Tulsa (20-11, 12-6, including a loss to Northern Arizona). Vanderbilt (19-13, 11-7). Syracuse (19-13, 9-9, including a loss to St. John’s). Six teams from the Pac 12, including Oregon State (5th) and USC (6th). One team from the WCC, and it wasn’t Saint Mary’s.

Those were the most maddening results from the NCAA Selection Committee deliberations announced Sunday. Although the committee used to give lip service to mid-major teams, it seems the tide has turned inexorably to those from the Power Five conferences, no matter how much mediocrity they display.

Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett, covering up his disappointment with a cheerful facade, commented that as recently as a few years ago there were nine or 10 mid-majors chosen as at-large teams for the NCAA tournament compared with one chosen Sunday. “Any time you’re playing in a tournament beginning with “N” at this time of year, you’re fortunate,” said diplomat Bennett about playing in the NIT for the third year in a row.

Another myth laid to rest Sunday was one perpetrated by the selection committee itself: mid-major teams that take on Power Five teams on the road distinguish themselves and stand a better chance than teams — like Saint Mary’s — that play more cautious schedules. Tell that to Monmouth, which defeated UCLA, Notre Dame, USC and Georgetown on the road en route to a 27-7 season and first place in its conference.

Because they lost to Iona on a buzzer-beater in their conference tournament, all of Monmouth’s yeoman work on the road against the big boys was tossed aside and they were relegated to the NIT along with Saint Mary’s. Any pretense of open-handedness regarding mid-major teams went out the window with the committee’s treatment of Monmouth. The window of opportunity for mid-majors is almost entirely closed, with only an automatic bid as a ticket to the dance.

Slight of slights

The committee’s slight of Saint Mary’s on Sunday hurt more than the Patty Mills snub of 2009. There were no quibbles over a potentially unhealed injury, just a slap in the face to a team with a 27-5 record and an RPI of 37 — higher than two dozen teams that were selected over the Gaels. In a radio interview before Selection Sunday, Bennett said the situation would be more bearable if the selection committee promulgated a set of objective criteria that all teams could measure themselves against.

Without such guidance — and no one is holding his breath waiting for it — the Gaels are perpetually left to the whims of a capricious committee. Bennett certainly knew he was flirting with rejection with his ultra-conservative 2015-16 schedule. He chose to roll the dice and hope an upset of Cal and a competitive game in the WCC conference championship game would overcome schedule weaknesses. He lost the gamble.

Lacking a clear-cut agenda from the selection committee, there does seem to be a reasonable path forward for the Gaels in the anti-mid-major era: schedule at least three games on the road against Power Five teams. Bennett will have to swallow his pride and give up his insistence on a home-and-home arrangement with Power Five teams. They are not going to play in Moraga, so the Gaels are going to have to hit the road and take their chances.

The Gaels’ 17-point beat-down of Stanford this season, the 2007 win over defending Pac-10 champion Oregon and the 2013 win over Creighton and Doug McDermott have sent strong warning signals. It seems less and less likely that any Power Five team will ignore them in the future.

The path forward

The good news is that Saint Mary’s has a readily accessible source of Power Five opponents at hand in the Pac-12. The Gaels have played at Arizona, Oregon, Cal, USC and Stanford in recent years, and have scrimmaged with Arizona State and Washington. Bennett obviously has connections to the conference, which is on an upswing and doesn’t seem to be trimming its sails anytime soon. The conference is considering moving its tournament from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas — a 13,000-seat venue — to a new facility across the Strip (the T-Mobile Center) that seats 19,000. It’s got money and prestige, as evidenced by the six teams it is sending to this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Certainly the Gaels could schedule road games against two of these — it already has Stanford scheduled next year — and one more against a team from another power conference — how about Notre Dame? Until the Gaels regain eligibility to participate in in-season tournaments in 2017, they have to get creative to gain respect with the selection committee. Let’s hope the committee will get so much static from screwing Monmouth that it will go back to rewarding mid-majors who take their show on the road. And the Gaels will have an excellent show to take on the road next season — let’s get on with it.

Oh, yes, the NIT

For those of you who believe the Gaels deserve support no matter how unpalatable the tournament, they will open the NIT on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in McKeon Pavilion. The opponent is a familiar one, New Mexico State, which had its own NCAA hopes dashed in its conference tournament on a buzzer-beater by Cal State Bakersfield. Yes, the Roadrunners, whom the Gaels dominated 94-59 back in December, are going to the Dance.

Irony, thy name is NCAA.

Randy Bennett, who made many brilliant decisions this season, may have made a bad one in opting for a weak non-conference schedule. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

It’s horrible.

The Gaels’ attempted sweep of Gonzaga in the WCC title game Tuesday didn’t go their way — an 85-75 loss — and the sting was doubly painful because it took away a certain NCAA bid. Randy Bennett’s proud team, which compiled a 27-5 mark in what every “expert” on the planet assumed was a rebuilding year, now must withstand another several days of scrutiny from that unforgiving body known as the NCAA Selection Committee.

In filling in brackets for the 68-team field, the committee ponders an unfathomable welter of statistics, opinions and biases to determine if, say, a Saint Mary’s regular-season WCC conference championship share is equal to a fifth-or-sixth place finish by a team in the ACC or other Power Conference. Who knows what they’ll come up with?

ESPN announcer/analyst Fran Fraschilla, who was a roving color man on Tuesday’s national broadcast, was all optimism before the game began. He predicted boldly that both Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s would get into the field, but he may have been playing politics because he didn’t want to irritate the coach of either team. Who knows?

The most visible amateur bracketologist, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, waffled more than a line cook at Denny’s in his predictions before and after the SMC-Gonzaga game. Before: the Gaels are a solid 8th seed. After: the Gaels are momentarily among the walking dead pending the outcome of several conference tournaments this week. Way to take a stand, Joe.

About the game

The contest that precipitated all this uncertainty was a well-played battle between two teams powered by pride. The Gaels wanted to prove that their two conference wins over Gonzaga were not a fluke and that they deserved the outright WCC championship. Gonzaga wanted to prove those two wins were a fluke and that they were the rightful conference champ. Turns out Gonzaga’s pride trumped the Gaels’.

I know the statistics show that a team playing an opponent they have beaten in two previous games prevails more than 70% of the time in a third game, but those stats don’t take into account the pride factor. Just as the Gaels were amped to take down Pepperdine Monday night after losing twice to the Waves in the conference season, Gonzaga was amped to do the same.

An even greater prod was the specter of the Zags being on the outside looking in at the NCAA Tournament if they didn’t secure the WCC auto-bid. A particularly vociferous Gael fan made that point repeatedly to a particularly obnoxious Gonzaga fan Tuesday night. Outnumbered approximately 150-to-one by the swarming Zag hoard — as were we all — the spunky young Gael shouted over and over, “You have to win.”

