First of all...there's this.

God that was a great game last night.  What is even better than that game last night is the way our schedule works for the next couple games.  Mark Few may have got burned by scheduling in nonconference but the conference schedule is setting up nicely.  Two away games at Pepperdine and LMU set up two huge, huge home games against St. Mary's and San Diego.  The conference should be decided in two weeks of basketball from January 29th-February 12th because Gonzaga and St. Mary's will have matched up twice in that time. 

In other news...

I was surprised by the amount of quotes coming from the Broncos after last night's loss.  Coach Keating and little John Bryant were pretty quick to try and give Gonzaga as little credit as possible.  It's funny that this was John Bryant's last rodeo in Spokane and this is how the front-runner for the WCC POY goes out. 

"Heytvelt flopped on me a couple times in the past so I wasn't that aggressive in the first half because I didn't want to get two fouls early," Bryant said. "I should have been more aggressive in the first half. They didn't do anything we didn't expect."

I was front and center for one of those flops but come on John, against a team like Gonzaga you are going to have to force your will just a wee-bit if you are going to have any chance.  Here is a quote from Coach Keating regarding the students and their impact on the game.  I feel like Keating might be a big proponent of throwing people under the bus...just a gut feeling.

"St. Mary's has a good student section, too. It's not as big. But because of the local aspect of it, it's just as intense, maybe more spirited toward us. We handled that great. The crowd shouldn't be a factor if you're disciplined, a tough, hard-nosed team. Because they're not inside the lines, it's just noise. It's another aspect a young team is going to have to learn."

continue reading after the jump for more quotes, links, and comments...

This article is basically what I was going for last night.  Whenever you have been the top dog for as long as Gonzaga has, people really want to see you fall.  After last night's performance and watching the rest of the WCC, there really shouldn't be any doubt who is the best team in this conference.  Here is a nice quote from the article by AOL Fanhouse.

The Bulldogs put any doubt to rest with a dominating performance over Santa Clara on Thursday, winning 95-53. The kind of exclamation to let the rest of the conference know that any momentary lapses were just that. And really, I thought Kerry Keating's club could have been a contender this season. Yeah, not so much.

Getting away from last night's game...we thought we would point out this midseason player rankings done by CollegeHoopsNet.com which is a pretty good source for hoops news and random stuff like this.  They've got a couple Zags on the list but it's really not that pretty.

Austin Daye is ranked as the 62nd best player in the nation right now after being ranked 46th earlier in the season.  Jeremy Pargo saw his stock drop a ton.  He is now 67th after being ranked 19th earlier this season.

Well that's too bad.  But I would have a hard time arguing.  I think we have four guys that could be interchangeable on that list with Bouldin and Gray but I don't think anyone is really going to wow  you with their stats.  Like I said, these rankings are very arbitrary and subjective.  Just keeping winning.

Lastly as a little recruiting update, 2009 commit Sam Dower continues to dominate the Minnesota prep landscape.  

Champlin Park 23 31 — 54 Osseo 32 43 — 75

Highlights—Sam Dower had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Orioles and Scott Theisen had 20 points to lead the Rebels.

Dower is such an exciting prospect for Gonzaga because it seems like he will be able to step right in immediately and contribute from the get-go.  He is an absolute double-double machine and seems to possess a ton of versatility.  Just check out the fanpost about Dower's statline...I'm sure you will be impressed.