Gonzaga embarrassed by Loyola Marymount (ranked 210th by the RPI)
by Zach Bell on Feb 18, 2010 9:05 PM PST
Email
PrintI remember after Gonzaga lost to San Francisco I was ready to kiss playing in Spokane for the NCAA Tournament goodbye. I was blogging, tweeting, facebooking, and whatever else-ing my depression about that loss. Obviously I spoke well too soon but this loss to Loyola Marymount might be the straw the broke Spokane's back. Gonzaga's 74-66 upset loss tonight to the Lions came at a time when most fans thought the team was invincible. Just like the USF loss, the Zags were getting praise from everywhere. They were back in the top 10, had beat all their "toughest conference competition" (again) and were poised for a high seed in the Spokane sub-region.
Once again, it's time to come back to Earth.
Another top 10, another terrible California road team, another loss. It's hard to point to a lot of positives from this one because our stars played terrible and the guys that actually played well weren't really given a full shot to shine by the coaching staff. Long story short, it was an awful game on every level.
read on after the jump for more postgame thoughts...
In games like these, where your star players aren't performing up to the task, it falls to your coaching staff to make the proper adjustments to bail them out. Tonight was one of Matt Bouldin's worst games in a long time. His shots were off, forced, and many weren't even close. Same could be said for Steven Gray and Elias Harris continues to just get hammered by opposing teams with little help. It's obvious that Few recognized this and was scrambling. Two guys stood out off the bench in the first half: Mangisto Arop and Will Foster. They both looked great in limited minutes but in the second half, they virtually disappeared. Another player that looked good early was Demetri Goodson. He scored the ball well, made good decisions, and was largely effective. He also sat for a good portion of the second half.
During this time, our staff was fiddling with weird rotations of players in the first and second halves that just failed. It was almost like we were playing our young players just to try and keep LMU in the game. G.J. Vilarino had one or two nice moments but just continues to whisper through his freshman year, Kelly was decent, and Robert Sacre was utterly abysmal. For the life of me I just can't figure out why Will Foster did not see more time in the second half. Rob was soft, lazy, and completely checked out of the game early and it continued all the rest of the way. It's hard for me to say this but a lineup of Meech, Matt, Manny, Elias, and Will may have been our best bet. Even with Matt struggling, it's hard for me to justify pulling him out.
Instead we played Bol Kong who once again just looked a bit scared or a step slow. Then we played Will for like two or three minutes and pulled him after he made one mistake and then we entered Manny to round out the game. The rotation was just odd, uninspired, and flat from the coaching staff.
During the past few games, EDZ and I have talked about how deep Gonzaga is. I really do fear a deep rotation because I don't think a lot of coaches can handle that kind of personnel. We've seen it at Texas, we've seen it at times with Kansas, and we've seen it in years past. A deep rotation can lead to brainless substitutions and sluggish performance and that is exactly what happened. Our best two subs for the past few games have without a doubt been Manny and Will. They've changed the pace of games, affected other teams offensive plan, and have provided energy. I don't know why they are getting lost in the shuffle at times but tonight just didn't make sense to me. I understand Mark Few is a great, hall-of-fame coach but tonight was a terrible effort.
Just because this rant was mainly directed at the coaches, it doesn't mean the players are off the hook. Matt, Steven, Rob, and at times Elias just didn't show up or show any kind of urgency. The guards especially missed a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, A LOT of open looks. Rob rebounded well but I guess we now know that scoring+rebounding aren't attainable for Rob in one game.
As far as long term projections go, I'll have to wait until I'm thinking a bit more level-headed. They're now behind the eight ball though. The Zags have four regular season games left. No team they play will give them much credibility. They're next opportunity for a decent win will come in Las Vegas for the WCC Tournament but who knows what can happen from now until then.
This one's hard to swallow.
42 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
In cinema classic ... Apocalypse Now ... Kurtz (Brando) whispers ...
…. “The horror… the horror…” …before expiring.
Well...
