St. Mary's moved into the West Coast Conference finals with a convincing win over Portland. But was it convincing enough for the Gaels to get into the NCAA tournament barring Monday's finals outcome? Right now, St. Mary's looks deserving enough to get into the tournament. The Gaels are a much more complete team right now. Almost as if losing Mills for a stretch made this team better. But St. Mary's looked impressive enough on Sunday night to make its case to be included in the field of 65.
That is a far cry from where the team was on Jan. 31, just two days removed from Mills injuring his wrist against Gonzaga. St. Mary's went to Portland and it was trounced, 88-64. One of the most embarrassing losses for the Gaels in recent memory, and all but seemed to doomed the team's tournament hopes.
The Gaels would lose two of its next three games after that loss before beating the Pilots on Feb. 14. Since that time, the seniors Diamon Simpson, Omar Samhan and Carlin Hughes were able to take control of the team. St. Mary's had that impressive win over Utah State and have no won six consecutive games.
And the Gaels are getting Mills back.
He wasn't quite as sharp from the field as you would expect, but made enough key shots. Really, the most important thing here was to get Mills back into game shape, get him some time on the floor and get the win. This was probably going to be his most trying game.
Gonzaga wasn't challenged in its semi-final game against Santa Clara, so it's tough to judge them. But the Bulldogs could be walking into one of those dreaded trap games. The Gaels really have something to prove. They really pulled away from the Pilots and let's remember, Portland crushed St. Mary's 88-64 in the game immediately following Mills' injury. So I like the Gaels to win on Monday.
But right now, St. Mary's has shown me enough to get into the tournament win or lose in the WCC finals. The team is currently ranks No. 50 in the RPI. The Gaels are 2-2 against the RPI top 50, but those two loses were to Gonzaga -- without Mills. There's that huge win over Utah State without Mills. This seems enough to put them into the tournament.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-10-2009 @ 3:27PM
P J said...
None of these also-ran teams belong in the Tournament. Sure, sure, they can win 1 game every once in a while, but they should not be playing. Instead, the committee should take the best 64 teams (forget that pityful 65th team too!), put them in brackets and play. Why worry about these teams that are nothing but cannon fodder?
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