THE COACHES!

This loss goes squarely on the shoulders of the coaching staff. This loss comes down to 3 things:

Free throw shooting – 1/7 in the first half, 22/33 overall. We’re giving away tons of points at the CHARITY stripe every game and we WILL NOT win in March playing like this.

Getting the ball to the player who is hot – Sacre finally played like a man in the first half of this game (I was considering trading him for Bowman of Vandersloot on the women’s team up until this). Where are his touches in the 2nd half?
Elias had a great game, another great line in the box score but how does he not get touches coming out after halftime? Bouldin and Gray were both shooting poorly, but they continued to get all the touches. Harris and Sacre playing high-low in the post or inside-out makes so much more sense!

Not attacking Dior Lowhorn – Dior is the best player on USF. He had 3 fouls at halftime, and the Zags didn’t go after him in the 2nd half. This goes right along with the previous point of getting it to Harris and Sacre, they would have drawn his 4th foul much earlier if they attacked him on offense. He finally got his 4th with 5:35 left, and they only went at him a few times in the rest of regulation and OT.

All of these are COACHES mistakes. Free throw shooting can be taught, it comes with practice. Where you run your offense through is the coaches decision. Telling your players to attack a big man in foul trouble is natural.

Oh, and leaving Grant Gibbs in the game for 17 minutes… Yeah, let’s sit our young players who actually have skills (Kong, Arop, Olynyk 21 combined minutes?!) and leave Gibbs in the game?!?!?!

WHAT THE HELL COACH FEW???

I think we may in a little trouble here…

Our next 3 games are against Portland, Memphis, and St. Mary’s…If we play ANYTHING like we have the last 4 games….we are going to lose ALL 3 OF THESE GAMES!!!

Now that we have lost a game…it is time to make some changes in the lineup… We need to either start Arop or Gibbs in place of D.M. I don’t know about all of you…but he is NOT the answer!! We need someone who is going to be more of an offensive threat. Not just scoring…but someone who at least can drive TOWARDS THE BASKET..instead of going side to side and picking up his dribble!! These teams aren’t stupid…they all see the same thing here…they know he isn’t going to drive in and do anything with it.

And for those of you who say we need his defense…OH?? Just cause you are fast up and down the court doesn’t mean you are stopping someone!! It’s not like he is stealing the ball and driving down for layups!! We are putting TOO much on Boulding and Gray to do something with the ball…that is what a point guart is SUPPOSED TO DO!! Free up your shooters.

And on defense…we also need to stop crowding the middle, and letting these guys shoot uncontested 3’s…Every night, same thing…really no reason for it. And for the FT’s…Bouldin shouldn’t be going to the line at 8:00 left in the second half…FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE GAME?? We need our good FT shooters to be there WAY SOONER THAN THAT!!!

I hope we can work on some of these things really quick or it could be a long 3 game stretch!!
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I’m agreeing with Gonzaga3. Potential trouble ahead. How the Zags rebound from this will be very interesting. We could easily lose in Memphis and at least 2 more games in the league. We could be sitting and waiting to see if we can get an at-large bid, which means an 8 or 9 seed. Or maybe we’ll wake up. If it was all roses, it wouldn’t be fun being a fan.
I wrote a fanpost yesterday about our style of play. Well, folks, defensively something must change NOW. Nothing we do could possibly be worse than what Gonzaga is doing right now. 2 things we do that is at least reasonably good is stopping the ball and defensive rebounding. Other than that they just look like they’re running around chasing their opponents. Looks like chasing a chicken around the barnyard. The definition of defense is: force your opponent to do things that they do not want to do. Make a ballhandler go left, pick up his dribble, make a lob pass, shoot from beyond his range, post up further out, etc, etc. WE ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING!! Offensively, we’re fine. Shooters have off nights. Teammates make up for it.
Mark Few- change your defensive philosophy today. Even look at some tapes of LMU 1989-90. They played defense. I see 2 broad choices- slow it down or speed it up. Slowing down- we look decent in the half court trap. At the least, it eats up a few seconds off the clock. We’re a better zone team. Zones can be better at finding spot up shooters. Zones can be aggressive if you want them to be. Speeding up- stretch the D the full length of the court. Traps and more traps. If we did that, our centers have to step up, challenge, and block some shots. LMU played full court from the opening tip until the final buzzer. They seemingly scored 6 points at a time.
It’s time- the proverbial zit has “come to a head”. Defensively it would be impossible to play worse. Let’s find a style that fits this personnel and also is difficult to play against. Right now these WCC opponents are circling the Zags games on their schedules as big nights.

