NCAA Tournament scouting report: No. 2 seed Arizona Wildcats vs. No. 7 seed Saint Mary's Gaels
- Updated
Prepare for Arizona's NCAA Tournament second-round game against Saint Mary's on Saturday with Bruce Pascoe's in-depth scouting report.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Matchup: No. 2 seed Arizona (31-4) vs. No. 7 seed Saint Mary's (29-4)
Game: NCAA Tournament, second round
Location: Vivint Smart Home Arena, Salt Lake City
Time: Approximately 4:45 p.m.
TV: CBS
Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
G Kadeem Allen (6-3 senior)
G Rawle Alkins (6-5 freshman)
F Allonzo Trier (6-5 sophomore)
F Lauri Markkanen (7-0 freshman)
C Dusan Ristic (7-0 junior)
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
G Emmett Naar (6-1 junior)
G Joe Rahon (6-2 senior)
F Calvin Hermanson (6-6 junior)
F Evan Fitzner (6-10 sophomore)
C Jock Landale (6-11 junior)
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Saint Mary’s won every game in the West Coast Conference regular season and tournament except the ones it played against Gonzaga, finishing second and earning the No. 7 West Region seed. The Gales then beat 10th-seeded VCU 85-77 on Thursday, when five players scored in double figures and Landale had 18 points and 13 rebounds. Arizona beat Colorado, UCLA and Oregon to win the Pac-12 Tournament last week, earning a No. 2 seed in the West, then put away North Dakota 100-82 in the first round Thursday.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arizona and Saint Mary’s haven’t played since 2005-06, a 73-61 Arizona win at McKale Center, but the two matched up for closed preseason scrimmages in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. Arizona is 4-2 alltime against Saint Mary’s, and hasn’t lost to the Gaels since 1951-52.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arizona is 3-1 among teams both have played while Saint Mary’s is 3-3.
• Gonzaga: Arizona lost 69-62 on Dec. 3 at Los Angeles. Saint Mary’s lost 79-56 on Jan. 14 at Spokane, lost 74-64 on Feb. 11 at Moraga, Calif., and lost 74-56 in the WCC Tournament at Las Vegas on March 7.
• Santa Clara: Arizona won 69-61 on Nov. 24 at Las Vegas, Saint Mary’s won 72-59 on Jan. 28 at Santa Clara, Calif., won 70-56 on Feb. 25 at Moraga, Calif.
• Stanford: Arizona won 91-51 on Jan. 1 at Stanford, won 74-67 on Feb. 8 at McKale Center. Saint Mary’s won 66-51 on Nov. 30 at Stanford.
• UC Irvine: Arizona won 79-57 on Dec. 6 at McKale Center. Saint Mary’s won 84-53 on Dec. 11 at Moraga, Calif.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Operating somewhat below the radar in the WCC thanks to Gonzaga’s massive shadow, the Gaels quietly put together their best regular-season mark in school history — losing only to the Zags (albeit three times) and Texas-Arlington — by patiently and efficiently playing in a tempo that is faster than only Virginia out of 351 Division I teams. They average 20.6 seconds per offensive possession, and shoot the second-highest adjusted shooting percentage (incorporating 3-pointers) of 58 percent while outrebounding opponents by an average margin of 9.3. Their 3-point shooting is the 12th highest in the nation at 39.8 percent and they keep opponents to an average of just 29.9 percent from 3-point range while using mostly man-to-man defense. Because of their slow tempo, Saint Mary’s has only two players scoring in double figures but four players are shooting at least 40 percent from 3-point range.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The big Aussie nearly averages a double-double which is particularly impressive if you adjust for the Gaels’ slow pace. He’s an effective shooter who converts 61 percent of his field goals and is a career 74-percent free-throw shooter.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arizona’s Serbian 7-footer had his way against North Dakota’s undersized post players on Thursday but it’s another story on Saturday. While Ristic has improved defensively as a junior, he'll face a unique test in handling Landale.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
“Landale would be one of the top centers in our league. He’s an exceptional low-post scorer. He’s a tremendous offensive rebounder. They play two point guards, (Emmett) Naar and (Joe) Rahon, whose stats are almost identical. They make their team go and they take care of the ball. They come off screens and find their guys. (Calvin) Hermanson is a left-handed guy who can really play. These guys can play in any league. We haven’t played a team this year that is as patient offensively, that has the ability to score at the end of the shot clock like this team. Defensively, they’re a man-oriented team. They play tough, hard-nosed defense and that’s what coach Bennett is known for. They don’t make mistakes.” — UA associate head coach Joe Pasternack, who scouted the Gaels.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett has seven Australians on his roster this season, and he better not recruit any more than needed to replace those who leave.
Because there’s eight Americans on the team this season.
“It’s important that we hold down the majority in the locker room,” said Calvin Hermanson, a forward from Oregon. “We keep them in their place.”
Hermanson was joking, of course, as was Joe Rahon, an alum of San Diego’s Torrey Pines High School. Rahon said the two sides have actually been able to learn from each other off the court while working together on it.
