Weekly Zag Briefing

There's lots of Zag news this week, so let's get right to it!

• Incoming recruit, Zach Norvell, is one step closer to a state title after leading Simeon to a sectional title last week. Chicago Sun-Times prep writer has this to say about Norvell in his SuperSectional preview: "Good luck taking your eyes off of Simeon senior Zach Norvell. He's been a full-on high school basketball force of nature the past month. Norvell doesn't just score, he generally does it in awe-inspiring fashion."

• Fun ranking of the 68 coaches in the tournament field, but not based on their coaching merit; rather on their basketball playing days. Mark Few came in at #60. Here's what ESPN had to say:

Few led Creswell (Oregon) High to the state's AAA semifinals as a senior point guard. Shoulder problems prevented him from playing at Linfield College, where he intended to play basketball and baseball.

• Gonzaga is already being identified as one of the toughest outs among the double-digit seeds, which pairs well with the piece Peter wrote a few days ago.

• The smart folks over at FiveThirtyEight wrote a piece on Gonzaga being the best non-power conference program over the last 18 seasons.

• Continuing with FiveThirtyEight's work, the video linked here specifically discusses the poor job done by the Selection Committee in seeding Gonzaga, Wichita St., and Vanderbilt as 11-seeds in the tournament field. The 538 guys opine that the Zags should really be a 6-seed. Disclaimer: their mispronunciation of GON-ZOG-UGH hurts their credibility.

• The New York Post breaks down the Gonzaga-Seton Hall matchup. The article has good quotes from Jon Rothstein and Jay Bilas' analysis of the matchup, although their opinion of the Zags could pretty much be plucked from any of our comment threads over the season--Excellent duo in Wiltjer and Sabonis, and inconsistent guard play (although they acknowledge the guards have come on recently). Both guys favor Seton Hall to advance...I never liked those guys anyway (just kidding, Jay).

• Rob Dauster of NBC Sports did a great oral history on Adam Morrison and JJ Redick a little over a week ago. I forgot to include it in last weeks' briefing, so in case you missed it, be sure to take a look!

• There are big shakeups happening throughout the WCC, as Portland just announced the firing (very surprising, at least to me) of head coach Eric Reveno. Portland joins USF, Santa Clara, and Pacific as WCC MBB programs that are in search of new head coaches.

• The Zags are everything the Seattle Times love about college hoops.

• Take this for what it's worth

I'll leave you all with this.