Photo by: Bryan Navarro / Saint Mary's College
Kroner's Corner March Madness Special: Game Day Eve in OKC
3/18/2026 4:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OKLAHOMA CITY – One team from a power conference, the other from a mid-major conference.
One team from Texas, the other from Northern California.
One team prefers an extremely fast pace, the other plays at a slightly faster pace than it has in recent seasons but still wouldn't be likened to, say, the UNLV Runnin' Rebels of the early 1990s.
Thursday's first-round meeting in the NCAA Tournament between the Texas A&M Aggies of the SEC, the 10th seed in the South Region, and the Saint Mary's Gaels of the WCC, the seventh seed, provides one of the classic contrast-in-styles-and-backgrounds matchups that makes the months of March and April so compelling.
"There's an advantage if you can get (the game) on your terms," SMC head coach Randy Bennett said in a news conference at the Paycom Center on Tuesday afternoon. "If they can get the game in the 90s, that's an advantage to them, because they're used to doing it.
"If we can get the game somewhere in between the two styles of play, then I think it works in our favor."
A&M averages 87.7 points per game, the ninth-highest output in the country. SMC averages 78.2, its highest mark since the 2010-11 season (78.9), but the Gaels' bread and butter often revolves around burning the shot clock below 10 and then executing off a high-pick-and-roll or having forward Paulius Murauskas or a center -- Harry Wessels or Andrew McKeever -- go to work on the low block.
Bucky McMillan, in his first season as the Aggies' head coach, employs an up-tempo style, but knows it's not the only way to win.
"I think that throughout the course of basketball," McMillan said, "you've seen teams that played really fast win national championships, whether it was Arkansas (in 1994) or Kentucky, and then you've seen teams like Virginia (in 2019) win national championships.
"There's no one way to do it or everyone would do it that way, right?"
Five A&M players have made at least 25 steals this season, led by guard Rylan Griffen with 48. The Aggies force 13.6 turnovers per game; the Gaels commit 10.8 per game.
Even as SMC went 8-1 in November, Bennett was concerned about his team's ability to take care of the ball. In four games in that month, the Gaels committed at least 14 giveaways.
But in the ensuing three-plus months and 23 games, they've committed at least 14 turnovers only three times – and they prevailed in all three of those games.
"I'd say a lot of three-on-three full-court got that together pretty quick," guard Mikey Lewis joked about how the Gaels were able to significantly shrink their turnover numbers. "It's been a point of emphasis every game since then."
Said point guard Josh Dent: "I think part of those turnover problems we had early was just having a young group. … I didn't play a lot last year."
Dent also noted that swingman Dillan Shaw entered the starting lineup as a freshman. "I think we just had a lot of young new pieces to try to gel together," Dent said.
Those pieces gelled together well enough for the Gaels to go 27-5 and tie with Gonzaga for the regular-season conference title at 16-2. Bennett compared A&M to Santa Clara, a third WCC team to make the field of 68.
"Both teams shoot a lot of 3's," Bennett said. "Both teams pick you up full court. Both teams want to play a lot of possessions.
"Their personnel is different, but they both have a lot of good shooters."
Griffen is the Aggies' top 3-point shooter in terms of accuracy (41.7%) and Rubén Dominguez, a 6-foot-6 guard from Spain, tops the team in both 3-point attempts (203) and makes (82).
The Gaels own a distinct size advantage on A&M as evidenced by the teams' rebounding-margin numbers: The Aggies average minus-0.2 boards per game. SMC averages plus-11.3, the fourth-best mark in the country.
Bennett said the key items for his team against the Aggies are basically the same as they would be against any other opponent.
"Take care of the ball, keep them out of transition, keep them off the 3 and then smash the boards," Bennett said.
"That's kind of what goes up on the dry-erase board every night before we play."
Memories: Rashaun Agee, a 6-8 forward, leads A&M in points (14.7) and rebounds (8.9) per game. Agee spent last season at USC.
On Nov. 28, 2024, SMC humbled the Trojans 71-36 in the Acrisure Classic in Palm Desert. The Gaels outrebounded USC 46-23 and held the Trojans to 13-for-50 from the field, including 0-for-12 from beyond the arc.
Agee said, "I haven't brought up" that game with his A&M teammates. "I mean, I'm going to talk about it, but I'll be trying not to talk about it."
You can understand Agee's reluctance to revisit that game from 16 months ago. He had two points – on foul shots – in seven minutes.
Notes: Tip-off time for Thursday's game is 4:35 p.m. PDT/6:35 p.m. CDT. The matchup between 15-seed Idaho and 2-seed Houston follows the Aggies-Gaels game. The two winners meet Saturday for a spot in the Sweet 16. … The Gaels' NET ranking is 22, the Aggies' 44. … Saint Mary's leads the nation in free-throw percentage at 80.5. A&M is at 73.7.