That 4 seed in Spokane is sure up for grabs now. Can’t do much more than just shake my head.
ZB
I think you are too kind to them. The group as a whole was horrible. Manny and Will did play well. The rest of the team just never came to play. The Coaching staff blew it in the first half and the kids never recovered. If Matt wasn’t hurt or sick, this was his worst game at GU. No excuses here, just plain horrible! Things need to change quickly or it’s possible that this team is 1 and done. GU should be peaking now not struggling. JMO
Pathetic
I was at the game… Sacre was beyond awful. Played like is was 6 feet tall. Afraid to rebound. No presence at all. His best game was MSU and has not shown up since.
I wasn't going to post
I was just going to go run and hide, maybe cry a little. But I’ll face the haters. Soft, Overrated, Lazy, they were all of that tonight. I’m not sure what this team is going to be, but I sure hope they just get hot and get a little lucky come tournament time.
Coaching staff – I’ve been praising you all year, then you lay this egg. WTF. Keep the crazy rotations for the end of 20+ wins. That killed our early lead. 7 deep guys, 7 deep. The rest are too inconsistent right now.
Sacre – act like you care a little. Lousy effort.
20 for 27 in the second half. Does anyone else REALLY MISS Austin Daye’s offense??? I sure do.
Good bye 4 seed and playing in Spokane. It was a nice thought. Better get hot now though, otherwise it will be one and done for sure. They still have the pieces to be special, just gotta figure out how to use and motivate them.
Field Goal Shooting
I think Truffleshuffl is pointing out that Gonzaga was 7-27 shooting in the 2nd half for a 19% clip!! Ouch that hurts to say. Just clarifying so people understand he meant to say ‘missed’ 20-27 shots in the half.
Early Trouble
You could sense it 5 minutes in. LMU wanted to play, Zags couldn’t care less. It was pathetic to watch from the 1st 5 minutes. They humiliated themselves. But hey, they shot 80+% from the free throw line.
The LMU coach needs medication. He is out of control.
Rotation
I agree with everything everyone is saying. This may have been the worst loss since, well since we lost at LMU 3 years ago. It was very apparent all game that we were just going through the motions. We were forcing shots, taking 3-point attempts when we had open lanes to the basket, letting their players get behind our “defense”…. it was pathetic.
At this point, the way guys are playing, I feel we need to shorten up our rotation significantly and maybe even make a change in the starters just to stir things up. I think our starting five now, Meech, Matty, Steve, Elias, and Rob, is good, but honestly I wouldn’t mind seeing Manny start in place of Steve for a game or two, just to get the fire burning under Steve again. And if not, definately keep Manny as the 6th man with Will and occasionally Bol as reserves. Kelly, GJ, Hart and PMag should rarely see any minutes. There needs to be some sort of shake up to get things going again. Im sick of this rockstar attitude we get when we’re ranked highly, and then we fall to horrible opponents like LMU.
Anyways, to end my rant, I would like to see Manny start a game or two. I feel he deserves it, and Steve needs a wake-up call to start producing again
Gonzaga has more talent on its bench than LMU has in its starting rotation. We didn’t lose this game because our big names had bad shooting games, we lost because there was no heart on the floor. I can’t recount any time recently when any Zag has shown emotion of the floor. The fact is, GU should beat this LMU team hands down even when it isn’t performing well on the offensive end. Granted, the coaches really didn’t put together a winning game plan as far as playtime, but any player on the GU squad should be able to step on the floor and beat LMU. Its really hard to be a Zag fan when you see such lack of effort from your team. The loss to USF was supposed to be a wake up call, and it worked…for a few games. What can we even expect from this team in the tourney? Who knows.
Elias has lost his edge and Matt just laid an egg.
It’s hard to think that the NBA scouts courtside didn’t have an impact on Matt’s game. He was just dreadful on both ends. Also Elias continues a run of unimpressive play. Chalk it up to hitting the freshman wall, people getting more tape on him, or refs stopping giving him the benefit of the doubt, but of late he hasn’t been the same force he was during December and early January.
