Top 5 centers in the WCC this past season

No. 1 – Brad Waldow (Saint Mary’s)

Preseason Rank: 1

By Simon Tryzna

Side note: I did not have Waldow ranked number one. In fact, I had him ranked as the third best center in the WCC. But we can talk more about that later…

Waldow put up ridiculous numbers this year, no doubt. He led the team with 15.8 points per game and had a solid 7.6 rebounds per game. Waldow was the primary reason the Gaels started off 9-0, and when he played well, the Gaels won. The thing is, however, is that he could have been so much better. As the season went on, the consistency wasn’t there, and that was shown primarily in the second half of the NIT game against Utah, where Matt Hodgson clearly outplayed Waldow. In big games against Gonzaga and BYU, Waldow wasn’t able to be the leader the Gaels needed him to be. If his teammate’s shots aren’t falling, it’s Waldow’s job to work the paint down low and get “easy baskets”(aka high percentage shots). When teams found out that he was the Gaels primary go-to scorer, they started double teaming him which led to many turnovers that stalled the Gaels offense.

The bottom line is that Brad Waldow is clearly good. But his dominance against lesser opponents made the poor performances against better opponents hurt. If the Gaels are to return to the NCAA tourney in 2015, Brad Waldow will need to be better than the center he was this past year.