CLEVELAND (AP) — Randy Bennett first met Augustas Marciulionis more than two decades ago when the Saint Mary's coach was visiting Lithuania to do a basketball clinic for Marciulionis' father, former NBA star and future Hall of Famer Sarunas.
Sarunas may or may not have been paying much attention to the local traffic laws. Augustus — all of 1-year-old at the time — may or may not have been “buzzing” around between the driver's side and the passenger side without a car seat to be found.
“I was like, ‘This is crazy,’” Bennett said with a small shake of his head. “(Augustus) doesn’t even have a seatbelt on and (his dad is) whipping around these streets.”
It was, in a way, a sign of things to come.
Nearly 20 years later, the toddler with the zoomies had grown into a talented 6-foot-4 freshman point guard for Bennett. And while Marciulionis had gained an appreciation for the importance of proper automobile safety by the time he arrived on the small Saint Mary's campus about 20 minutes east of Oakland, there was still a recklessness about him that caught Bennett by surprise.
Bennett assumed because Augustus was the son of the first Lithuanian player to reach the NBA — Sarunas spent the majority of his seven seasons in the league with the Golden State Warriors in the early 1990s as a smooth-shooting, slick passing swingman credited with introducing the Eurostep to the States — that Augustas would be close to a finished product.
Instead, what Bennett got was 195 pounds of raw material oozing with potential but decidedly naive on what it takes to play in this part of the world.
“You’d think because he’s a Marciulionis that it’s automatic, ‘Hey, this guy is a pro,’” Bennett said. “It wasn’t like that. He had to learn how to bring it every night.”
It took two full years for Marciulionis to regularly crack the starting lineup. Yet those early growing pains set the foundation for a young man in full.
When Marciulionis steps onto the Rocket Arena floor on Sunday night for the seventh-seeded Gaels (29-5) as they face second-seeded Alabama (26-8) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, he'll do it as a two-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year whose trajectory may eclipse that of former Saint Mary's stars turned NBA fixtures Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova.
“We’ve had a lot of good point guards," Bennett said. “He’s at the top.”
The player known to his teammates as “Goose” credits his father for “keeping my head where it's supposed to be.” Yes, Sarunas is basketball royalty back home, though Augustas just laughs when asked if he is in some small way Lithuania's version of Bronny James, the son of NBA icon LeBron.
“No,” Augustas said. “No, no. It's not that.”
For one thing, Augustas could probably take his dad in one-on-one if it ever came to that. Then again, Augustus points out that Sarunas is 60 and “couldn't jump over a newspaper” thanks to knees that are no longer interested in running up and down the court.
Still, there are echoes of Sarunas in his son's game. You can see it in the fluidity of his movement and the way he thinks a step or two ahead.
While Bennett credits Marciulionis for finding a way to take another step forward this season as a player — he posted career bests in points (14.3) and assists (6.0) while leading the Gaels to the WCC regular-season title — it's what he's done off the floor that has perhaps been more impressive.
The 18-year-old who arrived at Saint Mary's largely sight unseen — unless you count the Zoom call he had with Bennett during the COVID-19 pandemic in which Bennett zipped around on a golf cart trying to explain Northern California to someone who'd never been there — with marginal English skills has become a 22-year-old comfortable in his own skin and with his second language.
“He’s grown,” Bennett said. “He’s grown as a person. He’s grown as a leader. But being over here, being in the same program, being here four years, he’s kind of taken on more and more responsibility and become a better and better player.”
One who would love to finish his college career by helping the Gaels reach the Sweet 16 for just the third time in program history.
Saint Mary's has found a way to match and in some ways surpass rival and longtime WCC power Gonzaga during Marciulionis' tenure. The Gaels have won each of the last three WCC regular-season titles. What they haven't done is replicate the Bulldogs' success in March.
Marciulionis and the rest of Saint Mary's senior-laden roster understand the stakes.
“We want to leave it better for the future so people will take Saint Mary’s (more serious) nationally and pay more attention so they can recruit better players (and) get more money," he said. “We can impact that by winning a game or two more.”
To do it Marciulionis will have to hold his own against Alabama All-American Mark Sears, who like Marciulionis has designs on playing in the NBA next year. It will be a daunting task, then again, so is growing up knowing your dad is a national hero and deciding to follow in his footsteps anyway.
“He’s a little under the radar, but what he’s done the last two years has been impressive,” Bennett said. “He’s a good player. He’s really good on both sides of the ball. He’s a good defender. He’s got a nice little gap to improve still.”