Well, I guess it’s back to the 6-8 seed, road, and underdog role in the tourney again… sigh
at least...
we shot 86% from free throw….
other than that it was the 2nd most disgusting showing for the Zags this year behind Duke at MSG
coaching?
I don’t want to bash too hard on Few because I love the guy and I think this year he has done a terrific job. But last night up 19-10 in the first half, we were just rolling, and ugh, oh, in come 3 subs? I felt we had a chance to put them away early with the lineup we had out there? Will actually played well but we never saw him during the 2nd half (sure would have been nice to see him guarding the inbounds plays towards the end) We looked flat, players and coaches!
Put it behind us and be prepared to get shipped out east come tourney time!
Few
We shouldn’t act like he’s only recently been terrible at finding a rotation he likes. Since at least two seasons ago (the Davidson game sticks out—Micah Downs sat most of the second half, along with Abe Kuso), Few has shown he has no real idea what rotation he wants to use.
One of the SSF guys said something to the effect of Few’s misuse of Manny has been his biggest blunder, but the general attitude here is that this has been his overall best season. (Young lineup, lots of turnaround, etc.) I actually think it’s been one of his worst. We’ve already mentioned the rotation issue (can’t imagine a guy like Gibbs or, now, KO playing meaningful minutes in March after being jerked around all season), but to me, it’s bigger than that. Few’s never been great at getting his team ready to play (even games they almost won, like UConn last season), but this season he’s been getting killed in that area. CU, Duke, USF, last night (just off the top of my head). Add to all that the fact that the half-court offense is anemic and has been since at least January, and it’s hard for me to say Few’s done a good job or even a decent job this season.
Go Zags.
http://twitter.com/larevblog
http://larevblog.wordpress.com/
Few
I too have been extremely critical of Few in the past, but then I think to myself 802 winning % is pretty impressive. (Especially at the Div 1 level) And last night it was clear he didn’t have a feel for his rotations, inspite of that, 19% from the floor in the second half? A lot of these misses were due to missed layups and wide open 3 pointers. It’s not like Mark can go make jumpers for us. In the end you have to make jump shots. I will say this however, our offensive sets looked all too familiar with no movement last night. A little movement might have created some higher % shots. My biggest concern with this team, have we peaked yet?
He can't make jumpers, but he can make adjustments. He is the coach.
http://twitter.com/larevblog
http://larevblog.wordpress.com/
He can at least leave guys in that are making jumpers
Case in point, taking out Steven and Will after they went on a mini 8-0 run in the first half to give Gonzaga a nine point lead. We looked like we were about to roll over these guys when they went out. Then Meech hits shots and comes out. Then Manny scores 7 and comes out. He then plays guys like GJ, Rob, and Matt that can’t get much going at all and we fall on our faces at the end of the first half.
It’s almost like his hand is forced in playing some of these guys for his pride. Manny should have played upwards of 25 minutes and Will should have played closer to 17-20 in my view. These guys made a difference last night and you could sense their frustration when they were pulled.
I woke up after the USF loss with a lot of calm and happiness but I woke up this morning just as perplexed as I was last night. I know Mark Few’s record, winning percentage, and what he has done for this school but I guess coaches have off nights too. This was a big one.
The Slipper Still Fits - SB Nation's home for the Gonzaga Bulldogs!
Again and you should know better. What game were you watching? I have to set you straight for the last time. It’s obvious you have some love affair with certain guys on this team and have an issue with GJ. He is by far and it will all play out, either here or somewhere else, the most talent of the guys he keeps running out there and giving minutes to. They have grossly mismanaged the kid.
As far as yesterday goes, He plays 3:40 yesterday and did not do a thing to hurt the team. To insinuate he did is ridiculous and off base… In fact he continues to be effective with limited minutes. If they would have properly managed this and gave him the time he needed to get early, he would be the starting point guard on this team by now. He is the most capable with the biggest upside to play that position on this team and it isn’t even close.