Fans aside, the Zag players came out smoking en route to a nearly 70% first-half shooting display (18-26). Zag guard Josh Perkins, who has struggled this year to make Zag fans forget Kevin Pangos, took the Gaels’ Joe Rahon to the rim on the game’s first possession, scoring a ridiculously easy lay-up that set the tone for the game. Perkins, Eric McClellan and swing man Kyle Dranginis all had big nights, totaling 49 points among them. By contrast, that trio scored 36 in the Gaels’ win over Gonzaga in Spokane, despite Perkins having a big game that night with 21 points.

The big difference was Dranginis, who must have received the Mark Few mind meld treatment since that night in Spokane when he suffered through a 1-6 stinker. He went 5-6 for 13 points Tuesday night, alternating between making Calvin Hermanson and Kyle Clark look inept defensively. At least his performance took the spotlight off Rahon’s struggles with Perkins, who has smoked him for 37 points in two games.

Perkins stands 6-5 to Rahon’s 6-2, and looks more physically intimidating. Rahon has played up against the likes of BYU’s Kyle Collinsworth, who is 6-6, and down to many of the WCC’s jitterbug guards, and has held his own in both scenarios. His deficit against Perkins, however, emphasizes the Gaels’ need to develop a strong perimeter defender as they build for the future. I don’t know if such ability is in the genes of freshman Franklin Porter, but of the existing and expectant Gael guards, he has the physique to take on the task.

Rest of the story

The Gaels did not wither under Gonzaga’s energy and shooting excellence. They trailed by only eight at the half, and started the second half determined to whittle down the lead and remain competitive for a big finish. They got the score to 64-61 at the eight-minute mark and to 66-65 with 6:44 left. As difficult as it is to quiet a roaring throng of more than 7,000, Rahon almost did it with the rainbow three-pointer from the corner that created the one-point deficit.

Rahon electrified the Gaels for a moment, but his teammate Emmett Naar carried the team throughout the game. His line of 25 points and six assists was sparkling, but his calmness and boldness were more striking. His drives into the chests of the lurking Domantas Sabonis, 6-11, and Kyle Wiltjer, 6-10, were things of beauty and courage, and he bested them time and time again. Some videographer some day will capture Naar’s impassive face as he maneuvers to exploit a mismatch against the likes of a Sabonis or Wiltjer: he almost licks his lips as he contemplates which side of the lane to attack — he is equally deadly with his right or left hand — then begins his silky advance that results in a score or foul — or both. Of a million great stories in 2015-16, his has been the most remarkable.

The Zags were more resilient than in the previous two meetings, and quickly pushed the one-point lead back to 70-65 behind four straight free throws by McClellan. Fouling McClellan in Las Vegas was not as successful as it was in Moraga, when he missed the front end of a one-and-one that could have given the Zags the lead in the Saint Mary’s victory. McClellan sank nine of nine free throws Tuesday night and looked as if he might make a few dozen more if the opportunity presented itself. Along with Perkins, he has matured during the season and gives the Zags an excellent back court tandem to go along with the front line excellence of Sabonis and Wiltjer heading into the NCAA Tournament.

There were many twists and turns as the game wended to its disappointing climax, but the key moment for me came at the 1:12 mark with the Gaels trailing by six, 75-69. Evan Fitzner, the on-again, off-again redshirt freshman bulging with potential, took things into his own hands. Fitzner, who passes up more shots than a teetotaler at a Jack Daniels convention, didn’t waver and didn’t defer to another shooter. He launched a three-pointer that would have cut the deficit to three and given the Gaels much-needed momentum for the final minute.

And missed. The errant shot ended any real chance for a Gael victory and led to a series of intentional fouls that helped the Zags pad their lead and finish a remarkable night at the free-throw line: 21 for 22. But I was thrilled to see Fitzner take the shot. It said all the right things about a player who has suffered from Bennett’s short leash more than any other Gael. He should be taking big shots in big games, and I’ll be rooting for him to take more as the Gaels continue their season.

In either the NCAA or NIT tournaments.

Emmett Naar, shown in an earlier game against Gonzaga, had a brilliant game against the Zags Tuesday night, scoring 25 points and dishing out six assists.

One year to the day after crashing out against a so-so Portland team, the Gaels are one win away from playing for the WCC championship for the first time since 2013. They are two wins away from the undisputed conference title and the automatic NCAA bid that comes with it.

Saturday’s 60-48 win over Loyola Marymount, ragged as it was, actually demonstrates how far Randy Bennett’s team has come this season. In that Portland game a year ago, won by the Pilots 68-52, one Saint Mary’s player, Brad Waldow, scored in double figures. Indeed, Waldow’s 25 points were the only sign of offensive life.

The Gaels shot only 30% against Portland, and season-long stalwarts such as Garrett Jackson, three points, Kerry Carter, six points, and Aaron Bright, eight points, barely evidenced pulses. Part of this was opening-tournament jitters, which primarily affects highly-seeded teams who carry some hopes of post-season glory. Their lower-seeded opponents carry the weight of no expectations, and usually play freely and aggressively.

A few hours before Saint Mary’s and LMU squared off, BYU felt the jitters against a Santa Clara team it had obliterated in both regular-season meetings. The Broncos, throwing their bodies all over the floor, rattled BYU and closed within a point or two several times near the game’s end. BYU, like Saint Mary’s, eventually settled down and won by double-digits, 72-60.

Saint Mary’s obviously showed jitters against LMU, and allowed themselves to be unnerved by the Lions’ tenacious man-to-man defense. Evan Fitzner, the Gaels’ redshirt freshman forward, seemed particularly struck by tournament-itis, missing shots, committing turnovers and botching passes. Fitzner, Stefan Gonzalez and Kyle Clark — who showed signs of nervousness himself — were all playing in their first WCC tournament games, and looked it.

Veterans to the rescue

As they have all season long, however, Gael guards Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar refused to break under pressure, and recovered from a rocky first half to make the big buckets and key assists when it counted. It was an interesting dynamic against LMU, as Rahon, who usually takes it upon himself to rally the Gaels when the chips are down, deferred to Naar in crucial moments because Rahon was struggling with his shot and handle (six turnovers). The apple-cheeked Aussie went on a personal scoring binge midway through the second half that steadied the Gaels and pointed them to victory. He ended the night with 14 points, six assists and only one turnover.

Rahon hardly shrank into the sidelines, as he made two clutch three-pointers that jump-started a Gael offense that was sluggish all night, and pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds. Rahon also recovered from a scary-looking ankle injury in the final moments, and, after a time-out, stayed on the floor to finish the game. The two guards, forward Calvin Hermanson and Perpetual Unsung Hero Dane Pineau — 16 points, 8 rebounds — led the way to the semifinal round. All four scored in double digits and contributed to a 59% second-half shooting percentage.

