Bob Ford: St. Mary's poses danger for Cats

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The St. Mary's College basketball players gathered a year ago for the announcement of the NCAA tournament bracket and, well, you never know, but of course they would get an invitation.

The Gaels were 25-6 and had just lost the championship game of the West Coast Conference to No. 12 Gonzaga, the conference rival that had made itself into a perennial national player.

So, the St. Mary's coaches, players and students settled into their seats and waited.

They're still waiting.

You hear that kind of story often from mid-major programs that are good and have competitive teams, but aren't lucky enough to swing the kind of respect given to a school that finishes seventh or eighth in the ACC or the Big East.

Want to be sure you play in the NCAA tournament? No problem. Don't lose.

"We all sat in that room together last year with about 400 or 500 of our students and fans sitting there with us and our name didn't get called," coach Randy Bennett said. "It was humbling. I didn't have to talk about it much. . . . I told them, 'Listen, the only way we're getting into an NCAA tournament is to win the conference championship.' Whether I was right or wrong, we'll never know, but our guys bought into it and they didn't leave it to chance."

Chance can leave you all alone when the television show is over, but wins are much more dependable friends. The Gaels, despite having lost six of their top eight scorers from last season, beat No. 14 Gonzaga in the WCC finals this time around (by 19 points) and didn't have to wonder whether they were going, only where.

Welcome to Mid-Major Respect Class, Part II. Uh, that would be Providence, R.I., which is more than 3,000 miles from Moraga, Calif. And if you get there in one piece, then beat a No. 7 seed that plays a quirky Princeton offense unlike what you've seen before . . . then you get to play a No. 2 seed that went to the Final Four last season.

"Our reaction was, I mean, it's obvious, 'Oh, that's a long way to go.' [And we have to] play on Thursday against a team that's not easy to prepare for. So, getting shipped out of the west was something we weren't pumped up about. But your second reaction is, 'Let's go play. We're in it,' " Bennett said. "We have a chance to win a game in the NCAA tournament and then see what you can do from there."