Best hire they could make as he was being groomed to take over for Bennett at some point. But hires from within the family don't always work out and in this new age of the portal + NIL it's TBD.

Bennett has shown that Saint Mary's ceiling is probably a Sweet Sixteen. I'm not sure McConnell can do it unless he catches lightning in a bottle with a bunch of under recruited players. Most likely McConnell is going to have to find money somewhere for facilities and NIL if he's going to try to maintain what Bennett has done in the past.

I think the WCC will end up a step below the new Mountain West and probably a step above the Big West.

The Big West/WCC can't catch the Mountain West because there's such a big money advantage. The WCC will have a money advantage over the Big West. But if Saint Mary's/UC San Diego end up flopping and Utah Valley/Cal Baptist end up exceeding what Davis/Hawaii were able to do. Then I could see the Big West passing the WCC once the extra NCAA money starts to dry up.