Rapid Reaction to Saint Mary’s 64, Gonzaga 62
In a rivalry that has produced countless memorable moments and some of the biggest games on the West Coast over the better part of two decades, Saturday’s Saint Mary’s at Gonzaga game in The Kennel was one of the biggest.
As I wrote in my weekly column for The Inlander, after six-straight games that saw both teams ranked in the Top 25, this one featuring two unranked teams carried as much meaning as just about any game we’ve seen these two teams play against each other.
Saint Mary’s normally needs this win more than Gonzaga, and often the Gaels need it a lot more. Saturday, it was Gonzaga who needed it more. A lot more. But in what is shaping up to be a one bid WCC, both teams needed it.
Some stray thoughts on 39 minutes of perfect, albeit not the most aesthetically pleasing, rivalry basketball completely undone by a terrible final minute — to be fair, Saint Mary’s fans might not be too unhappy about that final minute, but for Gonzaga, it turned a hard-fought, respectable loss into the maybe worst thing I’ve seen from this program in 25 seasons as a fan, 13 seasons covering it, and 8 seasons covering home games in person.
(Some of) The Kids Aren’t Alright
There is one and only one circumstance in which it is alright to throw something onto the court, and that one-and-only circumstance is when the basketball finds its way into the crowd and needs to be returned to an official to restart play.
Is expressing displeasure with an officiating crew by throwing towels, cups and other assorted garbage onto the court the circumstance I just laid out above?
No. Far from it.
Prior to the game, and again at the end of halftime, the PA announcer informed fans that throwing anything onto the playing surface would result in removal and banishment from The Kennel.
It should result in more. What we saw on Saturday in Spokane is a stain on the city, the student section, the fanbase at large, and the program.
With just under a minute to play, Aidan Mahaney kicked the ball (not called) then stepped out of bounds (not called) while stumbling his way through the lane trying to maintain possession of an off the rails drive. Maintain he did, and after a desperation pass found Alex Ducas who kicked to Augustas Marciulionis who heaved up a shot clock beating three, Saint Mary’s suddenly had a 6 point lead with 48.5 to play.
Officials immediately gathered for a review to see not if Mahaney had kicked the ball or stepped out of bounds, they can’t review that, but if Marciulions got the ball off in time. He did.
BUT…
The replay that was shown, repeatedly, in The Kennel was of Mahaney on the baseline. It appeared as if that, not the shot clock, was the review in question. Even if it had been, the replay was inconclusive.
Basket counts.
And that’s when the game went to shit. Fans, almost if not entirely from the student section, began to throw empty cups, towels and assorted garbage onto the court. Even as Mark Few, Nolan Hickman and Anton Watson implored them to stop, it continued for a solid five seconds that felt like an eternity.
The PA announcer repeatedly prior, and again during this moment, told fans the consequences of throwing items onto the court.
The consequences should be removal from The Kennel. They should be banishment from The Kennel.
When the final horn sounded, items yet again rained down (albeit fewer, but still) from the student section onto the court.
The consequences at this point need to be more. If I was in charge, the Kennel Club in its entirety would be banned from the next game.
It was a small percentage of students in the student section who created this embarrassment, but because it happened not just once but multiple times, a message must be sent.
That message must be sent to the students. You can not do this, and you have to hold those around you accountable. That message must also be sent to college basketball and the sports world at large. Gonzaga does not tolerate this behavior.
Send the message, Gonzaga.
The Refs Blew It (but… and I’ll get to that)
First of all, the refs did not cost Gonzaga the game. The refs did not give Saint Mary’s the game. This is less of a criticism of these specific officials as it is a call to recognize a problem (one with an easy solution) with officiating.
Saint Mary’s deserved to win this game. That said…
Going back to that review, the officials did the right thing to check to make sure that Marciulionis’ three got off in time. They made the right call in saying that it did.
But they pulled a Kennedy Meeks’ Hand Error twice in the seconds leading up to that.
Mahaney kicked the ball as he tried to corral it. That’s a dead ball turnover. Gonzaga ball. They missed it, despite the baseline ref looking right at it.
The second situation was tougher. Was Mahaney out of bounds when he made the pass? The replay shown in The Kennel repeatedly during the review (maybe don’t do that anymore, huh?) was inconclusive, though the fans sure thought it was clear as day. Even if they could review it, they couldn’t overturn it and waive off the basket.
In my opinion, this officiating crew made one egregious error (the kick) and a potential second error (the out of bounds) and then in their one ability to make a review (the shot), got it right.
But why can’t they review the other two?
The rules state to let the shot go in before you review the shot clock. Had Goose gotten the ball off late, it’s a shot clock violation, end of play, shot doesn’t count, Gonzaga ball.
If you can review that, why can you not review the action immediately before, which could have shown Mahaney stepping out of bounds, which is a dead ball, turnover, Gonzaga ball. Or the Mahaney kick, which does show a dead ball, turnover, Gonzaga ball.
College refs — all refs, frankly — will be scrutinized and villainized by fans. The thing is, college refs are worse than professional refs (college players are worse than professional players, so this checks out). They miss calls all the time. They missed a ton, and got a ton wrong, both ways, all night long on Saturday.
If you know there is a quality problem with the officials, if you know they will miss calls live but get them right more often than not on replay, why not allow them to get them right on replay more often than they do now?
