Head Coach Randy Bennett of Saint Mary's is this week's featured guest on the Field of 68's West Coast Conference Insider Men's Basketball podcast. The Gaels (27-4, 16-2) are coming off a 70-59 win over Gonzaga to clinch a share of the league's regular season crown for the fourth year in a row. Saint Mary's will play its first game at the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Championship on March 9th at 8:30 p.m. PT on ESPN2.
The West Coast Conference currently boasts three programs in the top 41 in the NET rankings - No. 6 Gonzaga, No. 21 Saint Mary’s and No. 41 Santa Clara. Gonzaga is ranked No. 12 in both the AP poll and USA Today Coaches poll, while Saint Mary's is ranked No. 21 in both polls and Santa Clara is receiving votes in the AP poll.
The Field of 68 Network hosts the West Coast Conference Insider podcast, featuring interviews with head coaches and student-athletes from men's basketball programs around the conference each week. Hosted by Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster, the Field of 68 is a men's college basketball-centric network of podcasts and content. As of February 2026, The Field of 68 has built a combined audience of over 260,000 followers across its primary social media platforms. It currently boasts over 147K followers on X, over 71K on YouTube and over 44K on Instagram.
Timestamps are listed below for efficient viewing:
0:44 - Saint Mary's clinches a share of the West Coast Conference regular season title
"Four in a row for the Gaels. It's incredible what they've been able to do there." - Rob Dauster
2:00 - Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Championship preview
6:50 - Coach Bennett joins the show
9:24 - What wins in the final week of the season meant
"It was about winning the championship and the journey we had to take to get there... We had Santa Clara and Gonzaga at home in incredible atmospheres, both of them, probably the best I've seen in 25 years in our program...It was kind of a storybook deal and our guys were able to stay focused and just compartmentalize and get it done and that was one of our goals for these guys too."
14:00 - Joshua Dent and the pros of staying at Saint Mary's for multiple years
Josh is the perfect example. I'm telling our freshmen and new guys this year that maybe they're not playing a lot, you're playing more than Josh Dent did last year and it worked out for Josh. Josh was all conference today they released it, it's a great story, but you know what that was in 2008-09, that was Mickey McConnell. Same story, didn't play much freshman and sophomore year started playing, actually Dent's ahead of it. Mickey was all conferences junior year when Patty (Mills) left and then senior year player of the year.
19:04 - Favorite personalities Coach Bennett's coached
23:31 - Why should Santa Clara be in the NCAA Tournament?
"They're good. They're talented. They're big. I think three teams in out league definitely have a good resume and they're one of them, they're right there. They can score on you, they're different this year. Their defense is picking up full court and they try to wear you out and they're married to it... This is the best team Herb (Sendek)'s had."
To watch the complete episode on YouTube, click here. To listen on Apple Podcasts, click here.
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