by Michael Vernetti

When one team beats another by 38 points — as the Gaels did by throttling Prairie View 110-72 Wednesday — the game doesn’t require deep analysis. One side clobbered the other, then left before the police arrived.

So let’s look at some memes, themes and schemes with the Gaels.

Impact player: I was going to call this “best player on the court” against Prairie View, but when Emmett Naar is in the lineup everyone else is second best, and I wanted to concentrate on Stefan Gonzalez. So, consider the impact of the sophomore from Pocatello, ID.

Gonzalez scored 14 points in 15 minutes, including three-for-three from three-point range, finished 5-6 overall and made his only free throw. But we know he can score from long range — it’s what he did in the paint that impressed me.

He had two straight drives near the end of the second half, in the midst of a 7-0 personal run, that he couldn’t have completed last year when recovering from a broken leg and dislocated ankle incurred before the season began. He was “limited” to three-point scoring, which he did to the tune of making 40 of 76 attempts for a .526 percentage.

On Wednesday, Gonzalez started with a strong drive to his left at about the five-minute mark, finishing with his left hand. Next time down he again drove left, made the look-off feint that gained fame with Manu Ginobli of the San Antonio Spurs and is one of Naar’s signature moves, then crossed over to his right hand for the finish and a foul, which he converted. Highlight reel stuff.

Gonzalez is the complete deal this year, and Gael Coach Randy Bennett seems committed to giving him significant minutes at guard, not just as a back-up to Calvin Hermanson at the 3 as he was last year.

As for Naar, he was simply sensational in his 29 minutes: 16 points on 7-8 shooting, 11 assists, no turnovers and a steal. Bennett showed compassion for Prairie View by limiting the time and Naar and Jock Landale were on the court together, as it seemed they could have scored at will. Landale played only 20 minutes, scoring 13 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

Naar remains the most underrated player in the country even though one scouting service has moved him up to 41st best nationwide. That’s still way too low, as he is a top 20 player on a top 20 team. He tied Matthew Dellavedova’s single-season assist record last year, and it is not inconceivable that he could have something like a 15-point, 10-assist average this year.

Hearing footsteps: It’s very early in the season, but two Gael starters may be looking over their shoulders to see who’s gaining on them. Neither Evan Fitzner nor Hermanson has covered himself with glory in two games, while Kyle Clark relieving Fitzner and Tanner Krebs backing up Hermanson have been excellent.

Bennett continues to keep Fitzner on an extremely tight leash. He yanked him four minutes into the Prairie View game when he only casually guarded Shay’rone Jett (who had an impressive pile of hair atop his 6-8 frame), and  then fouled Jett as he canned a 15-foot jumper. Fitzner didn’t help his cause when he lost Jett on Prairie View’s first possession of the second half and Jett scored on a lob. To his credit, Fitzner was a monster on the boards, leading all players with 13 rebounds, and scored on a nice follow off a missed three-pointer late in the second half. Still, after two games, Fitzner is 4-10 in 34 minutes of playing time.

Hermanson followed Fitzner to the bench in the first half when he, too, played soft defense on Prairie View’s Zachary Hamilton and gave up a jumper. As did Fitzner, Hermanson compounded his woes by fouling Hamilton on a drive as the second half began, giving up a three-point play. Hermanson did hit double figures, converting two of seven three-pointers and making two strong drives to the hoop for 10 points.

On the flip side, Clark made an immediate splash when he checked in for Fitzner, sinking a corner three within a minute, then another three-pointer 10 minutes later. Clark has done nothing but impress in his minutes off the bench, scoring, playing tough defense and rebounding.

Krebs, still rounding into game shape after more than year of forced inaction caused by his NCAA-imposed redshirt year, looks to be a potentially prodigious scorer. He was 4-7 against Prairie View, including 3-6 from three-point range. His jumper is a thing of beauty, and his height — 6-6 — and athleticism mark him as a star in the making.

Walking wounded: Injuries on college teams are not given much notice by the media, and the teams themselves say almost nothing. It is only through Coach Bennett’s post-game comments to the media that we have learned of early-season injuries affecting the Gaels. Bennett disclosed after the Nevada game that all-WCC performer Dane Pineau has been battling a back injury, and he added following the Prairie View game that Naar and Jordan Ford have also been slowed.

Naar, Bennett said, “has been out a lot in the first six weeks and summer,” but he added, “He’s getting back to the old Emmett and you could see that tonight.” Great for the Gaels, not so great for their opponents.

Bennett said he was pleased to get Ford some minutes “coming back from his injury.” Who knew? There was speculation that Ford rode the bench against Nevada because of defensive shortcomings, but Bennett seemed to put those whispers to rest. Ford was impressive in his first D-I action, scoring 12 points in 13 minutes, including 7-8 from the free throw line. He seems capable of drawing fouls, but has work to do to limit his own fouling — three against Prairie View. To be fair, Ford drew fifth-year senior Daquan Ford and senior Ja’Donta Barkley in his first action and didn’t seem over-matched. Those two will score a lot for Prairie View this season.

Spreading the wealth: Bennett chided himself for the tight rotation utilized against Nevada, saying he needed to trust his reserves more. Trust was flowing through McKeon on Wednesday, as everyone (save for apparent redshirts Jock Perry, Elijah Thomas and Tommy Kuhse) saw action, and seven players scored in double digits.

More interestingly, there were moments in the second half when neither Naar nor Joe Rahon were on the floor. That absolutely didn’t happen last year, as one of those stalwarts was always playing. It was strange to see Gonzalez and Ford in place of Naar and Rahon, but in a good way.

Defense is offensive: Both Nevada and Prairie View shot 44% against the Gaels, and that goes against the team’s goal of limiting opponents to 40% or less. The fact has not gone unnoticed by Bennett, who commented, “Defensively, we weren’t engaged enough in what we were supposed to be doing and that was on the starters,” perhaps referring to Fitzner and Hermanson.

“We’ve given up 44% in both games in field goal defense, and that’s not going to get you any championships,” he added. “We have to do our job better defensively and get more committed to that end of the floor.”

As the Gaels head east for their showdown against 26th-ranked Dayton Saturday morning, that may be the key message Bennett delivers to his troops.

Stefan Gonzalez drives against Prairie View, showing his recovery from last year’s broken leg which limited his mobility. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

The legacies of Zelmo Beatty and Tom Meschery will loom over Wednesday’s game between Saint Mary’s and Prairie View A&M.

Like Meschery from Saint Mary’s, Beatty is Prairie View’s most famous NBA alumnus. The two men played at the same time — Beatty from 1958-62 and Meschery from 1957-61 — and for small colleges not known for producing NBA-caliber players. Beatty, an intimidating 6-9 center, had the more eye-catching stats, averaging 25 PPG and 20 RPG for Prairie View, an NAIA institution at the time, and was drafted third overall in 1962 by the St. Louis Hawks. He played 11 seasons in the NBA, averaging 17.4 PPG and 11.2 RPG over that time.

Meschery, the son of Russian emigrants who fled the Russian Revolution in 1917 — first to China and then to San Francisco — had a less gaudy stat sheet than Beatty, but prospered as a hard-nosed scorer and rebounder making the most of a 6-6 frame. He was drafted 7th by the then-Philadelphia Warriors, then moved west when the team changed homes to San Francisco. After a solid 10-year NBA career, Meschery saw his number retired by the Warriors.

Beatty died of cancer in 2013, but Meschery still lives in northern California and attends the occasional Saint Mary’s game. A noted poet, novelist, essayist and current  blogger (mescherymusings.blogspot.com), Meschery held his own in a recent joint appearance at the college alongside classmate and former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Haas. The two exchanged views on poetry, read from their works and heaped praise on each other.

