The #1 Reason why Gonzaga is Still Considered a Mid-Major: LMU

by Zach Bell on Jan 24, 2009 8:05 PM PST

I've hit a major breaking point with the West Coast Conference. The last two games I have seen Gonzaga play have been nearly impossible to watch. In case you missed it, and you might have, the Zags road trip down to California concluded tonight with a 93-60 demolition of the Loyola Marymount Lions. Gonzaga was once again led by the outstanding efforts of Matt Bouldin and Josh Heytvelt, who had 18 and 15 points, respectively.

continue reading more of the game recap after the jump...

Some people believe that you can't just show up and win a game but it was pretty obvious that Gonzaga could have kept some of their starters at home for the road trip and they would have been fine. Loyola Marymount drops to 1-20 so far in the season and it appears that their dreams for a NCAA Tournament birth have gone by the wayside. The Lions did have one, young bright spot in freshman Kevin Young. The 6'8'', 185 forward finished the game with 21 points, which led all scorers. He was also able to pull down 12 rebounds for LMU.

Gonzaga had five players in double figures. Steven Gray, Matt Bouldin, Austin Daye, Josh Heytvelt, and Micah Downs all scored ten or more points with Bouldin leading the way. Matt had an outstanding road trip this weekend, torching Pepperdine for 10 assists to go along with his 18 points against the Lions. He has been playing with a high level of confidence since conference play began. Senior center Josh Heytvelt continues to dominate the competition as well. Heytvelt only pulled down six rebounds tonight but that was enough. Austin Daye was incredibly efficient in his 17 minutes tonight. The big fella had another double double, his second in as many games, as he scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds. It'd be hard to pick a player of the road trip between these three players but Austin Daye was just outstanding in his return home to California.

Jeremy Pargo was the lone starter who struggled, scoring only nine points in the rout and having four turnovers to go along with his four assists. We've had some comments here saying that this team's best lineup at this point does not include Jeremy. While I don't agree with that sentiment, I really do hope that Pargo can turn it around before Gonzaga takes on St. Mary's, San Diego, and Memphis. There's no doubting Jeremy's importance to this teams eventual success. He had a road trip to forget this weekend as he was held scoreless against Pepperdine.

Gonzaga has finally arrived at the most important piece of their schedule as they will be taking on the Gaels of St. Mary's, USD, and Memphis very soon.

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#1 Reason why Gonzaga is Still Considered a Mid-Major

-The conference. I completely agree that as long as the WCC , except SMC, continues to be a sad conference GU will not be taken as anything as a mid-Major. It’s amatter of being comfortable with the classification or consider a move.

Spudzag

by Spudzag on Jan 24, 2009 8:20 PM PST reply actions

Mid-Major

Initially, there is no way GU is moving out of the WCC, the fit overall as a conference is too good for there to be a move. The basketball team moving alone to a “major” conference is quite a ways in the distance if it ever were to happen. Further, every conference in America has teams that are just bottom-feeders. While they are not as crappy as LMU the results are often similar. Winning by 30 against crappy teams is what good programs do; as long as we do that we will be fine. In addition to picking up a few “signature wins” out of conference and ending seasons with 3-4 losses will continue to guarantee us a spot in the Dance.

As was noted above, it is very important for Pargo to get on track and be a productive contributor. However, our offense is more or less currently focused on hitting jumpers. Josh is not a legitimate post presence regardless of his dominant performance against sub-sub-par competition. Pargo is not a good shooter; statistically if lay-ins and dunks are removed his percentage is abysmal. Good teams and coaching staffs are more than aware of this and his talent of getting to the rim is neutralized because he is not an outside shooting threat, this combined with his limited court vision and oft-times poor decision making are combining to make his floor presence only slightly above par. While it would be nice to see Pargo improve and lead throughout the rest of the season I fail to see a reason for him to be getting the minutes he currently has. Someone tell me what he is currently bringing to the table…?

I realize this seems like a what have you done for me lately mentality…but the expectations in place for this team require him to produce at a high level more times than not, and that is simply not happening.

by JRillie on Jan 25, 2009 12:12 AM PST reply actions

Hmmm

Pargo has a had a bad stretch. Very bad, actually. I no longer feel secure with the ball in his hands and I wonder if he is gonna throw a dangerous cross court pass every time he has the rock. Let’s be clear though: without pargo this team will never go deep in the tournament.

When he gets going he can beat just about anyone off the dribble and can take most guards to the block with his size. He isn’t a good shooter and is easy to gameplan for (just give him a couple extra feet of cushion or run another defender at him when he drives) but we need him. Last year he outplayed Patty Mills in both of the SMC games (at least, that’s what I remember) and he could get a huge psychological boost from doing it again. We have to ride out this rough patch and hope Pargo can put it together in time for the tournament. Remember the first few games of this season, including the old spice tourney? It was the best we’d ever seen out of him. It can happen again, we just need to be patient.

And sure, it sucks that we are regarded as a mid-major with a shitty conference, but look at Memphis: conference USA isn’t very good but if you keep making noise in march and bringing in solid recruits people will respect you. Mid-majors don’t start off the year with a top-ten ranking, and mid-majors don’t get the media coverage that we get. Personally, I’m not too worried about it.

Shaq as an undercover cop:
Shaq: yo man, can I score some dope?
Dealer: Motherf****r, you shaq.

by kguner on Jan 25, 2009 2:46 PM PST up reply actions