I’m not saying they should be reviewing a call 30 seconds in, or with 5 minutes to play in a 40 point game, but if they’re going to review calls in the final minute of a close game to get them right, why limit what they can review in that situation?
If you can stop the game in the final minute to check a shot clock, you should be able to review anything that happened in that possession that would’ve led to the same outcome your review was reviewing, which in this case was, “did we miss violation resulting in a deadball turnover.”
The rules need to change.
Again, even if the rules had changed prior to this game, Gonzaga probably loses and Saint Mary’s probably wins. In the end, the basketball gods received the result they deserved, it was just brought to them in a sloppy way.
(the refs blew it) …but Gonzaga Blew it Worse
Gonzaga was 3 of 14 from deep. Saint Mary’s was 7 of 18.
Gonzaga got 16 minutes off its bench. Saint Mary’s got 26.
Otherwise, the game stats are a wash. The second half stats, though, are overwhelmingly in Saint Mary’s favor.
In the second half, Gonzaga’s starters played 20, 20, 20, 20 and 17 minutes. The only reason Braden Huff got his 3 minutes was because Graham Ike picked up his fourth foul with 5:17 left in a tight game.
Huff played a total of seven defensive possessions in the game, three in the first half and four in the second. Saint Mary’s scored on every single one.
The Gaels scored 49 points in 49 possessions, or 1.000 points per possession, with Huff on the bench. They scored 15 points in 7 possessions with Huff on the floor. That’s 2.142 points per possession.
There’s the game.
When Huff came in for Ike with 5:17 to play, Gonzaga was up 3. When Ike returned, Gonzaga was down 5. The freshman, as good as he’s been against inferior competition, has become virtually unplayable against quality teams.
His scoring (when he does score against quality teams) is completely undone by his inability to defend. Like USF a few games back, Saint Mary’s attacked him relentlessly when he was on the floor. They got him into space, pulled him away from the basket, drove and attacked a small (and unable to rebound) Gonzaga interior.
It’s not all him. It’s that 3–14 shooting from deep, too. Make two more of those, it’s a completely different vibe right now. But they can’t. At this point, we know they can’t.
Teams have enough tape to know two critical things about Gonzaga, and they’re the two things that doomed the team on Saturday.
1: Gonzaga can’t shoot. Teams will just continue to let the Zags shoot because, well, the Zags can’t.
2: Huff can’t defend. As I also mentioned in my weekly column for The Inlander, he’s one player against bad teams and another against good teams.
We’re three months into the season. The tape is out there. Teams will go at him, which will only compound the issue Gonzaga’s had all year of having to rely on its starters. I don’t see this being solved before next season. You can’t teach defense in a month. I see it getting worse before it gets better, because smart teams will only exploit it more and more forcing Few to bench him more and more. And until it gets better, he can’t be on the floor in big moments.
Again, it’s not all him, and I feel bad piling on the kid.
Nolan Hickman went 0–5 from deep. Anton Watson looked so gassed around the final TV timeout that he was walking around on the floor on multiple possessions. The offense is so warped that they had just five assists on 24 makes.
Stromer is a consistent no-show offensively. Krajnovic missed six critical weeks of development, which doubles-down on the impact of the Venters injury. Yeo has been, well frankly he’s been nothing at all. Stosic joined the team a week before Kraziness. Joe Few and Brooks are career walk-ons and ArauzMoore, did you even know about ArauzMoore?
There is no depth, it’s killing the starters, and the starters are flawed to begin with. It’s not a good recipe, and what it results in is that…
…Gonzaga is not as good as Saint Mary’s. One break here or there, one make here or there, and the Zags could have won it. But Saturday, the better team won and the team that played the better game won.
Which brings me to my final stray thought, and I hate to go out on a depressing note but…
I’m Losing Hope
Gonzaga is 0–5 in Quad 1 (SMC is 4–3, btw) with just two opportunities left on the schedule (at Kentucky, at Saint Mary’s).
They could potentially pick up two more depending on how the bracket breaks in Vegas (SMC is Q1, and USF could rise to Q1 on a neutral). So their absolute best case scenario is a 4–5 Q1 record entering Selection Sunday. If they do that, they’ll have won the auto-bid and none of this will matter.
It will take UCLA and USC and Washington and Syracuse and SDSU and Santa Clara (which picked up a Q4 loss Saturday, mind you) going on absolute tears to end the season, and every team around Gonzaga on the bubble absolutely sinking from now into March, plus no bid-thievery in Champ Week out of the MWC or A10 or MVC or any of the Power 6 leagues, for Gonzaga to earn an at large.
Oh yeah, and it would take Gonzaga going on a tear as well, and as I’ve explained in the section above, they’re not exactly the best team right now.
Short of all that, they’re not dancing without the auto-bid.
The auto-bid is still in play, obviously. I mean, they were a bounce here or there from a win over Saint Mary’s, but they came up short. Again, this team found itself on the wrong side when it ever increasingly needs to end up on the right side of the result.
I held out hope for as long as I could. Their NET ranking is solid (27 after the loss Saturday). Their KenPom is solid (21 after the loss Saturday). But their resume lacks the necessary meat on the bone.
They better get Eric McClellan on zoom meetings with the team every day from now through Vegas otherwise the streak ends here.
