NCAAB Game Preview - Saint Mary's at Harvard

Thu Nov 23, 2017 4:00 PM EST

Early-season wins have come pretty easily for St. Mary's in recent years. Something that has been more of a challenge for the Gaels: building a resume that will be appealing come March.

Their inclusion in this week's Wooden Legacy tournament in Fullerton, Calif., might help.

St. Mary's faces Harvard in Thursday's first round -- and Georgia, San Diego State and St. Joseph's loom as potential opponents.

"I think it's a pretty tough field," Dedrique Taylor, coach of host school Cal State Fullerton, told the Orange County Register. "With (St. Mary's and Georgia) obviously, and San Diego State and Harvard and St. Joe's. Those schools are no slouches, so it's a very tough field."

A season ago, St. Mary's finished 29-5 and got an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 7 seed.

But the Gaels were passed over the previous three years, including the 2016 team that went 27-5 and won the West Coast Conference regular-season title.

St. Mary's (4-0) started the season with wins -- over St. Francis (Pa.), New Mexico State, Cal State Fullerton and San Jose State -- that are unlikely to impress NCAA committee members in March.

But this field includes three or four teams that could represent potential RPI Top 100 opponents for St. Mary's -- something the Gaels likely won't see in the WCC outside of Gonzaga and possibly BYU.

"It would be very difficult to be better," coach Randy Bennett said before the season, when asked how he would top the 2016-17 team. "Lose four games instead of five? I don't want to tell our guys, 'Hey, just try to be as good as last year.' We're just going to try to be as good as we can be. This year's team is a whole new story."

The Gaels, led by All-America candidate Jock Landale, haven't done much wrong so far.

The 6-foot-11 Australian had 22 points and nine rebounds in Sunday's 79-61 win over San Jose State.

Jean Prioleau, the Spartans' first-year head coach, came away impressed with Landale.

Oumar Barry and Ashtin Chastain picked up four fouls each trying to guard the St. Mary's big man.

"I don't know if he's a first team All-American, but he might be close," Prioleau said of Landale. "He's pretty good. Playing against a guy with that type of size, you're gonna get in foul trouble a little bit."

Harvard will also have to contend with Calvin Hermanson, who's averaging 19 points per game, and Landale's countryman Emmett Naar, who had 12 assists in the win over San Jose State.

While Harvard (2-2) is coming off back-to-back losses to Holy Cross and Manhattan, the Crimson was the preseason choice in the Ivy League.

Head coach Tommy Amaker believes his young players -- including seven sophomores -- can become more consistent.

"Youth is always synonymous with inconsistency and we have seen that throughout the course of a game, not necessarily the whole season yet," Amaker told The Harvard Crimson.

Forward Seth Towns, one of those sophomores, believes the extra year will be key for the players.

"One main thing is we have seven sophomores instead of seven freshmen," Towns said. "I think that's one of the biggest differences. I think with all of us freshman last year having those roles and that translating into what we have now is really nice because there's so much growth in everybody's game."

St. Joseph's and Washington State are the teams' potential opponents in Friday's second round.