Prairie View is one of the signature predominantly black educational institutions that survived America’s checkered racial history, and has emerged as a D-1 NCAA college participating in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). Located northwest of Houston, it competes with the likes of Grambling State, Texas Southern and Alcorn State. Not a powerhouse by any means, Prairie View went 7-24 last season and is not on anyone’s list as a prospective NCAA Tournament team.

Why do they do it?

Which brings us to Wednesday’s match-up between the high-flying Gaels and the more modest Panthers. Prairie View is on one of those Kamikaze-like tours that small colleges periodically undertake that puzzle college basketball fans. They opened last Friday against Oregon State (L78-58),  take on Fresno State Monday, the Gaels on Wednesday and Texas-San Antonio on Saturday.

To guard against becoming complacent before their conference season begins, they will also play Wisconsin in Madison, Kansas State in Manhattan and Utah in Salt Lake City. Some of those teams, it can be assumed, will reward Prairie View with healthy guarantees, but that cash has to be weighed against blows to the Panthers’ confidence caused by repeatedly banging their heads against superior competition.

Leading the Panthers is 6-3 guard Daquan Cook, a fifth-year senior from Baltimore. Cook is a residue of the controversy at UNLV that cost Dave Rice his head coaching job, and brought embarrassment to the Rebels when their first choice to succeed Rice, Texas Tech Assistant Chris Beard, rejected UNLV’s offer in favor of returning to Lubbock with a much bigger contract than UNLV had offered.

When the dust settled, veteran New Mexico State Coach Marvin Menzies accepted the head coaching job in Las Vegas. The Gaels last saw Menzies in March when they defeated New Mexico State in Moraga in the opening round of the NIT. To complete a Six Degrees of Separation-like scenario, former UNLV coach Rice was in McKeon last Friday as an assistant to Nevada Coach Eric Musselman. Everybody eventually comes to Moraga, it seems.

Cook was dismissed from UNLV last February after a DUI conviction, but was on course to graduate. He has assumed the leasing scorer mantle for the Panthers, dropping 14 points at Oregon State. There is not a player taller than 6-8 on the Panthers roster, so Cook will have a lot of work to do against the Gaels.

What is the Gael agenda?

Apparently entertaining a tough Nevada foe in the season opener gave Saint Mary’s Coach Randy Bennett a case of the vapors, so by playing Prairie View he has returned to a more comfortable role of scheduling softly in the pre-conference season. Bennett said he was more nervous in advance of the Nevada game — which his charges won handily, 81-63 — than any season-opener in his memory, so one can assume he is breathing easier this week. But only for a while.

Prairie View will serve as a tune-up for the Gaels’ stiffest pre-conference test looming next Saturday when they take on the excellent Dayton Flyers in Dayton, OH. Bennett coached conservatively against Nevada, keeping several highly anticipated players on the bench and giving scant relief to his starting guard duo of Joe Rahon (40 minutes) and Emmett Naar (35 minutes).

It is not known whether former starting center Dane Pineau will be healed enough from a nagging back injury to play more than the 12 minutes he logged against Nevada, but that is hardly a headache for Bennett. Pineau’s erstwhile back-up, Jock Landle, dominated Nevada with 33 points on 15-20 shooting in 33 minutes, so the post position remains a strength for the Gaels no matter who occupies it. A third option who may see action against Prairie View is sophomore Jordan Hunter, the most athletic of the Gaels’ post threesome.

Sophomore Stefan Gonzalez is the only guard who saw action off the bench against Nevada (Tanner Krebs is listed as a guard, but mostly played back-up to small forward Calvin Hermanson). That was for only three minutes, not enough time for even a gunslinger like Gonzalez to get off a shot, so Gonzalez might get some more floor time Wednesday night.

Who Bennett considers his fourth guard is the topic of much conversation among Gael fans. Many are anxious to see what heralded recruit Jordan Ford brings to the table, especially since Ford was unable to participate in the Gaels’ intra-squad scrimmage on Nov. 5 (due to a family emergency, not an injury). Walk-on Tommy Kuhse dazzled in the scrimmage, and Bennett may feel Ford is not playing enough defense to earn court time. That situation may produce more drama than the game against Prairie View.

Joe Rahon, shown playing against Stanford last year, was a steadying figure for the Gaels in their opening win over Nevada, playing all 40 minutes of the game. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

Obviously, Eric Musselman had scouted Saint Mary’s well before Friday night’s season-opening 81-63 Gaels’ win. His Nevada Wolf Pack was aware that Calvin Hermanson led the Gaels with 74 made three-pointers last season, and that Emmett Naar spent many weeks as the leading three-point percentage shooter in the nation.

So, the Wolf Pack effectively shut down that duo in the first half, holding Hermanson to three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt and Naar to a goose egg. But about that Landale fellow…

Displaying the greatest season-to-season improvement I have witnessed in Randy Bennett’s tenure as the Saint Mary’s head coach, Jock Landale went up, over and through the Wolf Pack for 33 points on 15-20 shooting from the floor and a perfect 3-3 from the free throw line.

Landale went from a solid sub for Dane Pineau, who started all 35 games last season, to an electric presence in the paint. That he missed five shots out of 20 was the result of one sequence when he had several put-backs after initial misses, and one blocked shot by the Wolf Pack’s Human Eraser, Cameron Oliver. Aside from those, he made everything he attempted, and displayed vastly improved quickness and confidence doing so.

Gone was the hesitant Landale, crab dribbling in the paint, watching every possible cutter weave through the lane, before diffidently essaying a jump hook. The new Landale has pared his offense to the essentials: see basket, put ball in basket. No matter how daunting Oliver’s presence, Landale played as if the 6-8, 225-pounder — whom W.TV announcer Kyle Jensen repeatedly told us has a “pro body” — wasn’t there.

(As an aside, I am thinking of leading a move to rename The W.TV to WTF TV. After providing a hazy, often-buffered image during the first half, it abruptly stopped the transmission just as the second half started. No explanation, no means of recovering the signal. The Gaels’ broadcast is produced by the team’s much-ballyhooed marketing partner, IMG, and carried over The W.TV. If IMG can’t do better than this, Saint Mary’s should demand its money back.)

To be fair to Oliver, Landale’s best move, toward the end of the first half, came against Nevada sub Elijah Foster, a slightly smaller version of Oliver. Landale executed a textbook up-and-under move on Foster to put the Gaels up by 14 points and remove any doubt about how this one was going to go.

No pasta, no lollies

Landale credits his improved athleticism to a low-carb diet that whittled 20 pounds of body fat off his 6-ll frame. Call it the “lolly and pasta diet” after the two main food groups Landale has eschewed in the past eight months. Professional marketers might wonder what they could do with Landale as a smart-eating spokesman considering that former fat boy Jared of Subway fame (before his incarceration) become a national hero for dropping some poundage.

Gaels’ assistant coach Marty Clarke, as succinct in his verbiage as Landale is in his new playing style, described Landale’s evolution simply. “We always knew he could be good if he lost the weight. Now he’s good.” Works for me.

Aside from Landale’s 33 minutes in place of Pineau, who is still struggling with “back issues,” the rest of the Gaels’ lineup was as familiar as a favorite TV series. Fifth-year senior guard Joe Rahon has progressed from steady hand on the offense to master pilot of the S.S. Gaels. He dominated the game as a shooter and assist-maker, scoring 11 points on 5-10 shooting (0ne free throw) and dished out eight assists with zero turnovers.

It seems impossible that Rahon had only five baskets, as he penetrated the lane almost at will, scoring over quicker and bigger defenders time and time again. Naar figured out the Wolf Pack was going to force him off the three-point line, so switched strategies in the second half. He scored on three exquisite drives of his own, including a look-away move that had half the Nevada defense searching the stands to see who he was gazing at.

Naar also dished out eight assists, giving him and Rahon 16 of the Gaels’ 21 assists on 33 made baskets. That Naar and Rahon scored on eight drives in the lane against a team that is considered one of the best defensive squads in the Mountain West was proof once again that they are the craftiest pair of guards in the West.

