Gonzaga prepares to face Saint Mary's in college basketball showdown

The Bulldogs and Gaels have a lot on the line Saturday

Gonzaga senior guard Michael Ajayi. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Mickey McConnell's phone has been going off way more than usual lately.

McConnell, an associate coach on the Saint Mary's men's basketball staff, was center stage for a lot of big-time moments during the four seasons he played under Randy Bennett and has been part of many more over the last six years he's spent on the sidelines. But over the last decade, there's nothing that gets Moraga, California, buzzing quite like when the hometown Gaels host their West Coast Conference nemesis, Gonzaga.

"We have a lot of games that are sold out at home," McConnell said. "It's just any time the Gonzaga games come you can feel it; it's a little bit more buzz. There are more people texting you. There's just more of a buzz around everything in the Moraga area."

Saturday's showdown at University Credit Union Pavilion between Saint Mary's (19-3, 9-0 WCC) and Gonzaga (16-6, 7-2 WCC) feels similar to many of the previous meetings in that plenty will be at stake when the two schools square off for the first time this season.

• LIVE SCORE UPDATES, HIGHLIGHTS: GONZAGA VS. SAINT MARY'S

Both are playing their unique brands of basketball — Gonzaga is once again one of the fastest teams in the country while Saint Mary's, conversely, is back to holding its opponents to well below their typical scoring output. Both sit in the top two spots of the league standings, where they've finished in 12 of the last 13 seasons, and are likely due for another meeting in the conference tournament down in Las Vegas next month.

"Anytime you get these two teams together, it's usually going to be a good matchup," McConnell said. "This year will be no different. Once again, [Gonzaga is] of the best teams in the country."

The Zags dropped out of the media poll following back-to-back losses in league play, but they still hover around the top 10 of the NET Rankings and most predictive metric websites thanks in large part to bounce-back wins over Portland and Oregon State. Gonzaga thumped the Pilots, 105-62, then dominated the Beavers, 98-60, at the McCarthey Athletic Center on Tuesday. Those wire-to-wire wins bumped the Bulldogs up to No. 11 in the NET, the primary sorting tool used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee to seed teams on Selection Sunday.

Gonzaga leads the country in assists with 19.9 per game and ranks second in scoring at 89.6 points on 50.2% from the field, which ranks third. Senior guard and Wooden Award contender Ryan Nembhard helms the offense as the nation's leader in assists with 217, while Graham Ike paces the team in scoring at 17.3 points per game.

"The beauty of their program and coach Few is they can implement guys that might be different skill sets, but they find a way to make it mesh and to have a top-five offense in the country every year," McConnell said. "I think it all comes down to you got Nembhard, who's one of the best point guards in the country, and then you have Ike, who's one of the best 5-men in the country so, I think those two guys are kind of the anchor."

Similarly, the Gaels have operated on a plug-and-play system throughout Bennett's tenure. Despite losing key pieces from last season's NCAA Tournament squad, Saint Mary's is back in the mix for an at-large bid as a top 25 team in the NET. Another appearance in the Big Dance would be a fourth in a row for Bennett and company.

The Gaels have held eight of their nine WCC opponents to fewer than 60 points, with the lone exception being Washington State, which scored 75 points in a loss to Saint Mary's last Saturday. Allowing just 61.0 points per game, the Gaels rank No. 7 in the nation in scoring defense. Mitchell Saxen, a 6-foot-10 grad student from Seattle, Washington, anchors the defense with a WCC-best 1.6 blocks per game during WCC play.

Saint Mary's doesn't light up the scoreboard on a night-to-night basis like Gonzaga does, though there aren't many teams that have been as efficient on the offensive end of the floor over the past month. Since Dec. 30, the Gaels are No. 15 in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency, per Torvik. Much of that has to do with Augustas Marciulionis, the reigning WCC Player of the Year who's back to setting the table as the experienced veteran in the backcourt.

"He doesn't force it," McConnell said of Marciulionis. "He's obviously the one that gets us going. He's a four-year guy that's a point guard in our program that knows our offense in and out, and has played in so many big games, that where I think it helps the most is just his experience and he's been through a lot of situations."

To McConnell, who won the league's player of the year award in the 2010-11 season, some players in Marciulionis' position would've felt the pressure to perform even better than they did the season prior. That hasn't been the case for the Gaels' current floor general, though, as Marciulionis is back to averaging a team-high 13.6 points and 5.7 assists per game.

"He's been a part of a lot of teams that have seen a lot of different coverages and so I think he's just kind of that steady leader that we need."

As always with the Zags and Gaels, though, it won't come down to just one player or one individual matchup.

"They just have so many guys that contribute that it makes them a tough matchup," McConnell said of the Zags.

MORE GONZAGA NEWS & ANALYSIS

• ESPN BPI predicts Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary's

• Gonzaga's Mark Few on Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett: 'He's built a heck of a program down there'

• Gonzaga knows what’s at stake in Saint Mary’s rivalry game

• Gonzaga WCC opponent preview: Can Saint Mary's overtake the Zags in the West Coast Conference race again?

• Gonzaga sits 'just out of the field' in new NCAA Tournament resume evaluator

• Gonzaga's Mark Few calls out 'idiotic' WCC travel schedule

• Gonzaga's Mark Few sends message with new starting lineup

• How to watch every Gonzaga WCC men's basketball game in 2025

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Continue to follow our Gonzaga coverage on social media by liking us on Facebook and following us on Instagram and Twitter.