Pineau’s performance against LMU was only what he has been doing all season long, although hardly anyone outside of Moraga seems to notice. It is unconscionable that Pineau, who averaged more than 10 points and eight rebounds for the season — while splitting the post position with Jock Landale — made neither the second team nor honorable mention all-WCC squads. Oh, yeah, he also led the conference in field goal percentage.

Monday, Monday

No one was watching LMU’s success harassing the Gaels more closely than Pepperdine coach Marty Wilson. Another unusual facet of tournament play is that a team’s upcoming opponent can often watch another team live right before engaging it. Wilson was seen wringing his hands anxiously as LMU built a halftime lead and kept it up for the early part of the second half. It was probably just a nervous tic, but it looked as if Wilson were imagining how his Waves would strangle the Gaels Monday night (ESPN 6 p.m. Pacific).

Pepperdine owns a series sweep over the Gaels, and showed no opening-round nervousness in a 90-86 win over San Francisco earlier Saturday. Guards Jeremy Major and Amadi Udenyi ran over, around and through the Dons’ porous defense, and Wilson must be imagining a similar scenario when going for a third straight win over Saint Mary’s and a place in the conference championship game.

Saint Mary’s showed its character if not its offensive excellence against LMU, and Bennett’s charges will have to summon all their moxie to thwart Pepperdine’s dreams.

The Gaels rallied behind Emmett Naar’s 14 points and six assists to overcome Loyola Marymount Saturday night. The photo shows Naar driving against Gonzaga earlier this year.

Oh, for another ball-handling guard. Who can score. And defend.

The Gaels have gone far under the exclusive guidance of Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar, but Tuesday’s grinding 73-64 win over Grand Canyon showed, once again, the limits of a two-guard-only system.

As discussed in a post last month (“Bennett’s box”), Saint Mary’s Coach Randy Bennett went all-in on Rahon and Naar by redshirting freshman two-guard Tanner Krebs and using freshman combo guard Stefan Gonzalez only as a shooting back-up to Calvin Hermanson at the small forward position. Gonzalez has rarely made a dribble under pressure all season.

The effect of a quick opposing guard such as Pepperdine’s Amadi Udenyi was evident in the Gaels’ closer-than-should-have-been win over Grand Canyon. The Antelopes’ Dewayne Russell harassed Naar into four turnovers, and stressed Rahon on the offensive end by making 5-7 shots in the second half, including three straight pull-up jumpers with Rahon’s hand in his face. As the Antelopes pulled to within two points at 52-50 with 9:04 remaining, it looked like Russell was going to lead an upset.

Fortunately, the Gaels settled down under Rahon’s indomitable will to win and pulled it out. But relieving Naar of ball-handling chores for a stretch in the second half was not a comfortable sight for Gael fans. Not only did Russell force an outright steal plus a couple of turnovers against Naar, he prevented the Aussie from getting into the paint where he does most of his damage.

At times like these, Gael fans wonder if Jordan Ford, the outstanding point guard from Folsom High coming in next year, could alter situations such as two Pepperdine losses and the nail-biter against Grand Canyon. Ford has the quickness, the handle and the scoring ability that Bennett looks for in a point, while his defense, as is the case with most high schoolers, is unproved. It seems imperative that Bennett find a way to integrate Ford into the closed fortress that has been the Gaels’ back court this season.

Meanwhile, back to the game

More than a few Gael fans might have wondered “Who scheduled this game?” as the second half settled into a battle of wills. The reason was solid — to keep the Gaels sharp heading into the WCC Tournament that will determine whether they get a shot at the NCAA Tournament. But it seemed a very risky strategy as Dan Majerle’s spirited charges out-hustled the Gaels throughout the night.

The game had a flat aspect to it, coming after the glories of clinching a tie for the WCC regular-season championship and a no. 1 seed in the WCC Tournament. One couldn’t help but detect a “Why are we playing this game?” attitude on the part of the Gaels, who have overcome so many obstacles to reach the pinnacle of Saturday’s title-clinching win over San Francisco.

There was no such problem for Grand Canyon, who looked at the game as an opportunity to buttress its national reputation in the midst of a 24-6 season. The Antelopes resemble their coach, Majerle, a scrappy, undersized forward who carved out an excellent NBA career with quickness and outside shooting.

Majerle landed the perfect exemplar of his ideal in Grandy Glaze, a Rob Jones lookalike who led the Antelopes in scoring with 16 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Glaze played most of his career for Saint Louis in the Atlantic 10, and came to Grand Canyon as a fifth-year transfer eligible to play immediately. At 6-6 he may be “undersized” to play the post, but he makes up for it with quickness and grit. Those qualities helped Glaze and his teammates compile a 33-31 rebounding edge over the much-taller Gaels, including nine offensive rebounds in the first half to zero for Saint Mary’s.

Rebounding woes

That rebounding deficit, the second in a row to a smaller, quicker team — San Francisco out-rebounded the Gaels 40-33 — is another troubling trait entering WCC play Saturday against the winner of a San Diego-Loyola Marymount play-in game. The Gaels’ Dane Pineau, who recorded his seventh career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds against Grand Canyon, might be considering suing his teammates for non-support.

Someone on the Gaels’ front line, Evan Fitzner, Hermanson, Jock Landale or Kyle Clark, must roll up their sleeves as the post-season looms. Being consistently out-rebounded will challenge even the Gaels’ efficient offense, as Grand Canyon demonstrated. The Gaels do not get many second-chance points, and give up extra attempts to their opponents in droves.

The image of another 2016 recruit, 6-5 shooting guard Elijah Thomas from Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria, AZ (outside Phoenix), comes to mind when contemplating this problem. Although he plays guard at Sunrise Mountain, Thomas is reputed to be a leaper, quick off his feet and tenacious on the boards. He is averaging 20 PPG and 6 RPG in his senior year, and may find time next year in relief of Hermanson. The Gaels need hops and quickness on the front line.

Path to March Madnesss

Whether Bennett’s gamble of scheduling a tough opponent in the lead-in to the WCC tourney pays off will soon be revealed. Although anything can happen in a post-season tournament, the Gaels can plan for a possible three-game schedule of Loyola Marymount (playing better than a struggling San Diego), Pepperdine and Gonzaga (assuming the Zags get by BYU). Pepperdine is clearly the most dangerous of those, as the Gaels match up better against either Gonzaga or BYU.

Pepperdine didn’t sweep the Gaels by accident, using a career effort from wily forward Jett Raines (24 points) in Malibu, and a sizzling second-half performance by Udenyi (14 points in a six-minute spread) in Moraga to lead them. Udenyi, point guard Jeremy Major and swing man Lamond Murray Jr. present a quickness challenge to the Gaels, and solving it has eluded them twice. Vulnerabilities exposed by Grand Canyon will not help Bennett’s sleep this week.