“There are no Australians in my hometown,” Rahon said. “It’s cool … you get to meet all of them. They’re from different parts of Australia but they all talk the same and laugh at the same jokes. The kind of dive into their culture a little bit and (we) learn about the second-best country in the world, I guess.”
Apparently, though, Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett may not be on the inside of this cultural exchange even as he’s become known for a productive Aussie pipeline that has produced NBA players Matthew Dellavedova and Patty Mills.
“He tries to act like he’s got the Australian culture down,” Saint Mary’s center Jock Landale said. “But I don’t think he does whatsoever.”
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A native of Perth, Australia, UA forward Keanu Pinder has played with nearly every one of the Gael Aussies in one form or another — even though he’s from Western Australia and they tend to hail from Sydney, Melbourne or Tazmania.
But while Saint Mary’s guard Emmett Naar said the Gaels’ history of success with Australian players made them his No. 1 choice, Pinder didn’t feel the same sort of emotion.
“I never wanted to go somewhere where all the Australians were,” Pinder said. "I wanted to go somewhere different.”
Pinder instead went from Perth to Kansas, where he spent two seasons at Hutchinson Community College, and then on to Arizona as a junior this season.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Bennett has Arizona roots that go back to Westwood High School in Mesa and Mesa Community College, where he helped the Thunderbirds go 31-4 and receive the No. 10 national ranking back in 1980-81.
In those days, young basketball players’ attention didn’t automatically head south.
“I was around for (Fred) Snowden’s days, and they were actually pretty good then,” Bennett said of UA. “And then they declined and then Lute (Olson) came in… As a young coach, you start studying those: How did they get good? How did Arizona happen?
“Because when I was in high school, Arizona State was ahead of Arizona. And then it changed, and it never really changed back.”
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Gonzaga coach Mark Few knows both Saint Mary’s and Arizona well, facing the Gaels annually in the WCC and the Wildcats nearly every season in nonconference play.
So, when asked what he might tell coaching friend Sean Miller about the Gaels, Few didn’t say much, especially since UA and Saint Mary’s have played three exhibitions in the past four years.
Just this:
“They’re playing a team with a Ph.D in ball-screen execution,” Few said. “So it’s ball-screen coverage and they’re going to have to deal with (Jock) Landale. He’s a heck of a low-post player.”
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
10: Straight seasons Saint Mary’s has participated in either the NIT or NCAA Tournament, having reached five of each.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
40: Arizona NCAA Tournament games played between 100-point scoring efforts against Eastern Illinois in 2001 and North Dakota in 2017.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
89.7: Saint Mary’s regular-season win percentage, the highest in school history.
Matchup: No. 2 seed Arizona (31-4) vs. No. 7 seed Saint Mary's (29-4)
Game: NCAA Tournament, second round
Location: Vivint Smart Home Arena, Salt Lake City
Time: Approximately 4:45 p.m.
TV: CBS
Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM
G Kadeem Allen (6-3 senior)
G Rawle Alkins (6-5 freshman)
F Allonzo Trier (6-5 sophomore)
F Lauri Markkanen (7-0 freshman)
C Dusan Ristic (7-0 junior)
G Emmett Naar (6-1 junior)
G Joe Rahon (6-2 senior)
F Calvin Hermanson (6-6 junior)
F Evan Fitzner (6-10 sophomore)
C Jock Landale (6-11 junior)
Saint Mary’s won every game in the West Coast Conference regular season and tournament except the ones it played against Gonzaga, finishing second and earning the No. 7 West Region seed. The Gales then beat 10th-seeded VCU 85-77 on Thursday, when five players scored in double figures and Landale had 18 points and 13 rebounds. Arizona beat Colorado, UCLA and Oregon to win the Pac-12 Tournament last week, earning a No. 2 seed in the West, then put away North Dakota 100-82 in the first round Thursday.
Arizona and Saint Mary’s haven’t played since 2005-06, a 73-61 Arizona win at McKale Center, but the two matched up for closed preseason scrimmages in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. Arizona is 4-2 alltime against Saint Mary’s, and hasn’t lost to the Gaels since 1951-52.
Arizona is 3-1 among teams both have played while Saint Mary’s is 3-3.
• Gonzaga: Arizona lost 69-62 on Dec. 3 at Los Angeles. Saint Mary’s lost 79-56 on Jan. 14 at Spokane, lost 74-64 on Feb. 11 at Moraga, Calif., and lost 74-56 in the WCC Tournament at Las Vegas on March 7.
• Santa Clara: Arizona won 69-61 on Nov. 24 at Las Vegas, Saint Mary’s won 72-59 on Jan. 28 at Santa Clara, Calif., won 70-56 on Feb. 25 at Moraga, Calif.
• Stanford: Arizona won 91-51 on Jan. 1 at Stanford, won 74-67 on Feb. 8 at McKale Center. Saint Mary’s won 66-51 on Nov. 30 at Stanford.
