Little did Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett know that his team's run to the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament last March would cost him his entire coaching staff.
Top assistant Kyle Smith is the new head coach at Columbia in New York. David Patrick, their main connection in an Australian pipeline to the tiny school in San Francisco's East Bay suburbs, left in mid-October for a scouting job with the Houston Rockets. Mark Campbell is now an assistant on the women's basketball staff at Oregon State.
''It's definitely a different feel with all our coaches gone,'' senior guard Mickey McConnell said.
Bennett is relying heavily on veteran players like McConnell during this time of transition for the new-look program, from helping practice go smoothly to explaining different sets.
''They're all positives. I thought I had the best coaching staff in the country the last two years,'' Bennett said in his office after a recent film session. ''When you have that, you know it won't last forever. You have guys who are just too good to stay assistants.''
Not that the Gaels have been slowed down much during all this. They are picked to finish third in the West Coast Conference behind perennial conference power Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount after winning the WCC tournament last season.
Gone are emotional center Omar Samhan and reliable forward Ben Allen, who played key roles in the school finally taking a big step and winning its first NCAA tournament game since 1959 after losing the previous five. The 10th-seeded Gaels became a tournament darling and eventually lost 72-49 to Baylor in their bid to reach the round of eight.
That after Saint Mary's was among the final teams left out of the tournament the season before.
''We weren't ranked this year preseason. We didn't get a vote. It is what it is,'' Bennett said, chuckling. ''We've got to prove it again. It really doesn't matter. At the end of the year, they're going to look at what you did. We've got to make sure what we've done is worthy of getting into that tournament.''
Saint Mary's is 6-2 heading into a home game Wednesday night at McKeon Pavilion against Denver - those losses coming at No. 14 San Diego State last week and against No. 18 BYU. The Gaels are still trying to establish some continuity amid all the change.
''This team is different in the sense that there are new faces,'' said McConnell, last season's WCC tournament MVP. ''We'll try to play the same way. We might get up and down a little bit more, but when it comes down to it we'll play the same Saint Mary's style of basketball - trying to be as unselfish as possible.''
Bennett has turned this program around since arriving in 2001 and taking over a team that went 2-27 the previous season. The Gaels quickly improved with him in charge, going from nine wins to 15 to 19, and then to 25 to reach the 2005 NCAA tournament for the school's first NCAA berth since 1997.
His current roster features four Australians. The Aussies have become popular and productive players at the close-knit college of about 3,500 students in recent seasons, with chants of ''Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi'' ringing from the student section, and an Australian flag hanging from the wall on one end of the gym.
This year is presenting different challenges altogether for Bennett, who has had opportunities to go elsewhere but has stayed put.
''It feels funny for me coaching this year,'' Bennett said. ''I'm not sure what's going on down at the other end sometimes when we split ends of the floor. Before, I didn't even have to worry. This year I have to be more detailed in saying exactly what needs to get done.''
Among the key additions is forward Rob Jones, a former top prospect from San Francisco who transferred from WCC rival San Diego to Saint Mary's to be closer to home and his ill father. Jim Jones Jr. is now healthy after a kidney transplant last February.
Jones had to spend the fall semester in 2009 at nearby Diablo Valley College focusing only on his studies in order to earn his associate's degree and become eligible for the Gaels. No formal basketball, no scholarship money - just class and homework.
''I struggled to pay the rent. I rationed food,'' Jones said. ''It was like I was a recruit again. It was weird after two years. That was definitely the longest part of the process. It was a long journey to finally get over here and get to play. I've been anxious and waiting for a long time.''
Jones is the grandson of the infamous Jim Jones Sr., founder of Jonestown in the South American jungle in Guyana, where more than 900 men, women and children in a group known as the People's Temple died in a mass suicide orchestrated by Jones in 1978. His followers drank a lethal, cyanide-laced concoction.
Jim Jones Jr., an African-American adopted by white parents, lost his first wife and unborn child in the tragedy. Rob is a product of his second marriage.
While Rob Jones has been asked about it so many times over the years, he is focused on basketball and no longer likes to talk about it. Though he has said he is determined to repair the family name through his successes.
Jones averaged 9.5 points and 5.4 rebounds as a sophomore at San Diego before deciding to transfer.
''You are what you've been. He's got to change. He's always been the defender, tough guy, hustle guy,'' Bennett said. ''Now, he's in a role where we're relying on him to get us 14, 15 a game. We're going to play off him. He's getting it, but it takes time.''
