25 College Basketball Teams in 25 Days: No. 23 Saint Mary’s Gaels
By Chris Stone
For the Saint Mary’s Gaels, 2017-18 is (mostly) all about Jock Landale
A search for college basketball’s most under appreciated talents should almost always begin on the west coast. The simple fact that many of the best games in the Mountain West, Pac-12 and West Coast conferences often occur after much of the country has already gone to bed for the night is enough of a reason why.
Look no further than last season for a pair of exemplary case studies. The west coast was home to arguably the top NBA prospect in the nation and college basketball’s best team, but neither really received the national recognition they deserved.
Washington point guard Markelle Fultz was virtually no different than former LSU forward Ben Simmons. Both were No. 1 pick quality talents, but neither played on a very good college team. Yet Simmons, largely because he featured in significantly more primetime contests on the east coast, held a much bigger presence in the national conscience. At the team level, the Gonzaga Bulldogs struggled to shed the underdog label as they made their first Final Four run in school history despite topping KenPom’s efficiency margin rankings nearly all season.
Several hours south of Fultz and the Bulldogs, another one of college basketball’s hidden gems was quietly delivering one of the most productive individual seasons of the 2016-17 campaign.
Saint Mary’s center Jock Landale committed to the Gaels way back in 2013, becoming one of several Australians, including future NBA players Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova to make their way across the Pacific Ocean to Moraga, CA since Randy Bennett became the team’s head coach in 2001.
Landale followed the Gaels because of the Australians who came before him and as a self-described “tall,” he knew Moraga was where he belonged. Bennett, meanwhile, had the foresight to recruit the 6-foot-11 center as a bit of a development project with others ahead of the Aussie in the rotation so that he would have time to mature.
Bennett’s patience finally paid off last season as Landale led Saint Mary’s to a second place finish in the WCC, a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a No. 15 finish in KenPom’s efficiency margin rankings as a junior. The center also finished second in the KenPom Player of the Year race, solidifying his case as the top big man in college basketball, at least from a statistical perspective.
Landale averaged 24.0 points and 13.4 rebounds per 40 minutes last season and compared well when stacked up against the other frontcourt players who earned All-American nods ahead of him:
And that’s before making any adjustments for Saint Mary’s glacial pace. The Gaels averaged just 62.4 possessions per game last season, the lowest mark out of 351 teams in Division I, per Team Rankings. Normalizing Landale’s numbers on a per 100 possessions basis make him look even better compared to the competition as the points gap widens and the rebounding gap narrows:
Landale was also the most efficient scorer among the group, posting a 64.0 true shooting percentage despite not possessing any semblance of an outside shot. According to Synergy, just 24 of his 363 halfcourt field goal attempts were jumpers in 2016-17.
At 6-foot-11 and 255 pounds, Landale is the definition of a traditional big man. Most of his scoring opportunities come on post-ups or out of the pick-and-roll, two places he was dominant last season. Landale averaged 0.996 points per possession (85th percentile) on post-ups and 1.308 points per possession (87th percentile) as the dive man as a junior, per Synergy. Overall, he finished in the 96th percentile in terms of per possession scoring.
Those are numbers that should have no problem repeating themselves during his senior season as the Gaels look to challenge Gonzaga in the WCC. Sure, Saint Mary’s loses two major rotation pieces in Dane Pineau and Joe Rahon, but returning junior Evan Fitzner, a 42.9 percent 3-point shooter, should be able to step into Pineau’s power forward role and Ole Miss graduate transfer Cullen Neal will replace Rahon nicely.
With Neal, a career 37.0 percent 3-point shooter, alongside seniors Emmett Naar and Calvin Hermanson on the perimeter, the Gaels should once again be one of the most dangerous 3-point shooting teams in the country. They made 39.4 percent of their triples last season while taking 41.4 percent of their total shots from behind the arc as the outside shooters and Landale formed a symbiotic inside-out relationship.
The presence of so many shooters limits opposing teams’ ability to double team the big man down low and when they do, Landale is capable of punishing them. Saint Mary’s averaged 1.556 points per possession (93rd percentile) on the 36 possessions where he passed out of a double team in the post last season, per Synergy. Overall, Landale’s distribution from down low against double teams or otherwise accounted for 5.2 percent of the total points scored by the Gaels in 2016-17. Only a handful of other post players tallied a higher percentage.
For Saint Mary’s, the inside-out combination centered around Landale’s low post presence formed the basis of an efficient offensive attack that even at their slow pace makes the team a must watch for college basketball fans. The good news is there should be more opportunities for the general public to catch one of the sport’s best hidden gems this season.
The Gaels will feature in at least 11 games on the ESPN family of networks in 2017-18, including the Wooden Legacy event in November and both clashes with Gonzaga come conference play. So, when the time comes, grab an extra bit of caffeine and sit back to take in one of college basketball’s most under appreciated talents.