Weekly Zag Briefing

That was a good first week for Gonzaga on the court, eh? The Zags backed up their preseason hype through two games in Florida, and along with Baylor, appear to be head and shoulders above the rest of the field at the moment. After watching the first week of games and seeing how the “blue bloods” looked against each other during the Champions Classic on Tuesday night, it seems pretty clear to me that there is a large gap between the top two teams in the rankings and other prospective national title contenders. Of course, these are still early days and there is plenty of time for teams to improve as the season moves along.

• Jalen Suggs made a serious impression in his NCAA debut, and his already high NBA draft stock is ticking up as a result of it. Forbes profiled Suggs’ prospects and has him pegged as a Top-3 pick in the next NBA draft. Enjoy him while he’s here, folks!
• Andy Katz broke down the big matchups in college basketball this week, and picked Gonzaga to stay undefeated with wins over West Virginia and Baylor. I hope he’s right!
• Bob Huggins scheduled aggressively, and the Mountaineers are viewing Gonzaga’s late addition to its schedule as a huge opportunity to make a statement and insert themselves into the national championship conversation.
• The Athletic’s CJ Moore broke down Gonzaga’s dominance and explored Bill Self’s comparison of this year’s Zags to the 2012 and 2015 Kentucky Wildcats.
• The always excellent Dana O’Neil wrote a great piece for The Athletic on the strong culture that Mark Few has cultivated at Gonzaga, and his selectiveness in bringing in the right types of recruits to fit inside that culture and enhance it. As close observers of Gonzaga’s program, I think we can all agree that by and large, Few and his staff have gotten it right in terms of the guys they are bringing in.
• O’Neil and Brian Hamilton also broke down Gonzaga’s opening two games in their regular column for The Athletic. They both picked Gonzaga to win the national championship, and are both feeling very good about their pick.
• In his mailbag, Seth Davis thinks that Gonzaga will have a fight on its hands with West Virginia, they he still favors the Zags to win.
• NCAA.com identified Gonzaga as its team of the week.
• Despite its loss to Virginia Tech and the strength of Gonzaga and Baylor’s performances, Villanova is still the favorite to win the national championship in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index. Interesting...
• ESPN’s Myron Medcalf rehashes Jalen Suggs’ opportunity to be Ohio State’s quarterback had he not made the choice to go to Gonzaga. He made the right decision.
• ESPN’s draft guru Jonathan Givony has Suggs as the No. 5 prospect in the 2021 NBA Draft class and highlights Suggs’ court vision and unselfishness as the biggest revelations of his collegiate debut.