CLEVELAND – During news conferences at Rocket Arena on Saturday afternoon, the topics of conversation regarding Sunday's matchup between Saint Mary's and Alabama centered around the contrasting styles of the Gaels and the Tide, the point-guard matchup between Augustas Marciulionis and Mark Sears and how much a trip to the Sweet 16 would mean to the Gaels.
 
To borrow from Alabama's pace of play, let's not waste any time getting to those topics.
 
The contrasting styles: The Gaels, the 7-seed in the East Region, rank fourth in the nation in fewest points allowed per game at 60.5. Not only is that a reflection of how determined they are on defense, it's also a function of how deliberate they are on offense.
 
Almost faster than you can say "deliberate," the Tide, the 2-seed, will want to race downcourt and get open looks early in the shot clock. Alabama leads the nation in points per game at 91.1.
 
The team that's second in scoring is Gonzaga (86.4). Saint Mary's head coach Randy Bennett believes his team benefits from having played against the Zags three times this season, winning two of those meetings.
 
"There's definitely a similarity" between Bama and Gonzaga, Bennett said. "They both score a lot. We'll be dealing with that. …
"They have differences in how they do it, but they both have a really hard push, and they're both relentless at it. Alabama shoots more 3s, and Gonzaga puts it inside more."
Alabama (26-8) averages 29.5 3-point attempts and 10.3 makes, similar to Santa Clara (28.7 and 11), a team the Gaels beat twice.
"I think we're obviously going to try to slow (the Tide) down," Saint Mary's forward Luke Barrett said. "I think we've done that to a couple of teams this year.
"But we already talked about they're going to still play fast. They're not going to slow down in the half court. They're still going to try to get their shots. But as long as we're not giving them easy shots, we can force them to take bad shots and we can use that to our advantage."
The Gaels (29-5) have not allowed more than 67 points in a game since they beat Washington State 80-75 in Pullman on Jan. 25.
"Maybe they like to frustrate other teams with their pace," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said of the Gaels. "We can't get frustrated. We're not even going to try to speed them up. We're just going to play fast on offense every chance we have."
Oats stressed the most effective way for the Tide to be able to run is to prevent SMC from dominating the offensive glass. That was a problem for Bama in its 90-81 victory over Robert Morris on Friday; the Colonials grabbed 16 offensive boards.
 
The Gaels collected 10 offensive rebounds (including nine in the second half) in their 59-56 thriller over Vanderbilt on Friday. And through Friday, they ranked 11th in the nation in offensive boards per game at 13.9.
 
Oats noted the Gaels typically send their three frontcourt players – some combination of Mitchell Saxen, Paulius Murauskas, Harry Wessels and Barrett – to the offensive boards.
 
"We can definitely get (fast-break) numbers on them if we can rebound," Oats said. "Now, if they're mashing us up on the O-boards, and they're getting all their misses, it's hard to run on them. …
"That's going to be the key to this game."
 
The point-guard matchup: Marciulionis, the Gaels' senior point guard, is a two-time WCC Player of the Year. Sears, the Tide's fifth-year senior point guard, is a consensus All-American this season.
 
"When he's on and he's locked in, the rest of the guys really seem to follow," Bama forward Grant Nelson said of Sears.
 
Sears, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound left-hander, had 22 points and 10 assists against Robert Morris. For the season, he leads the Tide in points per game at 18.8 and assists per game at 5.1.
 
Saxen said that after watching video of the Tide, "It's really impressive how relentlessly their guards are attacking and Sears just keeps on coming."
 
Marciulionis, listed at 6-4, 200 pounds, leads the Gaels in points per game at 14.3 and assists per game at 6. Oats noted that if Marciulionis were in an offense that played at Alabama's speed, he almost assuredly would score more.
 
"It's hard to speed up Marciulionis. He operates at his own pace," Oats said.
 
"He carves you up in your pick-and-roll coverage. We're talking about what pick-and-roll coverage to play on him. There's no great pick-and-roll coverage for him because whatever you use against him, he's going to exploit it to some point."
Marciulionis went head-to-head three times this season with the Zags' Ryan Nembhard, another highly decorated point guard. Marciulionis is relishing the opportunity to compete against Sears.
"I'm excited for that matchup," Marciulionis said. "I'm ready to compete and I'm excited to play against a good player."
 
How sweet the Sweet 16 would be: Only once in school history has Saint Mary's won more than one game in a postseason. That came in 2010, when the Gaels – led by center Omar Samhan and guards Mickey McConnell and Matthew Dellavedova – beat Richmond and Villanova.
 
The Gaels had chances to reach the Sweet 16 in 2022 and '23 but lost to UCLA and Connecticut (which won the national title), respectively.
 
"It's not David versus Goliath for us," Saxen said. "We've been here before. We know that these are going to be really tough games, but they're very, very winnable."


Saxen pointed out that SMC led UConn by a point early in the second half but the Gaels faded, partially because they had lost forward Alex Ducas to a back injury late in the first half.
 
"We didn't come here to just win one game. We've done that before," Barrett said. "We're trying to leave a legacy on this program, and we're trying to do something special this year, and that's what we set out from the very start of the year. The start of that means winning this game."
 
An assistant coach on Bennett's staff, McConnell good-naturedly has reminded this season's team that he played on that Sweet 16 squad 15 years ago.
 
"Anytime Coach Bennett brings up how hard it is to do to punch your way through to the Sweet 16," Saxen said, "he references that there was one team, and we'll just be like, 'Who was on that team again?'
"(McConnell) just gives us a smile, and he's got that swag about him. He was a heck of a player. It gives us confidence knowing we've got him in our group."
Alabama, meanwhile, is trying to return the Final Four. It reached the national semifinals for the first time in school history last year.
 
Notes: The SMC-Bama winner will face former WCC member BYU in a regional semifinal Thursday night in Newark, N.J. The Cougars (26-9), a 6-seed, got 25 points from Richie Saunders and outlasted 3-seed Wisconsin 91-89 on Saturday evening. … If the Gaels prevail Sunday, they'll tie the 2017-18 team for the most wins (30) in a season in school history.   

Note: Steve Kroner has covered Bay Area sports for more than four decades, mainly for KPIX-TV and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has begun working alongside Brian Brownfield on the Gaels' men's basketball telecasts on ESPN+.