Weekly Zag Briefing

Another week, another game lost as Thursday night’s matchup with Santa Clara is off the calendar. It looks like the season might pass without the Zags facing off against the Broncos (or LMU). I’m not mourning those lost opportunities, and the ever changing calendar may just open the door for one of the original games on Gonzaga’s schedule that was lost—a rematch with Texas Tech. Chris Beard commented after the Raiders loss to West Virginia on Tuesday night that a game against Gonzaga “could happen.” I won’t hold my breath for that game to happen, but at least there has been some dialogue about it. In other news:

• In this year’s edition of his coaches “anonymous quotes” column, Seth Davis relays the following take on Gonzaga:

Gonzaga: “I don’t think they’re as good as they’ve been defensively. They don’t have rim protection. Joel Ayayi is probably their best defender, but you can get by him. He’s not a lockdown guy. Corey Kispert is the guy you want to attack off the dribble. Jalen Suggs is good at getting steals, but he’ll take some risks. Oumar Ballo is easy pickings. You just put him in ball screens. If they turn you over it’s an automatic bucket. They can play in the halfcourt, but they’d rather not. There is no deficiency in their offense. Kispert is an elite shooter. He’s smart and scrappy. Suggs is the one guy who makes you wonder if he’s trying to get his numbers sometimes.”

• Brian Bennett takes a deep dive into figuring out who could win the national championship other than the pre-ordained favorites of either Gonzaga or Baylor. Villanova and Michigan appear to be the best positioned to sneak into the picture here.
• Good feature here from Brenna Greene on the legendary Frank Burgess, who cited Gonzaga’s care for him as a person beyond just a basketball player as the reason why he chose it above all others. There is some fantastic insight here on Burgess, so make sure to give it a look.
• Details for the NCAA Tournament’s game windows and broadcast assignments were just released.
• Joe Lunardi published a variety of modified tournament fields in his latest round of Bracketology predictions which features a full sized 68-team field, a 48-team bracket, and a 16-team bracket to account for possible COVID-related contingency plans. Of note, the Zags are the seed in each iteration, although Lunardi notes that if Baylor wins out it would be the top overall seed on Selection Sunday.
• Jerry Palm of CBS Sports takes a crack at defining “blue bloods” versus “new bloods” in college basketball, and grouping programs between those two categories with Gonzaga falling into the latter group. I don’t really object to how he characterizes each grouping.