How Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s evolved into one of college basketball’s most riveting rivalries | West Coast Conclusion

One can wager on just about anything these days via sports prop bets.

It wasn’t that way at the turn of the century, but imagine what the odds might have been on first-time head coach Mark Few turning Gonzaga into a national power. Gazillion to one?

Or Saint Mary’s, coming off a winless West Coast Conference campaign and two-win season when Randy Bennett was hired 25 years ago, emerging as GU’s fiercest WCC rival and making 11 trips to the NCAA Tournament. Bazillion to one?

“Mark is probably the only person that believed you could do this,” said ESPN college basketball analyst Sean Farnham, who will be courtside Saturday in Moraga when the Zags and Gaels clash for the last time in a WCC regular-season game. “Their styles (Few and Bennett) are completely different, but the way they go about doing it isn’t.”

“They know who they are, they’re confident in who they are and they coach people up.”

This season being a prime example. No. 9 Gonzaga responded to a 40-point loss to Michigan with a 15-game winning streak. After losing second-leading scorer Braden Huff to a knee injury and suffering a Quad 3 setback to Portland, the Zags have snagged six consecutive wins – including a 41-point victory over the Pilots on Wednesday – to secure another conference championship.

That’s No. 23 in Few’s 27 seasons.

All-WCC players Augustas Marciulionis and Mitchell Saxen ran out of eligibility after last season, talented guard Jordan Ross exited via the transfer portal and the Gaels had question marks at point guard entering this season. Josh Dent has more than answered those questions and Saint Mary’s enters Saturday one win from a share of the title, which would be Bennett’s fourth in four seasons and seventh overall.

“He’s done a great job,” Few said of Bennett. “He stayed there, too. He didn’t leave and he’s probably had opportunities. He’s built a great little niche program that’s really, really worked. They recruit guys to the system, do a great job sticking to it and they’re always a really tough out.”

The head-to-head numbers lean heavily toward Few and the Zags. He’s 59-17 against the Gaels and 53-17 against Bennett, but the teams have split the last 10 meetings. They’ve collided in 14 of the last 16 WCC Tournaments. In title games, Gonzaga holds an 11-4 advantage.

More numbers: The Zags rank first in winning percentage since 2010-11, followed by Duke, Kansas and Saint Mary’s.

“They had a tremendous amount to do with us chasing them and that made us better,” Bennett recently told WCC columnist Jeff Faraudo. “People say you shouldn’t give them any credit – they’re the No. 1 winningest program in college basketball over the last 25 years. It’s crazy. No shame in that.”

The rivalry germinated when the Gaels strung together six straight 25-plus win seasons from 2008-13, including two regular-season titles, two tournament crowns and four NCAA Tournament appearances. Saint Mary’s won at least one matchup against Gonzaga in five of those six seasons.

“I’m old enough to remember the names before that, but that was when you remember Patty Mills, Diamon Simpson, Omar Samhan, Mickey McConnell, Matthew Dellavedova,” said longtime GU assistant coach Brian Michaelson, a Zag player from 2002-05, Bennett’s first four seasons. “That’s when they had high-level games and they were constantly battling us for the regular season and conference tournament. It became a multibid league.”

That’s been the case in 13 of the last 17 NCAA Tournaments.

Michaelson recalls how quickly Bennett turned the Gaels into a contender, replacing Pepperdine as Gonzaga’s primary challenger. Other WCC schools have had stretches near the top, but haven’t had the staying power of the Zags and Gaels.

“Coach Bennett preaches the same things every year, very similar in what they require in a point guard and style of play at point in 2008 to now,” Michaelson said. “Mickey McConnell is now coaching Josh Dent, and they’re eerily similar. Player development, elite rebounding, elite defense. It’s going to be man-to-man, same concepts and they learn how to do it.

“In a lot of ways, we’ve both had consistency. Our style of play changes more than theirs and the differing ways to do it at positions. For us, from (Kevin) Pangos to Perk (Josh Perkins), who are different than Andrew Nembhard to Jalen Suggs. If you had to ask what the biggest thing is for both programs. Consistency of leadership.”

Consistency right down to their age. Few and Bennett both are 63. Both have former players on their staffs – Michaelson, Stephen Gentry and Zach Norvell Jr. with GU and McConnell, Joe Rahon and EJ Rowland for Saint Mary’s.

“No doubt they’ve pushed us,” Michaelson said, “just like we’ve pushed them.”

That push partially explains how Few and Bennett have found common ground over the years.

“When they started experiencing what we experienced for the first 20 years or so, as they started having success they were like, ‘Yeah, there should be some protection in the league, we have to worry about seeds down the stretch,’ ” Few said. “Also around COVID, he was trying to get games in, I was trying to get games in. Everybody was working really hard to get a season in.

“There’s always been tons of mutual respect between us, for our programs and our staffs. It’s more of a fans’ deal.”

Farnham, who has called dozens of Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s games in his 16 years at ESPN, broached the topic with Bennett.

“It was contentious at times, but now it’s a much more cordial relationship,” Farnham said. “I talked to Randy last year. I said, ‘You guys get along now, I used to like the blow-by (post-game) handshake.’ He told me, ‘I hope one day when we’re both done coaching I get an invite (from Few) to go fishing.’

“A lot of it was Mark for years was asking every (WCC) school to step up and challenge and Randy was the only one that stepped up and said, ‘I’m in.’ It took them a while to get there, it didn’t happen overnight. It’s not only helped themselves, but they’ve helped Gonzaga. It’s truly helped the Zags in the seeding process, getting Quad 1 (games) in January and February. If it wasn’t for Gonzaga, do you think Saint Mary’s is wearing home-colored jerseys as a five seed in the NCAA Tournament?”

Gonzaga will leave the WCC for the rebuilt Pac-12 next season. There has been some speculation about the Gaels being on the Pac-12’s radar, but for now there are no future matchups scheduled after Saturday’s game (and a possible meeting at the conference tournament).

Farnham hopes the programs can find a way to continue the series.

“I think it should go on, I think it needs to go on,” he said. “It’ll never be the same as it was unless they’re in the same conference again. My hope is somehow, someway they get back in the same conference, but if not, I hope they don’t do neutral site. Do it home and home because of the environments at these schools, you love those games.”