AP ranks Gaels 11th — highest in school history
Riding a school-record 18-game winning streak, St. Mary’s was ranked No. 11 in the Associated Press poll released Monday.
It’s the Gaels’ highest ranking in that poll in school history; St. Mary’s was No. 12 early last season.
The ranking news didn’t exactly bowl over St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett, whose team was No. 13 last week. He hadn’t heard about it until a reporter mentioned it in a phone interview around noon.
“It’s not insignificant,” Bennett said about being No. 11, “but it doesn’t raise any reaction from me.”
One spot behind the Gaels in the AP rankings and the WCC standings is Gonzaga. St. Mary’s (23-2, 12-0) plays at Loyola Marymount (7-16, 2-10) on Thursday night, then hosts the Zags (21-4, 11-1) on Saturday evening.
Bennett realizes Saturday’s game at McKeon Pavilion will receive a whole lot more attention than Thursday’s at Gersten Pavilion, but he wants to make sure his players keep their priorities in order.
“We have two games this week,” Bennett said, “so our first step is, zero in on the first game.”
The Gaels opened conference play with an 87-59 blitz of LMU in Moraga on Dec. 28. They beat Gonzaga 74-71 in Spokane on Jan. 18.
At the heart of St. Mary’s ascendency this season has been center Jock Landale.
On Monday, the WCC named Landale its Player of the Week — and, yes, you have seen that sentence quite often lately. It’s Landale’s fifth such honor in the past nine weeks. The 6-foot-11 senior had a combined 60 points (going 26-for-39 from the floor) and 30 rebounds in the Gaels’ wins over USF and San Diego last week.
Landale tied his career high with 18 boards in the 65-62 win over the Toreros on Saturday night. Bennett believes Landale’s growth as a competitor is reflected in his rebounding numbers.
“He wants to dominate a game,” Bennett said, “and that’s certainly a way a big man can dominate the game, (by) controlling the boards. He pretty much controls the defensive glass. I think he’s improved there.”
Landale leads the conference in points per game (22.8), field-goal percentage (65.8) and rebounds per game (10.8).
The five weekly awards in one season are one shy of the WCC record shared by LMU’s Bo Kimble (1989-90) and Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison (200506). Steve Kroner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: skroner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveKronerSF