Senior Series: Matthew Dellavedova

Dellavedova as a freshman, photo by SD Dirk

Matthew Dellavedova had an amazing career at Saint Mary's. The 6'4'' guard from Maryborough, Victoria, Australia made an immediate impact as a freshman and continued to do so through his senior season.

Dellavedova was honored many times over his career. He was named WCC Player of the Week three times and once Player of the Month. As a junior, he was named the WCC Player of the Year and WCC Tournament MVP. He made all-WCC teams in all four of his years at Saint Mary's. In his first year he made the all-Freshman team as well as being named an all-WCC Honorable Mention. In his sophomore, junior and senior years he was named to the all-WCC Team.

He received national honors as well. Twice he was named an all-America Honorable Mention. He's made watch lists for the Naismith and Wooden Awards. The Cousy Award, for best point guard, had him as a finalist in his junior and senior seasons.

The accolades, the stats and most importantly, the wins, make Matthew Dellavedova the greatest Gael ever.

Saint Mary's deepest run in the NCAA Tournament: the 2010 Sweet 16. Dellavedova was a starter. Saint Mary's highest ranking in the polls: 12th in the Coaches Poll, week 14, 2012. Dellavedova was a starter.

Saint Mary's most victories in a season: 28 in 2009, 2010 and 2013. Dellavedova was a starter on the 2010 and 2013 teams.

Dellavedova was an impact player from his first season in Moraga. The table below shows where each of his four seasons rank all time at Saint Mary's. These are not where he ranks among freshmen or juniors, but overall. Example, his freshman season and junior season both saw him play 1,236 minutes, the third most minutes played in a season in Saint Mary's history.

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When you put all of those seasons together you get his career totals, some of which are shown at the top of the article.  Here are some statistical categories where Dellavedova ranks in the top-ten all time at Saint Mary's.

It's hard to declare who is the best player when there are so many different aspects to the game of basketball. While looking over the career records it became clear that Dellavedova was certainly the most prolific guard to play at Saint Mary's and it also became clear that Omar Samhan was the most prolific big man to play at Saint Mary's. Trying to figure out which one is the better overall player, using stats and totals would be insane, because they were not on the floor to do the same thing. There's a reason Dellavedova isn't on the all-time rebounding list, just like why Samhan didn't dish out enough assists to make the assists list. There is one statistic, however, that applies to all players regardless of position or role, wins.

Saint Mary's had been on an upward trajectory ever since Randy Bennett took over. In the two seasons before Dellavedova's arrival, Saint Mary's won 25 and 28 games. With Dellavedova the Gaels won 28, 25, 27 and 28 games. No four year span at Saint Mary's has seen more victories. 

During those years the Gaels had to face tougher competition. They've had to face BYU twice a year. This past season they had to go up against the #1 team in the country. Teams like Portland, LMU and Santa Clara have had banner years during that time. The WCC as a whole has won more games than ever before. Despite all that, Dellavedova led his Gaels teams to new heights. 

Oh yeah, and he did this. He's a winner, and he's the greatest Gael ever.