Fitzner fizzles

The one Gael player that fans thought might make a Landale-like splash, redshirt sophomore Evan Fitzner, showed the penchant for mediocrity that haunted him throughout last year. Fitzner made back-to-back three-pointers at the 14-minute mark of the first half, then basically disappeared. He gathered only one rebound in his 15 minutes on the court, and was frequently replaced by Kyle Clark, who made the most of his opportunities.

Clark entered the game around the eight-minute mark of the first half with the score tied 22-22, and immediately scored on a lightening move to the basket. That kicked off a 10-0 run that included a three-pointer on Clark’s only long-distance attempt of the night. He finished with 10 points on 3-4 shooting, grabbed two rebounds, made an assist and got a steal. Classic spark plug.

Gael fans may have been surprised that Bennett didn’t take advantage of a deeper back court  than last year to give Naar and Rahon some relief, but Rahon played all 40 minutes of the game and Naar 35. Super-sub Stefan Gonzalez spelled Naar, but only for three minutes, during which he didn’t attempt a shot. Prized freshman guard Jordan Ford didn’t get off the bench, and redshirt freshman guard Tanner Krebs logged 17 minutes, mostly in relief of Hermanson. Krebs looked a little unsettled, and didn’t score on two field goal attempts and a free throw.

Bennett admitted after the game that he was “not as trusting [in his bench] as I will be in a couple of weeks.” He said he “rode Joe and Emmett hard, rode Jock hard” and will change that in the not-too-distant future. “Dane’s coming, Jordan Hunter’s coming,” he said of two front court players, but he made no promises about who might spell Naar and Rahon in the back court.

The word from-Gael-land is that Ford has defensive deficiencies that are keeping him out of action, leading one to speculate whether walk-on Tommy Kuhse, who impressed fans with his heady play in last-week’s intra-squad scrimmage, might crack the lineup sooner than Ford. We’ve seen this movie before, and Bennett is unshakable in his insistence that anyone who gets on the floor for the Gaels adopts a defense-first attitude no matter how sharp their offense. Stay tuned.

Jock Landale (34) scores on a left-handed hook shot against Nevada, one of 15 baskets he made in a break-out performance. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

Eric Musselman waited a long time to land a D-1 head coaching job, and he proved last season at Nevada that he doesn’t plan to give it up for a long time.

After stints with five NBA teams, including head coaching opportunities at Golden State and Sacramento, two head coaching jobs in the NBA Development League and assistant positions at Arizona State and LSU, Musselman landed the Nevada job in 2015. He took the Wolf Pack to a 24-14 record (10-8 in the Mountain West Conference) and its first-ever “national championship,” even though it was in the decidedly non-elite CBI.

Five of his wins came in that tournament run, whose weirdness is exemplified by the fact the Nevada played Morehead State three times before clinching the championship (winning two in Reno and losing one at Morehead).

Musselman began stockpiling players from the moment he walked on the Reno campus, signing three transfers who sat the bench last season waiting for their NCAA eligibility to resume, and landed two four-star high school players as well. Adding those new faces to returning stars Cameron Oliver, the versatile, 6-8 sophomore forward out of Sacramento’s Grant High School, and 6-6 senior guard D.J. Fenner, gave Musselman the nucleus for a team he hopes will do better than the CBI this season.

Oliver (13.4 PPG and 9.1 RPG) and Fenner (13.7 PPG and 4.6 RPG) are the heart of the Wolf Pack attack, but two of those transfers, 6-7 forward Jordan Caroline from Southern Illinois and 6-3 guard Jordan Marshall from Missouri State, will also contribute. Rounding out the Wolf Pack’s expected starting five is 6-4 sophomore guard Lindsey Drew, son of former NBA star Larry Drew, who garnered 56 steals as a freshman.

One of those four-star recruits, 5-10 guard Devearl Ramsey from Los Angeles, is expected to be a significant force off the bench. Ramsey joins Oliver and Drew as outstanding defenders. With Drew’s steals and Oliver’s 13th leading blocks-per-game average of 2.6, Musselman’s Wolf Pack has a definite defensive edge.

In Nevada’s 88-58 victory over San Francisco State in an exhibition game last  week, Oliver scored 21 points in 22 minutes, Ramsey chipped in 12, Fenner 10 and former starter Elijah Foster, a 6-7 junior forward, also scored 12 points. Gael fans may remember Saint Mary’s opened last season against San Francisco State, winning 80-56 behind Emmett Naar’s 27 points and seven three-pointers.

Wolf Pack-Gaels match-ups

Nevada is decidedly smaller than the Gaels in the front court, with Oliver their only true big man at 6-8. The other expected starter in the front court is the 6-7 Caroline out of Southern Illinois. But they are tall everywhere else, with Fenner and 6-6 and Drew at 6-4 giving them a strong defensive presence in the back court. The other expected starting guard is Marshall, the transfer from Missouri State, who is listed at 6-3.

Saint Mary’s Coach Randy Bennett’s first decision is who to put on Oliver to start the game. This is where the Gaels’ outstanding depth on the front line will come in handy. If normal post starter Dane Pineau draws the assignment, his greater height (6-9) and experience battling outstanding centers such as Domantas Sabonis of Gonzaga, should stand him in good stead against Oliver.

Bennett can bring in Jock Landale (6-11) if he wants more height and strength against Oliver, or Jordan Hunter (6-10) if he needs more quickness. In sum, the Gaels seem to have the horsepower to keep Oliver from dominating the game.

Wolf Pack guards Fenner and Drew will be considerably taller than the Gaels’ slick but smallish starters Naar and Joe Rahon. But those two have found ways to penetrate and score against bigger guards throughout their careers, and it is unlikely they will cough up the ball under pressure. Newcomer Jordan Ford, although small himself at around 6-0, gives the Gaels a quick, change-of-pace attacker from the back court. Again, experience dictates that the Wolf Pack will not present obstacles in the back court that Saint Mary’s has not overcome before.

Forward advantage

It is at power forward and small forward that Saint Mary’s seems to have a definite edge. Nevada has no one on its roster who, on paper, presents a problem for the Gaels’ outstanding stretch 4, Evan Fitzner. At 6-10, Fitzner can shoot over most players who guard him, and he has shown defensive chops that should enable him to keep up with Caroline, if the Southern Illinois transfer is his assignment. Caroline posted averages of 9.2 PPG and 6.2 RPG as a freshman, earning him a spot on the Missouri Valley Conference all-freshman team.

For his part, Fitzner averaged 8.7 PPG and 4.4 RPG and earned a spot on the WCC all-freshman team. Caroline has good heft at 235 pounds on his 6-7 frame, but Fitzner has bulked up to 230 pounds himself, and will not be a pushover if Caroline attempts to post him up.

Although Fenner is listed as a guard, it is assumed he will draw the Gaels’ Calvin Hermanson, a small forward. Hermanson is the same height as Fenner, 6-6, and weighs about the same. If Fenner proves too quick for Hermanson, Bennett has his Swiss Army Knife substitute in 6-6 Kyle Clark to slow him down. Hermanson also has a distinct shooting advantage, particularly from three-point land, over Fenner. Hermanson’s 74 three-pointers led the Gaels, a three-point-shooting team, last season.

Experience may be the deciding factor

Fenner is Musselman’s only senior with considerable experience in the program (transfer Marshall is a senior also, but is in his first year with the Wolf Pack), and the bulk of the team is made up of sophomores and freshmen. Although considered a young team last year, Saint Mary’s is now deep in experience. Two starters, Rahon and Pineau, are seniors, while Naar, Hermanson and Landale are juniors. Fitzner, Stefan Gonzalez and Clark are sophomores, but all saw considerable action last year. Hunter is the only sophomore who didn’t see a lot of playing time behind Pineau and Landale, and Tanner Krebs logged a full year practicing with the team while riding the bench during games as a redshirt. Ford is a true freshman who may play major minutes for the Gaels.