• UC Irvine: Arizona won 79-57 on Dec. 6 at McKale Center. Saint Mary’s won 84-53 on Dec. 11 at Moraga, Calif.
Operating somewhat below the radar in the WCC thanks to Gonzaga’s massive shadow, the Gaels quietly put together their best regular-season mark in school history — losing only to the Zags (albeit three times) and Texas-Arlington — by patiently and efficiently playing in a tempo that is faster than only Virginia out of 351 Division I teams. They average 20.6 seconds per offensive possession, and shoot the second-highest adjusted shooting percentage (incorporating 3-pointers) of 58 percent while outrebounding opponents by an average margin of 9.3. Their 3-point shooting is the 12th highest in the nation at 39.8 percent and they keep opponents to an average of just 29.9 percent from 3-point range while using mostly man-to-man defense. Because of their slow tempo, Saint Mary’s has only two players scoring in double figures but four players are shooting at least 40 percent from 3-point range.
The big Aussie nearly averages a double-double which is particularly impressive if you adjust for the Gaels’ slow pace. He’s an effective shooter who converts 61 percent of his field goals and is a career 74-percent free-throw shooter.
Arizona’s Serbian 7-footer had his way against North Dakota’s undersized post players on Thursday but it’s another story on Saturday. While Ristic has improved defensively as a junior, he'll face a unique test in handling Landale.
“Landale would be one of the top centers in our league. He’s an exceptional low-post scorer. He’s a tremendous offensive rebounder. They play two point guards, (Emmett) Naar and (Joe) Rahon, whose stats are almost identical. They make their team go and they take care of the ball. They come off screens and find their guys. (Calvin) Hermanson is a left-handed guy who can really play. These guys can play in any league. We haven’t played a team this year that is as patient offensively, that has the ability to score at the end of the shot clock like this team. Defensively, they’re a man-oriented team. They play tough, hard-nosed defense and that’s what coach Bennett is known for. They don’t make mistakes.” — UA associate head coach Joe Pasternack, who scouted the Gaels.
Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett has seven Australians on his roster this season, and he better not recruit any more than needed to replace those who leave.
Because there’s eight Americans on the team this season.
“It’s important that we hold down the majority in the locker room,” said Calvin Hermanson, a forward from Oregon. “We keep them in their place.”
Hermanson was joking, of course, as was Joe Rahon, an alum of San Diego’s Torrey Pines High School. Rahon said the two sides have actually been able to learn from each other off the court while working together on it.
“There are no Australians in my hometown,” Rahon said. “It’s cool … you get to meet all of them. They’re from different parts of Australia but they all talk the same and laugh at the same jokes. The kind of dive into their culture a little bit and (we) learn about the second-best country in the world, I guess.”
Apparently, though, Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett may not be on the inside of this cultural exchange even as he’s become known for a productive Aussie pipeline that has produced NBA players Matthew Dellavedova and Patty Mills.
“He tries to act like he’s got the Australian culture down,” Saint Mary’s center Jock Landale said. “But I don’t think he does whatsoever.”
A native of Perth, Australia, UA forward Keanu Pinder has played with nearly every one of the Gael Aussies in one form or another — even though he’s from Western Australia and they tend to hail from Sydney, Melbourne or Tazmania.
But while Saint Mary’s guard Emmett Naar said the Gaels’ history of success with Australian players made them his No. 1 choice, Pinder didn’t feel the same sort of emotion.
“I never wanted to go somewhere where all the Australians were,” Pinder said. "I wanted to go somewhere different.”
Pinder instead went from Perth to Kansas, where he spent two seasons at Hutchinson Community College, and then on to Arizona as a junior this season.
Bennett has Arizona roots that go back to Westwood High School in Mesa and Mesa Community College, where he helped the Thunderbirds go 31-4 and receive the No. 10 national ranking back in 1980-81.
In those days, young basketball players’ attention didn’t automatically head south.
“I was around for (Fred) Snowden’s days, and they were actually pretty good then,” Bennett said of UA. “And then they declined and then Lute (Olson) came in… As a young coach, you start studying those: How did they get good? How did Arizona happen?
“Because when I was in high school, Arizona State was ahead of Arizona. And then it changed, and it never really changed back.”
Gonzaga coach Mark Few knows both Saint Mary’s and Arizona well, facing the Gaels annually in the WCC and the Wildcats nearly every season in nonconference play.
So, when asked what he might tell coaching friend Sean Miller about the Gaels, Few didn’t say much, especially since UA and Saint Mary’s have played three exhibitions in the past four years.
Just this:
“They’re playing a team with a Ph.D in ball-screen execution,” Few said. “So it’s ball-screen coverage and they’re going to have to deal with (Jock) Landale. He’s a heck of a low-post player.”
10: Straight seasons Saint Mary’s has participated in either the NIT or NCAA Tournament, having reached five of each.
40: Arizona NCAA Tournament games played between 100-point scoring efforts against Eastern Illinois in 2001 and North Dakota in 2017.
89.7: Saint Mary’s regular-season win percentage, the highest in school history.
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