Steve Kroner has covered Bay Area sports for more than four decades, mainly at KPIX-TV (Channel 5) and the San Francisco Chronicle. He just finished his second season working as an analyst alongside Brian Brownfield on SMC men's basketball telecasts on ESPN+.
One team from Texas, the other from Northern California.
One team prefers an extremely fast pace, the other plays at a slightly faster pace than it has in recent seasons but still wouldn't be likened to, say, the UNLV Runnin' Rebels of the early 1990s.
Thursday's first-round meeting in the NCAA Tournament between the Texas A&M Aggies of the SEC, the 10th seed in the South Region, and the Saint Mary's Gaels of the WCC, the seventh seed, provides one of the classic contrast-in-styles-and-
"There's an advantage if you can get (the game) on your terms," SMC head coach Randy Bennett said in a news conference at the Paycom Center on Tuesday afternoon. "If they can get the game in the 90s, that's an advantage to them, because they're used to doing it.
"If we can get the game somewhere in between the two styles of play, then I think it works in our favor."
A&M averages 87.7 points per game, the ninth-highest output in the country. SMC averages 78.2, its highest mark since the 2010-11 season (78.9), but the Gaels' bread and butter often revolves around burning the shot clock below 10 and then executing off a high-pick-and-roll or having forward Paulius Murauskas or a center -- Harry Wessels or Andrew McKeever -- go to work on the low block.
Bucky McMillan, in his first season as the Aggies' head coach, employs an up-tempo style, but knows it's not the only way to win.
"I think that throughout the course of basketball," McMillan said, "you've seen teams that played really fast win national championships, whether it was Arkansas (in 1994) or Kentucky, and then you've seen teams like Virginia (in 2019) win national championships.
"There's no one way to do it or everyone would do it that way, right?"
Five A&M players have made at least 25 steals this season, led by guard Rylan Griffen with 48. The Aggies force 13.6 turnovers per game; the Gaels commit 10.8 per game.
Even as SMC went 8-1 in November, Bennett was concerned about his team's ability to take care of the ball. In four games in that month, the Gaels committed at least 14 giveaways.
But in the ensuing three-plus months and 23 games, they've committed at least 14 turnovers only three times – and they prevailed in all three of those games.
"I'd say a lot of three-on-three full-court got that together pretty quick," guard Mikey Lewis joked about how the Gaels were able to significantly shrink their turnover numbers. "It's been a point of emphasis every game since then."
Said point guard Josh Dent: "I think part of those turnover problems we had early was just having a young group. … I didn't play a lot last year."
Dent also noted that swingman Dillan Shaw entered the starting lineup as a freshman. "I think we just had a lot of young new pieces to try to gel together," Dent said.
Those pieces gelled together well enough for the Gaels to go 27-5 and tie with Gonzaga for the regular-season conference title at 16-2. Bennett compared A&M to Santa Clara, a third WCC team to make the field of 68.
"Both teams shoot a lot of 3's," Bennett said. "Both teams pick you up full court. Both teams want to play a lot of possessions.
"Their personnel is different, but they both have a lot of good shooters."
Griffen is the Aggies' top 3-point shooter in terms of accuracy (41.7%) and Rubén Dominguez, a 6-foot-6 guard from Spain, tops the team in both 3-point attempts (203) and makes (82).
The Gaels own a distinct size advantage on A&M as evidenced by the teams' rebounding-margin numbers: The Aggies average minus-0.2 boards per game. SMC averages plus-11.3, the fourth-best mark in the country.
Bennett said the key items for his team against the Aggies are basically the same as they would be against any other opponent.
"Take care of the ball, keep them out of transition, keep them off the 3 and then smash the boards," Bennett said.
"That's kind of what goes up on the dry-erase board every night before we play."
Memories: Rashaun Agee, a 6-8 forward, leads A&M in points (14.7) and rebounds (8.9) per game. Agee spent last season at USC.
On Nov. 28, 2024, SMC humbled the Trojans 71-36 in the Acrisure Classic in Palm Desert. The Gaels outrebounded USC 46-23 and held the Trojans to 13-for-50 from the field, including 0-for-12 from beyond the arc.
Agee said, "I haven't brought up" that game with his A&M teammates. "I mean, I'm going to talk about it, but I'll be trying not to talk about it."
You can understand Agee's reluctance to revisit that game from 16 months ago. He had two points – on foul shots – in seven minutes.
Notes: Tip-off time for Thursday's game is 4:35 p.m. PDT/6:35 p.m. CDT. The matchup between 15-seed Idaho and 2-seed Houston follows the Aggies-Gaels game. The two winners meet Saturday for a spot in the Sweet 16. … The Gaels' NET ranking is 22, the Aggies' 44. … Saint Mary's leads the nation in free-throw percentage at 80.5. A&M is at 73.7.
Steve Kroner has covered Bay Area sports for more than four decades, mainly at KPIX-TV (Channel 5) and the San Francisco Chronicle. He just finished his second season working as an analyst alongside Brian Brownfield on SMC men's basketball telecasts on ESPN+.
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