College Basketball

Texas-Arlington-Saint Mary's (Cal) Preview

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:11 p.m. ET

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Saint Mary's plays all five of its remaining non-conference games at home against unranked foes, starting with Thursday's game against Texas-Arlington, and that gives the No. 12 Gaels (6-0) a chance to enter West Coast Conference play unbeaten.

However, the Mavericks (7-3) pose a significant threat. They were picked to win the Sun Belt Conference title in the preseason poll, and won six games in a row, including an 11-point victory over Texas on the Longhorns' home court Nov. 29.

"Very, very proud of our guys," Arlington coach Scott Cross said after the win over Texas. "We finally put it all together for two halves. We've been through a lot of adversity early on in the season when we weren't playing the way we were capable of. Our guys figured it out that we have to play together and that we have to be great on the boards. We have to take good shots. We have to have player and ball movement. They did those things tonight."

Arlington is led by a trio of players -- guard Jalen Jones, who leads the team in scoring at 13.8 points and has made 46.7 percent of his 3-pointers; forward Kevin Hervey, the preseason Sun Belt Conference player of the year who is averaging 13.4 points and a team-leading 6.2 rebounds, and guard Erick Neal, who is scoring 9.3 points per game while handing out 6.8 assists per contest.

Neal had 15 points, 13 assists and zero turnovers in Arlington's 99-49 victory over Division III Texas-Dallas on Monday.

"It is safe to say that Erick Neal was the best point guard in the country tonight," Cross said. "To have 13 assists with no turnovers and add in 15 points on just nine shots to go with five steals is a very efficient performance."

Obviously, Saint Mary's will be a step up in class from UT-Dallas.

The Gaels have succeeded with teamwork, sound fundamentals and outstanding outside shooting. They are second nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.22) and third in field-goal percentage (53.2), and the Gaels gave Stanford a glimpse of their efficiency when they collected 21 assists on 27 made field goals in a 66-51 victory at Stanford on Nov. 30.

"It's every coach's dream to have that many shooters and that many great passers on the floor at the same time," Stanford coach Jerod Haase said after the game. "It's hard to guard it all."

Jock Landale, the Gaels' 6-foot-11 center, leads the team in scoring (19.7 points per game), shooting percentage (76.1) and rebounding (9.0), but the star against Stanford was Calvin Hermanson, who scored a career-high 25 points while hitting 7 of 9 from 3-point range. Hermanson also did an outstanding defensive job on Stanford's Dorian Pickens, who was limited to two points.

Both Gaels' starting guards were all-conference selections last season and are among the nation's leaders in assists this year. Emmett Naar is averaging 7.7 assists after collecting eight against Stanford, and Joe Rahon averages 6.2 assists and had six assists against the Cardinal.

The fast start prompted coach Randy Bennett to admit that this might be his best team in his 16 seasons at Saint Mary's.

"It's up there. We'll see," he said. "Potentially, yeah. Potentially we could be."

Aiding the Gaels is the fact that forward Dane Pineau, whose back problems caused him to miss one game and play sparingly in three others, seems to be back at full strength. He started the second half of the game against Stanford, and may be in the starting lineup for the first time this season against Arlington.

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