by Michael Vernetti

As Saint Mary’s fans watched — sometimes happy, sometimes dismayed — their Gaels close out the non-conference portion of the 2016-17 season with a 74-47 win over out-manned South Carolina State in Moraga on Thursday, they may have been concerned about some other developments around the conference.

— San Francisco upsetting former Pac-12 high flyer Utah, 89-86, in the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu;

— Santa Clara taking down Valparaiso at Valpo, 87-80, in double overtime;

— Loyola Marymount coming within a whisker of upsetting Texas-Arlington in Los Angeles, before losing 80-77.

Holy Upset, Batman, what the heck is going on here?

It seemed for a few moments as if the perfect order of things in the WCC might be rattled. Nothing is slowing down Gonzaga, to be sure, as the Zags finished off their pre-conference schedule by demolishing South Dakota 102-65 on Wednesday to remain undefeated at 12-0.

But, BYU is struggling at 9-4 and the Gaels have looked liked anything but world beaters in their last two games. So, do perennial also-rans San Francisco, Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount have reason to contemplate cracking the conference’s top tier? Could one of them replace BYU in the top three or, even more shocking to contemplate, challenge Saint Mary’s for an even higher finish?

The answers are 1) yes, 2) possibly and 3) not this year.

Some analysis

Let’s first tackle the case of Saint Mary’s, the team closest to our hearts. Yes they displayed a wavering attention span and continued predilection for directing passes at people in other than white jerseys against South Carolina State. But, after a halftime encounter with Coach Randy Bennett, they bounced back to post a 43-point second half and hold their second straight opponent to fewer than 50 points.

If enthusiastic South Carolinian Raynor Powell had not decided to keep playing when everyone else had called it quits — hoisting a successful three-pointer with .5 of a second left — the Gaels could have claimed a four-game series of declining opponent scores: 53 (UC Irvine), 51 (Western Kentucky) and 46 (Texas A&M Corpus Christi). Forty-four for South Carolina would have kept the narrative going, but Mr. Powell wasn’t on board with the plan.

I think the Gaels played this week like a bored team that is looking for new challenges. The 13 turnovers against A&M and 14 against South Carolina were coming more from front-line players like Jock Landale (7) and Calvin Hermanson (4) than primary ball-handlers Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar. That pair has accounted for 12 and 10 assists, respectively, over the last two games, with only five turnovers.

Answering questions after the game, Bennett indicated he wants more from Landale, despite the center’s notching his third straight double-double (20 points, 11 rebounds). “I didn’t think Landale was as dominant as he could have been in the first half…he is capable of doing a lot of great things,” Bennett said.

Landale didn’t disagree with Bennett’s analysis, saying “I think what was at fault in the first half was we just weren’t playing hard enough…Coach wanted us to play harder and more as a unit. We did that in the second half and it worked well for us.”

LMU impressive

Of the three impressive WCC performances Thursday night, LMU’s might be the standout. Texas-Arlington rolled into Gersten Pavilion in the midst of an eight-game winning streak, including the 65-51 smack-down of Saint Mary’s on Dec. 8. The Mavericks had their dominating forward Kevin Hervey, who recorded a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, lightening-quick point guard Erick Neal, who dished out 11 assists, and high-scoring Jaren Jones, who led all scorers with 15 points, but still couldn’t pull away from the Lions.

LMU had two chances to tie the game after cutting the lead to 80-77 with less than a minute left, but missed both three-point attempts. The Lions are being led by senior guard Brandon Brown, and getting boosts from transfers Stefan Jovanovic from Hawaii and Trevor Manuel from Oregon, who saw his first action last week.

San Francisco and Santa Clara, while both posting good wins, faced teams that have experienced significant drop-offs from last season. Valparaiso, which ended the Gaels’ season in the quarterfinals of the NIT last year with a 60-44 win, has lost four players behind NBA prospect Alec Peters, along with head coach Bryce Drew, who bolted to Vanderbilt. A victory on the Valpo home court was still a significant accomplishment for the 6-7 Broncos.

The same holds true for San Francisco, which beat a Utah team minus NBA center Jacob Poeltl and outstanding forward Jordan Loveridge. The Utes’ best returning player, Kyle Kuzma, went down with an ankle injury on the first minute of the San Francisco game, and Utah has been picked to finish 8th in the Pac-12, about the same ranking as Gaels’ opponent Stanford. By knocking off Utah in the opening round of the Diamond Head tournament, however, Kyle Smith’s Dons made a statement about their expectations in the WCC race. Let’s say they are not limited.

As much as standings mean anything based on non-conference schedules, Gonzaga heads the WCC at 12-0, Saint Mary’s is second at 10-1, San Francisco third at 9-2 (with additional games coming in Hawaii), BYU is fourth at 9-4, LMU fifth at 6-4, Portland and San Diego are tied for sixth at 7-5, and Santa Clara (6-7), Pacific (5-7) and Pepperdine, suffering without starting guard Amadi Udenyi, who suffered his second season-ending Achilles tear in three years, is bringing up the rear at 4-8.

As I said during the summer in forecasting the WCC race, San Francisco has a great opportunity to finish fourth under new coach Kyle Smith, the former Bennett assistant, or perhaps bypass BYU for third. We’ll start seeing results that count next Thursday (Dec. 29) when, among others, the Gaels head into LMU to open the conference season with a bang.

Whether that bang is a celebratory one or a funeral peal depends on whether Landale and his mates at Saint Mary’s show up with the ferocity and determination they displayed against Dayton, UAB and Stanford, instead of the inattention evident in the first half against South Carolina.

Odds and ends

Some tidbits from Thursday night’s victory over South Carolina State:

Naar and Pineau still looking good. Gaels’ assistant head coach Marty Clarke gushed about Dane Pineau’s recent defensive performance on Alex Jensen’s broadcast, indicating the coaching staff thinks the 6-9 forward is over nagging back problems. Pineau took only four shots in the game, making three and demonstrating with a couple of catches in traffic that he might have the best hands of any Gael big man.

Naar had an unusual game, making only 3-8 shots and contributing three assists, but showing on one first-half sprint down the court that he was feeling no pain in his left leg. Nothing came of the full-court dash, but Naar was going all-out and showing no signs of a limp. I’m betting he comes out smoking against LMU next Thursday.

Krebs not shy. Tanner Krebs  broke out of a mini-slump Tuesday night against A&M, making his first three-pointer in several games. He apparently took that as a harbinger of better things to come, as he dropped eight three-point attempts on South Carolina, converting three. The sequence of his shots was interesting, suggesting Krebs has the requisite bad memory that helps shooters forget their misses:

He missed the first attempt, launched around the 10:49 mark; nailed the second on a catch-and-shoot off transition offense; missed four in a row; then nailed his final two. Bennett continued to praise Krebs, saying all he has to do to get substantial minutes is improve his defense.

Christmas off. The Gaels have a three-day break beginning today (Friday), which will allow them to celebrate Christmas before returning to work on Monday to begin preparations for LMU.

Emmett Naar, pictured above in an earlier game, showed signs against South Carolina State that his injured left leg is fully healed. The Gaels will need his ball-handling, scoring and assist-making when they open WCC play next Thursday. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

So, you hold a team averaging nearly 82 PPG to 46 points; a team that was 7-2 coming into Moraga and that won 25 games a year ago; a team with everyone back from that 25-win team.