That took 3 months, but your right on about the stats. They do matter and they are one of the strongest tools coaches use for development! The only difference I see in your analysis the tendency to lump players together. Breakdown of individual stats is crucial to the development. Example: 8-26 shooting for Matt and Steven, thats 30.7%. When really it’s Matt 6-13 thats 46.15 and Steven 2-13 thats 15.4%. Another blanket statement that appears to reference Matt and Steven only because of the way you preceded your comment about guard turnovers. If you included all the guards your statement would be more accurate. All the guards, Matt Steven, Meech and Gibbs had 10 turnovers! Matt-1, Steven-3, Meech-4, Gibbs-2. Steven and Matt played 41 minutes each! thats 1 to for Matt in 40+ min. and 3 for Steven in 41min. ! Goodson and Gibbs had 6 to’s in 39 combined min. and Matt ans Steven had 4 in 81 combined Min? Thats another lumping of the stats. This is not a rag on your post as much as it is an accuracy point! Your key to the game in your post to me was the lack of the most "talented player on the team not getting the touches in key transitions. Spot on! Besides making free throws, “E” not getting touches for several possesions in a row was, IMO, Game, set, match!

Your right about the minutes too! Matt has been rode hard and put away wet! I also think his hand injury is playing a part in his shooting and ball handling accuracy.

As always, JMO and one more defense of my player! Matt…..6-13, 1-5 3pta, 12 rebounds 5 assists, 1 to, 15 pts.. by the way all 3 baskets in the OT. Other things to consider with this new team might be, spacing on the floor in both offense and defence, How they play double teams and recognize it coming, being ready for passes, knowing the set play and options within those sets, correct help in your “D” set just to name a few other things to consider in breaking down a game. Sometimes my emotions dictate my evaluations but I find STATS a good tool to review!

Good post!

This really is not the end of the world – look at the circumstances surrounding the game:

1. 6 road games in 28 days, of which this is the last and is followed by 6 of 9 at home (I think)
2. Combine that with a young team just coming off of a hard win on national television, and probably looking to get back home
3. a guy who has shot 8/47 from behind the arc goes 5/7
4. The inevitable off game by Bouldin/Gray, which was bound to happen
5. Again, a really young team

Yeah, its frustrating as all hell they lost to USF, but it was a bad night and they just happen. 21 games ago, everyone thought this team was young and maybe this was the year of re-building; we’ve avoided that, but games where the youth shows happen.

(Same time, maybe thats just post-game rationalization)

I really don’t know if losing is ever good, but maybe getting kicked in the ass before the Portland/Memphis/St.Mary’s stretch helps re-focus as the team realizes they aren’t simply invincible and can magically find a way out of everything.

This team has been on thin ice all year—and, for me, it was about time they listened to the music. We are good… not great! I think everyone is excited about how good we are, but with that, NOW everyone expects us to never loose. This loss will bring the fans back to reality and will motivate the team for the rest of the season. I think this needed to happen.

by Gray that didn’t go our way;
Gray hustling for the rebound (twice actually) one that went out of bounds had he just let it go without reaching for it as it was off a missed USF shot that went far from the rim, the other was the game clinching rebound that he grabbed a split second too early; attempted to save passed blindly to Dior for the game tying shot. We get that rebound we win. We didn’t, we lost, not becuase of Gray, just because we are not going to win every game. Texas lost, Kentucky lost, as did other top 4 seeded teams.
Many of the players are tired, Matt shooting an airball from 6 feet is clear evidence of that.
Robert stepped up offensively, which was clearly a game plan, his confidence is back.
This game was not a key game.
We have been on the road alot as I have posted last time/before, and a couple others have this time. We are at home.
Winning the WCC regular season title came down to us beating St. Mary’s & Portland anyway at home in the kennel even, whether we won or lost to USF didn’t matter other than having a perfect regular season.
We got upset no reaon to get upset.
Few does need to recruit a top PG though as I do not see either Meech, Gibbs, or GJ leading this offense consistenly in the next few years. We need to find some quality bench minutes to sub for Matt against these weaker opponents.
FTs killed us again and after they won it for us the game before.
Our seeding depends upon us beating Portland (home), Memphis (road), & St . Mary’s (home) as well as the regular season title.
Players can rest, kiss their girlfriends/wives, stress about what to buy for Valentine’s day, and focus on their studies.
We will play better as Gonzaga plays to the level of their competition (a Duke exclusionary clause implemented).
Kennel the team will need you to get loud, wild, smart, crazy, energized, and have some fun!

…of the University of Portland! They beat USD (away) by 9; LMU by 40, Pepperdine by 16, USF by 16, and Santa Clara by 22. The latter two were AWAY games for the Pilots! That’s what I thought OUR stats would be against WCC teams. Instead we’re coming away with very unsatisfying wins or losses. Doesn’t bode well for the future at all.