Perhaps the greatest contribution Gael fans can make in Las Vegas is to cheer on San Francisco in its Saturday match with Pepperdine. Not only does that game promise to be one of the most entertaining of the tournament, but a win by San Francisco would be a relief to Saint Mary’s. I know our guys probably relish a third shot at Pepperdine, and no one who has witnessed their determination this season would count them out. But in San Francisco, they would face an undisciplined group led by the mercurial Rex Walters, and the sight of Walters receiving a technical foul at a crucial moment of the game would almost make the trip to Las Vegas worthwhile.

Joe Rahon, pictured above driving against BYU, gave one of his strongest efforts of the season against Grand Canyon, scoring 15 points and dishing out six assists when they were needed most. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

It’s the little things.

For the second game in a row, Joe Rahon sacrificed his offense to shut down the opponent’s best offensive player: San Francisco’s Devin Watson scored 16 points but he did it on 6-19 shooting with three turnovers. Thursday night, Rahon held Santa Clara’s Jared Brownridge to the same total, 16 points, but on 5-13 shooting.

For those two games, Rahon shot only 3-12 himself for a total of 12 points, but he held two outstanding players to 34% shooting, and prevented them from leading their teams to victory. Imagine if Watson had gone off in the same way as San Francisco’s Tim Derksen, who bested several Gael defenders for 27 points on 11-19 shooting. It could have been a much different result from the 84-72 win that brought Saint Mary’s a share of their third West Coast Conference championship in the past six years.

But there was more than Rahon’s defense that brought the Gaels to the San Francisco win and WCC title. Struggling from the free-throw line down the stretch of the conference race, the Gaels went 17-18 Saturday night, exemplified by Rahon’s 4-5 performance. The Gael player who has struggled at the line along with Rahon, Dane Pineau, made his only free throw to help his 19-point performance.

Calvin Hermanson shook off the memory of an 0-4 three-point shooting night against Santa Clara to sink 6-10 against San Francisco en route to a team-leading 24 points. On the flip side, Emmett Naar continued a month-long three-point shooting slump by going 1-4 from distance, but converted 3-6 drives in the paint and sank 10-10 free throws to total 19 points after his 24-point performance against Santa Clara.

Little things that enabled the Gaels to surpass perhaps even their own wildest expectations and build a 23-4 record heading into the WCC Tournament as the top seed. Gonzaga holds the second seed with an identical 15-3 conference record as Saint Mary’s because the Gaels swept Gonzaga for the first time in 21 years.

Half a ‘lope is better than…

The Gaels actually have one more game before the tournament begins, hosting the over-achieving Grand Canyon ‘lopes (Antelopes, Jackalopes, Cantaloupes — it’s unclear) Tuesday night. That game was scheduled by Coach Randy Bennett to keep his team sharp before heading to the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas.

Bennett probably didn’t foresee Grand Canyon’s 24-5 record, good for a tie for second place in the woeful Western Athletic Conference, or WAC for those of you fond of puns. This will be the Gaels’ third whack at the WAC, having beaten Cal State Bakersfield and Utah Valley in pre-conference play. That Bakersfield game presents an uncomfortable reference point for ‘lope coach Dan Majerle, the former NBA great who is outspoken in his quest to establish Grand Canyon among the better mid-major programs.

Back in November, in their fourth game of the season, the Gaels throttled Bakersfield 94-59. It was not a pretty sight for WAC fans, and Majerle will be busy over the next few days wiping the thought of the ‘lopes’  77-62 loss to Bakersfield on Saturday from his team’s memory bank. Do ‘lopes have good memories? Something to ponder.

The Vegas opportunity

Whatever the Gaels’ fate against Grand Canyon, they will steam into Las Vegas with a conference co-title in their gym bags and the advantage of the no. 1 seed. That seeding will give them an opening-tournament game next Saturday against either lowly San Diego or equally-inept Loyola Marymount, who will battle each other in a play-in game on Friday.

Assuming a win over the LMU/San Diego survivor, the Gaels will face either Pepperdine or San Francisco in the semi-final round on Monday, March 7 (Sunday is a BYU-required day of rest). Since Pepperdine swept the Gaels this year, it would be more pleasant to consider facing San Francisco than the Waves.

In the other half of the tournament pairings, Gonzaga faces Portland in the opening round and BYU squares off against Santa Clara. Gonzaga is an overwhelming favorite to beat Portland, who haven’t defeated the Zags in recent memory, and BYU is similarly favored over Santa Clara.

The Pepperdine-San Francisco battle preceding the Gaels’ game will be worth the price of admission. Both teams are wildly inconsistent, having split their conference games and struggled down the stretch, but both can score in bunches.

Pepperdine suffered a huge blow to its self-confidence and momentum by enduring a double overtime loss to LMU, 90-83, on Saturday night. In addition to its loss to Saint Mary’s, San Francisco also inexplicably lost to Pacific, 79-70, in the game before that. What’s the opposite of momentum? Never mind, these guys can fill up the stat sheets and both will be firing on all cylinders in their contest.

Gonzaga will face the BYU/Santa Clara winner, and will be favored to beat either of them. So, assuming Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga advance through the semifinals, the stage would be set for another Gael-Zag tournament title game on Tuesday night (ESPN, 6 p.m. Pacific).

Before sagging the past two years, Saint Mary’s faced Gonzaga in the WCC title game five years in a row, with the Gaels winning two. It is unclear whether the Gaels would advance to the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid if it lost in the WCC title game, so Bennett is probably counseling his young-but-eager charges to eliminate that uncertainty with a win next Tuesday.

I can’t argue with that advice.

One of the Gaels’ most potent weapons entering the WCC Tournament is forward Calvin Hermanson, shown driving in an early-season contest with Cal Poly. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

It is  not true that Emmet Naar could have defeated Santa Clara all by himself Thursday night.

Naar’s 24 points and eight assists accounting for at least 16 more gave him a hand in 40 of the Gaels’ 75 points. Santa Clara totaled 50, so they could have stopped him if his teammates hadn’t shown up. Maybe.

Naar, the team’s scoring leader at about 13-15 PPG all season long, picked a good night to ratchet up the pressure, logging his highest scoring total since a 21-point effort against Pacific last month. The Gaels inexplicably lost their three-point shooting touch against the Broncos, making only 7-23. Calvin Hermanson and Joe Rahon, who usually chip in three to five long-range buckets per game, were a combined 0-7. Naar himself continued to struggle from distance, making 2-7 three-pointers.

It didn’t matter since the Gaels owned the paint. Commented Naar in his typically understated manner:

“They guarded me a little differently than I’m used to.” Translation: I’m used to guys actually trying to stop me.

He continued, “They were going under [the high screen], so we just tried to set the screen low so it was a long way for my guy to run.”