It’s more than years of  service that gives the Gaels an advantage, however. This group went through an extraordinary season last year, winning 29 games without the benefit of multiple wins in a dodgy tournament (the Gaels’ two wins in the NIT, against New Mexico State and Georgia, were legitimate). They beat Gonzaga twice and tied for the WCC regular-season championship.

The only thing missing was an NCAA Tournament invitation, and if they learned anything from that experience it was the value of a solid out-of-conference performance. They get their first test in that regard Friday night against a good, rising Nevada team, and it seems unlikely they will blow the opportunity.

Jordan Hunter, the Gaels’ springy post man, is shown going against Jock Landale in last week’s Blue-White scrimmage. He could play a key role in helping defend Nevada’s outstanding sophomore forward, Cameron Oliver. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

First the good news: the Saint Mary’s White Team (Stefan Gonzalez, Tommy Kuhse, Jordan Hunter, Kyle Clark, Jock Perry) beat the Blue first-teamers (Joe Rahon, Emmett Naar, Jock Landale, Evan Fitzner, Calvin Hermanson, Tanner Krebs) 52-48 in Saturday’s intra-squad scrimmage.

Why is that good news? Because it reflects how even and deep the talent is on this team. The better news? The scrimmage result doesn’t tell half the story.

A stranger walking into McKeon Pavilion without any knowledge of the Gaels might have reasonably listed the following as can’t-miss stars:

Gonzalez. This is the real Pocatello Flash, not the recovering-from-broken-leg version we saw last year, who had to settle for being a three-point shooter. Gonzalez was all over the court, leading fast breaks, driving the lane and, oh yeah, draining two-of-four three-pointers, just about his average last year.

Hunter. Immeasurably more confident and skilled than last year, Hunter has added a polished offensive game (4-4 from the floor, 3-4 from the free throw line) to his rim protecting and rebounding repertoire. It will be impossible to keep him off the floor this season, no matter how excellent the post tandem of Landale and Dane Pineau (who sat out the scrimmage with a minor injury).

Kuhse (pronounced like the second syllable of ac-cuse). The Arizona walk-on looked entirely too polished to be a non-scholarship player, easily the most talented walk-on in Randy Bennett’s tenure as head coach. His line: 14 points on 5-7 shooting, including 4-5 from three-point land.

Thomas. Just because he looks like a future superstar. With his long arms and jumping ability — one jaw-dropping dunk in the scrimmage — Thomas would leave any WCC coach drooling with envy. This under-the-radar recruit may prove to be one of Bennett’s best, and could become the Gaels’ toughest perimeter defender since Wayne Hunter or Stephen Holt.

Perry. When you’re 7-1 or so you automatically draw attention, but Perry proved to be more than just a big body. He caught the ball well, moved his feet and put up a nice variety of shots (3-7). He looked very comfortable in the paint, and gives the Gaels more depth down low.

But wait, there’s more

What’s that you say? I’ve picked a walk-on, two true freshmen, a sophomore who played only 71 minutes and a  guard who came off the bench in his freshman year. What about the guys who actually contributed to the Gaels’ 29-6 record last year?

Oh, them. They were great. Start with Landale, the 6-11 back-up to Pineau, who decided that the summer between his sophomore and junior years would be a good time to drastically alter his body. No longer the Pillsbury Doughboy of the Gaels, Landale has slimmed down and chiseled his frame to a point that he’s absolutely sylph-like. Because Pineau was relegated to the bench, Landale got the opportunity to jump center on the opening tip against the athletic and upwardly mobile Hunter.

Landale won the tip authoritatively, and went on to lead all scorers with 15 points (6-8 from the field, 3-3 from the free-throw line), tie Hunter for most rebounds (4) and play more minutes (24) than anyone else. He will push Pineau and Hunter for time in the paint.

Another body improvement award goes to Fitzner, the sophomore power forward with the smooth three-point stroke. Fitzner has added 10-15 pounds of muscle to his 6-10 frame, and looks ready to give opponents’ fits as a stretch-4 who can really shoot it. Naar and Rahon were their efficient, sneaky selves, although neither shot very well (Rahon 0-5, Naar 2-7). Naar did have had six assists, including at least two of the “Did you see that?” variety. They’re ready to go.

Hermanson made three straight three-pointers to kick things off, then enjoyed a leisurely afternoon of 17 minutes’ work. He, too, looks ready for action.

Clark was his usual dynamic self, and seems more confident in his shot than last year, although he made only one of five attempts. Krebs, too, looked better than his stats of 1-5, and has noticeably improved his ball-handling skills. Although many think of Krebs as a back-up to Hermanson at the 3, he played guard Saturday, including some time at the point, and looked comfortable.

The only disappointing note for fans was the absence of freshman guard Jordan Ford. He had to attend to a family medical emergency, and so wasn’t able to participate. His absence was Kuhse’s opportunity, the Kuhse made the most of it.

Summing up

If you had to use two words to describe this Gael team, “big and deep” wouldn’t be bad choices. Including the walk-on Kuhse, Bennett has 14 players who could conceivably contribute this year. Observers agree he won’t saddle himself with having to satisfy that many, and opinions about who may redshirt are rampant among Gael fans. That will be a tough decision, but that’s why they pay Bennett the big bucks.

However he shapes the roster and determines his rotation, all the choices are good. There is no need to cover up for anyone on this team, and the potential seems unlimited. Although this is far from the quickest team in America, Bennett has shown that defensive tenacity can make up for quickness. Bennett even had his team — both Blue and White squads — play zone for the entire first half of the scrimmage, indicating he will be flexible in choosing the right strategy for the greatest success.

It all begins for real next Friday when a quick and talented Nevada Wolfpack rolls into McKeon. The Gaels look ready.

Freshman Elijah Thomas, shown above driving against Calvin Hermanson, showed limitless potential in the Gaels’ scrimmage Saturday. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

Apparently the only thing necessary to reduce Saint Mary’s basketball players to unconstrained hilarity is the sight of Dane Pineau and Emmett Naar with a microphone in their hands.

That was the take-away from a video shown at Saturday’s Tip-Off Dinner on the Moraga campus. Intended to reveal the personalities of Gael players through interviews conducted by either Pineau — the senior post — or Naar — the junior point guard — the video instead showed the players breaking up every time either Pineau or Naar attempted a question.

Maybe it was the unintentionally hilarious mustaches Pineau and Naar were sporting during the interviews (but thankfully removed in time for the dinner). Whatever the reason, fans got the impression that Pineau and Naar are really funny guys. Host Matt Maiocco summed up appreciation for the twosome by comparing them to a fine wine.

“They’re our own Pineau Narr,” quipped Maiocco, the 49ers beat reporter for Comcast Sports Net.

It didn’t matter to the crowd, who enjoyed the opportunity to see the Gaels having fun with each other. It is a relaxed bunch who clearly enjoy each others company, and for whom the weight of expectations over the upcoming season is not too heavy to bear.

And we did learn that freshman Arizona recruit Elijah Thomas is known as “Eli,” and that he can’t sing. Pineau induced him to try a few bars of his favorite song, then cut him off when a few strangled notes came out.

Further, it was revealed that freshman guard Jordan Ford from Folsom High outside Sacramento is a two-time California chess  champion in addition to a two-time Sacramento Bee Player of the Year. It can be assumed most fans didn’t know there was such a thing as a state chess champion, but were glad one of their own holds the title.

Ford also demonstrated he is right in step with the lighthearted personality of his teammates when he gave a perfect response to an inquiry into his reason for attending Saint Mary’s. “I really like playing basketball with Australians,” he deadpanned.

Other highlights

Here are some other nuggets from a night of videotaped and live interviews, plus conversations with various coaches.

