NCAA Tournament 2016: Five biggest snubs on Selection Sunday

3. Saint Mary’s Gaels

The Saint Mary’s Gaels were always going to be an interesting case coming into Selection Sunday given the trials that they were forced to face in their regular season schedule. A previous NCAA rules violation has made the Gaels ineligible to play in any kind of season-opening tournament or anything of the sort, thus limiting some of the big teams that they could play on their non-conference schedule. That ultimately proved to be a difference maker as Saint Mary’s missed out on the field of 68, but it really shouldn’t have.

The Gaels lost only five games in total on the season and finished tied in the regular season atop the West Coast Conference with the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Moreover, Saint Mary’s beat Gonzaga twice during the regular season, though they did fall to the Bulldogs in the conference tournament. Though Saint Mary’s biggest win outside of the WCC was probably against a Stanford Cardinal team that also missed the NCAA Tournament, they did play a really good Cal team on the road and only lost by four points in that matchup.

Though there is a deserved knock against Saint Mary’s due to their non-conference schedule, the way they played in the WCC and the wins over a really good Gonzaga team should have been enough in the end to get them into the NCAA Tournament.

Next: No. 2 St. Bonaventure