If I respond to this the way I do, is because 1- I love him 2- most of you on here, do not have a clue on what’s happened to this kid there this year. Not a clue. I do.
I’ve been reading all the garbage most have posted on this board, pushing for guys to play that are "supposedly better" that he dominates on a regular basis and all those supposedly recruits that would come that are better… The same guys who came to the Gonzaga elite camp and he took all of them to the woodshed.
In closing, while politically, this is not the best road to take, the facts are very simple. 1-He’s the hardest worker on that team. Drive by the gym some time at midnight and you’ll probably find him there. 2- He wants to stay at Gonzaga… Go figure. 3- If he was 100% developed (which he is not) and with his physical attributes he would of never ended up here. 4- You’re never going to get a guy with his physical attributes and completely developed to come here. 5- All of you could look this up. On certain NBA Websites at the beginning of the year he was 1 of only 2 players on this team who were considered a prospect (Definitely not now and before the Harris coming out party). You tell me that a guy who by experts, experts, is considered to be good enough to track belongs on the bench on this team? 6- If you for one moment think he does not have the opportunity to play somewhere else, the phones are ringing off the hook. 7- He’ll sit there like a man and take that nonsense for the rest of the year; even he does not play a second. 8- You can’t break him. Believe me they’ve tried. He’s too strong of man mentally.
Finally, and most importantly, he’s a wonderful kid by any standard and someone when is all said and done will turn out to be a lose here. You’re not going to get anyone better and he will not sit on that bench again.
Now you could revoke my posting privileges.
Wow...
I don’t know where you read anything (at least in this post) about people hating on GJ. Since Heytvelt left, I’ve hated on nobody else but Few. He’s misusing GJ (not sure of your relation to him, but it’s obviously a close one) just like he’s misusing Gibbs and KO and Foster, just like he misused LG and PMAC before him.
If it makes someone a non-“wonderful kid” to be misused by Mark Few, then there’s a lot of non-wonderful kids who used to wear GU uniforms.
http://twitter.com/larevblog
http://larevblog.wordpress.com/
My issue is no way related to my opinion of GJ
my issue is with the way this staff has chosen to use him. Your right that I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. The fact of the matter is that GU is a place of very limited media access and, for better or worse, all I can base my thoughts off of is what I see happen on the court.
When the year began, I really was infatuated with G.J. His play out of the gates against quality competition like Michigan State was outstanding. He showed some passion, fire, and the ability to be the best athlete on the floor. Then as the year progressed, for whatever reason and it sounds like injury and some issues with the staff, those minutes played dwindled and I saw more frustration out of G.J. than fire. Now he comes back and is playing quality minutes but isn’t given enough time to settle in and read the pace of the game. There is no way a kid running the point should only play 3:40 and be expected to make any type of impact. I had the same issues with Few and his play of Meech last year. It’s one mistake and out. For a freshman point guard that can be a kiss of death.
The bad thing about all of this is we all obviously hear the rumors of similar things happening with Will and Grant. Frustration and confusion about minutes is not a good thing to have spread through a team. This is why I worry about teams that go 10-11 deep. One night someone can play 15 minutes and the next night they don’t even take off their warm-up.
I hope my point is a bit more enlightened after this. I appreciate your passion for G.J. greatly.
The Slipper Still Fits - SB Nation's home for the Gonzaga Bulldogs!
Don't stop posting memorial80, please
I wish it would be fair for me to ask for details, but it isn’t so I will leave that alone. I like your posts (mostly about GJ) and think you do a great job of ensuring you don’t reveal any personal information.
I can’t help but to wonder when you say that GJ beats recruits and current players on the roster, and is the most talented player on the roster. As a fan (avid) I just don’t get insight into that performance, so my only chance is to see what happens in the game. I wish we could get more tangible examples.
Agreed that it appears GJ is mismanaged. I can’t pinpoint why, but it does appear that players with talent can get overlooked at GU…
by GU.AmericasTeam on Feb 19, 2010 1:27 PM PST up reply actions
Maybe Few was trying to pacify the whiners and get them some PT. It didn't work.
