# 2016–17 Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball team

The 2016–17 Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball team represented Saint Mary's College of California during the 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. This was head coach Randy Bennett's 16th season at Saint Mary's. The Gaels competed in the West Coast Conference and played their home games at the McKeon Pavilion in Moraga, California. They finished the season 29–5, 16–2 in WCC play to finish in second place. In the WCC tournament, they defeated Portland and BYU before losing to Gonzaga in the championship game. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. As the No. 7 seed in the West region, they beat VCU in the first round before losing to No. 2-seeded Arizona in the second round.

## Previous season

The Gaels finished the 2015–16 season 29–6, 15–3 in WCC play to win a share of the WCC regular season conference championship. They defeated Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine to advance to the championship game of the WCC tournament where they lost to Gonzaga. As a regular season conference champion and No. 1 seed in their conference tournament who failed to win their conference tournament, they received an automatic bid to the National Invitation Tournament. As a No. 2 seed in the NIT, they defeated New Mexico State and Georgia to advance to the quarterfinals before losing to Valparaiso.

## Offseason
### Departures

| Name | Number | Pos. | Height | Weight | Year | Hometown | Notes |
| Jack Biebel | 11 | G | 5'11" | 185 | Junior | San Jose, CA | Walk-on; transferred to Cal State Monterey Bay |
| Franklin Porter | 43 | G | 6'4" | 210 | Freshman | Portland, OR | Transferred to Portland |

### 2016 recruiting class

US college sports recruiting information for high school athletes :
| Name | Hometown | High school / college | Height | Weight | Commit date |
| Jordan Ford #35 PG | Folsom, CA | Folsom High School | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | 155 lb (70 kg) | Sep 7, 2015 |
| Recruiting star ratings: Scout: Rivals: N/A 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 79 ||||||
| Elijah Thomas #56 SF | Peoria, AZ | Sunrise Mountain High School | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) | 205 lb (93 kg) | Sep 30, 2015 |
| Recruiting star ratings: Scout: Rivals: N/A 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 73 ||||||
| Jock Perry C | Melbourne, Australia | Centre of Excellence | 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) | 260 lb (120 kg) | Sep 30, 2015 |
| Recruiting star ratings: Scout: N/A Rivals: N/A 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: NR ||||||
| Overall recruiting rankings: Scout: nr Rivals: nr ESPN: nr ||||||
| Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "ESPN". ESPN.com. "2016 Team Ranking". Rivals.com. ||||||

### 2017 recruiting class

US college sports recruiting information for 2017 recruits :
| Name | Hometown | High school / college | Height | Weight | Commit date |
| Kristers Zoriks #46 PG | Dobele, Latvia | New Hampton School | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | 170 lb (77 kg) | Sep 20, 2016 |
| Recruiting star ratings: Scout: Rivals: N/A 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 78 |||||||
| Overall recruiting rankings: Scout: nr Rivals: nr ESPN: nr |||||||
| Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "ESPN". ESPN.com. "2017 Team Ranking". Rivals.com. |||||||

## Preseason

The Gaels were picked to finish second in the WCC preseason poll. Emmett Naar, Dane Pineau, and Joe Rahon were selected to the All-WCC preseason team. The Gaels were ranked No. 17 in the preseason AP poll and No. 19 in the preseason Coaches Poll.