And, yet, the mood in McKeon Pavilion after Saint Mary’s defeated Texas A&M Corpus Christi 67-46 Tuesday was “meh.” The Gaels shot only 42%, 33% from three-point range; they turned the ball over 13 times against 17 assists, far from the 23 to seven assist-to-turnover ratio they achieved against Western Kentucky in the previous game; four of their most consistent three-point shooters — Calvin Hermanson, Kyle Clark, Stefan Gonzalez and Evan Fitzner — were a combined 0-9 in the second half.

So, “meh.”There was even some relief that a meltdown such as that experienced against Texas-Arlington (L66-51) two weeks ago was averted: the Islanders — their campus is located on an actual island in Corpus Christi — closed a 15-point halftime gap to five points (47-42) with a little more than nine minutes left.

In truth it wasn’t that bad, as the Gaels reeled off a streak of their own to go up by 11, 55-44, a few minutes later. Stepping in for the usual three-point-shooting suspects was team leader Joe Rahon, sinking a crucial three-pointer after Texas A&M narrowed the lead to five. Rahon, who scored exactly zero points in the Western Kentucky win, yet controlled that game with 10 assists, sensed that his teammates left their hot hands in the locker room. He took an unusually high number of three-pointers — five — sinking four to provide 14 points along with six assists.

As if carrying the team’s offensive load wasn’t enough work for a Tuesday evening, Rahon also squared off against A&M’s elusive, crafty and talented guard, Ehad Amin, a  recruit from Egypt. Amin was a major pain in the neck against the Gaels, scoring 17 points on 7-14 shooting and making five steals. Utilizing every asset available to him, Amin even used a diminutive ball girl as a screen on one of his layups after pilfering the ball out of a surprised Emmett Naar’s hands and streaking down court.

The well-meaning tot, earnestly drying the floor with her back to the action, was as surprised by Amin’s steal as was Naar, and never saw him coming. He glided over her tiny body, made the layup and then tended to her as she sat dazed on the court. The Gaels’ excellent play-by-play caller, Alex Jensen, turned unusually harsh after the incident, mumbling something on the W.tv broadcast about the necessity of “keeping your head on a swivel.”

She’s five years old, Alex — give her a break.

On the other hand

All the drama of A&M’s comeback notwithstanding, the Gaels were not far off from their previous performance against Western Kentucky. Two factors conspired to make the game closer than seemed necessary: turnovers and cold shooting. The Gaels were unusually careless with the ball in the first half, creating five turnovers in the first nine minutes. The culprits were varied, with Naar, Hermanson, Jock Landale and Clark making bad passes.

Those first-half misadventures were covered up by Hermanson’s brilliant three-point shooting. He sank five in a row at one point, leading all scorers with 18 points at halftime. Unfortunately, Hermanson didn’t bring his three-point touch with him after the break, missing four in a row in the second half to match the futility of Fitzner, Clark, Gonzalez and the rest of the Gaels.

That cold-shooting combined with the turnovers, which were divided into six in the first half and seven in the second, kept the Gaels from developing any rhythm offensively. The Gaels were not bothered by the Islanders’ zone, as they moved the ball well and located open shooters in both halves. They just couldn’t convert a normal percentage of three-point opportunities, so gave the Islanders a greater opportunity to stay close.

The Gaels outstanding defense withstood the patch of cold shooting, as they held the previously free-wheeling Islanders’ field goal shooting to 35.3%. The point total was a new low for Saint Mary’s as well, and follows a promising downward trend over the last three games: 53, 51 and 46 points for UC Irvine, Western Kentucky and Texas A&M. Throw out the Texas-Arlington game (if only) and go back to Stanford, which scored only 51 points, and the trend must be exciting for Gael Coach Randy Bennett. Bennett probably doesn’t think it unrealistic to dream of a game in which the opponent scores zero points.

Odds and ends

A few other items of interest from the game:

Break too long? The Texas A&M game came six days after Western Kentucky, creating comparisons to the eight-day layoff (including finals) leading up to the Texas-Arlington face plant. Do the Gaels suffer from long intermissions between games, and, if so, should they worry about the one-week break between Thursday night’s game against South Carolina State and the WCC opener against Loyola Marymount Dec. 29 in Los Angeles?

LMU is enough to worry about on its own, having won four straight including a 69-66 win over a respectable Colorado State squad in Ft. Collins on Monday. The Gaels will get a good idea of how tough it will be to top the Lions on Thursday, as the Lions face off against Texas-Arlington at home.

Since the college is still on break, Bennett has plenty of latitude in handling the Gaels’ prep for the road trip to Los Angeles. He could take the team down as early as Tuesday, let them get in a practice of two in the LMU gym and break up the routine in advance of the Thursday showdown. Some see LMU as a possible “trap” for the Gaels, but I think the excitement of the road trip and beginning of conference play will be enough to prevent them from developing the blahs.

Fitzner saga. Fans of redshirt sophomore forward Evan Fitzner took heart from his two performances previous to Tuesday’s game — 12 points in 30 minutes against UC Irvine and 11 points in 21 minutes against Western Kentucky. “He’s back,” some proclaimed, only to groan as he put up a goose egg against A&M in only 11 minutes of action.

To be sure, going 0-4 on open-look three-pointers probably didn’t improve Bennett’s mood, but I think his reasoning for benching Fitzner in favor of Dane Pineau at the power forward spot had more to do with the prowess of A&M’s outstanding forward, Rashawn Thomas. It didn’t take Bennett long to realize that guarding the 6-8, 230-pound Thomas was going to be a major challenge for Gael center Jock Landale. Solution? Sub in Pineau for Fitzner and put the aggressive Pineau on Thomas.

It wasn’t a total success, as Thomas accounted for 22 points and eight rebounds, but Pineau probably  bothered him more than Landale would have. Freed of the Thomas defensive assignment, Landale registered a double-double, with 15 points and 13 rebounds. The odd man out was Fitzner, whom Bennett still trusts less to guard difficult forwards than he does Pineau.

Young guns step up. On a night of generally disappointing three-point shooting, two rays of hope were spread by true freshman Jordan Ford and redshirt freshman Tanner Krebs. Ford played only six minutes and Krebs two, but each sank his only three-point attempt. It had to be particularly heartening for Krebs, a genuinely excellent shooter who has seen many shots rim out in limited minutes this season. He didn’t shy away from casting off in the game’s final seconds, which says something about his moxie.

Ford continued to take advantage of the limited minutes he has been given, making something positive happen as he has in several previous games.

Gael center Jock Landale, who registered a double-double against A&M, must improve his defense to keep Dane Pineau from usurping Evan Fitzner at power forward. Landale and Pineau have been playing together more and more recently, forcing Fitzner to the bench. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

Notwithstanding Mark Twain’s wry observation on the misleading use of statistics, a thought occurs concerning Saint Mary’s ultra-efficient dispatching of Western Kentucky (73-51) Wednesday night: sometimes a stat is just a stat. To wit:

Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar combined for 16 assists against one turnover, an other-wordly achievement;

As a team, the Gaels recorded 23 assists on 31 made baskets, another eye-popping stat. To put it in context, even though the Gaels beat UC Irvine by a wider margin (84-53) in their previous game, they compiled only 13 assists against 13 turnovers. In the loss to UT Arlington, the totals were even worse: 11 assist to 16 turnovers. That’s a giant efficiency boost;

The Gaels held WKU to 37.5% shooting, and 29.4% three-point shooting. Their own totals were 47.7% overall and a lackluster 33.3% from distance.