Its gonna be gLoRiOUS!!~
Woeful Zags
Keep playing like this boys and you won’t even make the tourney……….
Just awful play for such a high ranking team. One of the highest percentage O’s in the country going 19% is not going to get you anywhere. Where’s that ass-kickin D????
I’m truly saddened.
What was that?...But the better question is...What Now???
The more I watched the more I left the room…came back, watched again…it kept getting worse! Why? Because I got this deep weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that I got with the Duke game this year and the Memphis game a year ago. Except with Memphis we paid a good deal of $$$ and travel across state lines to watch that game in person. So now we are one and one in games Zag games viewed in person (the other one being the last Portland game in Spokane)…not bad for a 9th ranked team.
Bet me!!! They really stunk it up! The coaching was probably the worst I’ve ever seen from Mark Few and his staff? What were they thinking ? Quite frankly I don’t think they KNEW what to do !
I am at a loss!!!
Anyone want to buy our $$$ tickets to a Zag-less NCAA Tournament in Spokane? Thats why we bought them, to watch the Zags play …maybe its a blessing that they might not !!!
Thats quite possibly the worst game I have seen this year by any team!!! And it came at a really bad time!!!! I don’t have to travel so far and at great expense I might add to watch such lousy basketball!!!
I don’t want to think on it anymore…That feeling keeps coming back…you know…that puky feeling. Yuk!!!
One More Thing
On the Mark Few show, Few in his subtle country eh way of talking has been warning us that the Zags have’nt won anything yet…BOY HOWDY…does he ever have that right!
The highlight of the night was the commentary of Heister and Ehlo. It started by Ehlo announcing, during the first part of the game, that “nobody in the conference can beat the Zags” and the rest of the game I thought they could have been commenting on a tour of Disneyland. Its like they had no clue what they were watching. Fortunately their talk was mostly hardly auidable because of the crowd noise.
It was a bad night all around!
the year will be remembered by how we do in the tournament...
Last nights game bruised our egos more than the teams’…the rotation could have been better, but no coach can correct missed lay-ups! Perhaps not playing in Spokane will give our Zags a better opportunity to move past the sweet 16 – we all know how the key to advancing falls upon match ups – I like being in the lower bracket and facing a 2 seed for an elite 8 position rather than a 1 seed. Especially this year, there seems to be quite the separation from 1 to 2 seeds.
After December, my dream was to win out the WCC and capture a 3 seed in Spokane – obviously that is not going to happen. A sweet 16 is obtainable, but it will take favorable match-ups to advance and walk away from the year with a sense of accomplisment. I’m not a fan of a 4 or 5 seed!
A 6 seed sounds good to me...
As with every year, the game I fear the most is the first game of the tournament…the WCC tournament is so early – the long lay off until the NCAA tournament has us starting out rusty and flat. A lot like last night – scary.
Is it too late to lobby for a 7 seed?
LMU has served notice that they will be a contender next year.
Zags had another bad night on the road.
Is this a glimpse of things to come?
mjc
"Glimpse of things to come"????
Maybe it is…Reminds me of the movie, “Scrooge.”
1. The past
2. The present
3. The nIgHTMaRe yet to come
….Sorry I am sooo negative. Its just that this one is real hard to swallow. There is really no excuse for this one. It’s not finals week. We should not be tired. No injuries. No Flagrent fouls. We already had our faces slapped vs San Fran for our “wake up call.”
Call it what it is…Its just a TURD.
Its gonna be gLoRiOUS!!~
Teams have bad losses..it happens don't jump!
Just to get it out of the way…too many ppl who post on here are way to quick to get out on the ledge…LMU played hard, they hit shots…that is why they won. Gonzaga played hard at times, missed shots….that is why they lost. End of story.
