Posts Tagged ‘Gaels

01
Jun
09

Mills to the NBA

Its a big day yet a sad day for Moraga and Saint Mary students and Alums.  Aussie point guard Patrick Mills swept the nation this year coming off of a break out performance for Australian in the Beijing Games.  Coach K even said he was glad he did not have to face Mills with his beloved Dukies.

Today was the day for Mills to opt out of the draft and stay another year at school and play ball for Saint Marys.  Many students thought Mills would stay and fore go the draft due to an injury that shortened his performance in his final year.  Saint Marys came up one spot short to make the NCAA tournament this year.  The quarter final game in the NAIA against San Diego State was Mills last performance for the Gaels.

As a Saint Mary’s alum it is a sad but exciting day.  I look forward to the team that will sign him and I know the town of Moraga and Gaels alike will all be behind him 100% for his future in the NBA.  Good luck Patty and thank you for the brilliant past two years.  Make all of us proud. SMC will miss you….

With love from Kaliphornya- Aussie Aussie Aussie

(look here for all Mills updates and articles in the future)

16
Mar
09

Apparently the selection committee does not like small schools

We got hosed.....

We got hosed.....

Yesterday was a hard day for me.  I was getting very excited for the NCAA basketball tournament and expecting Saint Mary’s my team to make the field.  Unfortunately they did not.  Going into selection Sunday I knew that Saint Marys was a bubble team due to one fact, the injury of star Aussie point guard Patty Mills.

As we and the rest of the nation know Patty Mills is the man.  He faced off against team USA this summer and dropped twenty on the Gold Medal winners.  Coach K said that he was relieved that his Dukies did not have to face Patty in the college regular season.  There have been rumors that he is even faster than CP3 mixed in with the style of Tony Parker.  Straight up he is G, like Jabba Walki or Lil Weezy G.

Anyhow last night there were various bubble teams to make it in the tournament.  Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maryland were the biggest ones.  I am not going to go over the details on what each of these schools did during their season because we already know.  These schools play in major conferences that offer a much more difficult challenge then the mid major schools thus making their strength of schedule that much more difficult.  Yet this schedule gives them much more chances to impress the committee.

In order for a mid major school to get a schedule like a major school they have to play many many games on the road.  They also have to play their conference games which bring the strength of the schedule down.  They do not get as many opportunities against top schools as the major teams do with conference play.

The UofA schedule

November 17 Florida Atlantic W 75-62 1-0
November 18 UAB L 72-71 1-1
November 24 Mississippi Valley State W 86-52 2-1
November 25 Santa Clara W 69-66 3-1
November 30 Northern Arizona W 74-57 4-1
December 2 Loyola Marymount W 84-57 5-1
December 5 at Texas A&M L 67-66 5-2
December 10 San Diego State W 69-56 6-2
December 14 No. 10 Gonzaga W 69-64 7-2
December 20 at UNLV L 79-64 7-3
December 23 No. 13 Kansas W 84-67 8-3
December 29 Weber State W 71-65 9-3
January 2 at California L 69-55 9-4 (0-1)
January 4 at Stanford L 76-60 9-5 (0-2)
January 8 Oregon W 67-52 10-5 (1-2)
January 10 Oregon State W 64-47 11-5 (2-2)
January 15 at No. 17 UCLA L 83-60 11-6 (2-3)
January 17 at USC L 65-64 11-7 (2-4)
January 21 No. 19 Arizona State L 53-47 11-8 (2-5)
January 24 Houston W 96-90 12-8
January 29 No. 14 Washington W 106-97 13-8 (3-5)
January 31 Washington State W 66-56 14-8 (4-5)
February 5 at Oregon State W 56-53 15-8 (5-5)
February 7 at Oregon W 87-77 16-8 (6-5)
February 12 USC W 83-76 17-8 (7-5)
February 14 No. 17 UCLA W 84-72 18-8 (8-5)
February 22 at No. 19 Arizona State L 70-68 18-9 (8-6)
February 26 at Washington State L 69-53 18-10 (8-7)
February 28 at No. 14 Washington L 83-78 18-11 (8-8)
March 5 California L 83-77 18-12 (8-9)
March 7 Stanford W 101-87 19-12 (9-9)

Look at how many ranked teams are in there and look at the games they played on the road.  They played 8 ranked teams.  Of those ranked games three of them were on the road and all three were conference games that had to be played on the road.  The only non conference ranked team they played was Gonzaga and it was at home.