Rahon, Hermanson shine

The individual performances contributing to the excellent defensive totals were led by Rahon’s blanketing of one of the Hilltoppers’ leading scorers, Pancake Thomas. Thomas, one of three redshirt senior transfers at WKU, averaged nearly 19 PPG at Hartford last year, and was averaging 13.4 PPG for WKU coming into the Saint Mary’s game. He finished the night 2-8, 0-3 from three-point range, for four points. You could say that Rahon was the stickiest syrup that Pancake has ever encountered.

Similarly, Calvin Hermanson fought Que Johnson, a prolific three-point shooting transfer from Washington State, all night long, limiting him to 5-12 shooting, 1-4 from distance. Johnson scored 11 points, down from his average of 14.1 PPG, and he earned them. More importantly, Hermanson kept Johnson from heating up from three-point range, where he scored at a 40% clip for Wazzou.

Even more impressive than the defensive exploits of Rahon and Hermanson is the fact they have sacrificed their offensive output to achieve them. Rahon didn’t score a point against WKU, but defending Thomas and dishing out 10 assists more than compensated.

Likewise, Hermanson, since his 25-point explosion against Stanford on Nov. 30, has scored eight, nine and five points, but no one has heard him complaining. The Gaels are coming closer to the total buy-in on defense that Coach Randy Bennett insists is vital to their season-long success.

Gaels’ forward Evan Fitzner, who had been unimpressive in the early season, has experienced a re-awakening in the last two games, reflected in his 30 minutes of playing time against Irvine and 21 against WKU. The increase in playing time is directly linked to his defensive effort, but it has allowed him to post back-to-back double digit games of 12 and 11 points.

The 11 against WKU were notable for the speed in which he posted them. Fitzner accounted for five of the Gaels’ first seven points with a three-pointer and a driving layup, then canned two more three-pointers by the 11:41 mark. It seemed he could have kept scoring, but didn’t add another point. His reduced time on the floor compared to Irvine was not caused by defensive dereliction, however, but by Bennett’s desire to get some minutes for super-sub Kyle Clark. Clark, who has been kept busy in his time at Saint Mary’s by filling in after defensive lapses by Hermanson and Fitzner, finds himself more of a spectator as those two refuse to give Bennett reasons to sit them down.

Ford shines again

Bennett got good production out of true freshman Jordan Ford for the second game in a row, as Ford showed that he can not only contribute but affect the flow of the game. Entering the game at the seven-minute mark for Naar, Ford quickly scored on a floater in the paint, then hit a three-pointer that increased the Gaels’ lead to 10 points. On a subsequent fast-break by the Gaels, Ford dropped a look-away pass to Hermanson that Hermanson converted for a bucket and a free throw.

Rahon was hurt on that play, apparently slipping on a wet spot on the floor, and the crowd hushed at the site of the Gaels’ Mr. Ironman limping off to the trainer’s table. He was quickly spotted on the stationary bicycle, however, and returned to the floor with a little less than two minutes’ left. Pancake was not among those applauding his return.

The Gaels showed the same second-half explosiveness that was apparent against UC Irvine, increasing a 14-point halftime lead to 26 points (57-31) on a Clark three-pointer at the 12:20 mark. It looked as if they could have equaled the 46 points they scored against Irvine, but Bennett decided to go to the bench instead. He gradually subbed in an entire second team of Ford, Stefan Gonzales, Jordan Hunter, Tanner Krebs and Clark to finish off the game.

Keep an eye on (a few things to watch in the future):

Hunter to contribute.

Hunter made an impression on Gael fans by his buzzer-beating half-court heave against Irvine, but is showing more of his potential as the season wears on. Having accumulated 13 fouls in 21 minutes of play before the WKU game, Hunter knows what he needs to do to share the post with Jock Landale and Dane Pineau — quit fouling. He got six minutes playing time against WKU and grabbed two rebounds and scored a bucket on a neat lob from Gonzalez. More importantly, he was whistled for just one foul, and it was one his teammates Landale and Pineau have committed many times in their careers — an offensive foul for extending his hip on a screen.

He also made a play that neither Landale nor Pineau are capable of when he jumped in front of WKU forward Justin Johnson to intercept a routine entry pass. He has quickness and hops that are going to pay dividends for the Gaels sooner or later. Gael fans are becoming increasingly gloomy about the prospect of facing Gonzaga and its impressive front line crew of Przemek Karnowski, Johnathan Williams and freshmen Zach Collins and Killian Tillie. Adding Hunter to the Gaels’ own front line of Landale, Pineau and Fitzner could do a lot to equalize that apparent mismatch.

Krebs can score.

There is no more frustrated Gael than redshirt freshman Tanner Krebs. Given several opportunities to help his team, Krebs has appeared in seven of nine games but scored on only four of 21 attempts, including three of 18 from three-point range, his specialty. Rather than criticize his performance, fans should appreciate that the shots he is taking are exactly the ones Bennett wants him to take. He had three attempts against WKU, all from deep three-point territory, and all looked good until they rimmed out.

The lid will not stay on the basket forever, and Krebs’ ability to find open holes in the opponents’ defense and launch his deadly jump shot from far away will eventually pay off. When Krebs finds the range and regains his confidence, the Gaels will have two of the best off-the-bench sharpshooters in college basketball in him and Gonzalez.

Naar and Pineau are back.

These two have been among the walking wounded all season long, but both appeared to be fully healed against WKU. Naar had his highest-scoring game of the year with 14 points on six-of-nine shooting, and also scored in the lane against WKU’s talented seven-footer Ben Lawson. He nailed the only two three-pointers he attempted, and there is no greater evidence of fully-healed legs than the ability to hit jump shots.

Pineau scored 10 points on five-of-seven shooting, including a coast-to-coast steal and conversion that had the Gael bench roaring in approval. It even brought a quick, tentative smile from Pineau, and should have done the same for Gael fans. We can all applaud his return to last season’s form, which brought him selection to the pre-season all-WCC team.

Joe Rahon prepares to launch a shot against Western Kentucky, one of only three he attempted in the game. Rahon’s defense on WKU’s Pancake Thomas was one of the keys to the Gaels’ victory. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

It’s not as if Jordan Ford hadn’t scored for the Gaels — he chipped in 12 points in the rout of Prairie View — but until Sunday afternoon he hadn’t made a definite impression on his coaches, teammates or fans.

That ended with 11:52 left in the second half of the Gaels 84-53 pounding of rebuilding UC-Irvine. Ford took a jab step towards his defender, cleared some space and sank a three-pointer to put the Gaels up 56-23. On the next possession he worked a neat pick-and-roll with Dane Pineau — which required Pineau to execute a pirouette in the paint before dropping in a lay-up — to extend the lead by two more points.

His next action came with a little more than four minutes left when Gaels’ Coach Randy Bennett took the almost-unprecedented step of benching senior guard and team leader Joe Rahon. This could have been considered garbage time as the Gaels were nursing a 30-point lead, but Ford’s play bore no resemblance to anyone’s garbage.

He immediately drew a foul on a drive, sank both free throws, and scored shortly thereafter on a drive and lob that could have been intended for reserve center Jordan Hunter to flush, except it went in. He next sank a step-back three-pointer, then sank a floater in the lane for 12 points in his brief time on the floor.

During the last four minutes, Ford had the Gaels’ offense in his hands, and gave fans a look at what may be the future of that offense. Rahon is a senior, and fellow back court stalwart Emmett Naar has an uncertain future beyond this year because of NCAA qualms about his post-high school days in Australia. Because Naar played after graduating and before coming to Moraga, the NCAA took away his freshman year, and has not yet decided whether to give it back next year (the same uncertainty affects Tanner Krebs).

