Gonzaga escapes Keion Bell and the Waves in 91-84 win
by Zach Bell on Jan 21, 2010 8:55 PM PST
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PrintDon't tell us we didn't warn you. Keion Bell is the most exciting player not wearing a Gonzaga uniform and I'm getting ready to go ahead and call him the most exciting player in the entire WCC. Gonzaga needed a career night from Matt Bouldin tonight as they survived a torrid second half by the Pepperdine star to win by seven points in Spokane. Words are hard to describe the night Bell had against the Zags. In the first twenty minutes, the 6'3'' guard had three points. He absolutely went off in the second stanza, scoring 22 of Pepperdine's first 24 points in the half and kept his team in the game. In the end, the Zags turned out to be too much but it obviously wasn't the exact performance Gonzaga fans were hoping for tonight at the MAC.
Thankfully for Gonzaga, their two-headed monster of a backcourt decided to show up with authority tonight as well. I thought Matt Bouldin and Steven gray were sensational this evening for the Bulldogs. Bouldin's career high 32 point performance came on 10-16 shooting (3-5 from three). He was in control all night, hit some big outside jumpers, and made some huge drives to the hoop time and time again. I thought Steven was pretty tremendous as well. He is playing with a lot of confidence and, although he had three turnovers, he had five boards, a couple of steals, and three assists. He added 20 points to that on 8-15 shooting as well.
The Gonzaga front court was a one man show this evening as Elias Harris continues his impressive play. He started out a little bit slow but made some big shots in the second half and finished with 20 points of his own. He shot 8-14 from the floor in typical Elias fashion. A couple of nice jumpers mixed in with some drives that just make you wonder how the kid is a freshman. He had 13 huge rebounds to give him his third double-double in Gonzaga's last five games. His nice night was especially important because his frontcourt counterpart Robert Sacre didn't do a whole lot. The Canadian center only played 21 minutes and was 0-3 from the floor and never got on the board. He finished with three assists unofficially but it was a night to forget for Rob.
The bench and the coaching I thought were very good tonight. Mark Few made another nice decision this evening by keeping Mangisto Arop in the game down the stretch and when things were hanging in the balance. Manny's role tonight was just perfect. He only had three points but filled up the stat sheet with five boards and a couple of assists that were just beautiful. I'm sure people will be calling for Manny to play more minutes and I think he will in conference play. His size really creates match up issues for WCC teams and I'm confident that guys like Matt and Steven can run the point against these inferior teams. Bol struggled shooting the ball, going 1-4 from the floor but had three assists of his own. Kelly Olynyk was 2-2 from the field and played well in 14 minutes.
Free throws are really starting to wear on me quite a bit to be honest. Elias Harris and Demetri Goodson combining to go 7-15 from the line of home really worries me. Meech is more to blame in this instance as he missed five but I think everyone would agree that these two have got to get it together. Both of them are really nice attackers that draw plenty of fouls and they've just got to connect on these charity shots. Goodson especially has to improve or it is going to become really hard to keep him on the court during conference play. I love his defense, love his hustle but for a point guard that already doesn't create many scoring chances, he's got to cash in on what he is good at.
The great news is that Gonzaga is now in sole possession of the West Coast Conference lead. A 4-0 record with the schedule they have coming up has to be positive for all Bulldog fans. Next up is Loyola Marymount on Saturday at 5 PM PST in Spokane.
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You forgot to mention how Sacre, besides being a no show, got absolutely POSTERIZED on from that embarrassing dunk. Good grief, that was sick!
Its gonna be gLoRiOUS!!~
Ouch, #4 on SC top plays
But it was worth waiting for #1 to see UW lose to UCLA on a buzzer beater!
by ZagsFanatic on Jan 22, 2010 12:15 AM PST up reply actions
Best performance I have ever witnessed
Don’t get me wrong, Bouldin was sick tonight, but Keion was able to accomplish as much in the second half + the dunk on Sacre + the circus act and1. Any chance Pepperdine wants to trade #3s straight up?
This was the perfect game
Gonzaga got the win BUT…..this performance gave Mark Few plenty to work on and plenty to teach over the next couple of weeks. A blow out win might have brought on some complacency. However, that won’t be a problem now
Final 4 or bust
a lot more people agree
the section i was in collectively moaned “no” every time meech attempted a three pointer.
We Won the Pickup Game Last Night!
That’s what last night looked like to me. Hey, pickup games are fun! When I played in college, we called the spring, “the real season” because we loved the pickup games so much. Come on Mark, tighten this thing up! I’m tired of leaving every game with 5 question marks.
- where was the transition D? layups on the other end. AT HOME.
- at what point do we do something to stop Bell? Was it my imagination or did we stay man-to-man until the very end. We could have even showed a glimpse of a box-and-one, just to change things up. Maybe it could come in handy later in the season, maybe in the tourny.
- it’s one thing to play up-tempo. Nobody believes in that more than I do. There is a difference between up-tempo and helter-skelter. I argue that last night was the latter. That’s why Sacre couldn’t get the ball. Occasionally he is invisible out there, but I think he was ready to play last night, but the team couldn’t get him involved.
Every time we take the floor it is an opportunity to get better, to advance toward possibility the impossible holy grail of reaching a final four or even reaching our fullest potential, whatever that is. Last night we had a couple of impressive offensive performances but as a team we went nowhere to reaching these goals! If there is a silver lining, it is that Mark Few can tear into his team today, after a “win” and get us back on track. Go Zags.
