[nomisg]

Matthew Dellavedova scored 19 points and dished out 7 dimes for St Mary’s, While Andrew Ogilvy once again struggled for Vanderbilt scoring only 2 points.

Saint Mary’s men’s basketball lost a heart breaker to Vanderbilt, 70-72, making the Gaels 2-1 this season. In a fast paced game, full of fouls and lead changes, the Gaels and Commodores fought till the last second.

At the last second, Clint Steindl pump-faked and side-stepped on the right hand baseline, and narrowly missed a 3-point attempt. Omar Samhan’s put back was just after the buzzer as the Gaels lost at home for the first time this season.

[South01]

Matty is doin nice over there,hope they show some games on ESPN or One HD,the guy is the future hey.

[SFGuy]

south01, on 22 November 2009 - 04:42 PM, said:

Matty is doin nice over there,hope they show some games on ESPN or One HD,the guy is the future hey.

I live about ten minutes from Moraga and saw the opening night against New Mexico, a pretty athletic talented side but nowhere near as coherent or organised as the Gaels. St Mary's looked really good. Samhan is a beast and with Ben Allen suddenly showing that he can really play they are tough inside. I suspect this is the reason Ogilvy struggled in the Vanderbilt game. Both those guys are taller than him and Samhan is a great rebounder. Devalladova was the standout. He just delivers with smarts and plays hard. They are already noting him in the Chronicle. The Freshman Aussies all seemed a little nervous being opening night and everything. Mitchell Young did some good things but got a lot of fouls against the athletic forwards he was aked to guard. But he is getting court time and will be valuable. Jordan Page looked confident though tried to do a little too much to impress in the garbage time he got. Page will be a good PG at this level when they give him the reigns maybe next year.

Gaels second game was live nationally on the 24 hour a thon and they destroyed San Diego State who came out soft and gave up a huge lead. Devalladova was again outstanding and was heavily talked about by the ESPN commentators.

I have been down in Mexico since but hope to catch some more games soon. I think they will have a very good record and may be invited to the NCAA. Gonzaga are the only real worry. Gaels will at least have to put up good perfoemances and be competitive in both those games. If they beat Gonzaga who are top twenty ranked they are shoo ins for NCAA. They have the size up front and experience in the back court so that it could be very interesting.

[marriard]

Gonzaga are going to be tough. Their forwards and centers are long and athletic - but freshman. The real worry is just how strong Boudin and Grey are for them - Boudin especially is just a tough basketball player and is really difficult to guard.

Portland is going to be handful as well. The conference at the top end may even be stronger than the PAC-10 this year which has never happened. We'll see how St Mary's does against Oregon in a 8 days time.

[SFGuy]

marriard, on 05 December 2009 - 07:12 AM, said:

Gonzaga are going to be tough. Their forwards and centers are long and athletic - but freshman. The real worry is just how strong Boudin and Grey are for them - Boudin especially is just a tough basketball player and is really difficult to guard.

Portland is going to be handful as well. The conference at the top end may even be stronger than the PAC-10 this year which has never happened. We'll see how St Mary's does against Oregon in a 8 days time.

It would be great to see Dellavadova marking Boudin. I don't know if it will happen, they might give Hunter the job, but it would be great to watch.

[marriard]

Huge win for St Mary's tonight over Utah State (69-63). Utah State are a tough, tough team especially at home having won 30+ in a row there. They are very likely a NCAA team and a win over them on the road is a big one in the overall picture.

Didn't see the game - was following it on Gamecast on ESPN. Steindl hit some big threes down the stretch - so did Ben Allen who had a big game and was 4 of 9 from 3pt land. Steindl 3 pt shot at :36sec left in the game was pretty much the shot that put the Gael's in position to win the game.

You can see it was a big game - it looks like St Mary's only played 7 players (Samhan, McConnell, Hunter, Delledova, Allen, Steindl and Young) which is a very tight rotation early in the year.

It will be interesting to see what the reports are from those at the game. I expect we will here that it was a close, tough game and that the Gaels made some big plays down the stretch.

[SFGuy]

Big article on the front page of the Sport section of the San Francisco Chronicle this morning hyping Dellavedova. Would he ever recieve this much attention in an Australian paper? Would any Australian basketball player? He has exactly the same page space and picture size as Tiger Woods on page one.

http://www.sfgate.co.../SPQ51AV6KA.DTL

Big blow however for the Gaels is the news that Wayne Hunter is out for the season with a torn ACL. That means they will probably start Steindl who is a big downgrade offensively and defensively.

[marriard]

Steindl did start - I agree defensively that he is a downgarde to Hunter (and so is anyone else for that matter), but offensively I would say he is an upgrade. Hunter has no range whatsoever and it always scared me when he shot anything more than a layup.

