Kroner's Corner 25-26 Vol. 1: WE ARE BACK

Photo by: SMC Athletics / Piper Westrom

Kroner's Corner 25-26 Vol. 1: WE ARE BACK

11/3/2025 10:41:00 AM | Men's Basketball

During a 2024-25 season in which Saint Mary's racked up 29 wins, a third consecutive WCC regular-season title and a fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament as a single-digit seed, head coach Randy Bennett enjoyed the luxury of starting the same five players in all 35 games.
Four of those five do not return this season, including three – guard Augustas Marciulionis, forward Luke Barrett and center Mitchell Saxen – who spent a combined 14 seasons with the Gaels.

So, SMC fans might not be familiar with some key players when the Gaels open the season at home against St. Thomas on Monday night, but Bennett is confident that the players on the 2025-26 roster have done what they've needed to do in the offseason and the preseason to try to extend the run of excellence in Moraga.

"I think the foundation that they've laid is pretty good," Bennett said in an interview in his office after practice Tuesday. "It doesn't mean we're bulletproof at all, but they're trying to be a good team. They're trying to hold themselves accountable to be good players and a good team."

The lone returning starter is forward Paulius Murauskas, a junior who averaged 12.1 points and 7.7 rebounds last season. Other significant returnees from a team that went 17-1 in the WCC regular season are sophomore guard Mikey Lewis (team-high 58 3-pointers) and 7-foot-1 senior center Harry Wessels (54.6 field-goal percentage).
All three of them were named to the 10-man preseason All-WCC team.

Two men who didn't receive a ton of playing time last season, redshirt sophomore center Andrew McKeever and sophomore point guard Joshua Dent, figure to take on much bigger roles in 2025-26.

"Josh Dent has really impressed" in the preseason, Wessels said. "There's a lot that comes with being a Saint Mary's point guard and I think he lives up to that in every aspect."

Lewis calls McKeever, a 7-foot-2 alum of Granada High in Livermore, "the big fella." Lewis said McKeever is "so skilled. He has such an insane feel for the game."

As a freshman last season, Lewis was named the WCC's Sixth Man of the Year. He displayed a textbook shooting stroke and the ability to take and make shots down the stretch of tight games. He has his sights on improving his defense.

"I've got to be able to guard other teams' big guards," Lewis said. "That'll help us out a lot and that'll also help me for where I'm trying to go in the future."

Defense and rebounding have become the hallmarks of Bennett's program over the recent past. Last season, the Gaels finished fifth in the nation in fewest points allowed per game (61.1) and were tops in the country in rebounding margin (+10.3 per game).

Bennett said the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season forced the Gaels to focus especially on defense and rebounding because that team had its shortcomings on offense. Since then, he said the program has stressed defense and the boards in its recruiting, practices and training.

"We worked at it and once we've had success with it, we've doubled down," he said.

The fact the Gaels had so much success last season was mildly surprising when you consider they were a middle-of-the-pack team in terms of shooting percentage (45.0) and a subpar squad from beyond the arc (31.9).

As recently as the 2017-18 season, Saint Mary's shot 51.5 percent from the floor and 41.0 percent from long range.

"Our field-goal percentages and 3-point percentages haven't been as good as they were a while back," Bennett said. "So, we want to get back to that. We have good shooters this year. We should be good."

Redshirt junior forward Kevin Gad could provide some long-range shooting. Other players who will vie to become part of Bennett's rotation include redshirt freshman guards Liam Campbell and Rory Hawke, sophomore guard Tony Duckett (a transfer from San Diego) and freshman swingmen Mantas Juzenas and Dillan Shaw.

"We've got what we need to be a great team," Wessels said.

Bennett, who owns a 562-222 career record, is entering his 25th season as the Gaels' head coach. He said he still possesses the same energy and enthusiasm for the job that he has had throughout his time in Moraga.

That was reinforced to him in the lead-up to the Gaels' 68-53 win at Mississippi in an exhibition game Oct. 26.

"We went to Ole Miss (and) I was nervous for three days before the game," Bennett said. "It's an exhibition game. When I felt that, it was like, 'All right, I'm good still.' "

Steve Kroner has covered Bay Area sports for more than four decades, mainly at KPIX-TV (Channel 5) and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is in his second season working as an analyst alongside Brian Brownfield on SMC's men's basketball telecasts on ESPN+.

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