Steven Gray
For whatever reason, there have been many games this year in which Gray’s jumpshot hasn’t been what we’ve hoped for. However, when he takes the initiative to get to the basket, particularly moving without the ball, he can be extremely effective, as we saw in yesterday’s game. Hopefully he keeps this up.
His jumper just isn't the same it was his freshman year.
He was a killer shooter as a frosh, but hasn’t had the same stoke these past two years. Luckily, he’s adapted his game to get better high percentage shots. Still…it’s frustrating at times.
Gray is playing just like he did in High School
What you have seen recently is Gray’s ‘normal’ game. He is a lot more than a perimeter shooter.
Looks like he’s having more fun on the floor these days too.
mjc
FTs and Foster
Bouldin and Gray from the line 12-13. Everyone else…8-17. ouch.
Also, suprised no one mentioned Foster’s play last night. 5 minutes, 3 boards, and one suprisingly athletic turn around J from 7 ft.
And did you notice
it was with his RIGHT hand I believe!
by jomogolfpro on Jan 22, 2010 10:57 AM PST up reply actions
Circus shots
The simple fact is this..1/3 of those shots were just straight up circus and yes they went in…this time…but to me they plowed into our guys and got a lot of calls where as on our end we got very few calls…in the second half zag defenders were backing off trying not to get called for some phantom foul…In the end the better team never trailed and won….and the just like always the Circus packed up and headed to the next town.
Pepperdine appears to be "for real"
I was impressed with Pepperdine. They certainly exceeded all my expectations.
I’m not sure this was a good game for the Zags or not. Where did our defense go? Was it really just the refs? I’m not so sure.
Lets face it, we got embarrassed on the defensive end — even if we did win going away. Going to have to do better than that if we want to do anything in the tournament. There are a few more Bells around the country.
You have got to love Bell! What a show! If prayers get answered, he certainly used his quota for the month. But . . . he made plenty of shots that were straight up as well. Give him credit, he was in the zone the entire second half. We haven’t had this much trouble with one player since Patty Mills.
mjc
mjc
I'd like to direct everyone to EDZ's comment
It was a win, it was ugly, but they’ll learn from it. It’s hard to make any swooping comment on one player after that game because there was just a general lack of intensity. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt considering the stretch they just came off of. I knew things would go one of two ways last night. A: They would come out with tons of intensity being home or, B: They would leave Pepperdine in the game and look flat all night.
The Zags chose option B and their three leaders on the court won this game for them. That is what leaders are supposed to do and I’m glad Matt picked his team up off the mat.
As they all said after the game, there is no one to blame for the lack of intensity except for themselves and the coaches were obviously displeased. They’ll work hard today, and I expect a big game on Saturday.
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I've read through the comments and
I just wanted to jump in the conversation.
Bol Kong. I don’t know what to think of him yet. Enigma. Sometimes he shows flashes of brilliance, sometimes he just stands around out there scratching his butt. Does he know the offense yet? I don’t think so. It seems like he doesn’t know where he’s supposed to be.
Sometimes Olynyk does the same thing, only with tons of hustle. Sometimes that is enough.
Manny Arop showed that flash of brilliance. He came on with some assists, rebounds, and a score or two when we needed it.
AHH! the “it” factor. When you need “it”, you get “it”. It’s like the free throws Matt Boulden made down the stretch. Matt held the ball so they would foul him. Smart. Then he stepped up to the line and put the game in his pocket.
Sacre didn’t score, but sometimes big men in the middle don’t score much. They are too busy doing other things, like screening, blocking, opening and closing lanes, and positioning for rebounds. That brings up Will Foster. He set two great screens for Bouldin at the top of the key. Backed at least two defenders away from Bouldin so he could sink the threes. Beautiful. Don’t worry about Sacre. Sacre will be back on the offense. He’s not done yet.
I think the Zags were challenged by the absolute best that Pepperdine could throw at them. The Waves played at that higher level that all the teams will strive to attain against Gonzaga. We need to remember that they are all gunning for us and will push themselves to win. Every game against every team in the WCC will be a challenge. There are no soft games from here on out.
Tom117
Sacre is soft like heytvelt
I can’t wait til Labradford Franklin comes to run the point, and I think Olynyk might be the answer underneath if he can bulk up, he is much more active than Sacre. Sacre is slow, unexplosive weak, just a big body with average game, him and goodson are not the answers…
No way Olynyk can put on enough muscle to be a legit center
and I really hope the staff doesn’t envision him being an interior player at Gonzaga. He’s a wing and his skills are much better on the outside working in. I still have some faith in Rob although I do agree that he has been insanely soft lately. He’s one of the more physically imposing big men in the country. I wish he’d act like it all the time.
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Oly will never
be a 5, he is a 3/4 guy! He unfortunately has to play alot out of his true position this year, and that’s why he has looked like he has struggled at times.
by jomogolfpro on Jan 23, 2010 12:52 PM PST up reply actions
Oly can play 5
tall enough, has enough size, very fluid, just needs to add some strength. Has a lot of skills that Sacre doesn’t have, much quicker, it at least seems like Oly likes to play basketball unlike Sacre… It’s the WCC, I mean I wouldn’t play him against Sanham, but just about anyone else he can cover…
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