Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett has seven Australians on his roster this season, and he better not recruit any more than needed to replace those who leave.
Because there’s eight Americans on the team this season.
“It’s important that we hold down the majority in the locker room,” said Calvin Hermanson, a forward from Oregon. “We keep them in their place.”
Hermanson was joking, of course, as was Joe Rahon, an alum of San Diego’s Torrey Pines High School. Rahon said the two sides have actually been able to learn from each other off the court while working together on it.
“There are no Australians in my hometown,” Rahon said. “It’s cool … you get to meet all of them. They’re from different parts of Australia but they all talk the same and laugh at the same jokes. The kind of dive into their culture a little bit and (we) learn about the second-best country in the world, I guess.”
Apparently, though, Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett may not be on the inside of this cultural exchange even as he’s become known for a productive Aussie pipeline that has produced NBA players Matthew Dellavedova and Patty Mills.
“He tries to act like he’s got the Australian culture down,” Saint Mary’s center Jock Landale said. “But I don’t think he does whatsoever.”
