St. Mary's and Weber State to play after the season

St. Mary's has added a home game against Weber State after the end of the WCC season, which is to take place on March 11th.

Its a risky move for the Gaels. Weber State was a trendy pick to win the Big Sky this season, but those hopes went out the window when star guard Damian Lillard broke his foot and was done for the season. That said, the Wildcats have gotten hot late in the season. Their six game winning streak was snapped on Friday night, but prior to the Weber State had won eight of their last 10 games without Lillard and moved to 9-4 in league play, which puts them a game out of first place in the loss column.

In other words, the Wildcats are not a bad basketball and they seem to be hitting their stride late in the season.

They are also a team with an RPI of 135. With St. Mary's losses to San Diego and Utah State last week, they cannot afford a home loss to the Wildcats. They may not be able to afford even playing them if the Gaels want an at large. Another win against a team with a sub-100 RPI is not going to strengthen St. Mary's resume.

Its a calculated risk, however. The Gaels have a 10 day layoff between the end of the season and the start of the conference tournament, so Randy Bennett is adding the game to try and keep his team from getting rusty.


For Weber State, the reason they took this game is quite obvious. Lillard, a junior guard that was averaging 17.7 ppg when he got hurt, played in nine games before getting hurt. (Ed. Note: His ESPN profile says that he played in 10 games, but the two minutes stretch he had against Montana is a mistake. Lillard was on crutches on the bench during that game.) The NCAA's rule regarding medical redshirts is that the player could not have participated in more than 30% of the team's games. St. Mary's will be Weber State's 30th game of the season, meaning that Lillard will have participated in exactly 30% of the Wildcat's games.

In other words, Weber State took the game so that Lillard will be eligible to receive a medical hardship waiver and get another year of eligibility.

Smart move.