The 2018–19 Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball team represents

Saint Mary's College of California Saint Mary's College of California is a Private college, private Catholic Church, Catholic college in Moraga, California. Established in 1863, it is affiliated with the Catholic Church and administered by the De La Salle Brothers. The college of ...

during the

2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 6, 2018. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and the season concluded with the Final Four in Minneapolis on April 8, 2019. Practices officially began on Septembe ...

. The team is led by head coach

Randy Bennett Randall William Bennett (born June 9, 1962) is an American college basketball coach and the current head men's basketball coach at Saint Mary's College of California. He led the team to several second-place finishes and seven NCAA tournament ap ...

in his 18th season at Saint Mary's. The Gaels play their home games at the

McKeon Pavilion University Credit Union Pavilion (formerly McKeon Pavilion) is a 3,500-seat multi-purpose arena at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California. Home men's and women's basketball and volleyball games are held in the gymnasium, the te ...

Moraga, California Moraga is a town in Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town is named in honor of Joaquín Moraga, member of the famed Californio family. As of 2020, Moraga had a total population of 16,870 people. Moraga is ...

as members of the

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

. They finished the season 22-12, to finish in 2nd place. In the WCC Tournament, they defeated

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

in the semifinals and beat Gonzaga in the championship to win the WCC Tournament. Therefore, they received a automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament where they lost in the first round to Villanova.

Previous season

The

Gaels The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic langu ...

finished the 2017–18 season 30–6, 16–2 in West Coast Conference play to finish in second place. As the No. 2 seed in the WCC tournament, they defeated

Pepperdine Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and ...

in the quarterfinals before losing to

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

in the semifinals. They were one of the last four teams not selected for the NCAA tournament and as a result earned a No. 1 seed in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

where they defeated Southeastern Louisiana in the first round and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

in the second round before losing to

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

in the quarterfinals.

Offseason

Departures

Incoming transfers

2018 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule and results

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2018-19 Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball team Saint Mary's Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball seasons Saint Mary's Saint Mary's Saint Mary's