MORAGA >> When Randy Bennett was hired as basketball coach at Saint Mary’s College in the spring of 2001 to take over a program that was coming off a 2-27 season, Darlene Bennett had no idea what to expect from her husband’s new gig.

“I didn’t think we’d be here this long,” she said.

Bennett wasn’t sure, either.

“My expectations were, let’s get better,” he recalled. “I had enough confidence in myself and the players and coaches around me, I knew we could win more than two games.”

Now in his 22nd season, Bennett has exceeded what he or anyone else could have imagined. The 18th-ranked and West Coast Conference-leading Gaels (19-4, 8-0) play rival USF (15-9, 4-5) tonight in Moraga, and if the Gaels prevail, Bennett will pocket his 500th victory.

Darlene Bennett recently asked her husband about No. 500. Like a coach, playing ’em one at a time, Bennett declined to go down that road. “He ignored me.”

It’s impossible to ignore now, even for the coach. “Now it’s getting close,” Bennett conceded last week. “That number’s hard to get to.”

More than 100 coaches have reached that number, but that’s over 100 years, and not many have done it under Bennett’s circumstances at Saint Mary’s.

“What he has accomplished there is truly remarkable,” said Carl Clapp, the athletic director who hired Bennett.

“When it’s all said and done, based off the resources that we’ve had, it’s going to be one of the better coaching (jobs) in the history of the NCAA,” said current Saint Mary’s AD Mike Matoso.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few, whose 12th-ranked Zags (18-4, 7-1) visit Moraga on Saturday night in a duel for first place, labeled as “amazing” what his friend and rival has achieved. “He’s far and away one of the best coaches in all of college basketball.”

Some evidence:

• Discounting the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic season, Saint Mary’s has won at least 20 games in 14 consecutive seasons, dating to 2007-08. Among 61 other Division I programs in 13 Western states — including the likes of UCLA and Arizona — only Gonzaga can match that.

• The Gaels had advanced to the NCAA Tournament just three times in program history before Bennett arrived. They have made it eight times since 2005 — more than any WCC team other than Gonzaga and more than any Bay Area program during that span.

• Bennett, at 499-204, is about to join former Stanford and Cal coach Mike Montgomery as the only men’s coach to compile 500 victories at any of the Bay Area’s six Division I schools.

Montgomery took over a Stanford program in 1986-87 that hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament since winning it in 1942, then led the Cardinal to 12 NCAA bids, including a Final Four appearance in 1998. That gives him a special appreciation for what Bennett has achieved.

“Randy’s as good as it gets,” Montgomery said. “He’s established a program in terms of how they want to play, a culture there, that you just don’t see in college basketball. The buy-in, the commitment that those kids have to that program is absolutely incredible. It’s a tribute to him.”

Two primary components have allowed Bennett to thrive at a place that had nine winning seasons in the 38 years before he got there.

First, he builds relationships, starting with his players, that allow the Gaels to often outperform their individual talent level.

Second, he tapped into a gold mine of players in Australia before most others found it.

The two are intertwined to the extent that the success Aussie players have enjoyed at Saint Mary’s has helped Bennett create a pipeline from Down Under. The three ex-Gaels currently playing in the NBA — Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Jock Landale — all are Australians.

Bennett says the Aussie connection was “lucky.” He was tipped off about guard Adam Caporn, one of his first recruits, who later helped the Gaels land their first big star. Daniel Kickert, a 6-foot-10 forward from Melbourne, scored more than 1,800 points in his career and was a cornerstone of Bennett’s first NCAA team in 2005.

Bennett has continued cultivating relationships in Australia, with this year’s team featuring senior starters Alex Ducas and Kyle Bowen along with 7-foot-1 freshman center Harry Wessels. Jensen Bradtke, a 6-foot-10 forward whose father was a four-time Olympic basketball player, has signed with the Gaels and next season will become the program’s 23rd player from Australia.

Clapp said Bennett’s ability to connect with people first showed during the hiring process, although it didn’t hurt when former UCLA coach Steve Lavin and the late Utah coach Rick Majerus made last-minute calls on his behalf.

“He wasn’t first in line,” said Clapp, who indicated the search committee was initially focused on two others. “I reached out to Randy, and immediately I just liked him as a person. I brought him to campus, and eventually we all agreed Randy was the right fit.”

That fit, among other things, involved Bennett’s being willing and able to function in an environment without all the bells and whistles of more affluent programs. “There were some challenges,” said Clapp, who said the Gaels weren’t even fully funded on the scholarship front.

The disparity in resources is the biggest difference between Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, Montgomery said.

“Gonzaga built a facility. Gonzaga charters jets. They’re big-time in terms of budget and commitment,” Montgomery said. “Saint Mary’s has pretty much kept their resources on an even keel in terms of how they’re doing things.”

As the Gaels began to stack NCAA Tournament appearances, some bigger schools flirted with hiring Bennett. Few, who has built a national program at Gonzaga, said he has routinely provided Bennett’s name when asked for a coaching recommendation.

“I think he could win anywhere because he’s got such a conviction in what he does,” Few said. “But I’m also happy and proud of him for staying there at Saint Mary’s. It’s been great for our league to have him. He’s made us so much better.”

Now 60, Bennett said he’s never seriously been tempted to leave, and by the time his two sons, Chase and Cade, approached high school age, it was pretty much off the table. Cade is now a freshman walk-on with the Gaels.

“Many people leave, and they go to bigger and better, and they make more money. And he’s not about that,” Darlene Bennett said. “He’s so loyal and he’s so faithful. That has kept him here.”