San Francisco vs. Saint Mary’s Preview

USF Dons (12-16, 6-10) vs. Saint Mary’s College (20-7, 12-4)

Date and Time: Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 8:00 PST

Location: War Memorial Gym, USF Campus, San Francisco, CA

TV: CSN Bay Area; Time Warner Cable Sports Net; The W.TV (Barry Tompkins and Dan Belluomini) or online at SMCGaels.com

Audio: http://new.livestream.com/thewtv/USFmbbaudioonly (Pat Olson and Jim Brovelli)

Meet the Teams

San Francisco

One more chance at redemption awaits USF when they meet Saint Mary’s at War Memorial gym this time around. The Gaels will have to endure the bus ride and any Bay area traffic snarls from Moraga. Enjoying a three game winning streak beating Santa Clara, LMU and Pepperdine in the last 2 weeks, the Dons will be amp’ed up and ready to hand Saint Mary’s a loss as WCC regular season play concludes on Saturday. Last time around, the Dons did not do a good job of containing Brad Waldow. Desmond Simmons had his way with the Dons as well coming in off the bench with a devastating three point shot.

Tim Derksen and Mark Tollefsen continue to be the top producing players for the team though Kruize Pinkins and Devin Watson aren’t too far behind. Matt Christiansen is the incredible hulk in the paint together with Matt Glover’s stellar rebounding effort.  Hopefully Derrell Robertson won’t push the envelope too much and cause a bench clearing brawl.  If so, Chris Adams, emerging comedian (watch the W.TV footage of Chris imitating Coach Rex Walters) will be on hand to diffuse the situation with humor.

Saint Mary’s College

Hoping to keep their post-season tournament hopes alive by winning their remaining regular season games and handing their WCC tournament opponents their hats in Las Vegas next weekend, Saint Mary’s won’t let this game get by them. Expect normal Brad Waldow game production but don’t overlook the rest of the team, notably Aaron Bright who averages 11 points per game and is a master of steals and the Freshman duo of Emmett Naar, Australian assist specialist and redshirt freshman forward Calvin Hermanson, a native Oregonian and one of the major keys in the double OT win against San Diego. With Brad Waldow as crazy good as he is, the role of the best supporting actors on this team is to keep getting the ball into Brad’s hands at every opportunity.

A win for Saint Mary’s will keep them one step ahead of having to sweat out the complexities of WCC tournament seeding in a scenario only Joe Lunardi would love.