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News Time:
- The Battle in Seattle has been on ice for the last two seasons, and it doesn’t sound like it will be back for awhile based on a recent story from The Spokesman-Review. Complications from soon-to-commence renovations at Key Arena along with scheduling difficulties means the game won’t return until the 2020-21 season at the earliest. That is certainly disappointing, but the reasons cited in the article are all legitimate, and the athletic program seems to grasp the importance of the game to Gonzaga alums.
- John Blanchette wrote a nice profile of Silas Melson, an old soul, before he played in The Kennel one last time. Melson also sat down with Greg Heister to discuss his career and what his time at Gonzaga has meant to him.
- Myron Medcalf identifies Gonzaga as one of 12 teams that can win the national championship this season.
- If you haven’t seen this yet, catch some highlights of Killian Tillie actually using volleyball skills on the basketball court.
- Gonzaga-commit Filip Petrusev was in attendance at the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders event during All-Star weekend. While he didn’t flash amongst a large group of talented bigs, Sam Vecenie of The Athletic did comment that Petrusev showcased “aggressiveness and an inside-out game.”
- Speaking of Basketball Without Borders, Lithuanian forward Martynas Arlauskas mentioned that he’s considering playing NCAA Basketball and is being recruited by Gonzaga and Texas Tech.
- The Zags come in at #16 in Jeff Borzello’s latest Power Rankings.
- Bracketology: Gonzaga comes in as a West Region 5-seed where it would square off against New Mexico State and grouped with Kansas and UNC as the top 2 seeds in Stewart Mandel’s bracket for The Athletic. Joe Lunardi also has Gonzaga as a 5-seed in the West Region matched up with New Mexico State, but has Kansas and Michigan State as the region’s top 2 seeds. The mothership has Gonzaga on the 4-line in the South Region squared off with Louisiana and grouped with Virginia and Texas Tech as the region’s top 2 seeds.