Saint Mary's bring Aussie pipeline full circle with NBL tour

Three NBL teams will play pre-season games against one of the United States’ top college teams, leading into the Hungry Jack’s NBL27 Season.

The Saint Mary’s Gaels announced recently that they will partaking in an Australian tour in August, which will feature stops in Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns.

During the August 9-21, the Gaels, which feature Australians Josh Dent, Rory Hawke and Luke Fennell, will play pre-season fixtures against NBL outfits, Illawarra Hawks (August 13), South East Melbourne Phoenix (August 16) and Cairns Taipans (August 19).

Saint Mary’s has strong ties to the NBL, with Matthew Dellavedova, Patty Mills, Jock Landale, Adam Caporn, Daniel Kickert, Clint Steindl, Jordi Hunter, Alex Ducas, Tanner Krebs, Kyle Bowen, Dane Pineau, Emmett Naar and Lucas Walker all being notable alums.

In fact, more than 20 Australian players have walked through the doors at Saint Mary’s, since Caporn in 2001.

Caporn’s arrival at the school boiled down to each participant taking a punt on each other.

Head Coach Randy Bennett – who ran the program from 2001 to 2026 – had never seen the guard play. Caporn, on the other hand, had never even been to the college campus.

Bennett still had a pair of scholarship offers burning a hole in his back pocket at the time though, and his team had won just eight games the season prior. Caporn made the journey over and one of basketball’s great transpacific relationships was born.

“Randy Bennett now, is a legend,” Saint Mary’s second all-time leading scorer Daniel Kickert, who was the second Australian to commit to the school after Capon, told NBL Media.

"He’ll go down as one of the greatest coaches in the NCAA. I think his record stands for itself. He’s a legend of the area and a legend in college basketball, but before all that – before Capes and I got there – he was new to head coaching.

“He recruited Capes just off word of mouth. He took a risk on him and that opened the doorway to Australia. The way they go about recruiting and the way coach Bennett runs the program just ties itself well to Australians and our attitude, our approach to the game and what our expectations are.

“In the recruiting process you see all the glitz and the glamour and guys telling you how you’re going to be the next big thing. There’s a lot of that type of behaviour and I think a lot of Australians shy away from that – at least I did. The relationship with Saint Mary’s is they were really up front and honest with me.

“I think that went a long way as to why they had some early successes. They’re really straight up, they weren’t promising the world and then fortunately for Australians, we had some success there.

“Some of the recruiting trips I went on I’d go into the coach’s office and they’d want to pray with me for ten minutes, and that’s all well and good, but that doesn’t fit my personality. Getting picked up in limos and all that kind of stuff, that didn’t feel real to me. Then I went to Saint Mary’s, and it felt real.

“I felt a good relationship with the coach and the staff, it all felt up front and honest and I felt comfortable with those people."

All of Saint Mary's pre-season fixtures in Australian will be streamed live via NBL.com.au and the NBL App.