Interesting article - once again I am not sure why the AIS didn't address Delladova's form. Surely they have coaches there for this. They didn't address AJ's form either.

BTW, St Mary' down one to Oregon at half time @ Oregon... Hoping they pull away in the second half as Oregon aren't that good.

[SFGuy]

marriard, on 12 December 2009 - 02:33 PM, said:

Steindl did start - I agree defensively that he is a downgarde to Hunter (and so is anyone else for that matter), but offensively I would say he is an upgrade. Hunter has no range whatsoever and it always scared me when he shot anything more than a layup.

Interesting article - once again I am not sure why the AIS didn't address Delladova's form. Surely they have coaches there for this. They didn't address AJ's form either.

BTW, St Mary' down one to Oregon at half time @ Oregon... Hoping they pull away in the second half as Oregon aren't that good.

St Mary's got up 81-76 and Steindl scored 14 so maybe you are right. In the games I've seen he had never impressed me as anything more than a 3 shooter which didn't drop consistently anyway (even in the warmup), although he did work hard on D. Maybe starting he can gain confidence and deliver. That does seems like a good effort today. But as a SF I would really like him to be able to take it to the hole which was one of Hunter's strengths.

With hunter it depended which game you watched, he was wildly inconsistent I think game to game, he looked either great offensively or terrible. Anyway the Gael's are building a pretty strong record and Samhan is dominating.

Dellavadova seems pretty level headed and won't let the attention go to his head as Patty did a little I think. I think the Bay Area franchises and colleges are generally are in a slump and the media here is always on the lookout for a good story which Patty was. The attention in the Bay Area didn't really translate nationally and I think everyone will agree now that Patty should have stayed the extra year at least. There were just way too many good point guards in last years draft.

Also Mitchell young 9pts, 4 rb in 13 mins looks pretty good.

[marriard]

This Oregon win is important because it is Pac-10 team and on the road although the Pac10 is not looking good this year. The win at Utah State and the close loss to Vandy will also do them well.

Assuming all goes well, St Mary's give themselves several chances to make the NCAA tourney. If they can achieve most of the goals below they should be able to get in.

1 - best Gonzaga at least once this year or play them close in all their games.
2 - finish 1st or 2nd in the WCC
3 - make the WCC championship game (winning it of course gives you an automatic berth)
4 - not lose more than 2 non-Gonzaga WCC games. Portland is going to be a team they will want to beat.

Steindl is young and the court experience is very important in his development. They are going to be leaning on him as a third scorer most nights from this point on so he is going to need to produce like he did today.

It will take Dellavedova a complete off-season to fix his shooting mechanics - but he does that and he has a chance to be a NBA level point guard. The flaw doesn't effect him making the shot - but it makes it vulnerable to being blocked/challenged as it takes too long to come out of his hand and at a lower release point than you would like. Considering he is playing out of position he is doing a remarkable job.

Mitchell Young is a tough, tough player to play against. Basically he is playing Diamon Simpson's role and could end up being a better player than Simpson was over four years. Even if it is just because he can shoot a free throw. For the Aussie crowd who haven't seen Mitchell Young play yet - think Matty Neilsen.

Hindsight - I still think Mills did the right thing coming out and he probably would have been OK iexcept for the foot injury which you couldn't predict. I don't know what else Patty had to prove at the NCAA level and I don't think that he would have improved his draft status in any way by playing another year. This years draft is much, much deeper at the top end than the past year. Hard to say - hopefully it is a story that hasn't been told yet.

Lastly I hope Hunter gets a medical red-shirt and can come back next year for the Gaels.

[SFGuy]

It's not really hindsight with Mills. The basketball people I know around the East Bay, the High School coaches and St Mary's Alums were saying he should wait before the draft. They are American and know the system, a lot of them have been through it. I don't think he got big headed or anything i just think he was a bit impatient and misjudged things a little. Being a foreigner as you know it takes a long time to figure out exactly how things really work over here.

I don't think Dellavadova should start touting himself for the NBA either. He is a very very good basketball player but not necessarily the type who will succeed in the NBA. He will have a legendary career at St Mary's and who knows what might happen in three years but NBA scouts have been watching him already at WC's and as I understand not thought he was an NBA prospect. You can see that he would succeed virtually anywhere else in the International game however and will have a great career. He handles himself really well and could even make a great Boomers captain one day. But he seems the type who may well rather lead teams at that lesser level than ride the pine in the NBA.

[marriard]

Maybe about Mills - though the people you state had concerns about Mills going to the draft are also the people who gained the most by him staying (i.e. people in the bay area who want St Mary's to win). It is what it is now, so hopefully it turns out well for him. I hear he is starting to practice again which is a good sign.