He was being kind, as the Santa Clara guards, Jared Brownridge, KJ Feagin and Brendyn Taylor, were clueless about defending the Gaels’ pick and roll all night long. Naar’s overall shooting line was 10-17, but five of those misses were on three-pointers, so he scored on 10-12 drives into the lane, and dropped dimes for Dane Pineau or Jock Landale several other times.

Don’t those Santa Clara guys ever watch any film? I mean, they are “Silicon Valley’s Jesuit University,” so one would assume  they have access to high-tech stuff like video cameras.

For the night the Gaels shot 50% from the field, despite the abysmal three-point percentage, logging 19 assists on 29 made baskets. Their assist-to-turnover ratio, already leading the WCC, was 19 to three against Santa Clara. You read that right: the Gaels, who have been a little turnover-prone in recent games, committed all of three turnovers Thursday night, only one of them by a guard (Rahon). Naar had zero TOs to complement his eight assists.

Defense continues strong

For all the positive offensive news — Jock Landale made the first three-pointer of his career near the end of the game — it was the Gaels’ defense that dominated. Holding Santa Clara to 34% shooting for the game helped keep opponents’ offensive output at a 57 PPG average over the last five games. The Gaels are stepping up their defensive performance at just the right time, heading into the WCC Tournament and possible NCAA Tournament play. Teams that try to shoot themselves through games in crunch time usually go home early; those who clamp down on the defensive end soldier through.

For all his offensive excellence Thursday night, Naar was a terror defending the Broncos’ Feagin, holding him to eight points on 3-9 shooting. Rahon, who scored only four points, harassed Brownridge on defense all night. Brownridge ended up scoring 16 points on 5-13 shooting, but several of those were late buckets after Rahon went to the bench with four fouls.

Pineau, logging a quiet offensive night with 10 points on 5-9 shooting, registered three blocks against the Broncos, and Evan Fitzner, second leading scorer with 13 points on 5-7 shooting, added two more blocks. That’s five blocks for the front line.

Finishing it off

The Gaels’ path to a no. 1 seed in the WCC tourney and possible outright WCC regular-season championship goes through San Francisco on Saturday. Winning the game guarantees them the no. 1 seed; winning the game combined with a Gonzaga loss at BYU, makes Saint Mary’s the conference champs at 15-3. We won’t discuss the consequences of losing to the Dons, because that doesn’t seem possible given this team’s make-up.

The Gaels stumbled at this point in the season last year, but this group is far above its predecessor. Coach Randy Bennett continues to marvel at the unselfishness of his squad, and the sterling assist-to-turnover ratio is a testament to that.

The team dynamic was well illustrated by a sequence late in the second half, when Fitzner started to penetrate the lane going left to right. This is Fitzner’s favorite driving posture, as he dribbles hard to his right, elevates and finishes with a right-hand hook shot that is difficult to block. All was set up for a stat-stuffing finish, but Fitzner stopped in mid-air and dropped  a pass to Landale, who was a little closer to the basket. Landale caught the pass and finished with a deft left-handed lay-up on the other side of the paint. It was a nifty choreographic exercise, epitomizing the Gaels’ ethos of passing up a good shot to get a better one.

It is hard to believe they won’t continue to demonstrate that philosophy Saturday night in San Francisco.

Emmett Naar, shown driving in an earlier game against Gonzaga, was a dominant force against Santa Clara.

So it comes down to this in the final week of the WCC season: three teams are in play for post-season glory, each of them with a different set of anxieties.

Gonzaga, the overwhelming favorite to sweep to its umpteenth WCC title and a high seed in the NCAA Tournament, is flailing with the HBO cameras running. Under the spotlight of a documentary entitled “March to Madness,” Mark Few’s troops might be giving a new twist to HBO’s intentions.

Tied with Saint Mary’s at 13-3, the Zags have to sweep their remaining two conference games on the road, plus win the WCC Tournament to guarantee their 18th straight NCAA appearance — and justify HBO’s attention. As unreal as it sounds, the Zags can’t count on just a WCC championship appearance to earn a ticket to the dance — they might have to win it all or contemplate the glories of an NIT bid.

To add another level of pressure, the Zags must win their final two conference games to even be in the conversation for an at-large NCAA bid. And where does the season find them this Saturday when the season comes to a close? Among the deranged multitudes of BYU fans in the cavernous Marriott Center in Provo. Zag loyalists like to brag about how raucous and supportive are the 6,000 or so fans who cram their home court, but you could fit three McCarthey Center sellouts into the Marriott Center.

And BYU, hanging just outside the Saint Mary’s-Gonzaga orbit at 12-4, faces its own pressure-packed situation: it, too, must win out and capture the WCC Tournament title to have a shot at the NCAAs. The Cougars have already beaten Gonzaga in Spokane by a whisker, 69-68, and have a history of finishing strong in WCC play. Their goal is to beat the Zags and hope for a Saint Mary’s stumble in one of its two remaining game to force a three-way tie at the top with a 14-4 record. By having swept the Zags, BYU would be assured of no less than a second seed in the WCC Tournament and a slightly easier path to the championship game.

Let’s say they — and their rabid fans — will be motivated.

What about the Gaels?

That leaves our Gaels in the most enviable position of the three contenders heading into the final two WCC contests: at home Thursday against Santa Clara, whom it crushed 81-59 on the Broncos’ home court, and “away” against San Francisco, a 74-52 loser in Moraga. The path is clear for Saint Mary’s to claim at least a tie for the WCC title and a no. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

Alas, the Gaels face the same lose-or-go-home pressure in the WCC Tournament as  BYU and Gonzaga, thanks to a lackluster season record with a dearth of notable wins. Turns out, sweeping Gonzaga for the first time in 21 years doesn’t carry the cachet it used to when the Zags were stronger. As numerous NCAA bracket “experts” recite endlessly, the Gaels have defeated no top-50 teams this year.

There is no doubt Randy Bennett’s charges are riding high heading into the last two games. After enduring some soul-wrenching road wins over Pacific, San Diego and Portland, the Gaels put it all together with a 63-58 win at Gonzaga last Saturday. But Bennett doesn’t have to dig too deep into the archives to remind his team how important it is to stay focused to the end.

Although no one doubts that this season’s Gaels are superior to last’s, it is useful to remember that the 2014-15 group was similarly positioned as the conference neared a conclusion. With a 13-4 conference record heading into games with San Francisco and Santa Clara, the Gaels had second place and a no. 2 WCC Tournament seed seemingly in their grasp. They cleared the first hurdle with an overpowering 84-53 win over San Francisco, but inexplicably stumbled against Santa Clara, 71-70, to drop into a tie for second with BYU and a third seed in the WCC tourney.

