Momentum fuels a transition year for Saint Martin’s basketball

For six of the past seven years, Saint Martin’s University has hosted the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship basketball tournaments.

It was a bittersweet assignment for the Saints men, who never made the tournament field — until last March when everything clicked into place during coach Alex Pribble’s second season.

SMU rose to a fourth-place tie with Concordia in the regular season GNAC standings and downed the Cavaliers, 78-73, in the first round of the tournament before 2,865 enthusiastic fans.

They lost to Western Washington in the semifinals, but an even bigger crowd – 3,033 – brought electricity to Marcus Pavilion.

“It was pretty bad watching the playoffs in our own gym,” remembers junior guard Rhett Baerlocher. “That made last year even better.”

Fellow junior Jordan Kitchen, recently named to the preseason all-GNAC team after averaging 8.8 points and 5.3 rebounds a year ago, thinks SMU can use its long-awaited playoff run for momentum.

“It was huge getting to the semis,” he said. “No Saint Martin’s team had ever been in a playoff game. To see all that support from our fans was exciting. Now, we’re focused on going farther.”

Kitchen was the Saints’ fifth-leading scorer last year. Second-team all-GNAC guards Tyler Copp and Cole Preston graduated, along with 7-foot center Fred Jorg and forward Brandon Kenilvort.

“We lose a lot of our scoring from last year,” admits Pribble, who came to SMU in 2015 after stints as an assistant at Eastern Washington and San Francisco State. “But, a number of our transfers and freshmen will be ready to go right away.”

Pribble’s recruiting haul includes a pair of Division I transfers. Junior guard EJ Boyce was a part-time starter at San Jose State last year, while 6-7 senior forward Matt Dahlen started in 10 games at Oregon State.

Two community college transfers could also pay immediate dividends. Luke Chavez is a familiar name to local fans as the leading scorer (15.4 points per game) a year ago for South Puget Sound Community College. He was also named the Northwest Athletic Conference’s Western Division MVP.

Chavez, part of a famed basketball family in Pribble’s native Marin County, California, shot 47 percent from beyond the 3-point line for the Clippers.

Jared Matthews, a 6-7 forward, averaged a double-double (15.8 points, 10.7 rebounds per game) for Blue Mountain Community College in Oregon.

“EJ and Luke are tough, skilled guards. Matt and Jared are versatile forwards, they should be able to contribute,” Pribble said. “We’ve also been excited about the progress of our three freshmen, BJ Standley, Tavian Henderson and Caden Smith.”

Kitchen appreciates what the newcomers bring to the Saints.

“We’ve got athletic bigs now,” he said. “That’s huge. We can win the possession game and rebound.”

Baerlocher, who averaged 7.7 points and 5.8 rebounds a year ago, pointed to a six-day summer exhibition trip to British Columbia as an effective bonding experience. All 15 players on the current roster attended.

“We had a lot of time to hang out with guys outside the gym. We built relationships, which helps on the court,” he said. “It’s been exciting to have so much new talent come in. We’re a lot more skilled than last year, not as much of a unit yet, but we’ve got players willing to share the ball and have each other’s backs.”

Though Kitchen and Baerlocher are the top two returning scorers, they credit Pribble with insuring that no overbearing leadership pressure falls on them or fellow returnees Kazuma Lane, Michael Painter, Logan Adams, Cameron Chatwin and Robert Little.

“Coach Pribble shows us all how to attack every day and get better,” Kitchen said.

“The way he runs his team, everyone has a role in leadership, whether vocally or by example,” Baerlocher added. “One night it can be one guy, the next someone else.”

Pribble, who has posted season records of 15-13 and 17-13 since taking over a team that finished 6-22 the season before his arrival, is happy with the state of the Saints’ program, which will begin its 50th season playing home games in Marcus Pavilion on Nov. 14 against Hawaii-Hilo.

“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made and the foundation we’ve built the past two seasons,” he said. “Each year we’ve improved and each year we’ve been playing our best basketball down the stretch.”

This season, as SMU prepares for a GNAC schedule that could again be highlighted by Western Oregon and Western Washington, playing some of its best basketball right away might be advisable.

The Saints open with a road trip not unlike one of a Pac-12 team, playing at Washington on Thursday night and at Washington State on Sunday afternoon.

“I can’t imagine anything better,” Baerlocher said. “When I was a freshman, we played Gonzaga. The next year they’re in the NCAA championship game.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2017 at 2:06 PM with the headline "Momentum fuels a transition year for Saint Martin’s basketball."