I love Delly but all the knockers on drafting Delly to the NBA would be looking to this game as proof..Pangos showing Delly that he is the best guard in the WCC!

what a finish

Delly had an off game, hasn't shot well in the last few games, I wonder if he has hurt his arm as he kept touching the arm sleave.

I have watched a few games this year, and the team as a whole has regressed. Delly would average over 10 assist a game if the big men stopped missing bunny shots EVERY SINGLE game. Take Delly off this team and they would be lucky to have a 0.500 record

Ref's were pretty awfull tonight, they fell for far too many flops (mostly by Gonzaga,the jumpball call between Harris and Delly was so wrong, and the no call on the 3 by Delly was also baffling.

Gonzaga was the better team (St Marys wont make the Tourney) with much better talent, I dont know how they let it get so close.

Swap Delly for Pangos, Gonzaga national champs St Mary's at 0.500. Imagine what Delly would do if he had Gonzaga's bigs to pass too

"Swap Delly for Pangos, Gonzaga national champs St Marys at 0.500"

Pretty disrespectful to Pangos tbh. He is a damn good PG. Controls tempo extremely well. Had 20 points or so tonight on something like 8/11 FG.

Delly had an off game. Really hurts his draft stock IMO as it was against a ranked opponent.

I like Pangos as a player, but this years St Mary's team is below average, take away Delly and they are just awful.

Delly spoon feeds his big's the ball in perfect position and they still miss. Because the D focusses exclsuively on him, his shots are always tough and contested.

Pangos is not nearly the play maker that Delly is, however Pangos is a better shooter (worse driver however). If Pangos had the entire defensive scheme set around him, say if you swapped Delly and him, he would make them a 0.500 team (and thats a compliment given how awful St Mary's has been this year).

Have you ever seen a great shooter on an awful team? Its not pretty.

Also Pangos DOES NOT control tempo, have you noticed that they play Stockton 20+ mins a night at PG? Wonder why?

For the record Pangos will not play in the NBA

The only player tonight that will probably play NBA is Karnowski (after at a minimum 2 more years in college).

Olynyk is a nice player, but has no athleticisim at all (besides reasonable mobility). How many white 7' players have been drafted because of their skill and size and never end up playing in the NBA (too many!)

MACDUB Pangos may have had a good night because he was playing way above his averages. he averages 11pts on 40% shooting...,whereas Delly obviously had a poor night below his average of 17.5 Pts on 47% shooting.

Yeah agree El Diablo, SMC big men are very average, particularly in the first half . Delly would be average 10 assists if the bigs could catch and put layups in.

Harsh comment El Diablo:
"I like Pangos as a player, but this years St Mary's team is below average, take away Delly and they are just awful"

Holt is one of the best perimeter defenders in the WCC!!!!

I agree the gaels front court is bad, I think a lot of people expected a lot more improvement from Waldo this year & he has not live up to the replacement St Mary's needed for Rob Jones.

In the end, it was a close game & gives me hope that St Mary's can win the return leg in Moraga.

That call with 49.8 seconds to go for the jump ball / change of possession show that umpires guess on some of their decisions!!!!
What did that bald umpire have against the Gaels tonight / today?

Lance,

One thing I like about Pangos is that he is a big-game player.

Pangos is averaging 17.3ppg against non-mid majors (opponents include Baylor, OKSU, Oklahoma, Illinois, WVU,St. Marys, Davidson)

In contrast, the top opponents Delly has played against are probably Gonzaga, Georgia Tech, Northern Iowa, Pacific, Drake)

Big difference. Very typical of College Basketball though. Stats are elevated by playing against mid-majors or lower.

It's the same reason why Stockon may average 19.3mpg this season, but in reality plays a lot less in bigger games (6 vs. Baylor, 14 against OKSU)

Delly is a great player with a great future ahead of him. It is unfortunate that St. Mary's haven't organised a stronger out of conference schedule.

A big reason why Stockon runs the point a lot is probably the same reason the 36ers run Cadee at the Point so much.
It allows a good shooter like Pangos to play off the ball and get open looks, much like the 36ers try to get Gibbo to do the same.

Gaels are missing rob jones heaps! I have to agree that jump ball call was terrible! If anything it was a foul!

thanks for stats MACDUB. Pangos certainly looked the better of the two tonight


SMC play San Francisco next on Monday and then BYU next Thursday (aust time) which is televised on ESPN. Hopefully Delly & SMC can have a better showing next week.

Delly is by far SMC's best player and opponents target him game in game out. Take out Delly and you beat the Gaels.

The problem for Delly and SMC this season is that they are lacking an inside presence. Hodgson has not stepped up to the plate as they probably needed him to, at least to date. The Zag's have an imposing frontline and that was the key difference in today's game from what I can gather (I did not catch today's game), and SMC not shooting the three-ball with any consistency hurts them badly given their interior deficiency.

Gonzaga is the deepest and most talented team in the WCC if not of all the mid-majors. Put a decent centre or PF on SMC's team and with Delly they improve any more. I would agree that if you swapped Pangos and Delly over, SMC would not be as good as they are with Delly.

Delly in Gonzaga's team would make them a legit final 4 contender. They have way better bigs playing for them for him to feed. Gonzaga made his life extremely difficult. Delly hasn't been great against top 50 teams lately. They just rush him. Doubt this will happen in the NBA where other players will take the pressure off. He needs more help and to maybe not go for the impossible so much
Unfortunately the Saint Mary's big men are not much chop.
Stephen Holt was just tremendous in the second half but really his first great game of the year.

I was surprised how well SMC bounced back and nearly pinched it.

Also just like to add i'm not completely sold on Delly playing in the NBA but I saw Ben Hansborough playing the other day so it's possible he too could get minutes.

"Pangos is averaging 17.3ppg against non-mid majors (opponents include Baylor, OKSU, Oklahoma, Illinois, WVU,St. Marys, Davidson)"

St. Mary's and Davidson are both mid-majors. But I take your point that he has had some big games against big opponents this season.

The gameplan against Gonzaga is to limit Olynyk/Harris first and cover their guards if they are on (Pangos has his share of off nights too, especially on the road. 2/11 vs Oklahoma, 2/12 vs Washington State, 3 of 11 vs Illinois, 2/8 @Pepperdine, 2/9 @Santa Clara)

Pangos very rarely gets double-teamed due to the Zags strength being inside. Delly has games where he is regularly double-teamed (almost every trip down the floor) because nobody else on the Gaels is doing enough on offense, and its simply the easiest/best way to play the Gaels at the moment.

In summary, I'd still have Delly over Pangos in a heartbeat. Pangos is a shooter, that can facilitate a bit, his defense limited by his size. Delly can run a team very well, can often shoot when his team needs it, and plays pretty good D (being 6'4" helps)