re in the national ethos.Rupinder SinghFormer University-level athlete, the foremost Indian broadcaster on athletics for the past three decades.S

Q: What has 30 legs, weighs 1? tons and cant decide whether to put Vegemite or jelly on its toast?A: The Saint Marys College mens basketball team.The pipeline of basketball talent from Australia to Moraga, California, has been gushing for 15 years, and its not likely to stop anytime soon. Following in the footsteps of NBA veterans Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova, seven Aussies are members of the current Gaels team -- a program that has boasted at least one player from Australia every season since Randy Bennett became head coach in 2001. Seventeen Aussies have seen game action for the Gaels over the years.The discovery of future No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Andrew Bogut at the Australian Institute of Sport in the early 2000s greatly raised the profile of Aussie players with American recruiters. After Bogut signed on at the University of Utah, other colleges began recruiting Australia in hopes of finding another big man with soft hands and smooth footwork. At the same time, Saint Marys began developing talent at other positions with players such as Mills, a guard who drew little interest from rival schools.Everyone then was asking, Where did this Andrew Bogut come from? Mills said. He came from the AIS. So then all the college scouts came to the AIS for the next couple years, trying to find the next Andrew Bogut. I definitely wasnt a 7-foot-1 big white guy.Bennett forged a relationship with AIS and its head coach at the time, Marty Clarke. AIS was in the business of training athletes for Australias national teams, and most of the Aussies who have played at Saint Marys are AIS alumni. Clarke went on to serve as head coach of the Adelaide 36ers of the NBL, Australias top pro league, and as an assistant with the countrys national team. Hes now entering his fourth season as an assistant to Bennett at Saint Marys. Clarke still remembers Bennett telling him that it was a goal for Saint Marys to help develop an Olympic player for Australia -- something that came to fruition when Mills competed for the Boomers at Beijing in 2008.No other college coach had spoken like that, Clarke said. It was more about them talking about how the kid could help the school -- not how the school could help the kid. That really stuck in my mind. Its hard to recruit Australia, because there isnt lots and lots of high-end talent. Theres a lot of good players that maybe just dont have the raw athleticism that high-level Division I schools need.Fast forward to 2016: Now, the Gaels are getting the best of both worlds -- skilled guards in the mold of Mills and Dellavedova and big men to hold down the post, with four Aussies 6-foot-9 or taller on the current roster. And theres no reason to believe the connection that started with guard Adam Caporn in 2001 will end anytime soon. Saint Marys went 29-6 last season and has won more than 20 games in each of the past nine seasons. Thats heady stuff for a program that was 2-27 the season prior to Bennetts arrival.Where would the Saint Marys program be without its Aussie connection?I doubt we wouldve gotten to where we are now, said Bennett, who took Gaels teams to Australia for summer tours in 2005, 2009 and 2013. We stumbled upon it, and then we figured out, Hey, this is a good deal. And then we started making sure we built our program with Australia involved in it.Indeed, many Aussies have been pillars of Bennetts program. Dellavedova and Daniel Kickert rank Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in career points at the school. Mills was a two-time All-West Coast Conference performer and remains the only Gael selected in the NBA draft since 1983. Emmett Naar and Dane Pineau were the top scorer and rebounder, respectively, on last seasons team.Mills was the tipping point for the Aussie connection, as more and more Gaels games were featured on Australian television during his two seasons at Saint Marys. After Mills elevated the programs status Down Under, Dellavedova cemented it by rewriting the schools record book.In addition to being the Gaels all-time leading scorer, Delly also owns the career marks for games played and started, assists, 3-point field goals made and free throw percentage. He helped the Gaels earn three NCAA tournament berths and was named All-WCC three times in four years.Typically, Australians arent into the hype and all that other stuff that might be presented in the recruiting process, Dellavedova said, explaining Saint Marys appeal to his countrymen. At the bigger schools, they might show you the facilities or the massive stadiums. But at Saint Marys, they talk more about how theyre going to develop you as a player and as a person. I think thats something that appeals to Australians, and we like the close, tight-knit community where everybody knows each other.Said Bennett: They dont have a basketball hierarchy the same way as the kids in the United States do. Saint Marys to them is just as good as going to Duke.Looking ahead to this season, which tips off for Saint?Marys on Friday against Nevada, Pineau and Naar hope to power the Gaels back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since Dellavedova led them there in 2013. Saint Marys is ranked No. 19 in the preseason USA Today Coaches Poll and is once again expected to battle Gonzaga for the WCC championship.Pineau, a 6-foot-9 senior forward from Melbourne, started closely following the Gaels when Mills was on the team and said he had his heart set on Saint Marys pretty early on despite interest from other schools. Pineau then helped secure Naar, a 6-foot-1 junior guard from Sydney. Like Pineau, his former AIS roommate, Naar was influenced by Mills success.He wasnt the first Australian to come here, but he was the first big name, Naar said of Mills. Having an Australian come over, play two years and get drafted is pretty exceptional. That put his name out there and really put Saint Marys on the map.Meantime, the talent keeps coming across the Pacific to Northern California. The connection remains strong with the AIS basketball program, now known as the Centre of Excellence, which just happens to employ Caporn as an associate coach. Two of the Gaels incoming freshmen this year are from Australia, and the schools womens team lists three players from Australia and one from New Zealand this season.Its just a place that feels like your home away from home, Mills