Now that i have had a chance to watch all the WCC teams this year, i am not too worried about 4-9 in the WCC. I dont see BYU or Saint Mary's losing to these teams. BYU will host Saint Mary's for round two before the Zags will get their 1st shot at BYU. Zags better hope BYU beats Saint Mary's. I see the Zags losing in Provo and beating BYU and Saint Mary's in Spokane. This could make it a 3 way tie for 1st with a 14-2 record. I am not sure what the tie breakers are in the WCC but it would suck to have a 3 way tie and get a 3 seed in Vegas.

Wed 8 vs 9

Thurs 5 vs 8/9
6 vs 7

Fri. 3 vs 6/7

4 vs 5/8/9

Sat. 1 vs 4/5/8/9

2 vs 3/6/7

Mon. Championship

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As I was anxiously watching LMU’s last free throw bounce off the rim, I was shocked to see the horrible job of boxing out by Rob and Sam. If you recorded the game, go back and watch this play a few times, as I did. We had four rebounders vs their two, so it should have been an easy grab. However, Rob and Sam both stood straight up while their men muscled their way in front of them and nearly got to the ball. Rob’s effort (or lack there of) was especially noteworthy. Not only did Rob fail to box out, but once he was beat he threw his man to the floor and was lucky not to get called for a foul. The only Zag to box out on that play was our 5th player – Pangos. He started from the top of the key, hustled into the paint, stuck his but into an LMU player, created a little space and then grabbed the rebound as his four teammates stood and watched.

As I observed this I had flash-backs to my high school days as our coach ran endless rebounding drills – accompanied by his colorful verbal “encouragement” as we struggled to live up to his standards. His philosophy was that it was not my job to get the rebound. He said that it was my job to make %@$!* sure that my man did not get it. I can still hear him : “FIND YOUR MAN, PUT YOUR BUTT ON HIM, SEAL HIM, THEN GET THE BALL!!” He said that if each person does this, then our team will get almost every rebound. This guy was just an average high school coach, but he hammered these fundamental skills into us because he believed that games were won and lost by how well each player performed these simple tasks. I think guys like Rob and Sam (and probably others) could benefit greatly with this kind of instruction because it seems to me that they lack some basic fundamental skills that keep them (and the team) from reaching their fullest potential.

Your going to have this when you have freshmen at point. While Pangos and Bell have been great, they also have stretches where they play like freshmen. Overall GU is a very young team in key positions. While Bells D is awesome and may be the best on the team(Hart). He has mental lapse. He looks off the post and has to works on cutting down on his turnovers. Pangos is a stud and made a huge pass tonight to help seal the game, but times struggles to get them in their sets. A guy a like Sacre depends on the guards to get him the ball where he needs it to be effective. All post players for the most part depend on guards to get them the ball. Guard play is where it's at in college basketball. Just look at last two seasons when GU had Goodson at point. Once these young guys get some more experience, you will see less peaks and valleys. So relax and enjoy the ride! These guys are good and they're only getting better.

Will the real Rob Sacre please stand up?

No, not the guy who was transparent against St. Mary's last night or the one who languished for two points and six rebounds against Butler....We're looking for the dynamic center who pulled down 10 rebounds, blocked three shots and sprang for 15 points against Washington State or the determined pivot who had 16 points and seven boards in 34 ambitious minutes versus Michigan State.

It's difficult to imagine great Zags' posts like Casey Calvary, Ronny Turiaf, Cory Violette or J.P. Batista going into Moraga against the hated Gaels and emerging with a line that looks like a typo...one-of-seven from the field, four points, three rebounds and one block in 18 minutes. Rob has been around the program long enough to understand that the game at St. Mary's requires tournament-level intensity....instead he brought the kind of blase effort you expect in an exhibition game against Missoula Tech.

Since the thumb injury against Air Force, Rob's numbers have dropped to 7.8 points and 6. 4 rebounds in 20.8 minutes. You also have to wonder if the offensive output by Sam Dower has the senior glancing at the sidelines to see if he is headed for an early substitution.

The comments from Coach Few after the embarrassment at St. Mary's told the story...."They thoroughly outplayed us" and "We didn't keep them out of the lane once in the second half." Rob was part of this, but not the only one to blame. The point is that Rob -- the focused, enthusiastic and skilled Rob that we've known and appreciated for so many years -- must set the tone in the post (and overall) for a team that is still looking for an emotional catalyst.

St. Mary's is good, but they should never beat a Zags team that is playing at its full potential, whether in Moraga or Spokane. Elias Harris showed up last night. Kevin Pangos was there in stretches, but we need Dower, Carter, Bell Jr., Sacre, Stockton and company to play with the sort of Matt Santangelo energy that wins league championships and forges the way for a healthy run at tournament time.

"Be quick, but don't hurry," UCLA Coach John Wooden once said. When the Zags got down against the Gaels and Rob Jones picked up his third foul, they began to hurry. The result? No field goals in the final 4:34 of the first half and the worst WCC loss in Coach Few's tenure.

The good news is that this team has the ability to accomplish great things. Now it will take an courageous effort by a senior center to get us moving in the right direction.

It appears that we have gone from "the little engine that could", to the not so little engine that should, but can’t…...... Why?

The nation adored us when we came out of nowhere in 1999 to claim an Elite 8 birth in the NCAA Tournament. A tiny Jesuit college from Nowhere, USA shocked the world. A true David vs. Goliath story. It was so much fun to realize that on any given night we could pull the upset, and we did it over and over again. Because of our unprecedented success we are hardly considered a mid major anymore. We own the WCC Conf Title, it’s just a given. Dance? We’re on it year after year, after year.