Matt looks sicks and I mean ill….tired..not sure what the deal is there but he just was not himself…has not been the last few games…I think the minutes are taking their toll…face it he is 6’5" and 220 and he plays 38+ minutes a game….too much
Harris missed assignment after assignment on defense. He leaves Rob and anyone else he plays with down there hanging out to dry..and the result to often is slow rotation and basket plus one….
Few: Manny and Meech could have won this game for the Zags….but not from the bench…
LMU fans: learn the rules of the game and shut the hades up…you don’t have to b*tch about every foul…you seem to think your team is made of of Jesus, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, MLK….and Forest Gump?
WCC refs: Obviously there is an approach to how you will make calls as they apply to Harris…something is rotten in Denmark….
by mattydog73 on Feb 19, 2010 10:46 AM PST reply actions 2 recs
Matt "tired"
I noticed some tweets where he says he is tired and where he is going to spend 3 hours on his Amazon Kindle. Plus, where he spends 1/2 his life listening to music. I am thinking this does not help any, along with the 38 mins per game.
NARROW & FOCUS, prioritize, Matt…the NBA paychecks are slipping awaaaaaaaay.
Its gonna be gLoRiOUS!!~
Twitter...ruining lives one tweet at at time
I don’t know if there is sarcasm in this post but you can’t blame a college student for reading and listening to music when he has off time and is traveling.
Matt’s reading is not wearing him out. It’s the physical toll of playing 38-40 minutes a night. It’s the fact that aside from Adam Morrison, he is more relied on than any Gonzaga player that I can remember. It’s the fact that, as a complete guard, he is battered in the post, killed on drives, and just takes a lot of hits.
This is why I keep stressing coaching. There have been home games where Matt has no business playing in the second half but he still goes for 35 minutes. The kid needs a break from time to time and he just can’t get it. Last night could have been that way. Steven Gray was shooting well early and playing great before he was pulled. Everything went downhill from there.
The Slipper Still Fits - SB Nation's home for the Gonzaga Bulldogs!
by Zach Bell on Feb 19, 2010 11:33 AM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Make no mistake...
I’ve been on the ledge for some time. (Besides, when does questioning something mean we’re ‘on the ledge’?)
http://twitter.com/larevblog
http://larevblog.wordpress.com/
Supposed to be a reply to the last comment...
I’m stupid.
http://twitter.com/larevblog
http://larevblog.wordpress.com/
Where was the defensive intensity?
Wow…..that was a disappointing game! I thought the Zags had a chance to break the game open when we got up by 9 points in the 1st half. To tell you the truth, LMU made all the big plays and their defense seem to rattle the Zags during parts of the game. Actually, I thought we would do that to them, after the great defensive efforts we put together in the last 4 games. However, IMO, LMU’s defense was better than ours and they fought for every loose ball and every rebound, and they made a lot of shots when they needed them. They really shut down the inside game and that made us look very vulnerable. I kept hoping during the last minutes of the game that we would shut them down and steal this win, but that was not to be. Evidently, good defense will in a lot of cases overcome a good offense…and LMU played a better defensive game than the Zags. Congratulations to LMU for a great victory. LMU is going to be a "tough out" in the WCC Tournament.
Zag Man,
I was at the game and had a couple fans like you in front of me. We teased back and forth the entire game and at the end of it they turned around, congratulated us on the victory and were very kind. It was a fun game and I sure hope we are going to be a tough out but I also hope you guys do all you can to bring some honor to our league come the tourney.
Mr. Elias harris are you done swatting at flies?
what’s with all the tip rebounds, slap passes, allowing opponents to swipe the ball out from you. Grab the ball with both hands, explode to the basket, (not under it). If triple/double teamed kick it out. You are one of the strongest players in basketball, save Castro of Pullman, even then its a 50-50 split probably. No more finesse, going to show my moves, be cute with my passes.
You & Kong (and Gibbs also) when you have a wide open 3 take the damn shot, that is all the game is about is putting the ball in the basket. and keeping the other team from doing so.
All of you have confidence in each other, remeber to have confidence in yourselves and Your game.
