UConn, Saint Mary's have only played once before: 'They had their big center, what's his name?'

ALBANY, N.Y. — UConn-Saint Mary's. Doesn't exactly conjure up memories of great moments from Husky seasons past, does it? There's no villainous coach roaming the opposing sidelines, a la Rick Pitino and his long history against the UConn men's basketball team. No transfers between the programs that foster ill will, certainly no history of conference or even postseason battles. There's barely any history at all, really. All there is is one game, on Dec. 17, 2006 in Hartford, one of two East Coast trips the California-based Gaels made that season. The Huskies, in the midst of their first postseason-less season in 20 years, still rolled to an 89-73 victory. "They had their big center, what's his name? Hasheem ... Thabeet," Randy Bennett, the Gaels' 22nd-year head coach, recalled on Saturday. "Coach Calhoun was there then. I remember we got beat ... I remember I made the decision I wasn't going back out there again." He hasn't, but UConn and Saint Mary's will meet again on Sunday in an NCAA Tournament second-round game at MVP Arena (6:10 p.m., TNT). The fourth-seeded Huskies (26-8) advanced with a win over another team nicknamed the Gaels — Pitino's Iona — on Friday. Fifth-seeded Saint Mary's (27-7) topped VCU in its first-round game. "I've just got a ton of respect for Randy," UConn coach Dan Hurley said. "I think, obviously, you guys have your opinion of who you think the best coaches are that coach our sport, but Randy is one of the best actual coaches in terms of players developing, culture, identity, winning year-in and year-out." Hurley and Bennett do share a brief history. On Dec. 27, 2013, in Hurley's first season at the helm at Rhode Island, Saint Mary's hosted Hurley & Co. in what amounted to a "buy" game against the rebuilding Rams. "He was kind enough to give us a check to fly out there to get our butt kicked," Hurley recalled, with a smile. Indeed, Saint Mary's rolled to an 82-59 triumph. Sunday night promises to be a much closer affair between two teams that have been among the darlings of the NET rankings this season. UConn has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the NET, one of the NCAA selection committee's chief metrics tools, and currently ranks No. 8. Saint Mary's is currently No. 11 and has been as high as No. 6. In fact, Saint Mary's finished tied with perennial national powerhouse Gonzaga atop the West Coast Conference this season but earned the top seed in the league tournament because it had (at the time) a higher NET ranking than the Zags. "When you look at them, you see, for me, some similarities to the Villanova teams, in terms of they don't make a lot of mistakes," Hurley noted. "They really grind you up at the offensive end with long possessions, and then their defense, they give you very, very little. And obviously, the pace of play is one of the slowest in the country." You have to dig deep to find any more connections between the schools, but there are a couple. UConn grad guard Joey Calcaterra played four seasons at San Diego, which plays in the WCC, and faced them six times. "Tough team to play against," said Calcaterra, who averaged just 4.3 points and shot a mere 20-percent from 3-point land in those six games. Meanwhile, Logan Johnson, Saint Mary's fifth-year starting guard, began his career at Cincinnati. In his one season playing for coach Mick Cronin, Johnson played in 32 games off the bench but averaged just 7 minutes and 2 points per game. In two games against the Huskies in Hurley's first year at the helm, Johnson scored four points in 10 minutes of action. "They played really fast, tried to dominate the boards," Johnson recalled. "Defensively, they were aggressive. (Hurley's) done a great job with them and turned them into a real problem nowadays." Now, four years later, 10 years after Hurley's only other game against Bennett and 16 years since the first and only game between the programs, UConn-Saint Mary's will unfold again. All that's at stake is a trip to the Sweet 16 in Las Vegas. "They come from an underrated WCC conference, and they're the season champions," UConn freshman Alex Karaban said. "We know they're a tough team. They like to play at their pace. they've got two great guards, a great center. They've got a great supporting cast around them. We're going to be in for a battle." david.borges@hearstmediact.com @DaveBorges

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