Dellavedova has only played a few games for the Boomers and the Gaels so yes it is way too early for serious NBA talk. Also his game is very much suited to having good players to pass the ball to so as long as there is talent around him he will be fine. It is going to be extremely interesting when he finally gets to move over to PG full time - he believe he can be a very serious point guard team leader.

[darcyrobinson]

Nice article on dellavedova Here's hoping OneHD play some St MArys games on Free to Air in Oz this season. Would love to see the Gonzaga game televised

[SFGuy]

Gaels go to 8-1.

http://www.sfgate.co.../SPMO1B4J9C.DTL

[marriard]

The Gaels thrashed Portland State. Portland State played absolutely no defense - they don't even try. They could light it up though, so still a good win.

Ben Allen played great - 10 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. His passing off the high post is impressive.

Dellavedova came to life late in the game scoring wise, but played an overall good game. Passed it well, rebounded, tried hard on D, all the other things. Most important he didn't try and force things when his shot wasn't going in early.

Mitchell Young threw down a couple of dunks and played his usual tough game and was 4-4 from the field. He reminds more and more of Matty Neilsen every time I see him.

Steindl continued to shoot well and play well which is vital with Hunter out for the season. SMC get this level of game out of him consistently and he'll have a great college career.

Jorden Page played 21 minutes which has to be great for his confidence.

Box score: http://www.smcgaels....00&SPSID=101619

[nomisg]

Matthew Dellavedova Named WCC Co-Player of the Week

Saint Mary's freshman guard Matthew Dellavedova (Maryborough, Australia) was named the West Coast Conference Co-Player of the Week on Monday. Dellavedova scored a career-high 21 points against Oregon, as the Gaels defeated the Ducks for the third straight year, following an 81-76 win at McArthur Court on Saturday.

Dellavedova has hit 21-of-21 from the free throw line this season. For the season, Dellavedova is second on the team in scoring (14.8 ppg) and assists (3.6 apg), and leads the team with 21 made 3-pointers, as he's shooting 39.6 percent (21-53) from 3-point range, and steals with 10.

[SFGuy]

Gaels go to 9-1 and Steindl seems to be stepping up, very consistent, 14, 15, 16 in his last three games.

http://www.sfgate.co.../SPI21B6F9L.DTL

[marriard]

Yeah I watched the game on channelsurfing.com last night. Pacific played SMC tough but really had no answer for Samhan. Ben Allen had a nice game as well. Dellevedova again didn't shoot well from the field but otherwise did OK.

SMC did not do well against the press. I am sure they are going to be working on that in practice over the next week or two.

Another interesting thing is that Jorden Page is playing roughly 10min/pg the last two to three games which is good news. SMC did this last year with Steindl - playing him 8-12 mpg where possible - with the idea that the experience it brings will be beneficial the following years. Worked for Steindl so high hopes for Page getting become a much bigger part of the team next year. On the other hand SMC has to play someone a few minutes because they are not deep.

And that leads to the two biggest concern SMC has to have.

There is no depth on this team with Hunter out for the year. They played only 7 players again yesterday - Samhan, McConnell, Allen, Dellavedova and Steindl started with Young and Page off the bench. That is a very inexperienced group - Ben Allen and Steindl are getting thier first consistent minutes, and Delladova, Young and Page are freshman. Also there is not yet any real scoring off the bench at the moment. I think they have the potential, but right now Young gets some hustle baskets and Page really needs a game where he feels comfortable taking some shots before you can expect more than a few points here and there. That puts a lot of pressure on the starters to put points on the board.

The other issue is next year. Samhan and Allen will be gone next year and then SMC is left with no front court depth at all. You have Mitchell Young to start at Power Forward, Steindl to play small forward and that leaves an open starting front court spot at center and no one on the bench. SMC is going to need to bring some Junior College transfers or some freshman recruits to shore up their front line. So far their only named recruit is a point guard.

[rman16]

St Mary's will have more depth than you think next year. You're right they will have a strong back court but they are adding front court experience in Rob Jones (6.6 Foward San Diego transfer - who averaged about 10 points 5 rebounds) who will give the gaels 2 years and also Tim Williams and Kenton Walker who have potential and are both at 6.9. I think you're right about finding a 'C' because they aren't really making any noise about replacing the two seniors but then again they might figure on playing a different more athletic brand of basketball next season, with the added additions of guards like Trumaine Johnson (another San Diego transfer - who averaged 12 points 3 assists in his latest college season shooting 44% from the field) St Mary's will probably have the strongest back court in the WCC for the next few years.

[rman16]

Another win by St Mary's 78-67 over Northeastern. In this game Delly starred and Jordan Page had his first big game. St Mary's have really reloaded well this year 10-1 who would have thought regardless of their schedule The Aussies have a big part to play with Allen and Steindl coming big this year