They continued their swoon with a loss to Portland in the opening round of the WCC Tournament, then completed a three-game slide to ignominy by falling meekly to Vanderbilt, 75-64, in the first round of the NIT. It was a heartbreaking collapse, one which this year’s squad is determined not to repeat.

Guarded optimism

Bennett completely retooled his team this year, going from a veteran, all-senior starting five to one with no returning starters and bevy of freshmen and sophomores counted on to lead them. And it has worked, as the Baby Gaels have compiled a 22-4 season record and combined a balanced, efficient offensive attack with a gritty, sometimes overpowering defense.

They are not perfect, however, and one of their weaknesses will be tested mightily in their last two conference games. Opposing WCC teams have exposed a weakness in the Gaels’ perimeter defense, unleashing a number of talented guards to penetrate the paint and rack up points. Whether it was Pepperdine’s Amadi Udenyi scorching guards Emmett Naar and Joe Rahon for 14 points in  five-minute burst that led to a Pepperdine upset of the Gaels in Moraga, Portland’s Bryce Pressley shooting 11-15 and totaling 25 points in the close win over the Pilots, or Josh Perkins going off for 21 points to keep Gonzaga close last Saturday, the pattern is clear: attack the Gaels from the back court.

Both Santa Clara and San Francisco are well-equipped to inflict the same damage as other Gael opponents. The Broncos’ back court tandem of KJ Feagin and Jared Brownridge totaled 28 points in their team’s earlier loss to the Gaels, and Santa Clara coach Kerry Keating will surely have them cranked up to do even more damage Thursday night. Gael fans will do their best to forget Brownridge’s 23-point onslaught in 2014, including the game-winning three-pointer as the clock expired to give Santa  Clara a 57-56 win.

San Francisco’s duo of Devin Watson and Ronnie Boyce is even more dangerous because those two are quicker than the Santa Clara guards. Watson is sitting near the top of WCC scoring race with a 20 PPG average and Boyce, playing much more than he did in the Gaels’ first game against San Francisco, has pushed his average to 10 PPG. The Dons’ other offensive threat, Tim Derksen, averaging 16.5 PPG, is listed as a guard but plays more of a small forward role.

Watson and Boyce are both whisper-thin attackers who often fall into can’t-miss shooting streaks. They force themselves into the paint and count on quickness and ingenuity to pull out baskets that look impossible. As will Santa Clara, San Francisco will be playing fast and loose because its season is going nowhere. Unless, of course, they pull off the kind of upset that wrecked the Gaels last year.

The Gaels have to counter with poise and execution to let that mythical fat lady sing their praises instead of their doom.

Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett hopes to lead his team all the way to the finish line this week against Santa Clara and San Francisco. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

Progress comes slowly with a young team such as the Saint Mary’s Gaels. Knowing that, Gael coach Randy Bennett kept his youngsters mostly within the confines of McKeon Pavilion until the inevitability of league road games moved  them out of their comfort zone.

The results were spotty, if predictable, as the Gaels split their first two trips to Los Angeles and Provo-San Diego, picking up losses at Pepperdine and BYU. That set the stage for this week’s scary visit to Portland and Spokane, with the outcome anything but clear. Then, BOOM!

The youngsters stepped up, veteran Joe Rahon continued his inspired leadership and the Gaels edged Portland in a nail-biter, 74-72, and then took command of Gonzaga with a 63-58 win and a series sweep for the first time in 21 years. Bennett’s plan for the season has not worked perfectly — I doubt he penciled in two losses to Pepperdine — but it has put the Gaels into a tie with Gonzaga for the conference title at 13-3, with a more favorable ending in store for his troops than Gonzaga’s.

Saint Mary’s faces a typically lackluster Santa Clara squad (10-18 overall, 6-10 conference) Thursday in McKeon, then finishes up against a high-scoring but erratic San Francisco across the Bay on Saturday. San Francisco boasts a winning record overall, 15-12, and is even in conference play at 8-8, but has seemingly forgot how to defend. The Dons have given up 114 points to BYU and 100 to Loyola Marymount without Adom Jacko in recent losses.

Gonzaga, meanwhile, is on the road for its final two games, facing a shell-shocked San Diego on Thursday, then BYU in a season finale on Saturday that could be epic. Not only did BYU utterly destroy San Diego at home Saturday, 91-33, following a narrow win (69-67) two nights earlier in San Diego, but it has already defeated Gonzaga in Spokane, 69-68 on Jan. 14.

The Cougars, hanging just behind Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga at 12-4, can force a tie with Gonzaga for second if they win out, giving them a second seed in the WCC Tournament beginning March 4 by virtue of having swept the Zags. They could do even better if Saint Mary’s falters in its last two games.

How did they do it?

The Gaels’ victory in Spokane can be seen as the culmination of a series of gritty road wins beginning with a come-from-behind 68-65 win over Pacific, followed by a defense-led 60-43 win over San Diego and the squeaker over Portland courtesy of a Rahon runner with 2.7 seconds left on the clock. The Gaels seemingly gained strength with each win, no matter how ugly they may have looked to fans. The team grew stronger and closer through the crucible of winning hard-fought games.

The squad that took the floor last night in Spokane was confident, beating Gonzaga with a two-tiered strategy that kept the putative WCC champs off-balance. Tier 1 was three-point shooting in the first half, six of them coming from all over the roster: two each from Evan Fitzner and Calvin Hermanson, and one each from Kyle Clark and Stefan Gonzalez. That and stout defense, holding Gonzaga to its lowest point total of the season, gave them a 30-23 halftime lead.

Tier 2 was probing the paint by the Gaels’ crafty guards Rahon and Emmett Naar. Running the high pick and roll relentlessly, Naar and Rahon scored on a series of lay-ups, runners and dinks, none from more than five feet away from the basket. The stage was set shortly after the second half began following a Zag miss on their first attempt. Naar maneuvered into the paint, seemed stymied, then reached into his bag of tricks to uncork a scoop shot that went down.

That was a tremendous statement by the Gaels, who have faltered coming out of the second-half gate in recent games. Turning away the Zags and scoring first set the stage, and the team was energized by Naar’s wizardry. Even when Gonzaga’s Josh Perkins, who had a  big game with 21 points, scored twice shortly thereafter, Naar amd Hermanson answered with strong drives to the hoop to maintain the Gaels’ edge at 36-30 with 17 minutes left.

Mr. Landale arrives

The Zags’ second-half comeback peaked three minutes later when Eric McCllelan sank two free throws to cut the lead to 36-34. Then if ever the Gaels were going to shrink back, but Jock Landale had other ideas. Landale apparently changed into his Big Boy pants during the intermission following a quiet first half in which he did not score, and made a strong move in the paint following McCllelan’s free throws. He didn’t make the bucket, but sank one of two free throws to put the Gaels up by three, 37-34. It wasn’t immediately apparent, but the Gaels had survived the Zags’ second-half run.

