Weekly Zag Briefing

If you need a reprieve from post-election coverage, you’ve come to the right place. Here is the week in Gonzaga related news from around the interwebs:

• Jim Meehan at the Spokesman Review crushed it with his season preview features. He dropped an excellent article focusing on the transfer crew as well as a separate one about the much ballyhooed freshman class.
• Jay Bilas dropped his college basketball opus (ESPN Insider Only) and it’s definitely worth a read if you have access. Bilas had some love for Gonzaga, listing Nigel Williams-Goss as one of his 17 sweet playmaking guards and Tommy Lloyd as one of five assistant coaches you don’t hear enough about. Notably, he grouped Gonzaga with his Final Four contenders, stating:

Transfers and the return of Przemek Karnowski make Gonzaga a contender to get to the Final Four. But getting by Saint Mary's in the West Coast Conference will not be easy.

• Scott Gleeson over at USA Today wrote about Saint Mary’s goal to dethrone Gonzaga in the WCC
• Continuing with USA Today material, they ranked the Top 10 Mid-Major teams heading into the season. You won’t appreciate how they ranked 1 and 2.
• Sporting News places Nigel Williams-Goss on its preseason All-America Third Team.
• Eamonn Brennan at ESPN Insider published his projected standings for every single D1 conference (behind a pay wall). He projects Saint Mary’s at 1 and Gonzaga at 2 and expects the WCC will feature “one of the tightest, most rivalry-infused title races in college basketball.”
• Another ESPN Insider article ranked all 351 D1 teams, with Gonzaga coming in at #19.
• Over at Sports Illustrated, their experts picked the Final Four teams and speculated on player of the year candidates, coaches on the hot seat and more. One of their experts, Chris Johnson, has Gonzaga pegged for the Final Four with his prediction sure to make you feel warmdd and fuzzy:

Johnson: Gonzaga will make the Final Four. The program known first and foremost for shocking major conference heavyweights in March has never made the national semifinals. That streak will end this season, with the Zags bringing back mammoth center Przemek Karnowski and welcoming in a coveted crop of transfers (Nigel Williams-Goss, Jordan Mathews, Johnathan Williams) and an elite frontcourt recruit (Zach Collins). Gonzaga will tear through the West Coast Conference, sweep top projected challenger Saint Mary’s, earn a top-three seed in the NCAAs, emerge from their region and complete the year in Phoenix with around 35 wins.

• For uniform style fans, Paul Lukas did a look at all the uniform changes in the NCAA this year, and you can find out what new threads we’ll see in the WCC this season. Gonzaga’s jerseys will stay the same this season, but there are a decent amount of minor changes throughout the rest of the league. And I have to add that I love Pepperdine’s alternate orange uni’s.
• CBS Sports ranked the best college basketball programs in every state. It comes as no surprise that Gonzaga came in at #1 for the state of Washington.

Next on the schedule:

Men’s basketball: 11/11 v. Utah Valley at 6pm (PT)

Women’s basketball: 11/12 v. Nicholls State at 2pm (PT)