Associate Head Coach Marty Clarke gave his trademark dry assessment of the incongruity of the Gaels fielding two post players with the surname “Jock” (junior Landale and freshman Perry): “There are only three people named Jock in Australia,” Clarke claimed. “One of them was my grade school math teacher — and he was a Scot — and other two are seven-footers at Saint Mary’s.”

While on the subject of the two Jocks, Perry, although undoubtedly tall at 7-1 or so, has not impressed his teammates with his overall physique. Perry revealed that his nickname is “Pipes,” an unflattering reference to under-developed (in his teammates’ view) forearms and biceps.

In a private conversation, Clarke revealed the behind-the-scenes path of 2017 Latvian recruit Kristers Zoriks to the Gael fold. Clarke spends much of his free time scouting international basketball competition, and recently noted a promising if scrawny 17-year-old guard in one of FIBA’s far-flung tournaments.

Shortly afterward, Clarke heard from a friend who is an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics (Clarke coached in Australia’s highest professional league in addition to the Australian Institute of Sports, now known as the Center of Excellence). The Celtics contact told Clarke of two outstanding recruits enrolled in one of the numerous prep schools in the Northeast — one of them a Serbian-Canadian who didn’t fill a Gael need and the other Zoriks.

Bingo! The connection made, the Gaels made Zoriks a target, and he verballed his intent to enroll at Moraga next fall. Clarke’s thumbnail assessment of Zoriks: “A 6-4 Emmett Naar.”

That the Gaels under Bennett relish guards is no secret, with six on the current roster and two expected to enroll in 2017 — Zoriks and Aussie Angus Glover. The message has spread to the Gaels front court players, as revealed when the players introduced themselves and their positions.

Stretch forward Evan Fitzner introduced himself as a 4-guard, and post man Jordan Hunter topped Fitzner by calling himself a point-center.

With the Seals in San Diego

A photo atop every table at the dinner featured the Gael players and coaches in swimsuits and related beach apparel, somewhere near a large body of water. Turns out the water was the Pacific Ocean and the Gaels were enjoying a time-out from a training exercise conducted by the Navy Seals.

Bennett said the coaching staff arranged the Seals encounter as a training and bonding exercise, and chose San Diego in deference to Gael players Fitzner and Joe Rahon, both San Diego residents. Few details were revealed about what the Seals subjected them to, but several players said it was challenging but fun.

Among other things, the upcoming season may reveal whether Seals and Gaels make good training partners.

Comcast sports reporter Matt Maiocco interviews Gael guards Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar during the Tip-Off Dinner. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

by Michael Vernetti

“Expectations” was the buzzword at Saturday night’s Tip-Off Dinner in the Soda Center on the Saint Mary’s campus.

As in, “What are your expectations for this year’s team?” asked by seemingly every other attendee.

Or, “Do you think this team can live up to expectations?” asked by the rest.

So it was that managing expectations was high on host Matt Maiocco’s line of inquiry when he brought Gael Coach Randy Bennett to the dais for a live interview before the assembled dinner guests. Maiocco, an East Bay guy who cut his teeth covering sports for both the Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune (both recently renamed the East Bay Times) before joining Comcast Sports Net as the 49ers beat reporter, is one of a few sports reporters whom Bennett suffers gladly.

He has grown comfortable lightly grilling Bennett at the annual Tip-Off Dinner, and felt especially upbeat following last year’s 29-6 season and a summer and fall replete with glossy predictions for the success of the 2016-17 Gaels. He was glad to ask Bennett to comment on the recent 19th place national ranking of the Gaels in a USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll, the first Top 20 pre-season ranking in Gaels’ history.

Bennett was certainly expecting the question, yet he didn’t answer glibly. Speaking calmly, he said living up to the hype was not going to be easy.

“People think it will be easy — we have the same players and coaches back, plus some good newcomers — but it’s not easy,” Bennett said. “You can’t just assume everyone is going to perform at the same level as last year, that the coaches will be just as good, that we’ll escape injury as we did last year. We have to start all over again and prove ourselves in every game.”

But, he added, the commitment to continued improvement evidenced by the current team gives him confidence that the Gaels’ hopes can be realized.

“Expectations absolutely won’t be an albatross for this team,” Bennett insisted. “These guys get it…they’re the real deal.” He added that the returning players have improved their physical conditioning and their skills, and “the team has improved over last year.”

Expectations affecting everything

Bennett acknowledged that high expectations have increased media scrutiny. “We’ve had more (media) people at practice than ever before — all nosing around,” he said with a resigned shrug that belied his preference for keeping his team under wraps. But, as revealed in a question from Maiocco, it could have been exponentially worse (or better, for those who think publicity is a good thing).

Bennett acknowledged that prickly NBA commentator Charles Barkley approached him earlier this year about including the Gaels in a proposed TV documentary called “Chase for the Final Four.” The other featured teams were to be Syracuse, Connecticut and Kansas. Shuddering over the exposure such a program would give the program, Bennett nevertheless conceded, “We probably would have done it” had not scheduling and other production problems sidetracked the idea.

Bennett’s effort to lower expectations couldn’t dim the giddy atmosphere of the dinner, however. For the first time in my memory, various college officials spoke enthusiastically about fund-raising efforts and physical improvements for Gael athletics. Athletic Director Mark Orr said season ticket sales were the highest in history, and predicted a sellout for the Gaels’ opening game Nov. 11 against Nevada.

College President James Donahue joked that the real reason he accepted the Saint Mary’s job two years ago was because of Bennett’s basketball program, recalling his childhood in basketball-crazy Philadelphia and his tenure as NCAA liaison at Georgetown University in the heyday of John Thompson’s Hoyas. Donahue predicted the long-awaited expansion and enhancement of McKeon Pavilion — including additional seating and much-needed weight-training facilities — would proceed as planned immediately after the 2016-17 season concludes next March.

Toward that end, Bennett noted a recent fund-raising event in San Francisco to bridge the approximately $4 million gap needed to complete the McKeon expansion, labeled the Student-Athlete Performance Center (SAPC). Bennett called the meeting very successful, and other sources stated that some $440,000 was raised for SAPC on that evening.

Madigan resumes primacy

Bennett also indicated the college has basically ceded control of downtrodden Madigan Gym to his team. Refurbished with a new floor, new basketball standards and a repainted roof, along with treadmills and other equipment, Madigan eliminates Bennett’s need to schedule practices in McKeon around the requirements of women’s basketball and volleyball teams. No more 6:30-9 p.m. practice sessions, followed by weight training the following morning, Bennett said, which will improve not only his players’ physical fitness but their study patterns as well.

It seems even the ghost of Slip Madigan is looking over the Gaels as they enter the most auspicious season in college history.

Next: Players and coaches chime in on prospects for 2016-17.

The Two Jocks — Landale and Perry — are front and center as the Gaels pose in their new uniforms at the kickoff to the 2016-17 season. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

Practice has begun (watch here: http://www.smcgaels.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?DB_LANG=C&id=5658530&SPID=&DB_OEM_ID=21400) for the 2016-17 season of the most audacious college basketball team in the U.S.

Not the best team. Certainly not the most generously funded or the most luxuriously housed. But most audacious, because what Randy Bennett has done with his Saint Mary’s Gaels is a constant slap in the face to the prevailing culture of college hoops.

Bennett has neither the budget, national standing nor 5-star player pipeline to warrant consideration as one of the nation’s top teams. Yet, in a summary of seven pre-season rating services, the Gaels’ average pick was around 18th nationally, with a high of 14 from CBS Sports to a low of 21 from Athlon.

Going further, NBC Sports included the Gaels in a group of seven sleeper teams to make the Final Four, along with the likes of UCLA, Syracuse, Florida State and a few others. Said NBC about the Gaels:

They’re old — they start a redshirt senior, regular senior, two redshirt juniors and a redshirt sophomore — and they’re deliberate, but they play a super-efficient brand of basketball on the offensive end of the floor and shoot the hell out of the ball from three. They’ll need the right matchups to make a run, but teams that don’t make mistakes and do make threes are always a tough out.

