ESPN announced pairings for the final BracketBusters event. (You may remember WBR’s stance on the event. Anyway.) So, a few weeks from now, Creighton will head to northern California for a second time this season and hope to duplicate the outcome from the first trip (a win over Cal).
The Bluejays will play Saint Mary’s in Moraga, CA, at 5:00 p.m. CT on ESPN/ESPN2. We’ll have plenty of coverage of the game in the week leading up to the trip. But until then, here’s a bit of information about Creighton’s final foe in BracketBusters play.
Gaels at a Glance
Saint Mary’s seemed to be the program every CU fan interested in BracketBusters wanted the Bluejays to play … last season. The Gaels were a designated road team, and the Jays were a host in the event.
But CU drew Long Beach State while the Gaels traveled to Murray State for a showdown of two ranked teams in arguably the best match-up of BracketBusters weekend 2012.
The Bluejays won an exciting game in the final moments. Meanwhile, Saint Mary’s lost to the Races 65-51 a few days after stumbling in conference against Loyola Marymount.
The BracketBusters loss would be Saint Mary’s last until the NCAA Tournament. The Gaels won their final two games of the West Coast Conference season and then beat San Francisco and Gonzaga en route to a WCC tournament championship in Las Vegas.
Saint Mary’s earned a #7 seed and a trip to … Omaha, where the Gaels lost to #10-seeded Purdue by 3.
Rob Jones scored 23 points in that NCAA Tournament loss, while Clint Steindl added 6 points. Those two starters aren’t around anymore, but Matthew Dellavedova is. He scored 12 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, and dished 8 assists against the Boilermakers.
Dellavedova is one of the best playmakers in the country, and at 6-foot-4 will be an intriguing match-up for the Creighton perimeter in a few weeks. In 2012-2013, Dellavedova leads the Gaels in scoring (16.3 ppg) and assists (6.5 apg). He has the most three-point makes (55) and has doubled up his next closest teammate in three-point attempts (141).
Stephen Holt (11.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg), Brad Waldow (9.7 ppg, 5.6 rpg), Mitchell Young (7.8 ppg, 5.6 rpg), and Page (6.9 ppg, 1.3 rpg)) join Dellavedova in recent starting line-ups for Randy Bennett’s team.
Common Foes
The Gales traveled to face two Valley teams before CU this season: Drake and Northern Iowa. Saint Mary’s beat the Bulldogs by 15, 88-73, and lost to the Panthers by 7, 82-75.
Against Drake, Matthew Dellavedova scored 31 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, and dished 7 assists. Sure, he committed 9 of the Gaels’ 21 turnovers, but Saint Mary’s easily overcame those miscues en route to a resounding road win. Four other Gaels finished with double figures, as SMU shot 56% from the field, 42% from three-point range, and 85% from the charity stripe.
Dellavedova and the Gaels didn’t fare as well during their trip to Cedar Falls. The SMU star scored just 9 points (3-11 shooting, including 1-7 from three-point range) as the Gaels lost to the Panthers. Jorden Page scored 26 points and made 6-9 threes, but he was the only Gael in double figures. Meanwhile, Seth Tuttle (18 points), Jake Koch (16), Anthony James (15), and Deon Mitchell (12) all recorded double-figure scoring efforts.
History Lesson
Creighton is 2-2 all-time against the Gaels.
On December 20, 1962, Paul Silas made a then-CU-record 14 free throws (in 22 attempts) against Saint Mary’s. Only three CU players have made more free throws in a single game: Bob Portman (19, in a 1967 game), Bob Harstad (17 once, 15 twice), and Nate Funk (15, in a 2005 game). Silas’ 22 attempts were also a school record at the time, only eclipsed since by Portman’s 23 in that 1967 game.
Oh, the Jays lost that game by 23 points, 94-71. Creighton won the next meeting by 23 points, though, an 86-63 victory in Omaha in December 1975. A few years later, in December 1978, the Bluejays played the Gaels and lost by 20 on the road, 91-71. The next season, in December 1979, The Jays beat Saint Mary’s 79-73 in the most recent matchup between the programs.
Random Musings
Bennett, the Saint Mary’s head coach, was an assistant coach on the 2011 USA Basketball Under-19 team. He worked with Creighton’s Doug McDermott, a member of that squad.
As of Tuesday morning (February 5), Saint Mary’s was among the national leaders in points per possessions (1.18; 4th), points per game (77.7; 17th), three-pointers made (183; 17th), field goals (625; 18th), three-point shooting percentage (38.5%; 26th), and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.21-to-1; 41st).