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FILE - Former NBA player Sarunas Marciulionis, of Lithuania, stands on stage during the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2014 announcement, Monday, April 7, 2014, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
Saint Mary's guard Augustas Marciulionis drives to the basket in the first half against Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 21, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Greenland's people are bracing for another visit from U.S. President Donald Trump's inner circle, with second lady Usha Vance set to travel to the autonomous Danish territory this week as her husband ratchets up talk about U.S. security and “territorial” interests in the vast Arctic island coveted by the administration.
Greenland’s prime minister warned Sunday of “American aggression” and lamented a “mess” caused by the upcoming visit from Vance, who will be accompanied by Trump’s national security adviser and energy secretary. The same day, Vice President JD Vance — her husband — blasted Denmark for “not doing its job” and "not being a good ally."
“So you have to ask yourself: How are we going to solve that problem, solve our own national security?" JD Vance said on Fox News. “If that means that we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do, because he doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us.”
Denmark is a NATO ally of the United States, and northwestern Greenland already houses the U.S. Pituffik military base that falls under the Pentagon's Space Force.
Danish national police on Sunday sent extra personnel and sniffer dogs to Greenland as part of regular security measures taken during visits by dignitaries. A police spokesperson declined to give details, but news reports said dozens were flown in.
Before the president began his second term in January, a visit by Trump's eldest son heightened concerns in Greenland about possible U.S. ambitions. Donald Trump Jr. told its residents that “we’re going to treat you well” — weeks before March 11 elections that had centered on possible independence from Denmark.
Greenlandic news outlet Sermitsiaq posted images of two U.S. Hercules workhorse military aircraft on the tarmac Sunday in Nuuk, the capital, adding that the planes later departed. News reports said four bulletproof cars had also been flown in.
On her visit, Vance will attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race which features about 37 mushers and 444 dogs, her office said.
Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will also be travelling to Greenland, the White House said.
“The U.S. has a vested security interest in the Arctic region and it should not be a surprise the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Energy are visiting a U.S. Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground," said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
Greenland is also in the process of political transition. The pro-business Demokraatit party, which favors a slow path to independence, won a surprise victory in the recent elections, outpacing the two left-leaning parties that formed the last government.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede, who remains in the post until a new government is formed, acknowledged Sunday on Facebook that there is worry on the island.
The visit of "the wife of the United States vice president and the United States president’s highest security adviser cannot be seen only as a private visit,” he said. “We can already see now, how big a mess it’s caused.”
Egede said there would be no official meetings with the U.S. visitors because a new government has yet to be formed.
In an interview in Sermitsiaq, he was quoted as saying that if allied countries “do not speak out loudly about how the USA is treating Greenland, the situation will escalate day by day, and the American aggression will increase."
He called on Greenland's allies to show support, adding that “the only purpose” of a trip by Waltz is “a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood.”
“We have been treated unacceptably,” he wrote on his Facebook account.
The likely next Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Demokraatit, sought to calm nerves and said he was working on building a new coalition government “with the clear goal of creating security for our country and our people.”
“When foreign dignitaries travel to our country on what are called private visits, it rightly causes concern," he wrote on Facebook. “There is no reason to panic. But there is good reason to stand together and to demand respect. I do. And I will continue to do so.”
Trump had mused during his first term about buying the world’s largest island, even as Denmark insisted it wasn’t for sale. The people of Greenland have also firmly rejected Trump’s plans.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. will come to control Greenland while insisting he supports the idea for strategic national security reasons — not with an eye toward American expansionism.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in a statement Sunday reported by Danish broadcaster DR, insisted “the visit from the United States cannot be viewed independently of the public statements that have been made.”
“We want to cooperate with the Americans. But it must be a cooperation based on the fundamental values of sovereignty and respect between countries and peoples,” she was quoted as saying.
In Brussels, a spokesperson for the European Commission said Denmark, a member of the European Union, had the bloc's full support.
“We will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, the territorial integrity of our borders, and the UN charter. These are universal principles that we stand by, and we will not stop defending them, all the more so if the territorial integrity of our member States of the European Union is questioned,” Anitta Hipper said.
Greenland straddles strategic air and sea routes in the North Atlantic and is home to the Pituffik Space Base, which supports missile warning and space surveillance operations.
Greenland, whose population of 56,000 people are mostly from Indigenous Inuit backgrounds, also has large deposits of the rare-earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology.
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Keaten reported from Geneva and Gera from Warsaw, Poland. Lorne Cook in Brussels and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
Boys play on a frozen beach in Nuuk, Greenland, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
FILE - Usha Vance attends a campaign rally, Nov. 1, 2024, in Selma, N.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce, File)