So, Ford’s development at the point is important. The only other active Gael reserve guards are Stefan Gonzalez, a natural two-guard, and Krebs, whom Bennett has been using as a substitute for Calvin Hermanson at the three. Two incoming guards next fall, Kristers Zoricks and Angus Glover, are highly regarded — Zoricks was described by one Gael coach as “a 6-4 Naar” — but it is a stretch to think of either of them stepping directly into the lineup. The same could be said about two redshirt guards riding the Gaels’ bench, Elijah Thomas and Tommy Kuhse.

Ford gained confidence with every second he was on the floor against Irvine, and gave indications he may combine strong points of both Rahon and Naar. He is a better outside shooter than Rahon and is quicker on the drive than Naar, an impression that may be compromised by Naar’s continued gimpiness from some sort of leg injury. I watched Naar closely during warm-ups, and he constantly flexed, jiggled and twisted his left leg and hip, as if he were trying to work out some kinks that won’t go away. The Gaels aren’t saying what’s wrong, so we’ll just have to watch and see if he improves.

Fitzner emerges from hibernation

The next best thing about the Gaels’ performance against Irvine was the reappearance of Evan Fitzner as a force on offense. Not only did Fitzner log the most minutes of any game this year, 30, but he also showed confidence in making 4-6 shots from the floor, including two three-pointers and two nifty drives into the paint.

Watching the 6-10 Fitzner attack the paint, one wishes he would do it more often. He dribbles as well as the Gael guards, and when he extends his left or right arms to shoot — he made baskets with each hand — he simply cannot be stopped: defenders can either foul him or concede the shot. Combined with his dead-eye three-point shooting, Fitzner’s driving ability makes him an invaluable offensive threat.

The Gaels’ overall offense was hit-or-miss against Irvine, which seems strange considering it was a  31-point win and Saint Mary’s shot 56.3% from the floor and nearly 59% from three-point range. They tallied only 13 assists against 13 turnovers, however, which indicates they weren’t operating as smoothly as Bennett would want. In the first half in particular, center Jock Landale was bothered by the Irvine big men — 7-2 Ionnis Dimakopoulos, 6-10 Jonathan Galloway, 6-10, 320-pound Brad Greene and 6-8 freshman Tommy Rutherford.

Instead of going to the basket strongly, Landale was hesitant and had several shots blocked or altered. He shot only 4-9 for the game, a far cry from his 75% performance in earlier games, and seems to be relying on outside shooting more and more. He sank a 15-foor jumper to open the game, and followed that with a three-pointer, but Irvine closed down pick-and-roll opportunities that were abundant in the early going. It may be that  defenses have figured out the Gaels’ pick-and-roll game, which makes Landale’s ability to hit the occasional jump shot even more valuable, but one hopes the pick-and-roll will make a comeback.

Bits and pieces

Some sidelights that made watching basketball on a Sunday afternoon in Moraga more pleasant:

The Anteaters may be rebuilding under Russell Turner — four starters from last year graduated and returning leading scorer Luke Nelson has been sidelined with a hamstring injury — but they feature some basketball royalty on their roster. Redshirt freshman Spencer Rivers, a 6-2 guard from Winter Park, FL, is the son of LA Clippers Coach Doc Rivers and the brother of Clips’ star Austin Rivers.

Not to be outdone, starting UC Irvine guard Max Hazzard, another redshirt freshman, is the grandson of UCLA great Walt Hazzard, one  of the early stars in John Wooden’s glory days at UCLA.

The Gaels displayed some impressive athleticism by two of their  bigs, Landale and  Hunter. Hunter brought the crowd of 3,000+ to its feet with a more-than-halfcourt heave  that drew nothing but net as time ran out in the first half. Hunter, who has an impressive vertical jump, was hanging out just outside the Gaels’ three-point line to thwart an attempted baseball pass by Irvine with 1.3 seconds left. He vaulted over fellow Gael Pineau to snatch the pass out of the air, gathered himself and let fly with the shot. It took the game referees more than 10 minutes to decide he got it off in time.

Landale made his mark early in the second half, swatting away an attempted entry pass by an Irvine guard, then outracing the Irvine players to corral the ball, take a few dribbles and slam home the basket. If ESPN ever featured highlights from games played west of the Mississippi, Landale’s play would have been a natural top 10 highlight.

True freshman guard Jordan Ford made a big impression with his play against Irvine, scoring 12 points and leading the Gael offense. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

It was Valpo all over again.

Worse, actually, since Saint Mary’s played a pretty good first half against Valparaiso last March, leading 31-29 before collapsing with a 13-point second half.

The Gaels were barely in the 65-51 loss to Texas-Arlington Thursday night. They came out flat, didn’t execute on offense and were consistently caught flat-footed on defense. Weak- side help, rotation to cut off driving lanes? Not there, as various Mavericks found ridiculously easy paths to the basket.

Based on what I heard from numerous fans following the game, the primary takeaway was that UTA was too “quick” for the Gaels. Like most answers to difficult questions, that’s too simple.

Saint Mary’s Coach Randy Bennett is acutely sensitive to his team’s lack of overall athleticism, but his answer to that criticism is always the same: you counter superior team quickness with positioning and execution. The Gaels displayed those qualities against quick teams such as Dayton and Alabama-Birmingham, and no one talked about those opponents being too quick.

Against UTA, however, the Gaels neither took offensive positions away, nor executed basic plays such as weak-side help. The Gaels probably expected known UTA entities such as point guard Erik Neal to cause them problems, and he did score 13 points by splitting defenders and exploiting switches that left him one-on-one against Jock Landale.

But unheralded guard Kaelon Wilson was more of a dagger to the Gaels’ hearts as he converted 4-5 attempts, including two uncontested drives to the hoop in the second half, for 10 points. Also contributing mightily to the Gaels’ misery was UTA guard Drew Charles, who made only two baskets on the night — both killers.

When the Gaels made a mini-run with about 10 minutes left in the game, cutting the lead to 52-41 and causing UTA to call a re-grouping time out, Charles hit back-to-back jumpers for five points and a 16-point lead at the 7:22 mark. On both shots Charles exploited a height and experience advantage over freshman Jordan Ford, who played extensive minutes because of ineffectiveness by Emmett Naar (two points, three turnovers).

Gael leaders missing

Naar exhibited what Bennett has referred to several times this season — shakiness apparently caused by injuries sustained before the season began. The Naar who assumed overall  Gael leadership from back court companion Joe Rahon as last season wore on has been evident only intermittently this year, and was nowhere to be seen against UTA.

Combine his invisibility with Calvin Hermanson’s 2-9 performance (1-7 on three-pointers), Landale’s 3-10 shooting and a dearth of bench scoring (Gonzalez 4, Kyle Clark 5) and you get something like the Gaels’ 31% field goal percentage. Bennett seems to face a legitimate rotation problem at this point in the season, as he tried various combinations against UTA to little effect.

To combat the Mavericks’ powerful forward Kevin Hervey, Bennett went to the combo of Landale and Dane Pineau in the front court that worked so well against Stanford. Hervey, however, is primarily a long-range jump shooter, so Pineau was mainly a spectator to Hervey’s 5-8 shooting for 15 points. Similarly, Clark, who is almost always a spark plug off the bench, was inconsistent, giving the Gaels a ray of hope with a put-back off a missed free throw that helped with the second-half mini-run, but committing two turnovers that hurt mightily.

