SMC - St Johns Game Recap

St Marys - St Johns Game recap

St Mary's got a nice victory yesterday morning over St. John's. I would give St Marys a B grade overall for this game. Their lack of an inside presence now that Omar Samhan is gone is very scary. Throughout the St Johns game we were relying on three pointers (like usual) but we could not get an easy bucket basically the whole game. Someone needs to step up and be a go to downlow scorer. Diamon Simpson and Samhan were go to downlow scorers and that seems to be lacking so far. Tim Williams has looked good in spurts downlow and seems to be the Gaels best chance at a big time scoring bigman. If he can develop even half of the game that Samhan possessed last year, than St. Mary's should be in good shape to make a run at the WCC title.

The Gaels guard play is going to very iffy this season, McConnell is a great three-point shooter and slightly above average passer. Dallevadova has not impressed me. He has struggled shooting the three and is not creating off the dribble. However, Dallevadova is probably the Gaels best perimiter defender that they have and with his size will be able to guard the bigger point guards in the NCAA. Clint Stemdl had a huge game shooting the three and if he can keep up the shooting will be a a very effective Small Forward in the WCC.

Overall, I have high expectations for this team. I think that, while it may take a while this season for the team to learn how to play together (Only Dallavedova, McConnell and Stemdl have ever played significant minutes for the Gaels), the young crop looks promising and seems to be the most athletic the Gaels have had in years.

Quick note on St. Johns. New head coach Steve Lavin has this St John's team playing well. They were able to compete the entire game despite horrible shooting in the second half. St Johns will struggle playing fundamental basketball (like they did in this game) but should be athletic enough to compete in games anyway. This St Johns team will definitely be fun to watch and will have it's struggles but will definitely continue to improve and be very competitive by the time tournament times comes around.