said. Thats definitely what it was like for me. Nike Shox Cheap . Robredo, ranked No. 16, bounced back from an upset loss to Leonardo Mayer in the second round of the Royal Guard Open in Chile last week to down Carreno Busta in 1 hour, 25 minutes. On a day filled mostly with qualifying matches, fifth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain also entered the second with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, while Guido Pella of Argentina defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (6), 6-4 to advance. Cheap Nike Shox Gravity Mens .J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his left knee. http://www.clearancenikeshoxcheap.com/womens-vapormax-cheap.html . The Masters champion and winner of last weeks Australian PGA has a three-round total of 14-under 199 at Royal Melbourne. "Im in a really good position for tomorrow," Scott said. Nike Shox Online . Brandon Morrow allowed five runs on six hits over three innings. He struck out two, walked one and hit a batter. Edwin Encarnacion had a two-out, bases loaded two-RBI double in the third inning. Cheap Mens Nike Shox . Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. The 26 who helped us pick the Top 20 moments in Indian sport.Aparna PopatWinner of a record nine straight national badminton titles, multiple Commonwealth Games medallist and finalist at the world junior badminton championships.Ashwini NachappaNational sprint champion, Arjuna Awardee and founder of the Clean Sports India initiative focussed on an increase of athletic involvement in sports administration and the anti-doping movement in IndiaBishan Singh Bedi Former India cricket captain, the leader of Indias celebrated spin quartet and one of the countrys most well-respected spinners, his 266 Test wickets a benchmark for Indian spinners who followed.Cedric DSouzaTwo-time coach of the Indian national hockey team, currently head coach for the Austrian mens team and hockey commentator.Charu Sharma Multi-sport commentator, quiz master and compere and founder of the Pro Kabaddi League, the most successful of the non-cricket franchise-based Indian sports leagues and former national diving champion.Geet SethiNine time world billiards champion in both amateur and professional formats, four time national snooker champion, gold medalist at the Asian Games and founder member of Olympic Gold Quest, a private non-profit formed to help elite Indian athletes perform at the highest level.Gulu Ezekiel?Journalist, author of 12 books on cricket and other sports, sports historian and passionate collector of sporting memorabilia.IM Vijayan One of Indias premier footballers, known as Indias Black Pearl who played club football for Kerala Police and Mohun Bagan and scored 40 goals from his 79 international caps.Jagbir SinghFormer centre-forward with the Indian hockey team, two time Olympian in Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992, currently Indias foremost player-commentator on the game.Jaidip MukerjeaOne of the countrys foremost singles players from the amateur era, reaching fourth rounds at Wimbledon, French and US Open, and third round at the Australian Open, winner of Asian and national titles, part of the Davis Cup team which reached the challenge round - i.e. the final - in 1966, and also served as Davis Cup non-playing captain.Jeev Milkha SinghProfessional golfer, the first Indian to compete on the European PGA tour and break into the top 50 of the world rankings, and the most successful Indian on the EPGA tour, winning four titles.K Arumugam Journalist, hockey historian and statistician and author who runs the countrys longest running hockey website stick2hockey, and onethousandhockeylegs, an NGO which promotes hockey at the grassroot level.K P MohanVeteran sports journalist retired from The Hindu, an authority on Indian athletes for over four plus decades, with vast experience in covering other Olympic spoort as well.ddddddddddddManisha MalhotraNational tennis champion, Indian Fed Cupper, silver medallist at the 2002 Busan Asian Games, Chief Operating Officer of the pioneering Mittals Champions Trust, the earliest private initiative to support Indias elite athletes with access to finance and sporting expertise.Mansher Singh Former national trap shooting champion, one of Indias longest serving trap shooters and Asian Games triple-silver medallist, who now coaches Olympic hopeful Kynan Chenai.Michael FerreiraOne of the Indias most outspoken athletes, three-time world amateur billiards champion, the first amateur to break the 1000 point barrier in his sport, and winner of national sports awards both as a competitor and a coach.Novy KapadiaBroadcaster and journalist on several Indian sports, primarily football and hockey, for over three decades,writer and columnist.Rahul DravidFormer India cricket captain and one of Indias greatest batsmen, scoring more than 24,000 international runs and the fourth highest scorer in Test cricket, currently coach of national under-19 team.Rohit BrijnathSports writer with The Straits Times in Singapore and co-author of Abhinav Bindras autobiography A Shot at History.Ronojoy SenFormer journalist, currently Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore and the author of?Nation At Play: A History of Sport In India, an exhaustive and in-depth examination of sporting culture in the national ethos.Rupinder SinghFormer University-level athlete, the foremost Indian broadcaster on athletics for the past three decades.Sanjay SharmaBadminton player, Thomas Cupper, national coach, writer, commentator on Indian badminton and author of The World Beneath His Feat an authorised biography of Pullela Gopichand and Courage beyond Compare, about the trials and achievements of Indias leading paralympic athletes.Suma ShirurOlympic finalist in 10m rifle shooting, the second Indian to qualify for an Olympic shooting final in Athens 2004, now a shooting coach running her own academy outside Mumbai.Tom AlterActor, sports enthusiast, one of the earliest promoters of triathlon in India and author of The Longest Race, a novel about youth and running.Venkatesan DevarajanOne of Indias breakout boxers from the 1990s, who won a boxing World Cup medal - a bronze in Bangkok 1994 - the first World Cup medal won outside the country, the Olympian is currently a boxing selector.Vasudevan BaskaranCaptain of the gold-medal winning Indian hockey team at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and a sturdy defender who had several stints as a coach of the national team. ' ' '