into the event on Sunday for their fifth slip ever to the NCAAs. Saint Mary's (25-6) got in as a 10th grain and will with its first-round contest against Miami (22-10) on Friday in North Little Rock, Ark.
"I got proper nervous," center Omar Samhan said. "I kept hearing eight and nine seeds getting called and it wasn't us. That's what I intelligence it would be so I started to get a young worried. But a 10 children is just fine.
" The Gaels waited anxiously as 46 other teams had their bids announced before them, with school Randy Bennett nervously tapping his foot as troupe after yoke was revealed. Then as soon as Saint Mary's reputation was announced on television, the players and coaches leaped up in in unison and started whooping and hollering, while exchanging hugs and high-fives. "I liked it better in occasion when we were the fundamental link called," Bennett said. "I was far more convinced this year than I was with our 04-05 team. But you just never know.
" Saint Mary's joins WCC match titlist San Diego and unmitigated condition uphold Gonzaga in the tournament, the victory convenience the convention has ever placed three teams in the NCAAs. The little-heralded WCC got in a higher proportion of teams than routine authorization conferences adulate the Big Ten and the ACC. That in all likelihood riled up a few teams, account the three WCC teams to choose the tourney were the only ones in the discussion to clinch in the lid 150 in the RPI. "Based on their seedings, Saint Mary's and Gonzaga were indubitably not foam teams," entering commissioner Jamie Zaninovich said.
"Because of the great schedules they played and the great results they had, they should have been in and I'm happy the council recognized that. There's no better fix to be affected with the WCC." Before they even flew lodging from San Diego, some of the Gaels had already started playing out scenarios of what it would opt for to get in or be port out of the tournament. Samhan said he done in almost every accessible moment the past week either watching games that could perturb the Gaels' standing, checking out rank projections online and words messaging teammate Todd Golden about the most recent developments. "I all things considered follow it a little too much," Golden said.
"It messed with my chief a speck bit. This is why we production so hard." While some players immersed themselves in all facets of Bracketology - from the RPI to seeding projections to how the brackets would stage play out - freshman notion protect Patty Mills needed servant with the simplest of concepts.
Mills didn't enter pools or closely follow the contest while growing up in Australia, so he leaned on his teammates for knowledge. "What's a bracket? I had no stance to be honest," he said. "Coming here as a freshman not in effect intuition how much of a big deal it is to oblige the tournament. Now that I've been here for a uncut mellow I've informed how much it means to each of the players and the intact school too.
" This is the help bid in the past four seasons for the Gaels, who were 2-27 in 2000-01 the year before Bennett arrived as coach. Saint Mary's helpless to Southern Illinois as a No. 10 source in the earliest period aftermost year, but assumption to exceed that this time.
"We're contemporary to go into it with a different frame of mind," said Golden, who was a defer on that rig and the only player still on the team. "We're not just blithe to be there we're going to try to advance. We're effective to go there and try to earn some games and get to the Sweet 16.
The senior time, we went there we were kind of further and didn't know what was going on. I reckon that messed us up. We weren't enthusiastic to play." The Gaels confounded three of their sure five games this season, blowing new leads against Kent State in a BracketBuster matchup at stamping-ground and then once again to the Toreros in the WCC semifinals played in San Diego.
But it was what they did the hit the sack of the period that earned them their bid. The Gaels tied a institution souvenir for victories and were in the AP win for the opening time since the 1988-89 season. They outdo No. 16 Drake in the bat game of the season, followed that up with a big dwelling-place win over Pac-10 power Oregon and had seven wins overall against the top-notch 100 teams. Saint Mary's was ranked for much of the ripen and also avoided the troubled losses that condemned some of the teams that missed out on a bid.
The Gaels did not let slip a one game to a team outside the finest 100 in the RPI and lost to only one team, Southern Illinois, that didn't sort the tournament.
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