This Week in Actual College Hoops and Just when you think the Pac-12 is bad…
Time to check in on three teams we’re following to be aware that good basketball still exists…
Gonzaga- (RPI 12 SOS 18) The Zags were blown out at St. Mary’s, which is a very well coached and has talent. Matthew Dellavadova, whom I think is in his 13th season at St. Mary’s Just keeps shooting from everywhere and making. They also have Omar Samhan’s clone underneath. The Gaels could be a challenge to Gonzaga’s conference title streak. Gonzaga handled USF last night and their win at LMU looks bigger now that LMU went to BYU and won. The Zags have entered the part of their schedule where just playing most WCC teams makes their RPI go down.
UC Santa Barbara- (RPI 109 SOS 60) The Gauchos lost in overtime to UC Riverside who is in 3rd place in the Big West. But the bounced back with wins over UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge. Orlando Johnson leads them in points rebounds and assists. (20.3 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 3.1 APG plus an assist to turnover ratio of 1.1) They have a huge battle with conference leader Long Beach St. tomorrow night.
Saint Louis- The Billikins are 2-2 in A-10 play. They beat Charlotte in their only game since their loss to Temple. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out for SLU, whether the two losses in A-10 player were just a stumble or if the Billikins just don’t have it.
Plus, every time you think the Pac-12 can’t get worse, they drain a little more out of the pool. Washington St., who lost to Utah beats Stanford last night. Faisel Aden, who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn against Utah drops 33 on the Cardinal. Wazzu who was like 10-22 from the line against Utah, goes 27-29.
Hell, Cal is the class of the conference and still lost to 2-5 Oregon St. USC who is close to Utah bad nearly won at Oregon last night.
Here is a fun game, take the following teams…
San Diego St., UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado St., Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, BYU.
And guess where they might finish in the Pac-12. That is just a WOW question huh?