St Mary's CA

Talk about making an impact. Darington Hobson's first season of D1 basketball was certainly a memorable one. The CollegeHoops.net High-Major Player of the Year led New Mexico to an MWC title by averaging 16.2 ppg, 9.3 rpg, and 4.5 apg. He's joined on the High-Major First Team by guards Jordan Crawford, Jimmer Fredette, and Randy Culpepper, as well as WAC Player of the Year Luke Babbitt.

 

All the talk leading up to the West Coast Conference final between Gonzaga and Saint Mary's focused on how much the Gaels would need this victory. Anywhere from "they're fine without it" to "they're in trouble with a loss" depending on which bracketologist you happened to be listening to at that particular moment. But at the end of the game at Orleans Arena there was a rather emphatic message from Randy Bennett's team: 

Save that bubble talk for someone else. 

Game of the Night: Gonzaga vs Saint Mary’s (11:00 PM, ESPN2)

 

Game of the Night: Gonzaga at Saint Mary’s (11:00 PM, ESPN2)

 

Gonzaga (12-3, 1-0, 19 RPI)

Saint Mary's (15-2, 2-0, 33 RPI)

Gonzaga lacks the star power of recent seasons, so perhaps this is the year they get knocked out of 1st place. Portland looks to have the best chance, but Santa Clara, San Diego, and Saint Mary's are no slouches either.

Thankfully Monday was a busy night on the schedule even before ESPN's 24-hour marathon (even if you had fantasy football interests Ravens/Browns should not have been an option) and it didn't disappoint either. John Wall made his regular season debut for Kentucky and to say the least the phenom showed why people are touting him as a National POY possibility. And there were other key results on Monday/early Tuesday that could have a long-lasting impact on this season as well.

Three Key Happenings

Gonzaga

Loyola Marymount

Pepperdine

Portland

Saint Mary's

San Diego

San Francisco

Santa Clara

The CollegeHoops.net High-Major All-America teams were voted on by staff members: Jason Brubaker, Dan Daitchman, Evan Dorey, Jeff Fox, Raphielle Johnson, Blake Hofstad, Kevin McNeill, Matthew Ryter, Shawn Siegel, Jon Teitel, and Joey Whelan.

 

High-Major is comprised of the A-10, CUSA, MVC, MWC, WAC, and WCC. The six leagues historically the best after the BCS leagues.

Auburn

Creighton

Penn St

San Diego St

St. Mary's