Stop me if you've heard this before. Another big time, nationally televised game; another big time, nationally televised Gonzaga flop.
It has truly become an abysmal trend that Gonzaga can't shake. There is going to be a lot of finger pointing after this game so I'll go ahead and fuel the fire. The three point shot buried the Zags early and it ended this game far before the final horn sounded. Everyone from Illinois was getting in the mix from Demetri McCamey to Mike Tisdale. Sure, we can say the Illini just got hot but this is without a doubt a scheme thing. For YEARS now this has been an issue. Mark Few and co. simply don't know how to scheme to stop the three point shot. At halftime of nearly every game I have said "well, they can't shoot much better than they did". I'd be fine if I saw defenders flying around and at least challenging shots but Gonzaga is stuck flat-footed far too often and has no clue where to rotate and who's responsibility is what. By no means am I excusing the players from blame on this. They are equally to blame. But when this problem has persisted for such a long time, there must be a deeper issue.
I wrote before this game that this, in my opinion, was Gonzaga's biggest game of the season. Now we have to go on the road at Washington State and at Notre Dame. When you give up what Gonzaga does from beyond the arc, I truly don't think there is a "safe" game left on the schedule.
Feel free to vent, try and stay classy, and enjoy the rest of your weekend. We'll be back soon with more...