Pre-season polls are notoriously unreliable and don’t earn teams a sliver of consideration from the NCAA Selection Committee, which snubbed the 29-6 Gaels last year. But inclusion of Saint Mary’s in such pre-season talk proves the extent of their audaciousness. Consider the budgets of teams ranked both higher and lower than Saint Mary’s.

The Cadillac programs in NCAA hoops are Kentucky, Louisville and Duke, which spend upwards of $16 million a year on basketball coaching salaries, recruiting, travel and operating expenses. Another 80 spend $5 million or more annually, and two teams in the Gaels’ own conference — Gonzaga and BYU — spend more than $6 million.

The Gaels limp along on around $2.5 million a year — fifth in the WCC — and yet are considered likely to be more successful this year than Louisville, Gonzaga, West Virginia, Maryland, Miami, USC, Connecticut or Texas. How can that be?

The Bennett touch

Ever since Bennett brought his humble manner and team-first coaching philosophy to Moraga in 2001, the Gaels have attracted attention. Four years after Saint Mary’s went 2-27, the year before he arrived, Bennett led them to an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament. Four other NCAA appearances, including a Sweet Sixteen run in 2010, have followed. Last year was the Gaels’ most successful in terms of games won, but relegation to the NIT eliminated any talk of “best-ever.”

The coming season might be the one that validates “the Bennett way” more convincingly than anything that has occurred previously.

Already struggling with a 3,500-capacity gym that no one would consider a recruiting attraction, working under a modest budget and toiling in a conference that, outside of Gonzaga recently and the distant memory of San Francisco national championships in the 50s, few have heard of, Bennett’s slow, methodical establishment of a powerhouse in Moraga hit a dead-end in 2013. The NCAA hit Saint Mary’s hard for alleged recruiting violations, i.e. the efforts of an assistant coach to woo a French player to his son’s high school team. Under the NCAA’s doctrine of institutional responsibility, Saint Mary’s received four years’ probation for failing to rein in the errant coach.

The most serious effect of the NCAA ruling was the loss of four scholarships, two each in 14-15 and 15-16, and the elimination of in-season tournaments that previously had allowed the Gaels to travel to Hawaii, Anaheim, Padre Island, TX and other locations as pre-conference tune-ups and recruiting lures. This season’s team is Bennett’s first since the sanctions were imposed to have the full complement of 13 scholarship players, and next year will mark the Gaels’ first eligibility for an in-season tournament since 2014.

Surviving the sanctions

The Gaels did not fall apart under the NCAA sanctions, but they did stumble, and last year’s trip to the NIT was their third in a row. Bennett thought he had a sleeper last year, but scheduled lightly in the non-conference portion of the season to give his comparatively inexperienced team time to develop. Oddly enough, the team NBC described as “old” was considered extremely young last year. There was not a senior on the squad, and apart from two juniors, it was composed entirely of freshmen and sophomores.

They’re all back, plus four new faces — three recruits and an eligible redshirt. Bennett has never been in such a player-rich situation, as previous years’ success has always seen the departure of  a key player or two. No one who contributed to the Gaels’ success last year has left (freshman Franklin Porter, who has transferred to Portland, played only garbage minutes).

This gives Bennett unusual depth to complement a team that was one of the nation’s most efficient last season. The Gaels boasted a two-headed tandem of Dane Pineau and Jock Landale that gave them nearly 20 points and more than 10 rebounds a game from the post position. Jumping  Jack sophomore Jordan Hunter, who played only 71 minutes last year, continues to impress as a rim protector and rebounder, and Bennett figures to give him more minutes this year.

The Gaels’ ultra-efficient back court duo of Emmett Naar and Joe Rahon is back, and Bennett may be able to spell them with true freshman Jordan Ford. Naar and Rahon rarely left the court last year, but Ford’s presence gives the Gaels a change of pace in the back court with his one-on-one ability and dead-eye shooting.

Another new face in the Gaels’ lineup may be Tanner Krebs, a 6-6 guard who is dangerous from deep three-point range. Krebs might be called upon to spell Calvin Hermanson at the wing position, providing additional three-point shooting for a team that is already rich with it.

Roughly a month from now, Nov. 11, a talented and hungry Nevada Wolfpack, headed by a talented and hungry coach, Eric Musselman, comes to Moraga to kick off the new season. Bennett’s Gaels will get their first opportunity to give credence to the pre-season prognostications and redeem the promise of last year. It could be the start of something epic.

Joe Rahon, shown driving against Stanford last year, will again lead the Gaels when the 2016-17 season gets underway on Nov. 11 in Moraga. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

Saint Mary’s Coach Randy Bennett heard the rumblings about how soft scheduling derailed the Gaels’ 2016 NCAA hopes, and was determined to do something about it in the upcoming season.

Unfortunately, prospective opponents didn’t cooperate.

Bennett’s two big targets for 2016-17 were Pac-12 power Oregon, ranked as high as 4th in pre-season predictions (Sports Illustrated), and California, aiming to improve upon its first-round NCAA upset by Hawaii last March. By adding the Ducks and Bears to a schedule that would include Atlantic 10 co-champion Dayton, Mountain West contender Nevada, Sun Belt Conference defending champ University of Texas-Arlington and solid Conference USA member University of Alabama-Birmingham, Bennett would have a schedule the NCAA Selection Committee couldn’t fault.

There was reason to believe a Saint Mary’s-Oregon series could be arranged, especially since Bennett was willing to budge on his preference for home-and-home engagements instead of deals weighed in favor of opponents. Bennett had agreed on a two-for-one deal with Oregon in 2007, beginning with a home game in Moraga and followed by two years of Gael visits to the Ducks in Eugene.

That series went pretty well for the Gaels, as the Patty Mills-led squad upset the no. 12-ranked Ducks 99-87 in Mills’ fourth game as a collegian, and the Gaels followed with consecutive wins on the Ducks’ home court. Oregon figures to be even stronger this season than was the 2007 defending Pac-10 championship team, but apparently current Oregon Coach Dana Altman doesn’t share the sentimental streak that former coach Ernie Kent possessed. Kent was willing to come to Moraga for a 10th anniversary celebration with the Gael team he led to the NCAA Tournament in 1997, with most members of that team on hand to pay him tribute.

With no sentimental elements involved, Altman drove a harder bargain than Kent did in exacting a two-for-one requirement. Altman demanded the Gaels play three times in Oregon in exchange for a single visit to Moraga. If two-for-one deals in college basketball are considered unusual if not rare, three-for-one deals are almost unheard of. Bennett balked and the Oregon possibility went away.

Cal looked promising

If there was a feel-good 2015 scheduling story in college basketball, the Saint Mary’s-Cal game on Dec. 12 in Berkeley was it. Cal was highly ranked in the pre-season, starting three potential NBA players in Ivan Rabb, Jaylen Brown and Tyrone Wallace, while Saint Mary’s was considered to be rebuilding with a lineup devoid of stars. New Cal Coach Cuonzo Martin may have figured if there was ever a chance to end a 14-year drought of regularly-scheduled games between the two teams, 2016 was the year.

The game was tighter than anyone except the most die-hard Saint Mary’s fan expected, with the Gaels nosing ahead 59-58 with just seconds remaining. Cal’s Jabari Bird buried a three-pointer to put Cal up 61-59, however, and the Gaels’ Joe Rahon missed the first of a one-and-one free throw opportunity that could have taken the game into overtime.

“Great game for the Bay Area,” Martin said afterward, and almost everyone agreed. A raucous crowd of more than 10,000 in Cal’s Haas Pavilion certainly enjoyed it, and the Bay Area media celebrated the return of a rivalry that used to be a staple of northern California sports. Optimistic hints of a continuing Cal-Saint Mary’s engagement were everywhere, and Bennett was anxious to follow up on those rumors.