Ford, the true freshman from Folsom, played 13 minutes in relief of Naar and does possess one-on-one quickness that will help the Gaels eventually. But like redshirt freshman Tanner Krebs, whom Bennett is trying to develop as a sub for Hermanson, Ford had trouble scoring against UTA. He and Krebs were a combined 0-6. Even Gonzalez, who looked as if he was preparing for stardom with a 14-point outburst against Prairie View, struggled on defense Thursday night.

Irvine on tap

In contrast to the eight days Bennett had to prepare his troops for UTA, he has only two before UC Irvine comes calling Sunday afternoon. The Anteaters, who have become a staple of the Gaels’ pre-conference scheduling, are without 7-6 Mamadou Ndiaye this year, and have struggled to a 4-5 record. They have played good teams, however, including Arizona, Utah State and Cal, losing all three of those games, but have defeated WCC teams Santa Clara and Pacific.

If Naar is suffering from more than a one-game case of the blahs, Bennett has some decisions to make about back-ups. Both Ford and Gonzalez are inferior defenders to Naar, so who should get major minutes if Naar is, indeed, hobbled? Naar’s struggles against UTA and, to a lesser extent, against Stanford (2-9 shooting, but eight assists) have put added pressure on Rahon, who played 40 minutes in both those games.

At this point, Bennett can’t even think about subbing for Rahon, and he has to hope that Naar bounces back so he doesn’t have to rely on Ford or Gonzalez for long stretches. Most fans thought guard depth was going to be a strength this year, but Ford has been slow to develop and Bennett has resorted to using Gonzalez as a sub for Hermanson as Krebs has not been productive in that role. It’s a conundrum, as potential guard talent in Elijah Thomas and Tommy Kuhse sit out as apparent redshirts.

This is an early-season test of the Gaels’ grit. They can say goodbye to the laudatory media coverage and heady national rankings they garnered with a 6-0 start, as they will drop like a rock following the loss to unranked UTA. Those factors pale in comparison to the real problems facing Bennett, however, as he has to find a way to energize his charges in the build-up to the WCC conference opener on Dec. 29.

The Gaels need center Jock Landale to return to dominance as they attempt to right their ship against UC-Irvine on Sunday afternoon. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

The Saint Mary’s victory last Wednesday over Stanford in Palo Alto was not just a necessary step in defining the team’s pre-WCC status. It was the Gaels’ first test against a team with several quality bigs, and in figuring out how to maneuver around such an opponent the team may have revealed player and strategic choices that will resonate for the rest of the season.

In a superficial analysis, one could say defeating Stanford was just a matter of finding a reliable three-point shooter in the second half — thank you, Calvin Hermanson — and clamping down on the Reid Travis/Michael Humphrey duo inside — thank you, Dane Pineau.

Result: Gaels score 40 points to Stanford’s 21 and win by 15 (after a four-point halftime deficit).

In reality, several things we thought we knew about the Gaels’ lineup proved questionable. The  biggest disappointment, confirmed if not revealed against Stanford, was the continued futility of Evan Fitzner at power forward. Conventional wisdom before the Stanford game was that Fitzner compensated for defensive and rebounding lapses with excellent outside shooting. That made him a dangerous stretch 4, who opened up opportunities for the Gaels’ powerful inside game revolving around Jock Landale.

An 0-5 shooting night for Fitzner did a lot to upset that operating theory, particularly since Fitzner gave the Gaels  virtually no help defensively against Travis and Humphrey. Bennett’s usual solution for Fitzner lapses — subbing in Kyle Clark — didn’t work well because of the size of Travis — a 6-9 bull — and Humphrey, an active 6-10. Clark found himself staring into the chests of some big dudes in Travis, Humphrey and, later, the Gael-who-got-away, Grant Verhoeven.

Earning Bennett’s ire

 The only time I’ve seen Gael Coach Randy Bennett remonstrate with Clark came in the second half after Clark fouled Verhoeven on a rebound that resulted in a three-point play. Clark seemed over-matched on the inside against whichever of Stanford’s big men he drew.

Against Stanford, Bennett solved this problem by inserting Pineau — the Gaels’ erstwhile starting center hobbled by back pains — into the lineup alongside Landale. Pineau’s greater energy and activity seemed to energize Landale, who was way too passive in guarding the Stanford bigs before Pineau checked in. The two seemed to adopt a working agreement — Pineau would harass Travis and Humphrey and Landale would concentrate on cleaning up the glass. It worked, as Travis was virtually invisible in the second half and Landale seemed to grab every rebound in sight (in actuality he grabbed eight, which was more than anyone else on the court).

With Landale and Pineau on the court together the Gaels shut down Stanford’s inside game, and Hermanson took care of the rest. The magnitude of this accomplishment was demonstrated in Stanford’s next game after the Gaels — against the powerful Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence, KS. Although Kansas won 89-74, Travis scored 29 points, 19 from the free-throw line. Kansas coach Bill Self rebuked his post players for fouling Travis so often, while the Gaels’ Bennett could take satisfaction from his team’s total of only three fouls against Travis.

Future-casting

For the Gaels, inserting Pineau was a great solution for one game, but what does it mean for the future?

Is the Fitzner-Clark combo finished as the Gaels’ solution at the 4? If Pineau becomes the starter at power forward, who backs up Landale? Is Pineau free from the back ailments that put him on the bench and paved the way for Landale’s emergence? Jordan Hunter got a brief trial in the post towards the end of the first half against Stanford, but managed to pick up a foul in less than a minute. That rivaled his performance in an earlier game in which he fouled out in less than 10 minutes. Hunter will be of no use to the Gaels until he can go for a few minutes without racking up multiple fouls.

Fitzner is the great unknown in this puzzle. After a freshman season that Bennett declared was”about as good a first season as a player could have,” the 6-10 Fitzner has seemed lost on the court this year. After six games last year, he had played 112 minutes and had impact games against Stanford (15 points in 32 minutes) and Cal State Bakersfield (16 points in 25 minutes). Even then, however, he had significant lapses against UC Davis and UC Irvine, scoring nothing in both games and playing only 14 and seven minutes.

So far this year he has played only 71 minutes and is averaging a minuscule 2.5 PPG. The exceptions from early last  season have become the norm this year. What’s the answer?

Some could say Fitzner is suffering from the same short Bennett leash that afflicted Hermanson in his early days. Mostly because of defensive lapses, Hermanson would get jerked back to the bench when games were only a few minutes old.

Hermanson is now a defensive star for the Gaels, evidenced by his clamp-down efforts against high-scoring guards for Dayton, UAB and Stanford. Rather than suffering, his offense has blossomed, and he is now the Gaels’ second leading scorer (behind Landale) at 14.7PPG.

Fitzner may not have far to go to find a role model that will help end his slump and give the Gaels a strong presence at the 4. The current lull in the schedule — eight days between the Stanford game on Wednesday and the Texas-Arlington contest this Thursday — is the perfect time to work on early-season glitches. Gael fans are hoping that Fitzner will figure his way out of  his doldrums over the remaining five games leading up to the WCC opener Dec. 29 against LMU.

Depth, particularly in the post, carried the Gaels against Stanford. They have five more games before the opening of the WCC season to iron out other problems that have emerged in the midst of a 6-0 run and a no. 12 national  ranking. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

Okay, so it’s not my name. Credit rabid Gael fan Michael Johnson from southern California, the guy who was leading the loud Saint Mary’s cheering section at Maples Pavilion Wednesday night.

