Weekly Zag Briefing

I’m back from my absence over the last few days. I was occupied with attending my cousin’s wedding (congrats to him and his bride) and extended the trip into a vacation which came at a good time since Chicago got pounded by snow while I was away.

Now, some other stuff:

• It’s that time of year again when Gonzaga is lauded for its success with overseas recruiting. This time, the play of Rui Hachimura has drawn attention to the imports brought to Spokane thanks to the primary efforts of Tommy Lloyd.
• For anyone that thinks Gonzaga is an afterthought this year after the exodus of talent that took place following the national championship game appearance, Saturday night’s dominant effort against SMC served to give notice that the Zags are still one of the best teams in the country.
• Darnay Tripp broke down the elements Gonzaga needed to put together to get the win in Moraga.
• The Athletic’s Aaron Torres noted the high stakes on the table during second leg of the Gonzaga-SMC regular season series, and predicts that despite the Selection Committee’s work product on Sunday, a Top-4 seed in the NCAA Tournament should be the payoff if Gonzaga takes care of business the rest of the way (subscription required).
• Seth Davis, lover of the RPI, still recommends that Gonzaga is a “buy” in the updated version of his Buy, Sell, Hold stock rating of the nation’s top teams (subscription required).
• (Audio) Mark Few hopped on with ESPN’s Seth Greenberg and Dan Dakich (yuck) to discuss last weekend’s win over the Gaels, comparisons between this year’s squad to last year, and the folly of getting caught up with pre-tournament seeding.
• Gonzaga moved up five spots to #15 in Jeff Borzello’s weekly power rankings after the smackdown in Moraga.
• Our friends over at Vanquish the Foe lament how difficult it is to put together a strong postseason reason thanks to the RPI anchors at the bottom of the WCC. As a solution, they propose forming a new conference for non-football schools made up of the best WCC, MWC, and WAC programs, while allowing the remaining programs to fill in the remnants of the WCC. It’s an interesting thought exercise, and a necessary one considering how disappointing Gonzaga’s RPI is despite its strong non-conference schedule.
• This is conference news, but Pepperdine recently announced that it will terminate the contract of men’s basketball head coach Marty Wilson at the end of the season. After a 9-win season last year, the Waves have only 4 wins with the end of the season quickly approaching.
• Bracketology: Gonzaga comes in as a #5 seed in the Midwest region in Stewart Mandel’s latest stab at the bracket. While the Selection Committee didn’t think Gonzaga was worthy of a Top 4 seed, Joe Lunardi finally bumped up the Zags to a 4-spot in the East region.

Hear from Johnathan Williams himself on his thoughts regarding the work Gonzaga put in to ensure the win over SMC.