Weekly Zag Briefing

I’m not going to waste your team up here, check out what’s below:

• Seth Walder of ESPN examines which side of the aisle Gonzaga will be on in the Giants/Giant Killer debates. His conclusion? Gonzaga is better than its strength of record indicates (of course), and the Zags are a safe first-round Giant whom we should expect to at least make it to the Sweet 16.
• The desire for Rui Hachimura content in Japan has led to a string of Gonzaga’s games being broadcasted in his home country this month thanks to a deal being struck between a Japanese media company and Root/KHQ.
• Because he’s a good guy, Jay Bilas still has Gonzaga at #19 and ahead of Saint Mary’s in Volume III of The Bilastrator (his ranking of the Top 68 teams). Of course that will change if things don’t go to plan on Saturday night.
• Gonzaga comes in at #20 in Jeff Borzello’s power rankings over at ESPN, where he notes that Saturday’s showdown with SMC will almost certainly decide the WCC regular season title.
• The two man class (so far) of Filip Petrusev and Greg Foster Jr. lands Gonzaga with the 54th ranked recruiting class in 2018 per 247sports.
• While not directly Gonzaga news, the evolution of Saint Mary’s program is extremely relevant to Gonzaga. Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic examines where Saint Mary’s program is right now, and what it needs to do to get to the next level. A lot of it is essentially what’s been said in our articles and comment threads through the years, but maybe if enough people keep saying the same things it will finally happen for SMC.
• In Bracketology news, Jerry Palma of CBS Sports has the Zags as a 4-seed in the Midwest region that features Purdue at #1 and Kansas at #2. Joe Lunardi has Gonzaga as a 6-seed in the Midwest region (also with Purdue and Kansas in the top 2 spots). The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel has Gonzaga as a 5-seed in the West region (Kansas and Clemson as the top 2-seeds in the region).