There followed a Rahon reverse lay-up using the rim as a screener, a much-needed three-pointer from Fitzner, then a definitive statement from Landale. Eschewing the unsuccessful spin move that had failed to produce any points in two previous games, Landale went to work on the Zags’ daunting Domantas Sabonis. Receiving a pass on the low block, Landale moved strongly across the paint to his left, then lofted a perfect baby hook over Sabonis for a 44-36 lead. The end was coming for the Zags.

Naar scored on another dink in the paint, then, with the Zags desperate to stop him from doing it again, laid off a dime for Landale, who scored the bunny. Then, just to show everyone he could finish by going to his right with his left hand, Landale scored again. That set the stage for one of Rahon’s most elegant assists in  a season filled with them.

Picking up the hulking Kyle Wiltjer on a switch, Rahon dribbled into the paint. He spied Landale crossing the paint to get into position to score, then bounced as pretty a pass as can be bounced to the eager post man. Completing a nine-point individual run in a six-minute span, Landale finished over Sabonis to put the Gaels up 52-44.

Wiltjer came alive for his first and only three-pointer of the game to cut the Zags’ deficit to 52-47, but the Gaels had a few more minutes of excellence left in their tank. In three successive possessions, they scored on a Naar lay-up, a Rahon dink and a drive and finish by Fitzner to put them up 58-47 with a little less than five minutes to go. They had a chance to conclusively seal the deal when Rahon went to the line for two free throws with just over a four minutes left. Make them  both and the Gaels go up by 13 and coast to the finish.

But Rahon, who has battled free throw ghosts all season long, not only missed both attempts  but seemed to give the Zags life by air-balling the second. He also lost containment on Perkins, who scored on a floater in the lane to cut the lead to nine, 58-49. Rahon’s failure at the free throw line caused a four-point swing that kept the Zags in the game until the end. They eventually closed to 61-58 with 13.4 seconds left before Hermanson finally converted two free throws to ice it at 63-58. Continuing a trend that is more than worrisome, the Gaels made only 4-12 free throws in the second half en route to an 8-16 game.

It would be an emotional Senior Night Thursday if the Gaels had any seniors, but they will settle for a strong effort against Santa Clara as the images of Las Vegas and a possible WCC Tournament championship come into view.

Joe Rahon, shown scoring against Stanford earlier in the season, did the same thing to Gonzaga as he did to the Cardinal: penetrated the lane for key buckets and assists. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

It must be fun playing for Eric Reveno’s Portland Pilots these days. With no pretensions of WCC title contention (5-9 in the standings) and a rotation that includes all 13 players on the roster, the atmosphere seems more like tryouts than league competition.

Combine that atmosphere with a lack of expectations and you get a free-wheeling group that lives to spoil the dreams of teams ahead of them.

Like the Gaels, lurking in second place behind Gonzaga and hoping for a late-season push that can dethrone the struggling-but-still formidable boys from Spokane. Before steaming into the McCarthey Athletic Center on Saturday, however, the Gaels must first deal with Portland. It will not be easy.

Just looking at the record book, the Portland game appears to be a gimmee. There is Portland’s lackluster overall record (11-16), and there is the Gaels’ 89-74 romp over them in Moraga on Jan. 23. But, appearances can be deceiving, and one can assume Gael coach Randy Bennett is prohibiting any lingering glimpses of the video or box score from that previous encounter.

First of all, it is doubtful the Gaels will replicate their 63% FG shooting from January, which included opening the game going 8-9 and starting the second half making their first 11 FGs. That was the game in which Dane Pineau made his first 10 shots and blew a chance at the Gaels’ all-time efficiency mark by flubbing a bunny in the game’s final minutes. It was a game in which Emmettt Naar top-scored with 20 points and dished out eight assists. It was a game, in other words, that represents a bygone time for the now-conflicted Gaels.

They have gone 3-2 since beating Portland and have failed to score at least 70 points in all five of those games. Naar has seemingly lost his once-stellar three-point shooting touch, and he and back court mate Joe Rahon seem strangely out of sync. Doubt lingers in their heads, and doubt is not something one wants to exhibit facing Portland.

Everybody in the pool

Reveno faced a depleted roster heading into 2015-16, especially on the front line where stalwarts  Thomas van de Mars, Riley Barker and Volodymyr Gerun all graduated, along with top scoring guard Kevin Bailey. He had previously brought in a promising seven-footer from Cologne, Germany, Phillipp Hartwich, and local talent Gabe Taylor. Hartwich, however, would fare poorly in a side-by-side comparison with a string bean, and Taylor, at 6-8, is a  bit undersized. To that duo he added a 6-10 bruiser from New Mexico JC, Ray Barreno, and headed into this season with a lot of question marks.

He has settled for an open-door policy built around returning guards Bryce Pressley and Alec Wintering — both excellent — and usually Taylor and Barreno on the front line. After that, however, it has been a seemingly different hot hand — or hands — in every game, as the Pilots search for the optimum combination. Gael fans got a look at two of Reveno’s Bench Bombers, D’Marques Tyson and Jazz Johnson, who chipped in 16 and 12 points, respectively, in the Moraga game.

To emphasize Reveno’s policy of Any Gun/ Any Night, another recent roster addition, JC transfer Jarrel Marshall, went for 25 points in the Pilots’ latest game, a 92-66 beat down at home by Gonzaga. What the Gaels know for sure is that Portland will hoist a lot of three-pointers and make enough of them to keep them near the top of the WCC with nearly 10 made threes per game. That approach brought them home wins over Pepperdine, 87-79, and over BYU, 84-81.

No surprises with the Zags

On the other hand, the Gaels know quite a bit about the Gonzaga juggernaut awaiting them on Saturday. To be sure, it is a somewhat depleted juggernaut compared to last year’s Elite Eight, 35-win competitor, but the Zags are still a handful. In contrast with the Gaels’ recent struggles, Gonzaga had won six games in a row, including four on the road, before running into SMU and its brilliant guard, Nic Moore, last Saturday in Dallas, TX. Moore led 16th-ranked SMU with 25 points and 11 assists in a 69-60 win that dropped the Zags to 20-6 for the season.

They are looking down at Saint Mary’s from atop the WCC standings, however, 12-2 compared with the Gaels’ 11-3. Both teams have four league contests to go before heading to the WCC Tournament the first week of March in Las Vegas, and both hope to enter the tourney with a full head of steam. For the first time in recent memory Gonzaga might actually have to win the tournament championship and its automatic NCAA bid to guarantee its 18th straight NCAA appearance.

Certain to be rooting for them are HBO executives, who will be crossing all their fingers and toes to ensure their documentary on the glories of Zagism that airs its first installment tonight retains its authenticity.

