Busy Friday for St. Mary's

Patty Mills has officially been cleared to participate in the WCC Tournament. We heard earlier in the week that Mills was cleared to start practicing.

This is huge news for the Gaels. They are the #2 seed in the WCC Tournament, which means that they get a bye to Sunday's semifinals. According to Andy Katz, Mills will be going through five-on-five contact drills on Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas with the team. He has been doing shooting drills, and if you believe what head coach Randy Bennett says, "you would never know" Mills had broke his hand.

The more important issue is that now St. Mary's has a chance to prove that, with Mills, they are the team that was 18-1 and ranked and not the team that has gone 6-4 without him.

Personally, I don't know how much effect it will have on the Gaels tournament chances. I cannot recall a situation like this ever happening. In 2000, Cincinnati looked like they were a lock for a #1 seed before Kenyon Martin broke his leg in the C-USA tournament. Cinci ended up losing, and the committee dropped the Bearcats to a #2 seed because they were not the same team with Martin that they were with him.

So if Cinci got punished for not having Martin, would it not make sense that St. Mary's should be credited for getting Mills back?

There is a real simple way for the Gaels to solve this problem.

Win the WCC.

If they really are better than Gonzaga with Mills (as many, including me, have speculated based on their record and the whooping they were putting on Gonzaga when Mills was injured), then shouldn't it stand to reason that St. Mary's can beat whoever they play in the semi's and, assuming the 'Zags win as well, beat them in the finals? Would it not be easier to lock up an automatic bid than to have to hope that a group of ten people can decide on how good the Gaels really are?

Also of note for the Gaels is that they did decide to schedule another game. Next Friday, Eastern Washington will travel to St. Mary's to play the Gaels.

St. Mary's is allowed to schedule another game because they didn't reach their maximum of 30 in the regular season. Eastern Washington is allowed an extra game because they played at Hawaii.

As I said before, the game is not being played with the intention of trying to impress the selection committee. If St. Mary's does, in fact, make the dance, they will be going 9 or 10 days between games, which is far too much for a team trying to reincorporate such an important piece back into their line-up.