PROVIDENCE, R.I. — So, to my knowledge there are eight Australian players that are taking part in the NCAA Tournament. Six of them will be in uniform in one game tomorrow, with five on the St. Mary’s roster — Jorden Page, Mitchell Young, Matthew Dellavedova, Clint Stiendl and Ben Allen — and one playing for Richmond — Josh Duinker.
“I don’t know him,” said Allen of Duinker. He didn’t remind the press that Australia is not just a country but a continent. “I joke I’m really old now, and i don’t know any of them coming up. I’m not sure if the other boys know him.”
Allen, a 6-foot-11, 22-year-old redshirt senior, and Dellavedova, a 6-4, 19-year-old freshman, will be the most talked about tomorrow, given that they’re both among the Gaels’ top five scorers. Allen, a former Indiana transfer (that makes two in Providence, along with Ohio’s Armon Bassett), had a career-high 20 points in the West Coast Conference championship win over Gonzaga.
When asked who was the pied piper that opened Australian eyes to Northern California, Allen definitely had a list of names, mentioning Andrew Gaze, Daniel Kickert, Adam Caporn and Andrew Bogut, not to mention Patty Mills, who was drafted last year.
St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett pulled all five of his current guys from the Australian Institute of Sport. Quite a monopoly, eh?
“I think [Caporn and Kickert] had a good rep over there,” said Bennett, “and the basketball community is not that big. So it’s not like there’s hundreds of players over there that are good enough to come over and play. There’s maybe 10 to 15 a year. And so once you get in that, it’s a small pool. Once you get in there good and have a good name, it makes it a lot easier.”
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