The Gaels have hopes of their own, and a win over Gonzaga in Spokane would not only mark the first time since Mickey McConnell led them to victory in 2011, but it would give them a series sweep following their dramatic 70-67 win in Moraga on Jan. 21. That game required a second-half comeback from a 15-point deficit, and the Gaels should not count on a second dose of magic if they falter early on Saturday night.

Gael fans got a good look at one of Portland’s three-point bombers, D’Marques Tyson, shown above, as he came off the bench to score 16 points, including 5-9 on three-pointers, in a Gael win over Portland earlier this year. Photo courtesy of the Portland University Athletic Department.

Among the myriad issues Gael coach Randy Bennett faces in getting his team ready for a  crucial Pacific Northwest showdown with Portland (Thursday) and Gonzaga (Saturday) is one completely of his own making — lack of depth at the guard position.

The Gaels breezed for much of this season behind the super-efficient leadership of co-point guards Joe Rahon and Emmett Naar, who rarely left the floor. However, as those two have hit a wall lately, Bennett finds himself with extremely limited options in trying to restore offensive harmony. He actually used freshman Stefan Gonzalez at guard for a brief period in the first half against Loyola Marymount last Saturday when Naar opened with two quick turnovers.

Gonzalez is a guard, of course, and he thrived at that position at Pocatello’s Highland High School, averaging 20 PPG and leading his team to a 23-4 record as a senior. Observing a valiant, 31-point effort by Gonzalez in a heartbreaking loss for the state title last March was Bennett, who may have wanted to erase the memory of his Gaels’ ignominious loss to Portland in the opening round of the WCC tournament by watching an inspirational performance.

Gonzalez couldn’t wait to begin his Saint Mary’s career, arriving in Moraga barely two weeks after graduation to begin a summer of playing and bonding with his new teammates. He suffered a serious injury in July, however, breaking the femur in his left leg and dislocating his left ankle. With a four-to-six month recovery period facing him, he seemed a likely candidate for redshirt status.

Gonzalez, a sturdy 6-2, 195 lbs, is tough of mind and body, however, and he pushed himself to be ready for the official opening of 2015-16 practice on October 1. A little shy of three months from his injury, he was on the floor for that first practice and all the rest. He has prospered in Bennett’s system, playing in all 24 games this season and compiling a 52% three-point shooting mark (33-64).

The only problem with this story is that Gonzalez has seldom played guard. Bennett uses him mostly as a sub for starting small forward Calvin Hermanson, with a role of providing instant offense through his quick-trigger three-point shooting. He rarely dribbles the ball more than one or two bounces, passing off to someone else and scurrying to hide himself in the Gaels’ offensive set to be ready for a catch-and-shoot. Bennett’s experiment with Gonzalez at guard against LMU was not lengthy enough to form an opinion, as the coach re-inserted Naar shortly after the Gonzalez went in and kept Gonzalez on the bench for the remainder of he game.

What if?

So, what’s wrong with this scenario? Might not Naar and Rahon bounce back from their mini-slumps and continue leading the Gaels down the stretch of the WCC title race? Of course they might, and Gaels fans heartily hope that is the case. But they also have to ask themselves the troubling question of what happens if either of them continues to struggle or suffers an injury. Injuries to guards are hardly unknown to Gael fans, who can readily recite a roll call of fallen heroes including Jorden Page, Paul McCoy, Wayne Hunter, Joe Coleman and others.

Gonzalez may have erased any concerns about his ability to function as a guard in practice, but it would seem unfair to insert him at a crucial point this late in the season and expect him to perform at a level close to Naar and Rahon. He has simply not handled the ball in game situations enough to prepare him for the pressure of the WCC Tournament or an NCAA Tournament game.

The same goes for another freshman guard, 6-4 Franklin Porter out of Tilton, NH by way of Portland. Bennett has inserted Porter into 17 games this year, mostly in mop-up duty, and he has impressed fans with his composure and sure stroke. In a decent stretch against Southern Utah early in the season, Porter — son of NBA veteran Terry Porter — scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds. He does not seem to be an adept ball-handler, however, so would seem to be even less equipped to succeed in an emergency than Gonzalez.

Doubling down

Bennett doubled down on his bet that Naar and Rahon would be sufficient to lead the Gaels by redshirting another outstanding guard prospect, Tanner Krebs. Krebs, the 6-6 Aussie from Tasmania, was last seen dropping 31 points on Spain — including 5-7 from three-point range — in the FIBA U19 World Championships last summer in Crete. His stroke is as beautiful to watch as Gonzalez’, but Krebs revealed some problems with his handle in an intra-squad game before the season began, and the Gael brain trust evidently felt he needed a year of seasoning before being exposed to D1 hoops.

Second-guessing is an insidious practice, but is it too much to wonder how the Gaels would be equipped to head down the home stretch if Gonzalez and Krebs had been given game-time experience at guard? Would they be deeper and/or better off, or would every minute not under the steady hands of Naar and Rahon have taken away from the team’s success? Intriguing question.

Wait ’till next year

It is even more intriguing when one begins considering Bennett’s options next season, when Krebs comes off redshirt status and spectacular guard Jordan Ford joins the Gaels from Folsom High near Sacramento. Ford spurned scholarship offers from Cal and Gonzaga, among others, because he wanted to play in the home of Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova, and he will come to Moraga expecting to do just that.

Naar and Rahon will return after having played virtually every minute in 2015-16. How is Bennett going to integrate Gonzalez, Krebs, Porter and Ford into a back court that essentially hung a “No Vacancy” sign on the court? Will he loosen up the reins to his offensive machine and try to give everyone a taste, or, an even more revolutionary thought, allow real competition for Naar’s starting position (Rahon, a Bennett favorite, seems a lock to retain his top-dog status)?

Some observers have speculated that Rahon could play some two-guard next year as Ford prepares for his inevitable ascendance to starting point guard. Maybe, but that still leaves  four hungry mouths to feed. Bennett has been a master of turning a sparse cupboard into a bountiful feast of  basketball, but next season presents him with a different challenge.

“It’s a nice problem to have,” people often say, but those are people who don’t have to deal with the problem. Bennett loves a seven-man rotation, sometimes loosened to eight, and has been quoted as saying he doesn’t like the complications of finding time for nine or 10 players. He’s got it in spades next year, and this piece hasn’t even touched on potential logjams at the five with the arrival of 7-2 Jock Perry to join Dane Pineau, Jock Landale and Jordan Hunter. That team will certainly pass the “airport test,” but it may drive Bennett to traveling by ambulance.

Coach Randy Bennett has leaned heavily on the intelligence and leadership of Emmett Naar, shown above, but may have to expand his horizons in coming seasons. Photo courtesy of Tod Fierner.

Coming up: a look at Portland and Gonzaga as they prepare to avenge losses to the Gaels in Moraga.