But it fits, doesn’t it?

Calvin Hermanson upped the ante on his play with a scorching 7-9 three-point explosion against the Cardinal, combined with a snuff job on Stanford’s second leading scorer, Dorian Pickens. The scorecard at the end of the Gaels’ 66-51 win was: Hermanson 25 points, Pickens 4.

So flummoxed was Pickens by Hermanson’s defense that he took only four shots the entire game, making one and sinking two free throws. This from a guy who was averaging 15.4 PPG coming into the Saint Mary’s game, and was identified by Stanford’s previous foe, Seton Hall, as the key to the Cardinal offense. Some key, some offense.

So, it’s fine with me if fans start calling Hermanson the Hermanator. He’s got the look, with the ugly mouthpiece, the goggles and the headband that draws attention to the goggles. If he were playing for some team in the east that ESPN and other eastern-dominated media pay attention to he’d probably have his own national following by now.

The game was a strange affair because of the Gaels’ slow start that allowed Stanford to take a 30-26 lead at halftime. Stanford, rejuvenated under new leadership by Jerod Haase, aggressively double-teamed the Gaels’ Jock Landale, slowing the play that had led Landale to average more than 20 PPG. The Cardinal fed their own low-post stud, Reid Travis, and the combination of strong defense on Landale and production from Travis fueled the four-point halftime lead.

Fitzner fizzles

A sub-plot to the Gaels’ first-half struggle was the inability of redshirt sophomore Evan Fitzner to capitalize on the opportunities Stanford’s defense gave him. The best way to give Landale room to operate down low was for someone to knock down threes, and Fitzner had Randy Bennett’s blessing to be that guy.

He wasn’t up to the task Wednesday night, clanking four straight wide-open three-point attempts. Just to prove it wasn’t a first-half jinx, Fitzner opened the second half by missing on another three-point attempt. Have a seat, Evan, and consider your 0-5 night with zero rebounds in eight minutes of play.

But the Gaels spread the three-point opportunities in the second half, with Naar opening the lid on the basket in the first 30 seconds, followed by Hermanson a few seconds later. Naar then fed Landale underneath for a lay-up that erased Stanford’s lead and keyed a 12-0 run that brought the Gaels from four down to eight up (38-30) at the 16:16 mark. Stanford had not made a single basket at that point.

In addition to Hermanson’s sharp-shooting, another factor in the Gaels’ comeback was the play of Dane Pineau, the erstwhile all-WCC post man who has been fighting back pains this season. Bennett inserted Pineau initially in relief of Landale, then alongside him to thwart the Cardinal’s low-post production that was a factor early in the game. It was a tremendous success, as Pineau is quicker and more active than Landale, and he immediately started harassing Travis and other Stanford bigs.

Whether it was Pineau’s example or just all-around team play, the Gaels stifled Stanford’s offense in the second half, holding the Cardinal to a measly 21 points on 27.6% shooting. For the game, Stanford shot just 38.2%, well under the Gaels’ goal of holding opponents to a 40% or less success rate in field goal percentage.

Hermanator explodes

At that point in the action, 16 minutes left and the Gaels on top by four points, Hermanson took over. He sank back-to-back threes after Stanford closed to within four points at 38-34, than sank another as the Cardinal creeped within three points at 48-45. The Gaels’ offense was rejuvenated, with Naar and Rahon alternating between assisting Landale and Pineau on lay-ups. Kyle Clark, who was having a so-so night, hit his only three-pointer to push the lead to 54-45 at the 5:45 mark, then Hermanson followed with a driving lay-up, and then, just for good measure, with his seventh three-pointer with 4:31 left to give the Gaels an 11-point lead (59-48).

Naar punctuated the efficiency of the Gaels’ back court — he had eight assists and Rahon six — with the night’s prettiest pass to Pineau, who converted at the 2:28 mark to push the lead to 64-48. Landale finished the night was a short jumper to push the margin to 15, a solid follow-up to last year’s 17-point shellacking of Stanford in Moraga.

As much as the Gaels relish the opportunity of engaging Stanford and Cal on a regular basis, the two wins over Stanford and last season’s last-second loss to Cal will not encourage timid coaches and athletic directors to pencil in Saint Mary’s on their scheduling agendas. As for either school coming to Moraga for a re-match, don’t hold your breath.

The new face of the Gaels’ offense, Calvin Hermanson — shown in a game last year against Cal Poly — dominated Stanford with 25 points on 9-11 shooting. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

Has Randy Bennett fashioned some of his  early season match-up plans around stopping Stanford’s Dorian Pickens, whom the Gaels will meet Wednesday night in Palo Alto?

Bennett surprised a lot of people (well me, anyhow) by matching small forward Calvin Hermanson on Dayton’s Charles Cooke, a 6-5 guard and the Flyers’ leading scorer. He doubled down on this strategy by putting Hermanson on UAB’s top scorer, also a 6-5 guard, Dirk Williams, on Sunday.

The score so far: Calvin 2, big guards 0. To be fair, Cooke did cobble together 19 points for the Flyers, but Hermanson kept him from going off early, and Cooke scored most of his points from the free throw line. He’s one of those players — think James Harden of the Houston Rockets — who draws a lot of fouls.

Williams never recovered from Hermanson’s defense, going 1-9 for the game and totaling four points in 31 minutes. He had been averaging 13.4 PPG.

The essence of this strategy is to take away a big guard’s primary advantage — greater size than the typical 6-1 or 6-2 guard. Hermanson nullifies that advantage with his 6-6 height, and has proved in two tests so far that he can match the quickness of big guards. He kept his body in front of Cooke and Williams, and perhaps spooked them with his superior height.

Which brings us to Mr. Pickens.

Not an unknown quantity

Pickens is also 6-5, and also creates match-up problems for most of the people guarding him. He has upped his scoring average from 12.3 PPG last year to 15.4 so far this year, and has become the focus of Stanford’s offense — along with 6-8 forward Reid Travis, who is averaging 17.4 PPG on the low block. The Gaels remember Travis from last year’s 78-61  victory over Stanford in Moraga, when he punished Dane Pineau for 18 points to lead the Cardinal.

Pickens’ elevated role this year was underscored by the comments of Seton Hall Coach Kevin Willard following Stanford’s 66-52 win over the Hall on Sunday, in which Pickens scored 21 points. “Our whole thing was how good Pickens is,” said Willard. “He’s really picked it up from last year.”

Pickens was a big star at Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, winning Arizona Player of the Year honors in his senior year, being rated a four-star recruit and earning a ranking as the 81st best player nationally by ESPN. Bennett, who has strong Arizona roots and recruited two players from his boyhood home to the current Gaels’ roster — Elijah Thomas and Tommy Kuhse — certainly was aware of Pickens in high school. He also got to view him up close and personally in last year’s Stanford game when Pickens was mostly a non-factor, scoring 10 points on 2-9 shooting.

So, did Bennett have Pickens on his mind when he switched Hermanson to guarding Cooke and Williams this season? We’ll probably have to wait for Bennett’s memoir to answer that question, but it certainly makes sense as the Gaels reach a key point in their out-of-conference schedule.

The Stanford game is the Gaels’ third out-of-Moraga contest among six games, and after that they will settle into a more familiar pre-conference stance — hosting five straight opponents at home before kicking off the WCC race with a visit to Loyola Marymount on Dec. 29. The Gaels, ranked no. 12 in the AP poll and no. 13 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll as of Monday, have a lot riding on the Stanford game.