But Martin wasn’t, and Cal steadfastly refused to schedule a re-match either in Berkeley or Moraga. Evidently Martin’s sympathy for Bay Area fans diminished as he lost three starters from last year’s team and endured a so-so recruiting year. Whatever Martin’s motivation, part two of Bennett’s strategy for solidifying the Gaels’ post-season chances went down the drain.

What we’re left with

Aiming high for two Pac-12 opponents wasn’t Bennett’s only bow to the soft-schedule critics, however. He abandoned a long-standing practice of beginning each season with a Division II opponent, and will open 2016-17 with a tough Nevada team that is shooting for greater heights than last year’s fourth-place Mountain West finish. Second-year Coach Eric Musselman gets the services of four transfers who rode the bench last year and landed a recruiting class rated 35th in the country. Musselman, who has two NBA head-coaching stints (Golden State and Sacramento) on his resume, in addition to assistant positions at Arizona State and LSU, is hungry to lead Nevada into the top echelon of college hoops.

Here are capsule descriptions of other non-conference opponents:

Dayton Flyers, Nov. 19 in Dayton, Ohio: Probably a tougher foe than last year’s single road non-conference game against Cal, if only because Dayton is a long plane ride away instead of a 15-minute jaunt down Highway 24. The Flyers shared the Atlantic 10 title last year, finished with an RPI of 22 and a strength-of-schedule rating of 49 (compared to the Gaels’ 103). They return four starters and definitely count on returning to the NCAA Tournament.

University of Texas-Arlington, Dec. 8, Moraga: UTA is the projected Sun Belt Conference champion, and, with its top six scorers returning, is aiming for an NCAA bid instead of last season’s trip to the CIT.

University of Alabama-Birmingham, Nov. 27, Las Vegas: After going 16-2 in Conference USA, UAB lost in the first round of the conference tournament to another Gael opponent, Western Kentucky. It also lost to BYU 97-79 during the season, and lost its coach, Jerod Haase, to Stanford. Playing this game at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas gives UAB an advantage over Western Kentucky, which comes to Moraga on Dec. 14.

The Western Kentucky game will present an opportunity for a previous Bennett coaching opponent, Rick Stansbury, to exact some revenge. Stansbury was the head man at Mississippi State in 2010 when the Gaels dismantled his team, 94-72, in another neutral-court game in Las Vegas. That game marked the best statistical performance by the Gaels’ Mickey McConnell, as he scored 28 points and dished out 13 assists.

After two years as an assistant at Texas A&M, Stansbury was named head coach of Western Kentucky back in March. He brought a key A&M 2017 recruit, center Mitchell Robinson, with him to Western, and also will get the services of fifth-year Hartford transfer Pancake Thomas. Thomas must have spent a lot time in the gym in addition to I-HOP, as he averaged 18.9 PPG for Hartford.

Stanford, Nov. 30, Palo Alto: The Gaels easily handled Stanford last year in Moraga, and will face basically the same team on the Cardinal home court. Haase replaced Johnny Dawkins, and will get back from injury the player Dawkins was counting on to lead Stanford last year, Robert Cartwright. Gone is the Cardinal leading scorer, Roscoe Allen, who  was a non-factor against the Gaels but ended up averaging 15.6 PPG.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Dec. 20, Moraga: The Islanders won 25 games last year and finished second to Stephen F. Austin in the Southland Conference.

Here is a link to the complete Gaels’ 2016-17 schedule: http://www.smcgaels.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=21400&SPID=12536&SPSID=101611

Problems eased next year

The Gaels’ scheduling challenges will ease considerably next year when the last vestige of NCAA sanctions — a ban on pre-season tournaments — comes to an end. With two or three quality games possible in  a single venue, pressure to find  attractive opponents will subside. This will be the Gaels’ first scheduling break since ESPN dropped its BracketBuster event several years ago. Not only did the BracketBuster give the Gaels a quality opponent without having to negotiate, it also provided a return engagement with that team. Utah State and Creighton were two BracketBuster teams that Saint Mary’s welcomed when ESPN used the power of its nationwide telecasts to force cautious coaches into line.

With the NCAA sanctions in place, the abandonment of the BracketBuster and the apparent decision by ESPN that Saint Mary’s had gotten it s fair share of Tip-Off Marathon appearances, the Gaels have felt lonely and exposed the past few years. Bennett managed to preserve the Gaels’ brand over that period, however, and the benefit of fielding excellent teams last year and this should be apparent when the pre-season tournament bids start coming in.

The Gaels’ Bennett has had his hands full scheduling quality opponents for the past several years, but may see some light at the end of the tunnel with lifting of NCAA restrictions in 2017-18. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

Having posited (Challenge to the pack) that there is a significant gap between the WCC’s Big Three — Saint Mary’s, Gonzaga and BYU — and the rest of the conference, it is logical to consider which of the remaining seven teams are showing the most signs of promise.

We all know about the coaching changes which brought new faces to San Francisco (Kyle Smith, Santa Clara (Herb Sendek), Portland (Terry Porter) and Pacific (Damon Stoudamire). We’ve seen the glittering new floor installed at Santa Clara’s Leavey Center. But who is taking the big steps and making the hard choices necessary to propel lackluster programs into the conference’s top tier? Here’s my take on that.

Mr. Smith comes  to San Francisco

Maybe because it happened in my back yard, or maybe because I’m biased in favor of an ex-Saint Mary’s coach, I think Kyle Smith at San Francisco has made the most auspicious beginning of the four new coaches. Within days of the announcement of his hire, Smith landed two recruits who should greatly strengthen the Dons’ lineup: Charles Minlend, Jr., a 6-4 guard from Concord, NC, who averaged 22 PPG and 3 APG last year at Fork Union Military Academy, and Chance Anderson, a 6-7 forward from Alpharetta, GA, who contributed 13.1 PPG and 9.8 RPG for St. Francis High School. Anderson’s father is former NBA player Willie Anderson, and his mother is sprinter Carla McGhee, who won a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics. That’s a good bloodline.

For good measure, Smith later announced the signing of 6-9 forward Remu Raitanen from Helsinki, Finland.

Smith also brought two of his assistants from Columbia with him, Derrick Phelps and Kevin Hovde. Phelps was a starting guard on the 1993 national championship North Carolina team, and had two seasons under his belt at Columbia to go with one at Monmouth, where he recruited several of the players who made Monmouth the surprise of last year’s NCAA season. Hovde, a four-year member of the Columbia staff, played college hoops at Richmond.

Filling out his coaching staff — and strengthening the Saint Mary’s imprint on WCC coaching — Smith added former Gael starting guard Todd Golden to handle recruiting and defensive strategy. Golden began his coaching career under Smith at Columbia, then moved to Auburn where he introduced analytics and data mining to Bruce Pearl’s staff.

Acting with such speed to improve his roster and bring in a staff that he knows and trusts indicated that Smith was more than ready to return to the WCC, where he spent nine years as Randy Bennett’s top assistant at Saint Mary’s. Smith is well-organized and laser-focused, traits that will be appreciated on the Hilltop after Rex Walters’ mercurial tenure.

He also has a more-than-decent roster to work with. Walters helped him out by signing two promising recruits before he departed, Jimbo Lull, a seven-foot center from Manhattan Beach, CA, who spent two years at New Hampshire prep factory New Hampton School, and outstanding De La Salle guard Jordan Ratinho, one of the northern California’s top prep players. Returning are the Dons’ third leading scorer, Ronnie Boyce (11.1 PPG in a little more than 20 minutes a game), starting forward Dont’e Reynolds and key reserves Matt McCarthy and Nate Renfro.

In a signal that the days of Walters’ revolving door roster are over, Smith welcomed former recruit Frankie Ferrari back to the Dons’ fold. Ferrari came to San Francisco in 2014 after an outstanding career at Burlingame High School on the San Francisco Peninsula, but withered on the Dons’ bench. He left the school for a year at La Canada College, but didn’t play basketball, giving him three remaining years of eligibility.

