The sports world at large and the Saint Mary’s community specifically learned with an announcement on the Saint Mary’s website on March 23 that Randy Bennett, the school’s head basketball coach for the past 25 years would be leaving to become the head basketball coach at Arizona State University. SMC Assistant Coach Mickey McConnell was named his immediate replacement.

    Bennett released a statement about his leaving: “This was a difficult decision after calling Saint Mary’s my home for so long and building this program into a national contender each year. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to lead Saint Mary’s and for all the special people in this community I’ve been able to work with over the years. This was truly my home away from home for so long and I will miss this place.”

    Bennett’s teams made the post-season tournaments 19 times (12 NCAA and 7 NIT), with an overall record of 589-229 and was named the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year seven times.

    Though disappointed with his leaving, Mike Matoso, the Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at Saint Mary’s showed his appreciation in a statement about all that Bennett has done during his tenure: “He will be missed as a leader and coach and has left us with a lasting legacy of excellence. Randy's influence as the architect of building Saint Mary's Basketball onto the national stage has provided an incredible foundation for on-going success.”

    Arizona State Athletics Director, Graham Rossini echoed those sentiments in his welcoming Bennett. “Coach Bennett is one of the most accomplished and respected coaches in college basketball. We were drawn to his sustained success over multiple decades, his strong recruiting relationships across the country, particularly on the West Coast, and his proven ability to identify and develop international talent.”

    Though Bennett has been out of the public eye and had his introductory press conference postponed due to recent health issues, he has still signed three new assistants, all with a Saint Mary’s connection as associate head coaches: Joe Rahon, who played for and was currently on the Saint Mary’s staff; Rick Croy, the head coach at California Baptist who was an associate head coach at Saint Mary’s from 2010-2014; and David Patrick, who coached at Saint Mary’s from 2006-2010 and was most recently an associate head coach at Louisiana State University.

McConnell

    From the start of his career, Bennett made it a point to hire a top group of assistant coaches: “The number one thing, when taking on a head job, is hiring a good staff. The second thing is to get good players. If you get a good staff, you can make good players that have the intangibles we wanted.”

    Last February, Silver Waves Media listed the top 100 assistant coaches at a Mid-Level College, with Saint Mary’s assistant coach Mickey McConnell prominent on that list. 

    McConnell has been a Gael since he came to Saint Mary’s as a freshman in 2007, highlighted by the team making the NCAA Sweet Sixteen after defeating Villanova on a late basket by McConnell. After graduating from Saint Mary’s, McConnell went on to play professionally throughout Europe and then returned to Saint Mary’s as an assistant coach from 2019-2026, a period when the team amassed a 175-54, record with a winning percentage of .764 which is the fifth best winning percentage in all of Division I men’s college basketball in that span.

    So, it was no surprise that on March 25,  McConnell was chosen to replace Bennett as Saint Mary’s head basketball coach. Matoso described him as a perfect fit for the head coach’s position. “The fact that Mickey understands the history of the program and what it takes to win here is very important. When you’re on the outside of our program, people are trying to figure out ‘How do they do this?’ and it’s not until you’re in it that you understand the core foundation of a lot of things at Saint Mary’s like having good kids even in this NIL era and portal transfers and not losing sight of what the core of the program is. 

    “When you are trying to hire a new coach at Saint Mary’s, you always talk about fit and how this is a pretty unique culture in Moraga and Mickey understands it perfectly.”

    The announcement brought a number of congratulatory calls to McConnell, who said, “It's been incredible, just the outpouring of support, and it's been more than I could have ever imagined.” 

    McConnell shared how far back he began considering a career as a coach after he finished playing. “I think I knew early on that I wanted to get into to coaching. My journey just started in the spring of my senior year in high school when Coach Bennett came on a recruiting visit to watch me play baseball. Once I graduated from Saint Mary's, I knew I wanted to coach in college. It’s just the level of intensity, the excitement and being able to mentor and lead these young men and now to be standing in this spot taking over the program that Randy built, is a really special moment for me.”

    Like Bennett, McConnell played basketball for his father and in his professional career overseas, he was exposed to a number of different coaches: “I played for some incredible coaches overseas and I was lucky in that they were all different, so every year I was learning a new system in a new environment and I took a lot from all of them. I played for a lot of different personalities, so I'll mold that with what I have learned from Randy and I'll take the best of it to make it my own and there’ll be a little part of all of them in me every day.”

    McConnell learned he was going to be named the head coach as soon as he learned that Bennett was leaving and they shared the moment together: “Randy was great and I told him that I had questions then and I’m sure there’ll be a million more as it goes on. Where he is awesome is that he wants this place to succeed. You know he wants this place to be the best and he was great on the way out.”

    McConnell made it clear that he understands what has made the Saint Mary’s program so successful and shared his optimism for the team’s future: “I truly believe there’s much more to come with this program and it’s on the right trajectory. This program has been built on a foundation of hard work, of leadership, of toughness and brotherhood. God is definitely a Gael.”