Canzano: Saint Mary's plays big... while Pac-12 plots
Gaels in a delicate dance.
Saint Mary’s has an outstanding men’s basketball program. Head coach Randy Bennett and the Gaels are 22-4 this season. They’ve earned five NCAA Tournament units in the last three seasons and have an average NET ranking of 15.3 during the span.
The school has one small problem.
The home gymnasium.
University Credit Union Pavilion only seats 3,500. It’s the third-smallest basketball facility in the West Coast Conference. When I raise the possibility of the Gaels joining the Pac-12 as a basketball member, the subject often comes up.
The Pac-12 is focused on securing its media rights deal and adding an eighth football member. (Maybe a ninth, too.) But the Saint Mary’s vs. Gonzaga men’s basketball game last Saturday night became an interesting sideshow.
The Gaels beat Gonzaga, 62-58.
The broadcast tipped off at 8 p.m. Pacific Time.
It drew more than 760,000 TV viewers.
The new-world Pac-12 is shaping up as a deep, talented, interesting basketball league. But targeting football additions comes first, right? That’s the priority. Except when I used the term “expansion target” in a conversation with one of the league athletic directors this week, I was quickly corrected.
The AD said: “I’m not sure I’d say ‘target’ versus one of many possibilities.”