Weekly Zag Briefing

Duke has dominated the NCAA content machine over the past week, as writers everywhere scramble to wax poetic about the three-headed monster of Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and Cam Reddish. Gonzaga will have to be content to fly as under the radar as the third-ranked team in the country can:

• In a bemusing response to Mark Few calling out most of the WCC for not even trying, Santa Clara took out a full page ad in The Spokesman-Review to announce its plans to build a 50,000 square foot Athletic Excellence Center that will cost a cool $38 million clap back at Few. The facilities arms race is a staple of collegiate sports, and the pettiness here is hilarious considering the source. It’s certainly a good thing to see a WCC program investing in its athletic/basketball program, and if you can’t beat Gonzaga on the court might as well try to get some shots in via print. Here’s hoping that all WCC sniping is done via the advertising pages of The Spokesman-Review.
• The Zags and fans staying at the Sheraton Maui next week during the invitational may be impacted by an ongoing labor dispute, as the Sheraton’s employees have been on strike since November as they seek to negotiate for improved wages and benefits.
• ESPN placed two Zags in its list of Top 10 juniors in college basketball. It’s pretty easy to figure out who those two juniors are.
• The addition of Drew Timme to Gonzaga’s 2019 recruiting class that already featured Anton Watson, Martynas Arlauskas, and Brock Ravet catapults the Zags to the 5th ranked recruiting class in the nation for 2019. This has shaped up to be a phenomenal class that may rival the impact of Gonzaga’s 2016 class that featured Zach Collins, Rui Hachimura, Killian Tillie, Zach Norvell, and Jacob Larsen.
• Sports Illustrated took a look at what’s on the docket for the handful of legitimate title contenders during their respective Feast Week battles next week.