The Saint Mary’s Gaels have risen from seemingly nowhere to become one of the best teams in the country. Quite likely, they are the best team that you know nothing about. But you may be forgiven for your ignorance, because the revolution has rarely been televised. In the seventeen games the Gaels have played, they have appeared on national television (if you call ESPNU national television) just twice: once in November when they beat Stanford by 17, and then again on New Year’s Eve, when they beat BYU by 11. Now, here they are, poised to soundly defeat Gonzaga (that’s right, soundly) at home tonight—again on ESPNU—and yet no one knows about a thing about the Gaels. Let’s fix that.

The 2014-15 iteration of St. Mary’s was a perfectly good team. Led by All-Conference big man Brad Waldow, the Gaels narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament and instead settled for the NIT; it wasn’t the best season Randy Bennett has ever had at St. Mary’s, but it was perfectly respectable. The Gaels were graduating five of their top six players, though, and replacing them with the following cast: rising sophomore point guard Emmett Naar, who had looked good his freshman year but was never expected to carry the load; Boston College transfer Joe Rahon, who had a solid but unspectacular two years with the Eagles; four underclassmen reserves who had been asked to do very little last year; and a freshman class led by three star center Evan Fitzner and four guys no recruiting service had bothered to rank. A down year seemed imminent.

Saint Mary’s Sophomore Emmett Naar Leads The Nation In Three-Point Percentage (Photo: SMCGaels.com)

But a funny thing happened on the way to mediocrity. Randy Bennett apparently decided rebuilding was overrated and chose instead to revolutionize the Gaels. Bennett’s teams had always been decent offensively, and they had traditionally clicked into gear when a future NBA point guard like Patty Mills or Matthew Dellavedova was running the show (stay tuned for Emmett Naar). But right now, the Gaels offense is as good as it ever has been. St. Mary’s is 6^th in the country in offensive efficiency – a mark that even the best Mills and Dellavedova-led teams never approached. Moreover, they are suddenly competent defensively, with SMC’s current rating of 69^th nationally in defensive efficiency looming as the best a Bennett team has ever achieved. Let’s take a closer look at how this has been accomplished, particularly on the offensive end.

The key to an efficient offense is taking smart shots. Anyone who has watched the Warriors’ revolution knows that the long two-point shot is grossly inefficient, and Bennett has done well in making his players allergic to it. According to Hoop-Math, just 20% of the Gaels’ shots are two point jumpers. No other top offensive team—Michigan State, Kansas, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, North Carolina, the list goes on—is even in that neighborhood. The Gaels shoot threes and layups almost exclusively. This preference is nothing new for Bennett, though—only 17% of last year’s shot chart was made up of two-point jumpers.

The most obvious reason for the Gaels’ success is their 46% shooting from beyond the arc, which is best in the country. This number becomes more impressive when you consider that the Gaels attempt well above the D1 average in amount of threes attempted as a total of field goal attempts. How do they do it? Well, everyone can shoot. Of the Gaels’ six rotation perimeter players, all average at least two attempts per game, and all shoot above 40% except Rahon, who still shoots at the D1 average anyway (35%). It’s worth noting here that Naar opened the season shooting an absurd 27-40 from three, and is still shooting 58% from beyond the arc, which is best in the country. No Gaels team has ever shot threes as often or as well. The last team to come even close was the 2011-12 iteration featuring Dellavedova and Brad Waldow, a group that made the Sweet Sixteen.

Bennett’s teams have always hovered around the top 10 in the nation assist percentage, and his finest offense to date is no exception, assisting on 66% of made baskets, good for 10^th in the country, per KenPom. To make matters even worse for defenses, Hoop-Math reports that a stunning 84% of Gaels’ threes are assisted by someone else. As if all that information weren’t bad enough for St. Mary’s opponents, the Gaels are the 21^st best team in the country at avoiding turnovers, so don’t expect them to beat themselves.

Dane Pineau May Be The Most Important Piece Of The Gael Offense (Photo: AP)

With all due respect to Naar, the most important part of the Gaels offense might be big man Dane Pineau. Coaches often say you need to go inside to create space outside, and Pineau is a perfect pivot point. He shoots 81.5% of his shots at the rim and makes over 70% of those. In the paint, he’s automatic. But defenses can’t swarm him on the catch because he is an elite passer. He ranks 1^st among big men in assist rate in the WCC and has notched over 5 assists in two games this season. As if that weren’t enough, he ranks 8^th in the country in offensive rebounding rate. Often defenses scrambling to keep up with the Gaels’ perimeter passing can forget about Pineau, and, on the off chance a shot misses, he’s right there for the rebound. 46% of Gaels’ threes go in, but 17.5% of the misses still end up in Pineau’s hands. He’s second in the conference in offensive rating (behind Naar). And oh, by the way, his back-up Jock Landale is the reigning WCC Player of the Week and gunning for a starting spot.

In the NBA, the Warriors and Spurs may “Pace and Space”, but Bennett has slowed everything down. The Gaels have always played relatively slow, but the current team’s 6^th slowest tempo in the country is the slowest they’ve ever been. The slowdown makes their intense efficiency even harder to contend with. With fewer possessions, each made three pointer is relatively more valuable to the Gaels. Moreover, the tempo helps them stay within themselves. Bennett has his team playing to its strength, which is in the half-court. The team never speeds out of control, which is evident in the incredible stat that Gaels’ games involve the lowest total amount of free throws of any team in the country. They always stay in their comfort zone.

St. Mary’s may not be a surefire bet to beat Gonzaga, even though KenPom projects them to win by eight. The only other time they’ve had to combat the kind of frontcourt athleticism and skill the Zags have to offer, they lost at Cal (though they held a lead in the final minute). But whatever happens tonight, get used to this team. Randy Bennett has stumbled upon a magical offensive formula, and no rotation player graduates this year. So get acquainted with the Gaels now of your own volition – before they force you to know about them in March.

William Ezekowitz (30 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2016 at 11:12 am by William Ezekowitz and is filed under microsites, other 26. Tagged: dane pineau, Emmett Naar, gonzaga, jock landale, joe rahon, randy bennett, st mary's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.