From Australia to Moraga to London

Matthew Dellavedova (Photo: SD Dirk)

The West Coast Conference's penchant for international recruiting has brought to WCC teams numerous athletes who play for their country's national team. This past season Gonzaga's roster included four players who participated in the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Elias Harris (Germany), Guy Landry-Edi (Ivory Coast), and Kelly Olynyk and Robert Sacre (Canada). Saint Mary's recent graduate, Patty Mills, also represented the WCC in the tourament as he played for Australia. While it's the Zags that travel the world looking for talent it's the Gaels who stick with one foreign land. Just as they did this year in the WCC tournament, they'll beat the Zags when it comes to participation in the 2012 London Olympics.

Patty Mills (Photo: SD Dirk)

Last week Saint Mary's star point guard, Matthew Dellavedova, was awarded a spot on the Australian squad, or the "Boomers" as they're popularly known. He'll join that other star point guard from Saint Mary's, Patty Mills, in London later this month. Mills, while still with the Gaels, participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Former Gonzaga star and recent NBA Champion, Ronny Turiaf, is currently listed on the French team's roster for the 2012 games. If Turiaf stays on the roster the WCC will be represented by three players this summer in London. The Canadian, German and Ivory Coast squads all failed to qualify for the games so three is the maximum number of WCC players/alumni.

Most important in this is that Dellavedova, coming off a stellar junior campaign, will gain invaluable experience of playing on the biggest stage of his basketball career. The Boomers have games against Great Britain , China, Spain, and Brazil on the 29th, Spain (ranked by FIBA as the #2 team in the world) on the 31st, China on August 2nd, Great Britain on the 4th, and a yet to be determined opponent on the 6th. Depending on how the field plays out Dellavedova could end up playing against Team USA after the preliminary games are over. While that would mean almost certain elimination for the Aussies, going up against the likes of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, or Russell Westbrook would provide him with a challenge, and experience, far beyond any that the WCC's best point guards Kevin Pangos, Matt Carlino, Anthony Ireland, Cody Doolin, or Murray State's Isaiah Canaan could have given him last season.

Even if the match-up with the USA doesn't happen, Dellavedova's Boomers will be facing five NBA players when they play Spain, four from Brazil, three from Great Britain, and one from China. Over the past season the Gaels played against only six NBA draft picks, which reminds me, how fun was it to watch Robert Sacre guarding Dellavedova at the top of the key during the WCC championship game? That was interesting to say the least.

Anyways, to get back on track, Matthew Dellavedova has a chance to add some more hardware to his collection, an Olympic medal. 2012 has already brought him a WCC regular season championship, tournament championship, player of the year award.

After it's all said and done, regardless of what place the Australian squad finishes in, Dellavedova is coming back for his senior campaign with the Gaels. If you're a fan of any other WCC team, considering what he has accomplished in 2012, this should worry you quite a bit.


If you want to watch Dellavedova and Mills play, or Ronny Turiaf with France, which you should, the BBC (once again showing just how awesome it is) will be broadcasting every single minute of every single event at the London Games. That's approximately 5,000 hours of coverage!

Go Boomers!