Bennett might have given his team one more advantage by exposing Hermanson to players similar to Pickens. The result of that strategy will be one of the interesting developments to follow Wednesday night.

The rest of the story

In addition to Pickens and Travis, the rest of Stanford’s lineup is mostly familiar to the Gaels. The only key player missing from last year’s romp in Moraga is Roscoe Allen, who became Stanford’s leading scorer after Travis went down with a leg injury. Allen was also not a factor against the Gaels, scoring just two points.

Marcus  Allen, a 6-3 senior, joins Pickens in the back court with a combination at the point guard position consisting of last year’s starter, Christian Sanders, and Robert Cartwright, who missed all of last season with an injury. Allen is averaging only 4.1 PPG this year, but burned the Gaels with 14 points on 6-11 shooting in Moraga.

Joining Travis in the front court is 6-9 forward Michael Humphrey, backed up by a Gael-who-got-away, Grant Verhoeven. Verhoeven, one of the most sought-after players in California’s Central Valley in high school, went down to the wire between Saint Mary’s and Stanford as his college choice, eventually opting for the Cardinal. His career has been marked largely by injuries, but he is getting considerable court time in his senior year, averaging 5.4 PPG.

Neither of these teams will surprise the other, as the Gaels rode the penetrating abilities of Joe Rahon (24 points) and Emmett Naar (15 points) last year, and still rely on their savvy passing and court generalship. The emergence of Jock Landale in the post will give new Stanford Coach Jerod Haase something to worry about besides Rahon and Naar, but he also has access to UAB head man Robert Ehsan for strategy. Ehsan was Haase’s understudy at UAB before Haase moved to Stanford to replace Johnny Dawkins.

The chess match between Bennett and Haase will be interesting to watch.

Dorian Pickens of Stanford, above, will be a prime focus of the Saint Mary’s defense Wednesday night. Photo courtesy of Bob Drebin/ISI Photos.

by Michael Vernetti

Defensive intensity is that most mercurial of basketball attributes: when it is needed the most, it can still elude even the best teams.

The Saint Mary’s Gaels produced their best defensive effort of the season in holding Dayton to 37.7% shooting in a 71-67 road win. Three days later they looked as if they had never heard of defense as a lackluster San Jose State team scorched them for 40 points on 46.4% first-half shooting.

Coach Randy Bennett held the Gaels in the locker room until the second half was almost underway against San Jose, and one doesn’t imagine he was discussing the Presidential election. His charges held San Jose to 24 points in the second half on 40% shooting, so the halftime exhortation had some effect in an 81-64 win.

What his team needed before facing a quick, seasoned, high-scoring team like University of Alabama-Birmingham on Sunday in Las Vegas was practice, Bennett said. Three days of drilling on a quiet, Thanksgiving-recessed Saint Mary’s campus primed the Gaels for a maximum effort against UAB.

The result: the high-scoring Blazers, who averaged nearly 80 points per game last season, were held to 27 in the first half and trailed the Gaels 43-27. Saint Mary’s kept up the intensity in the second half, holding off the Blazers for a 76-63 win. The percentages weren’t outstanding, 47.3% overall for UAB, but the Gaels scorched them for 51% shooting themselves, including 50% on threes (13-26).

In reality, the Gaels played good defense in stretches. To fuel a 21-8 run to end the first half, for instance, Saint Mary’s forced UAB to miss nine out of 10 shots in a four-minute stretch. UAB is a good team, however, finishing 26-7 last year, including 16-2 in Conference USA. A loss in their conference tournament kept them out of the NCAA Tournament (something the Gaels can appreciate), but they definitely think of themselves as NCAA-quality this year.

With four of five starters returning, including star forward Chris  Cokley (13.1 PPG last year) and guard Dirk Williams (13.4 PPG last year), they will win a lot of games. The Gaels got a good look at Cokley, as he worked Jock Landale for 20 points on 10-13 shooting. Williams, however, was kept quiet by another outstanding defensive effort by small forward Calvin Hermanson.

As he did against Dayton’s Charles Cooke, Hermanson took on a high-scoring 6-5 guard and stifled him. Hermanson held Williams to four points on 1-9 shooting, while scoring 12 points himself. His outstanding defense against two big guards on good teams, greatly increases Bennett’s defensive options as the season progresses.

Landale continues to shine

It was not as if Landale’s difficulty guarding the quick, high-leaping Cokley threw him off his game. He scored 20 points himself on 9-11 shooting, including his second (of two) three-pointer of the season, and grabbed eight rebounds to Cokley’s five. In a great example of the Gaels’ depth, Dane Pineau spelled Landale for several minutes in the second half, and his greater quickness seemed to bother Cokley. It is not known whether Pineau has completely recovered from the back problems that have sidelined him this year, but he promises to give Saint Mary’s an excellent one-two punch in the post when he is healthy.

Emmett Naar continued his recovery from a seven turnover, seven point game against Dayton with 12 points and seven assists against only two turnovers against UAB. That follows an equally solid effort against San Jose State, when he scored 16 points, added four assists and turned it over only twice. Naar has recovered his three-point stroke in the last two games as well, hitting four of five from distance.

It’s a little early in the year to be discussing a Sixth Man of the Year award, but the Gaels’ Stefan Gonzalez is staking his claim. He personally deflated one UAB run by drilling consecutive three-pointers in the second half, and counted four long-distance buckets in six attempts. He also hit two three-pointers against San Jose State to help put that one away.

The rapidly-improving Kyle Clark sank three of five three-pointers, as he pressed his case to start over the struggling Evan Fitzner. Fitzner gave Gael fans some hope that he was going to break out of a season-long slump against UAB, sinking a three-pointer in the early going, but he quickly took his spot on the bench and totaled only 11 minutes of action.

Stanford next

Stanford Coach Jerod Haase was too busy leading his team in the Advocare Invitational Tournament in Orlando, FL on Sunday to pay much attention to the Saint Mary’s-UAB game, but that’s not to say he had no interest. Haase built the UAB team that the Gaels faced in a four-year stint in Birmingham, and he will undoubtedly pore over the stat sheet carefully as he prepares the Cardinal for a rematch against the Gaels on Wednesday in Palo Alto.

Haase has pumped life into the Cardinal squad, leading them to a 6-1 record, including two wins in the Avocare tournament (over Indiana State and Seton Hall) after stumbling in the first round against Miami. The lineup facing Saint Mary’s is almost identical to the team the Gaels beat by 17 points last year in Moraga, with the biggest change being the addition of Robert Cartwright at point guard. Cartwright, injured before last season began, was the missing piece that kept Johnny Dawkins from having a good enough year to ward off firing.

The current UAB coach, Robert Ehsan, was an assistant to Haase, so the amount of telephone time the two spend before Wednesday will tell a lot about how well they got along.

Emmett Naar, shown scoring earlier this year against Prairie View, has recovered his scoring and assist magic in the last two games. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

For 36+ minutes of Saturday’s game against Dayton, Randy Bennett was enjoying one of his finest days as head coach at Saint Mary’s.

His Gaels had come into a packed arena of 13,000 screaming fans that rivaled a Gonzaga crowd in intensity, dominated a Dayton Flyers squad that started the season lurking just outside the Top 25, and were poised to celebrate a convincing  victory that would have solidified — if not improved — their own no. 17 ranking.