Lets look at Saint Marys now..

November 14 Seattle Pacific W 86-55 1-0
November 18 Fresno State W 99-85 2-0
November 23 Vanguard W 86-54 3-0
November 27 vs. UTEP* L 75-62 3-1
November 28 vs. Cal State Fullerton* W 79-54 4-1
November 30 vs. Providence* W 81-75 5-1
December 4 at Kent State W 75-69 6-1
December 13 vs. San Diego State* W 67-64 7-1
December 17 at Oregon W 78-73 8-1
December 20 at Southern Illinois W 65-52 9-1
December 23 at Pacific W 74-65 10-1
December 27 San Jose State W 87-78 11-1
December 28 Morgan State W 76-60 12-1
January 2 at Cal State Bakersfield W 80-74 13-1
January 9 Santa Clara W 63-62 14-1 (1-0)
January 11 at San Francisco W 66-54 15-1 (2-0)
January 15 Loyola Marymount W 78-53 16-1 (3-0)
January 17 Pepperdine W 96-46 17-1 (4-0)
January 22 at San Diego W 65-42 18-1 (5-0)
January 29 at No. 10 Gonzaga L 69-62 18-2 (5-1)
January 31 at Portland L 84-66 18-3 (5-2)
February 5 San Francisco W 79-58 19-3 (6-2)
February 7 at Santa Clara L 70-52 19-4 (6-3)
February 12 No. 10 Gonzaga L 72-70 19-5 (6-4)
February 14 Portland W 77-65 20-5 (7-4)
February 19 San Diego W 65-61 21-5 (8-4)
February 21 No. 25 Utah State W 75-64 22-5
February 26 at Pepperdine W 62-49 23-5 (9-4)
February 28 at Loyola Marymount W 70-57 24-5 (10-4)
March 13 Eastern Washington W 85-65 26-6

They played three ranked teams Gonzaga during conference (Patty injured during both of those games)  And Utah State for the bracket busters game that was won without Patty.  Look at the out of conference road schedule.  At Pacific, at Southern Illinois, at Oregon, neutral win over San Diego State, at Kent State, neutral vs Providence, CS Fullerton, UTEP.  Now I know none of those teams were ranked but that is a good non conference road schedule.  Arizona’s non conference road schedule was at Texas A&M, & UNLV.

Do you see what I am getting at?  In order for a team like SMC to get into the tournament they have to play on the road and can only get so many games.  They get one or two shots and if an injury occurred like it did this year then they are screwed.  Before Patty got injured SMC was ranked 15 in the country.  We had a good lead over Gonzaga going into the half.  Who knows what would have gone on in the second half but I would have taken my odds.  When Patty went down with the injury we lost four games. Prior to that we had one loss during the season.

What I am getting at is I find it pretty weird that out of all the bubble teams, none of the mid major conferences got in with the exception of Dayton if you consider them a mid major.  I think that the committee went strictly for ratings.  Of course if Michigan, Arizona, Maryland, and Wisconsin make the tournament more people will tune in, they are all bigger schools.

Call me crazy but SMC and Creighton got hosed.  Ohh and how is SMC a number two seed in the NIT?  What a joke…….

On that note have a great day-

Dicky V agrees with me.....

Dicky V agrees with me.....

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=3983294&categoryid=2459792

15
Mar
09

Madness in March

It has finally come.  Possibly the best time of year, yes we are finally in Mach and we are ready for all the madness that comes with it.  We will see David slay Goliath, hearts will be broken and dreams will be made.  We will not be able to get enough of Dicky V’s antics and wild commentary.  Sixty four teams will have a chance to be crowned the best in college basketball.  Who is going to have that epic run on the road to motor city?  All will be answered in the next twenty days.  All the blood, sweat, and hours spent in the gym will only prove one thing.  Who has worked the hardest?  Who has seized the moment?  Who truly is willing to leave everything out on the floor?  Fill out those brackets, set up your DVR, learn how to use the picture in picture button on your television.  Let the madness begin because it is tournament time.  

picture-3




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