Saint Mary’s tournament history

Years in NCAA tournament (10): 1959, 1989, 1997, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019 Win-loss record: 5-10 Most recent appearance: Lost 61-57 to Villanova in the first round in 2019

Chances of playing in the 2020 NCAAs: 99.9 percent (The Gaels were 26-8 with three of their losses to second-ranked Gonzaga, and were widely projected as a solid No. 8 or 9 seed into the NCAAs)

Best NCAA showing: The 2010 Gaels reached the Sweet 16 — their deepest tournament run ever. Center Omar Samhan was the headliner, but the backcourt featured a pair of future West Coast Conference Players of the Year in junior Mickey McConnell and freshman Matthew Dellavedova.

Best single-game performance: There have been higher-scoring performances by Saint Mary’s players in the NCAAs (see below), but for sheer surprise no one tops Brad Millard, the 7-foot-3 sophomore who wowed the TV broadcast team by scoring 16 points against future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan in a 1997 opening-round game against Wake Forest.

Top NCAA performer: Gregarious Omar Samhan, who won over reporters by talking about his crush on Taylor Swift, scored 29 and 32 points in back-toback games in 2010, leading the Gaels to wins over Richmond and Villanova and into the Sweet 16. For three NCAA games that season, Samhan averaged 25.3 points and 9.3 rebounds and shot 63 percent from the field.

Top coach: This would have been the Gaels’ eighth NCAA appearance since 2005 under Randy Bennett. Saint Mary’s had played in just three NCAA tournaments with just one victory all-time before Bennett’s arrival in 2001.