Flash forward 13 years and things have changed, a lot. We take the things we accomplish for granted, and scream for more. Not satisfied with a record setting pace of consecutive conference titles, or 13 straight years dancing, we want a national title. Heck, we’d even settle for a return to the Elite 8, an accomplishment that has eluded us all of these years since. We grow restless.

How come we cannot get back to the Elite 8 or perhaps even further than we did in the magical 1999 season? We have better players, with more talent. The core of the coaching staff is still in place. We have better facilities. Is it the coach’s fault? Are the players we recruit selfish and not "buying in"? Are we failing in recruiting and development? Is this simply the best we can ever hope to do?

I am mixed about all of this. On one hand happy for all we have achieved, on the other frustrated that we seem to have faltered, rather, stagnated…. and then there is the fear that things might actually be falling apart. Especially, since cupcake eating St. Mary’s just destroyed us.

There is a lot of season yet to unfold and it is not impossible to continue our record setting string of successes. We could still win two of three vs. St. Mary’s, win the WCC conference Title and Tournament. But, no matter what we might possibly accomplish, this team will be looked at as a failure by many, if it does not reach the Elite 8 or beyond.

I want to talk about the Gonzaga-St. Mary's rivalry. All aspects of it. I personally don't think we are talking enough about the Thursday confrontation. If sports is life, what is the metaphor for this game? Educate me folks. I live in Md (I'm only a doctor of basketball in Maryland. A couple of you know what I mean.) and I've seen some east coast rivalries up close: UNC-Duke, Georgetown-Syracuse, my own college basketball experience- Washington and Lee vs. Hampton-Sydney. Put this matchup in perspective for me. I think rivalries are great! Heiser and Fox think we have a traditional rivalry with Santa Clara, since the two teams used to travel together. Sorry, that one doesn't get me excited. The impetus for my writing this post was the exchange here regarding Dellavadova's mouthpiece. Are we worried about civility, politeness, fairness toward St. Mary's or do we consider them a lower life form, or something in between?

Please write about anything related to this rivalry: 1) this particular game 2) game strategies and match-ups 3) any history or tradition associated with this game 4) rivalries you've been associated with (fascinating 30 for 30 on ESPN about the Alabama-Auburn football rivalry) 5) How should we be behaving, interacting (golf claps or frothing at the mouth)?

I would argue that this is our biggest game of the year and frankly, following the rivalry theme, our biggest game EVERY YEAR- St. Mary's at their place. Come on folks, get pumped!

Haven't seen one in a while, so I thought I'd take a stab at writing one up:

Kevin Foster, the WCC's leading scorer, has been accustomed to giving GU fits defensively.

Then he was introduced to Gary Bell Jr.

Kevin Foster and Evan Roquemore went a combined 6 for 25 as Gonzaga used tight defense to overcome a slow start to cruise by the Broncos 82 - 60. Gary Bell Jr. guarded Foster for the majority of the game, and it was clear from the get-go who the Zags priority was defensively. Foster finished the night with 9 points off of 2-9 shooting, well below his season average, largely because of the pressure defense applied by GU's talented freshman guard. GBJ added 15 points, including his first dunk in a Gonzaga uniform.

After a slow offensive start, who better to bring Gonzaga out of an offensive slump than Mr. Offense himself, Sam Dower? Dower poured in 17 points, including a three pointer to give the Zags the lead at the end of the first half, and they never looked back. Elias Harris had 12 points, Pangos had 10 points and 5 assists, and Gonzaga owned the boards in the second half to cap off a good defensive effort. The Zags are now 3-0 in conference with St. Mary's lying in the wake on Thursday.

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Khem Birch is on his 3rd leg of the Khem Birch tour. He is visiting UNLV on Friday and spending the weekend in Las Vegas. He said he would make a decision on Saturday or Sunday. He did not mention if he planned to visit anyone else. But since he said he was staying in Vegas for the weekend and making his choice this weekend tells me he will be at UNLV for next season. I am glad this is over quickly and to be honest i dont know if he would have fit in with this team. This is a guy who wants to play the PF position and we have players better than him. As i stated before, Wiltjer would be on our bench too. So good luck to Khem and his new team. I would have loved to get him at Gonzaga because we would have a deep bench but i think he knew he was not going to get alot of minutes over guys like KO, Dower, Spangler and Harris.

Khem Birch had a visit yesterday ( Jan 3 ) at Florida. Im sure he went to the game, Florida beat UAB 79-61. Today he went to visit New Mexico St. ( Jan 4 ) Next up is UNLV and if i had to guess that will take place on Friday ( Jan 6 ) Because UNLV plays at Cal St Bakersfield Thursday (Jan 5 )

So could we see Khem Birch in Spokane for the GU vs Santa Clara game on Saturday? I really think we may have a Birch sighting on Sat. He would then move on to his 5th team on his list. Oregon St will be his final visit. He said he plans to make a choice next week so he can enroll to his new school, so we wont have to wait long to find out where he lands. I think he would be a great add to the team IF we get him. But we will be fine if not. I still hold out hopes for the kid from Poland and from what i hear we will be the likely landing spot for him.

Downy soft hands for any player, let alone a big man. His Dowerfulness greatest Dower is that he is not confined to play only as a 'BIG'. When his Dowerfulness gets the ball many Zag fans feel the same way they felt when Morrison caught the ball, "Shoot!"

His Dowerfulness is obviously the true starting center for the Zags. Don't get me wrong, Sacre is one of my favorite all time players at Gonzaga for so many reasons, not the least of which is his temperament (overall sense of humor and friendship/bond with the common man).