Is this the best Saint Mary’s basketball teamever?
No. 13 Gaels extend school-record win streak to 17 with 79-43 victory over USF
MORAGA » Don’t ask Randy Bennett to pick the best of the basketball teams he has coached at Saint Mary’s College. It’s the same as asking a parent to choose a favorite child.
But among nine clubs that won at least 25 games, including six that played in the NCAA tournament, Bennett concedes there are four that stand above the rest.
“This team could be in that group,” he said this week, with a nod to the 13th-ranked Gaels, who defeated USF 7943 on Thursday night to improve their record to 22-2 and extend their school-record winning streak to 17 games.
How good are these Gaels? Where do they stack up alongside their elite teams of 2009, ’ 10, ’12 and last season?
“I don’t think it’s overstating it to say this is the best Saint Mary’s team ever, and that would include the Sweet 16 team in 2010,” said longtime broadcaster Barry Tompkins, who regularly calls West Coast Conference games.
Tompkins believes if the Gaels hadn’t lost to Georgia in overtime at the Wooden Legacy during Thanksgiving week, they probably would be unbeaten right now. Their loss to Washington State the next day, he suggested, was “100 percent a hangover.”
Still, there is a month left on the regular-season sched- ule, including a rematch against Gonzaga at Moraga a week from Saturday, plus the WCC and NCAA tournaments. It’s tough to pen a final grade for this team.
“It’s measured by conference championships, by how far they go in the NCAA tournament,” said college basketball analyst Dan Belluomini, who has watched the Gaels six times this season. “I think they’ve got the potential certainly to win multiple games in the NCAA tournament.”
That would put them shoulder to shoulder with the 2010 team that won twice to reach the Sweet 16.
“This team is reminiscent of the 2010 team,” said USF coach Kyle Smith, who spent nine seasons through 2010 as Bennett’s top assistant. He said the current point guard/center combination of Emmett Naar and Jock Landale takes him back to the 2010 duo of Mickey McConnell and Omar Samhan.
Landale is the WCC leader in scoring, rebounding and field-goal percentage, and a near lock to earn Player of the Year honors. Naar, a fellow Australian, is No. 2 nationally in assists.
“Landale and Naar are just relentless,” Smith said. “‘Howmany different ways can you get them in the pick-and-roll, Randy?’ We had about three ways. They have about 72 ways. They’re a little bit of Stockton and Malone in this league.”
Smith isn’t the only one who sees a lot of the 2010 team in this year’s squad. You can add Samhan, the star of the 2010 Sweet 16 team, scoring 61 points in the two victories and asking Taylor Swift for a date.
“They’re impressive,” he said. “The chemistry Jock and Naar have is similar to what me and Mickey had. And just like us, they have guys who can knock down shots and a bunch of unselfish guys on the bench.
“They’re talented, but that’s not going to be what makes them win. It’s the fact that they play together and have somany options.”
In fact, there is general agreement that the 2009 team could have become the Gaels’ best had Patty Mills not broken his hand and missed nine games late in the season. That team was relegated to the NIT.
“The 2009 team had the best talent in Saint Mary’s history, from (1950s star Tom) Meschery’s days to now,” Samhan said. “We didn’t jell like we could have when Patty broke his hand.”
Bennett also points to the 2011-12 squad, featuring future NBA point guard Matthew Dellavedova, and last year’s 29-5 team, which all agree was more stout defensively than this year’s edition.
At the other end of the floor, the Gaels are a machine, rated No. 4 in Division I in offensive efficiency (122.1 points per 100 possessions), according to statistician Ken Pomeroy. They are among the national leaders in field- goal per- centage (No. 1), assist/turnover ratio ( No. 2), 3-point accuracy (No. 5) and fewest turnovers per game (No. 6).
A lot of that is tied to the experience of Landale, Naar and small forward Calvin Hermanson, making the Gaels one of five teams in the Top 25 with at least three seniors starters. Tompkins calls Naar the catalyst.
“They play smart, don’t turn it over, and go low to high or high to low as well as anyone in the country and as such, are very difficult to defend for 40 minutes,” he said.
Bennett won’t make any pronouncements about this team’s place in school history. There are too many potential landmines on the road ahead.
But he is comforted by one thought. “I think we’re still getting better.”
• Thursday night, Landale had 26 points and 12 rebounds in an outcome that was hardly a surprise— the Gaels have won seven straight in the series and 24 of the past 25. The margin was the biggest for Saint Mary’s in a victory over USF since the 1958-59 Gaels won 91-53 on the way to their first- ever NCAA tournament bid.
Saint Mary’s, which hasn’t lost since Thanksgiving week, has the nation’s second-longest win streak, behind only Purdue, which has won 18 in a row.
With his parents visiting from Australia, Landale scored 18 of the Gaels’ first 20 points in the second half. One of three Division I players averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds, Landale recorded his 15th double- double of the season before leaving the game with seven minutes left.
Tanner Krebs scored 12 points, all in the first half on 4-for-5 from beyond the 3-point arc.
Evan Fitzner came off the bench to contribute 10 points and nine rebounds.