The last 3:30 took away a lot of that luster, but the Gaels refused to crack under intense pressure from a proud, athletic team playing on a court where they had gone 36-3 over the past 39 games. It was a good win that could have been better. Let’s look at the ups and downs.

The Gaels’ first 30 minutes could go in a time capsule for efficient offense and stifling defense. Bennett pulled a major surprise by having Calvin Hermanson guard Dayton’s best player, 6-5 senior guard Charles Cooke III. For Gael fans who have witnessed Hermanson go in and out of Bennett’s dog house because of defensive lapses, this was a major vote of confidence — and Hermanson nailed the assignment.

He held Cooke, who had scored 31 against Appalachian State and 19 against Alabama in two previous games, to one field goal in the first half — a well-defended three-pointer. And he didn’t foul either, committing only one personal while racking up 13 points of his own on 5-9 shooting. That was a major mismatch in the Gaels’ favor, and gives Bennett a reliable option against big guards the Gaels will face during the season, i.e. Josh Perkins of Gonzaga. That could free the Gaels’ point guard Joe Rahon from the burden of defending the opposition’s best guard, a giant break for Rahon.

Jock Landale dominated the Flyers’ defense, scoring easily on 4-6 attempts to tally 11 points in the half. No one besides Landale and Hermanson did much, but Stefan Gonzalez, Kyle Clark and Dane Pineau scored three each, to give Saint Mary’s a comfortable 39-26 lead. The Gaels had made 11 assists on 13 made baskets and turned the ball over only three times.

More important than the smooth-flowing offense, however, was the Gaels’ excellent defense that held the Flyers to 38.9% shooting. The only player who hurt them was senior guard Scoochie Smith, a slick product of the New York street ball scene (he’s from the Bronx), who scored nine points on 4-6 shooting. Most of Smith’s baskets were circus-style efforts, however, as Rahon covered him closely, and he didn’t score for most of the first half after an initial burst, and only twice more in the entire game.

Another key in the first half was Bennett’s decision to rest Emmett Naar for about four minutes in favor of Gonzalez, who nailed one of three three-point attempts and acquitted himself well overall. Bennett might wish he had remembered that effort as the second half wore on.

Second half stumbles

The second half began as a total reversal for the Gaels, as they matched their first-half total of three turnovers in the first three minutes. Naar committed two of them on sloppy passes under no no particular pressure, but Dayton was unable to capitalize on the Gaels’ sudden generosity. Despite going five possessions without a basket, the Gaels led by the halftime score after three minutes.

The Gaels seemed to regain their  composure and pushed the lead to 47-29 at the 13:24 mark, and 51-34 with 10:26 left. At that point, the game seemed over for all intents and purposes, and Bennett might have repeated the first-half pattern by benching Naar for a few minutes’ rest. Bennett didn’t seem to even consider resting Rahon, who played all 40 minutes, and he kept both guards on the floor throughout the second half.

Overcoming his teammates’ sloppiness, Hermanson canned a three-pointer at the 8:16 mark to push the Gaels lead to 20 points at 54-34. Dayton had scored eight points in almost 12 minutes, and, again, the affair seemed all but decided. The only ominous signs were fouls on Hermanson, one a dubious touch foul, that pushed his total to four as the game neared an end. Naar seemed to put the game away with his eighth assist at the 5:53 mark, pushing the Gaels’ lead to 56-42. The Gaels, however, would score only five points the rest of the way, all on free throws.

The inglorious finish

Things started to go south for the Gaels on two possessions after the 3:33 mark, when Rahon seemed to be channeling Dean Smith’s four-corner stall offense, which doesn’t exist any more because of the shot clock. He delayed one possession so long that Clark had to take a desperation three-pointer as the horn sounded, creating an empty possession.

Undaunted, Rahon repeated his one-man stall next time down, this time coughing up the ball after dribbling foolishly into the paint, creating a Cooke run-out that cost Hermanson his fourth foul and gave Dayton some hope by cutting the deficit to 56-42. Dayton was now pressing all over the court, but the Gaels broke it easily and Clark found himself wide open under the Flyers’ basket. He was fouled on his shot attempt, and made both free throws to push the lead back to 14. What could go wrong?

Naar showed the first sign of potential fatigue on the Flyers’ next possession, moving slowly to cut off the driving Darrell Davis and giving up a lay-up. On the inbounds, Naar broke the press easily and fired a long pass to an unguarded Clark. Clark, however, stood in one place until Naar and Rahon could arrive to bail him out. Unfortunately the Dayton defense arrived, too, forcing a Naar turnover that was more Clark’s fault than his.

Hermanson flew down the court to block the ensuing lay-up attempt, but was called for his fifth foul. Scoochie made both free throws to cut the lead to 10, 58-48. Naar coughed up the next possession, resulting in another Dayton free-throw opportunity that was converted to cut the lead to eight. Cut to nightmare scenario.

Naar wasn’t finished wilting under the Dayton pressure, giving up another steal by Scoochie for a lay-up that cut it to 58-52. To signal a total collapse of the Gaels’ back court, Rahon was fouled on an inbounds play,  but air-balled the first of a one-and-one opportunity. As a sign the tide was turning Dayton’s way, forward Sam Miller retrieved an errant three-point attempt standing right under the basket and cashed in a lay-up.

That made the score 58-54 and marked a 4:12 minute lapse in which Saint Mary’s did not score a basket. The Gaels seemed to catch a break on the next inbounds, however, as Naar broke free and dribbled into the front court where Landale awaited him. Two Dayton players were there also, but instead of dribbling out and burning clock, Naar attempted a foolish pass to Landale that rolled out of bounds.

Clark gave the Gaels a little more breathing room — and a five-point lead — by making the front half of a one-and-one to make the score 59-54. But Cooke made his biggest play of the game, scoring over Krebs in the paint and drawing a foul. Krebs did nothing wrong on the play, but the Gaels would have rather had Hermanson guarding Cooke at that point than the freshman Krebs.

Cooke’s free throw cut the lead to two with 23.8 seconds left and set up a frenzied finish. Naar was turned over once again by the Flyers’ pressing defense, but the Dayton player committed an offensive foul driving to the bucket, giving the Gaels another chance to save themselves. It took several attempts to get the ball inbounds, but Clark finally achieved it and Naar was fouled on the possession. Redeeming himself somewhat, Naar sank both free throws and the Gaels escaped 61-57.

Lessons learned

It’s hard not to point to Naar’s five turnovers in the last three minutes, along with Rahon’s dubious decision-making and failed free throw attempt and ask why these guys never get a rest during games. Gonzalez is a more-than-adequate substitute for either of them, and freshman Jordan Ford might be as well. One way in which Ford could prove valuable against pressing defenses is getting himself open to receive an inbounds pass. Neither Naar nor Rahon is particularly quick, and they struggled to get free against Dayton.

Whether the guards’ meltdown was caused by fatigue will never be proved, but eliminating fatigue isn’t the only reason for benching players for brief rests. Naar might have noticed something sitting out for a few minutes that would have been helpful down the stretch. Taking the ball out of Rahon’s hands for a few minutes might also have resulted in some different decisions than the dubious ones he made.

No one is knocking the  contributions from both these players, as they are responsible for much of the Gaels’ success over the past two years. But they both don’t have to play every minute (Naar played 36) for the Gaels to be successful. Gonzalez and Ford are exciting players, and the Gaels might be well served by allowing them to contribute more than token minutes.

Calvin Hermanson had the best game of his career against Dayton, leading the Gaels in scoring and slowing down Dayton’s best offensive player. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.