Does anybody remember
where we were at the end of November? We were dropped in the rankings to 22nd after having lost our second game of the year to Wake Forest. In the first week of November season, the Zags weren’t on anybody’s radar. The expectations going into the Augustana game were like, we lost so much from last year that any win at all would be great, and we had no clue how our team would play. I think my point is, this is a young team that is green except at the guard positions.
The post position has Sacre, who has had limited play as a freshman then sat out his sophmore year. This year, as a redshirt sophmore, he brings all the experience to the floor of a freshman with little playing time under his belt. Considering the times that Sacre substitued in for Heytvelt, his performance then was far from dominating for his size. He has always had the bad habit of trying to dribble the ball before facing the basket. That habit is still there. Agreed, Harris should play the part of outlet for him when he gets double/triple teamed, and vice versa. They could really be a force underneath if they could box out for one another, but that is still on the learning curve for these two young players.
Harris, at the 4 position which he is a bit small for, is a freshman who has actually had more playing experience than Sacre, but he is still a freshman playing like a junior or senior. He seems to try to do too much, tries to play pro ball with individual effort. He needs to come to Sacre’s aid on the defense and build a wall against the big men, and he needs to try to block out those who come to defend Sacre when he has the ball. I think that both these palyers could help each other more and be a force to reckon with in the post.
I have run the gambit of feelings since I watched our hard-nosed team turn to jelly last night and now I have let my mind take control and remind myself that this is a young team that needs to learn how to play with intensity all the time. I think they are learning and will continue to grow. If they don’t win another game this year, they will have exceeded the expectations I had in the first week of November.
Tom Chambless
Kiss 3 & 4 Seed goodbye!
4 seed is a goner even after we win the WCC title & if we win the WCC tourney.
a five seed will not get us Spokane, as the committee gives that earned honor to those who earn a top 4 seed (as I understand).
that is okay as Gonzaga is one of the best teams on nuetral courts in the nation, and as I have stated and a few others Gonzaga plays better against tougher opponents anyway.
All that matters is the game against Pepperdine, then USF & SC at home.
Bulldogs you have rebounded
after each loss this season, with a vengance even.
time to roll up the sleeves and do it again.
College sports and desire
After talking with my girlfriend, and ex-Div 1 basketball player, she always tells me that the Zags are a young team and cannot always rely on “strength of experience” and they sometimes play with pure emotion…or lack thereof. Last night’s loss was one that came at the hands of a team playing with adrenaline and decent skills, where the Zags were wilting from a taxing season. I played college baseball and can tell you that the season becomes awfully long as you approach the end of the season and it takes a veteran team to work past the drain of a tough season of much travel (much more than most) and tough opponents. Let the players and coaches work on what needs to be done, because, in the end, it’s the players that have to step up and make the plays that will/can win games. The loss wasn’t pretty, but it assures the Zags that anything is possible…and that they have to come onto the court “wanting” to win more than the other team. Zags have great talent and have to put it all together down the stretch – let’s rally behind them with some upbeat words…even though it’s VERY tough to watch a game like last night.
Hope the Zags find their stroke when it matters most…I believe they will.
Zag fan to the end!
I wholly concur with ZagDat. I may have been disappointed in the game last night, but I am first and foremost a Gonzaga basketball fan and will watch and cheer for them until the end. I know the kids are a lot more disappointed in this loss than we the fans are. Trust me; I share in their disappointment and would never point a finger of blame at any member of the team that was only trying to do the best they could. I lespecially like what ZagDat said….…."the loss wasn’t pretty, but it assures the Zags that anything is possible…and that they have to come onto the court "wanting" to win more than the other team." This Zag team is a special group and has really surprised me with their resilience and tenacity. I’m going to be cheering like crazy on Saturday for the Zags next game because that’s what I am….a Zag fan, and I’m still convinced that great things are in store for this team in the NCAA Tournament, wherever they end up playing.
shooting
It’s hard to win a game when your top three scorers shoot 30% (11-37) from the field combined.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