Don’t sleep on Dunlap

By some measures, Mike Dunlap hasn’t made much of a difference in the fortunes of Loyola Marymount in his first two seasons there — going a combined 22-40. Moreover, he has squandered existing assets such as Evan Payne and Gabe Levin, who now make up 40 per cent of the Long Beach State starting five. But Dunlap is driven, and was on the threshold of a .500 season last year before losing outstanding center Adom Jacko (since departed to pro ball) to a back injury. If the Lions had finished at 16-15 instead of 14-17, Dunlap would be on the same trajectory as Bennett when he took over a depleted Saint Mary’s program in 2000 — Bennett won nine games in his first year and broke even at 15-15 in his second.

Dunlap moved aggressively in the off-season to snap up transfers Stefan Jovanovic from Hawaii and Trevor Manuel from Oregon. Jovanovic, a 6-11 center, was a valuable back-up at Hawaii, and will be eligible this season because of Hawaii’s NCAA-imposed post-season ban. Manuel was considered a can’t-miss star in high school in Lansing, MI, but found something not to his liking in Eugene. He quit early enough in his first season to become eligible for the second semester of the 2016-17 campaign for LMU.

Put Jovanovic and Manuel beside freshmen recruits Donald Gipson, a 6-3 guard from LA’s Fairfax High School, and Mattias Markusson, a 7-1 center from Sweden, and Dunlap has a strong entering class. Dunlap also signed two outstanding recruits for 2017-18, Ryse Williams, a three-star shooting guard from Redondo Union High School, and Zafir Williams, a three-star forward from Long Beach Poly. Indicating his willingness to court public disfavor, Dunlap also hired Ryse Williams’ high school coach, Reggie Morris, Jr., as an LMU assistant. Such “package deals” are frowned upon by the NCAA but are not, in themselves, violations.

Pepperdine not going away

In many ways, Pepperdine was the bust of the WCC last year. Returning an intact starting lineup built upon senior stars Stacy Davis and Jett Raines, the Waves were picked by many to move Saint Mary’s out of the top four, and maybe threaten Gonzaga or BYU for an even higher finish. Seems the Waves only got part of that memo, as they beat Saint Mary’s twice — probably spoiling any chance the Gaels had for an NCAA invitation — but floundered against the rest of the league. Dropping winnable games down the stretch against Portland, San Francisco and LMU, the Waves matched their 2014-15 record of 18-14, 10-8 in  conference, and settled for fourth place in the WCC.

But the Waves are hardly destitute heading into 2016-17. Although Davis and Raines are gone, almost everyone else returns, including excellent guards Amadi Udenyi and Jeremy Major, budding star Kameron Edwards and ace jump-shooter Lamond Murray, Jr. The Waves also picked up a valuable graduate transfer in Chris Reyes, who should step into the starting lineup for his fourth college team — Saint Mary’s (redshirt season only), Citrus College and Utah having been previous stops.

Marty Wilson also signed a slew of recruits, the most intriguing of whom is Kaijae Yee-Stephens, a three-point shooting phenom from Santa Cruz High School. Stephens scored 2,000 points at unheralded Santa Cruz, an average of 19 PPG each season, but was headed for the dreadful Southern Utah Thunderbirds before a coaching change there gave him a second chance and Pepperdine scooped him up.

Will Santa Clara “floor” the WCC?

New coach, new floor, what else does Santa Clara offer in 2016-17? Herb Sendek, the former North Carolina State and Arizona State head man, has been almost the polar opposite of San Francisco’s Smith since being named to replace Kerry Keating: no big player news, quiet assistant coaching hires, low-key media appearances. Indeed, the media star for Santa Clara in the off-season is the Mission-themed new floor at the Leavey Center, which resembles those at Oregon and other institutions. It is really cool.

But Sendek might be quietly honing a squad that could surprise people this season. He has almost everyone back, which is a mixed blessing since the Broncos went 11-20 last year, but there are pieces in Pruneland that a new leader may mold into a winner. Jared Brownridge leads the troops, as he has for all three previous seasons at SCU, and is ably matched with sophomore K.J. Feagin in the back court. Nate Kratch, who seems to have been at Santa Clara almost as long as former coach Dick Davey, is a hard-working but undersized post presence, and it is there that Sendek must do his best work.

Keating seemed to ignore the post, concentrating on a string of hot-shooting guards (Kevin Foster, Evan Roquemore, Brandon Clark, Brownridge), but Sendek will probably change that policy. He recruited Julian Roche, a 6-11 center from Canada who played his high school ball at Procter Academy in Andover, NH, and has big bodies in Matt Hubbard, Emmanuel Ndumanya and Henrik Jadersten on his roster. Hubbard and Jadersten can shoot three-pointers, so the possibility remains of fashioning an offense that takes the pressure off Brownridge and Feagin, and gives the Broncos some offensive balance.

Porter family chronicles

Portland not only gained a locally-popular new  coach in former Trail Blazers star Terry Porter, it also added to its roster by gaining two of Porter’s sons — Franklin and Malcolm. Franklin is a 6-4 guard whom Bennett was grooming for stardom at Saint Mary’s, and Malcolm is a 6-3 combo guard who starred for Portland’s Jesuit High School. Franklin played in 22 games for Saint Mary’s as a freshman — a sign that Bennett considered him a promising player — and will have to sit out a year per NCAA transfer rules, while Malcolm will be eligible immediately.

In a smart coaching move, Porter hired former Pacific head coach Mike Burns as a top assistant. Burns deserves a Medal of Honor, or perhaps a Purple Heart, for his leadership of Pacific during last year’s infraction-plagued season, and it was both heart-warming and strategic for Porter to hire someone who knows the WCC as  well as Burns. This will be Porter’s inaugural college coaching assignment after stints at three NBA teams, so a little inside knowledge will come in handy. For what it’s worth, Porter joins LMU’s Dunlap (Charlotte Hornets) as WCC coaches with NBA coaching experience.

Since this post first went up an alert reader notified me that Mike Burns has already moved on from Portland to Boise State. I wanted to leave up the original post and correct it this way because Terry Porter still deserves props for hiring Burns and Burns himself deserves credit for the way he handled the Pacific assignment.

San Diego still struggling

Lamont Smith is entering his second season at San Diego, not his first, but it seems as if he is still struggling to gain his footing. Smith lost one of his prize recruits, guard Ryan Woolridge, before last season even began, and four more players departed at season’s end (little-used guard Khalil Bedart-Ghani, post man Brandon Perry, starting guard Vasa Pusica and another freshman recruit, Marcus Harris). Combined with the graduation of leading scorer Duda Sanadze and shot-blocking star Jito Kok, Smith might as well be starting from scratch.

Not surprisingly, San Diego has eight new faces on the roster for 2016-17, and Smith has to hope some of them pan out to keep the Toreros out of the WCC cellar.

Stoudamire to Pacific

Pacific needed a bolt of lightening to distract fans and alumni from the disastrous results of an NCAA investigation into infractions affecting the basketball team: a self-imposed ban on post-season play, loss of six scholarships over three years and suspension of head coach Ron Verlin and assistant coach Dwight Young. Not surprisingly, the Tigers limped to an 8-20 record under interim coach Burns.

They got the bolt they needed with the announcement that former Arizona and NBA star Damon Stoudamire would be their new head coach. Stoudamire has been honing his coaching skills as an assistant for several years, most recently as head recruiter at Memphis University. He will need all those skills to lift the Tigers from the bottom of the WCC conference.

Santa Clara’s snazzy new basketball floor could be seen as a symbol of resurgence for also-ran WCC programs. The big question is whether the quality of basketball played on that floor, and at others throughout the WCC, will match the aesthetics. Photo courtesy of Santa Clara media relations.