## Schedule and results

| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Non-conference regular season ||||||
| 11/11/2016* 8:00 pm, TheW.tv | No. 17 | Nevada | W 81–63 | 1–0 | McKeon Pavilion (3,500) Moraga, CA |
| 11/16/2016* 7:00 pm, TheW.tv | No. 17 | Prairie View A&M | W 110–72 | 2–0 | McKeon Pavilion (2,673) Moraga, CA |
| 11/19/2016* 11:00 am, FCS | No. 17 | at Dayton | W 61–57 | 3–0 | UD Arena (13,175) Dayton, OH |
| 11/22/2016* 7:00 pm, CHN | No. 15 | San Jose State | W 81–64 | 4–0 | McKeon Pavilion (3,178) Moraga, CA |
| 11/27/2016* 2:00 pm, TheW.tv | No. 15 | vs. UAB | W 76–63 | 5–0 | Orleans Arena (862) Paradise, NV |
| 11/30/2016* 8:00 pm, P12N | No. 12 | at Stanford | W 66–51 | 6–0 | Maples Pavilion (4,079) Stanford, CA |
| 12/08/2016* 7:00 pm, TheW.tv | No. 12 | Texas–Arlington | L 51–65 | 6–1 | McKeon Pavilion (2,893) Moraga, CA |
| 12/11/2016* 5:00 pm, CHN | No. 12 | UC Irvine | W 84–53 | 7–1 | McKeon Pavilion (3,207) Moraga, CA |
| 12/14/2016* 7:00 pm, CHN | No. 20 | WKU | W 73–51 | 8–1 | McKeon Pavilion (2,581) Moraga, CA |
| 12/20/2016* 7:00 pm, CHN | No. 19 | Texas A&M–Corpus Christi | W 67–46 | 9–1 | McKeon Pavilion (2,859) Moraga, CA |
| 12/22/2016* 7:00 pm, TheW.tv | No. 19 | South Carolina State | W 74–47 | 10–1 | McKeon Pavilion (2,813) Moraga, CA |
| WCC regular season ||||||
| 12/29/2016 8:00 pm, ESPNU | No. 19 | at Loyola Marymount | W 72–60 | 11–1 (1–0) | Gersten Pavilion (2,461) Los Angeles, CA |
| 12/31/2016 6:00 pm | No. 19 | San Diego | W 72–60 | 12–1 (2–0) | McKeon Pavilion (2,891) Moraga, CA |
| 01/05/2017 8:00 pm, ESPNU | No. 19 | BYU | W 81–68 | 13–1 (3–0) | McKeon Pavilion (3,500) Moraga, CA |
| 01/07/2017 8:00 pm, CSNBA | No. 19 | at San Francisco | W 63–52 | 14–1 (4–0) | War Memorial Gymnasium (2,456) San Francisco, CA |
| 01/12/2017 8:00 pm, ESPN2 | No. 21 | at Portland | W 74–33 | 15–1 (5–0) | Chiles Center (1,745) Portland, OR |
| 01/14/2017 7:00 pm, ESPN2 | No. 21 | at No. 5 Gonzaga Rivalry | L 56–79 | 15–2 (5–1) | McCarthey Athletic Center (6,000) Spokane, WA |
| 01/19/2017 8:00 pm, CSNBA | No. 23 | Pacific | W 62–50 | 16–2 (6–1) | McKeon Pavilion (2,989) Moraga, CA |
| 01/21/2017 8:00 pm, CSNBA | No. 23 | Pepperdine | W 85–65 | 17–2 (7–1) | McKeon Pavilion (3,500) Moraga, CA |
| 01/26/2017 8:00 pm, CSNBA | No. 21 | San Francisco Australia Day | W 66–46 | 18–2 (8–1) | McKeon Pavilion (3,233) Moraga, CA |
| 01/28/2017 8:00 pm, CSNBA | No. 21 | at Santa Clara | W 72–59 | 19–2 (9–1) | Leavey Center (2,707) Santa Clara, CA |
| 02/02/2017 8:00 pm, ESPNU | No. 18 | at Pacific | W 74–70 | 20–2 (10–1) | Alex G. Spanos Center (2,401) Stockton, CA |
| 02/04/2017 4:00 pm, CSNCA | No. 18 | at San Diego | W 71–27 | 21–2 (11–1) | Jenny Craig Pavilion (1,261) San Diego, CA |
| 02/09/2017 7:00 pm | No. 20 | Portland | W 51–41 | 22–2 (12–1) | McKeon Pavilion (2,813) Moraga, CA |
| 02/11/2017 5:15 pm, ESPN | No. 20 | No. 1 Gonzaga College GameDay/Rivalry | L 64–74 | 22–3 (12–2) | McKeon Pavilion (3,500) Moraga, CA |
| 02/16/2017 8:00 pm, CSNCA | No. 22 | Loyola Marymount | W 81–48 | 23–3 (13–2) | McKeon Pavilion (2,944) Moraga, CA |
| 02/18/2017 7:00 pm, ESPN2 | No. 22 | at BYU | W 70–57 | 24–3 (14–2) | Marriott Center (18,987) Provo, UT |
| 02/23/2017 7:00 pm | No. 20 | at Pepperdine | W 78–49 | 25–3 (15–2) | Firestone Fieldhouse (1,106) Malibu, CA |
| 02/25/2017 7:00 pm, TheW.tv | No. 20 | Santa Clara | W 70–56 | 26–3 (16–2) | McKeon Pavilion (3,500) Moraga, CA |
| WCC tournament ||||||
| 03/04/2017 9:00 pm, ESPN2 | (2) No. 20 | vs. (10) Portland Quarterfinals | W 81–58 | 27–3 | Orleans Arena (7,315) Paradise, NV |
| 03/06/2017 8:30 pm, ESPN2 | (2) No. 19 | vs. (3) BYU Semifinals | W 81–50 | 28–3 | Orleans Arena (8,712) Paradise, NV |
| 03/07/2017 8:30 pm, ESPN | (2) No. 19 | vs. (1) No. 4 Gonzaga Championship/Rivalry | L 56–74 | 28–4 | Orleans Arena (8,179) Paradise, NV |
| NCAA tournament ||||||
| 03/16/2017* 4:20 pm, TBS | (7 W) No. 22 | vs. (10 W) VCU First Round | W 85–77 | 29–4 | Vivint Smart Home Arena (16,341) Salt Lake City, UT |
| 03/18/2017* 4:45 pm, CBS | (7 W) No. 22 | vs. (2 W) No. 4 Arizona Second Round | L 60–69 | 29–5 | Vivint Smart Home Arena (18,565) Salt Lake City, UT |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. W=West. All times are in Pacific Time. ||||||

## Rankings

Ranking movements Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking RV = Received votes :
| | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week |
| Poll | Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Final |
| AP | 17 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 21 | 23 | 21 | 19 | 20 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 22 | Not released |
| Coaches | 19 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 21 | 23 | 21 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 21 | RV |
*AP does not release post-NCAA tournament rankings