Calling tonight a blowout may not do it justice. Saint Mary's put together in incredible performance tonight in an absolute domination of Gonzaga. Matt Dellavedova led the way with 26 points on 10-16 from the floor and was sensational all night long. The Zags did their best to stick with him and Gary Bell had moments of quality defense but the Gaels were able to find him coming off screens and he buried the Bulldogs. Dellavedova wasn't the only player to dominate the Zags and, no, his name is not Rob Jones. Brad Waldow, the Gaels freshman center absolutely ransacked the Bulldogs post players scoring 17 points on 6-8 from the floor. He is obviously extremely raw but has a great feel around the rim and made a number of impressive plays, particularly on the boards and with putbacks.
Here are a few quick thoughts late in the evening...
1) Rob Sacre has had some inept offensive games (quite a few, actually) but tonight was just an evening full of facepalms. In a game when the Zags had a clear size advantage, Rob played two feet shorter than his true height tonight. If the thumb injury is that big of an issue, than he can't be out there because he wasn't doing anything tonight on either end.
2) Elias Harris was the one Zag played with the requisite amount of "pissed-offness" in this game. He was sensational but far too often, the gameplan goes away from him and he gets stretches where he doesn't get touches. When he gets off to such a promising start, the staff can't allow him to get lost out there.
3) The old cliche is that road teams can't be error prone on the road. Looking at simple stats, it is easy to see why this was a major rout. 12 turnovers unofficially, 11-18 from the free throw line and a number of defensive lapses. Aside from Harris and Kevin Pangos, there was not really anything to point to with a positive spin.
4) Pushing the panic button is still premature. Tonight was a filled with unfortunate events and while they were mostly self-induced, there has to be a ton of credit given to SMC. We all know Gonzaga is a far better team than this but with so many young contributors, some hiccups will happen. The key is that the vets have to be more consistent.
Feel free to vent here but as always, keep it classy.