Saint Mary’s Men’s Basketball head coach Randy Bennett announced the promotion of former Gael great Joe Rahon to assistant coach for the upcoming 2022-23 season. Next season will mark his second on the men’s basketball coaching staff after spending two seasons on the Gaels roster from 2015-17.
Rahon’s promotion to assistant coach comes after spending one season as the Recruiting Coordinator during the 2021-22 season. His one season on the staff was a memorable one, with the Gaels finishing the season unbeaten at home for the first time in University Credit Union Pavilion history, beating No. 1 Gonzaga at home to close out the regular season, and recording the highest-seed in NCAA Tournament history for the Gaels (No. 5 seed).
“We are excited to keep Joe on our staff and to elevate him to this role,” Bennett noted. “His basketball experience and Saint Mary’s experience is invaluable to the program. Having him on the staff will continue to make our program better.”
Several Gaels showed huge improvements under Rahon’s tutelage, including Tommy Kuhse, who was named the WCC’s Sixth Man of the Year and First Team All-WCC for the first time in his career. Matthias Tass also landed on the All-WCC team, in addition to Logan Johnson and Alex Ducas on the Second Team.
Rahon spent those two seasons in Moraga after transferring from Boston College following his sophomore season. He immediately was slotted into the starting lineup, and with the one-two punch of Rahon and Emmett Naar, the Gaels suddenly had one of the strongest backcourts in program history.
Twice, Rahon was named First Team All-WCC, including as a senior, when he took home WCC Defensive Player of the Year honors. That made Rahon just the fourth-Gael in program history to win the award, and the first since Omar Samhan in 2010. He was also the conference’s Newcomer of the Year in 2016, winning the award for the Gaels for the first time since Patty Mills did so in 2008.
Despite playing just two seasons at Saint Mary’s, Rahon has his name all over the SMC record book, including an eighth-place ranking in career assists. He also posted the fourth-best career assists-per-game average (5.52) and his 1,293 minutes played during his junior campaign are the second most in Saint Mary’s history, behind his teammate of that year, Naar (1,301).
Once his playing days as a Gael were over, Rahon headed to Europe to begin a professional career that spanned three seasons. He made his debut with Limburg United in Belgium before spending his final two seasons in Germany playing for the Fraport Skyliners.
https://smcgaels.com/news/2022/6/16/mens-basketball-mbb-rahon-promoted-to-assistant-coach.aspx
