Weekly Zag Briefing

Technical difficulties delayed this week’s briefing, but better late than never! Here’s what the Internet had about Gonzaga this week:

• In advance of Saturday’s game, our friends over at Tar Heel Blog wrote up a history of the three prior meetings between UNC and Gonzaga. Go check it out and be nice!
• Mark Few is a man of honor and integrity. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the NCAA’s lackluster response to the surfeit of scandals arising out of the federal investigation into college basketball recruiting has rankled Gonzaga’s head coach in a story from Yahoo Sports. Few was clear and direct in his challenge to Mark Emmert and his administration to respond adequately and swiftly to deal with these issues. “Everybody’s got a value system and you can either adhere to that value system or not and you let it become compromised,” said Few. Amen, brother.
• In an article from Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, Few expanded on his pointed comments to Yahoo and discussed the emotional grind of Gonzaga’s difficult non-conference schedule.
• Sam Vecenie posted a great article on Brandon Clarke’s rapidly ascending NBA draft stock and just how far Clarke has come after only receiving one Division I scholarship offer (and the coach who offered him needed 16 games of live scouting before offering Clarke a place on his team) deciding out of high school. Clarke’s shooting ability was a major obstacle to more offers, but his hard work and physical maturation since that time has the NBA in reach.
• In a story for The Athletic, Kendra Andrews asked who should be considered Gonzaga’s true rival before narrowing the list down to Arizona, North Carolina, Washington, Saint Mary’s, and BYU. Who do you all think is Gonzaga’s true rival?
• Jim Meehan of The Spokesman-Review takes a look at points of emphasis for the Zags now that we’re ¹⁄₃ of the way through the schedule.
• David Gardner wrote a great feature on Rui for Bleacher Report, wherein he revealed some deep philosophizing from Gonzaga basketball players who had to step in and put an end to Rui’s excessive use of the word “lit” during his freshman year.
• The Ringer’s Mark Titus published his first Power Rankings of the season before the weekend, and had Gonzaga at the top spot. While Titus, like us, has concerns about the defense, but recognizes that the offensive firepower can simply overwhelm most opponents.
• Andy Katz is on campus in Spokane and posted a video walking through Gonzaga’s hall of NBA players.