Bracket Busters - St. Mary's Gaels
January 21st 2011 17:40
St. Mary's Gaels
When one thinks of the West Coast Conference, Gonzaga automatically comes to mind – and for good reason. Gonzaga has been very successful under coach Mark Few, recording at least 23 wins in all of 11 seasons he has been the head coach for the Bulldogs. However, they may now have a perennial contender to the WCC championship – the St. Mary’s Gaels.
Coach Randy Bennett recruits in Australia, and it is not uncommon to spot a few Aussies in his starting lineup, such as Patty Mills. In turn, St. Mary’s started to turn it around in the 2007-08 season when Mills came to Moraga. Mills averaged 14.8 PPG during his freshman campaign and led the Gaels to the NCAA tournament as a 10 seed, losing in the first round to seven seed Miami (FL).
The 2008-09 season started off very promising when the Gaels started off 14-2, but then Mills broke his hand and missed a whole month of the regular season. St. Mary’s ended up in the NIT that year, getting to the third round before losing at San Diego State by four points. This was the end to Mills’ sophomore season and his college career. He entered the NBA draft and was drafted in the second round by the Portland Trail Blazers.
The 2009-10 season came around, and St. Mary’s needed a new go-to-guy. Senior C Omar Samhan was that guy. Samhan had been a top contributor in previous seasons, but now, this was his team. Samhan went on to play in all of St. Mary’s 34 games that season, while averaging 21.3 PPG, 10.9 RPG, and 2.9 BPG. Samhan lead the Gaels to the WCC tournament championship with a win over Gonzaga, then went on to the NCAA tournament as a 10 seed and made it to the sweet sixteen before being ousted by a hot Baylor team.
Then came the 2010-11 season. The Gaels were left again looking for another go-to-guy, and Senior G Mickey McConnell has stepped up. McConnell (who would have given Black Donnellys more credibility) is averaging 15.0 PPG and 6.4 APG, to go along with his 48.5 three point percentage. He has led his team to a record of 17-2 (5-0 in conference).
St. Mary’s will be tested in this coming week with three huge road games. The first is this Saturday when the Gaels take a cross country trip to Vanderbilt to take on the 13-4 Commodores. Led by G John Jenkins, Vanderbilt should be an NCAA team this year. On Thursday, they will make their northern WCC trip to play at Gonzaga, then on Saturday at Portland. If St. Mary’s comes out with a split of these two conference games, it will be a great building block for them on the way to a conference championship.
Key Wins: St. John’s, (N) Mississippi State
Key Losses: (N) BYU, at San Diego State
Predicition: 6-4 finish, 23-6 going into conference tournament – the conference tournament should come down to them and Gonzaga, and it’s basically a toss-up when those two meet. I’ll take St. Mary’s to beat them and go 25-6 (because of the weird format of the WCC tournament) with a nine seed in the NCAA tournament and losing in the first round, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see McConnell shoot them into the second round.
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