Weekly Zag Briefing

Forgive us for taking a little pause of our own over the last two weeks while the Zags were on a pause of their own. But, things are heating up again and not just in The Kennel. Baylor’s loss at home to a surging Texas Tech (who beat Kansas over the weekend) on Tuesday night took the last undefeated team off the board, and re-ignited the debate as to which team should be the #1 seed when next week’s poll is unveiled. For me, Baylor probably gets to stay in that spot with just 1-loss to their name against a ranked opponent. Gonzaga’s two losses, one against an Alabama squad that is in a bit of a downward spiral, probably doesn’t merit a rise to #1 unless they blow the doors off BYU on Thursday night. That’s certainly not off the table.

• Speaking of BYU, The Athletic’s Brian Hamilton profiles Mark Pope and his program as they prepare to move to the Big XII while still trying to figure out a way to get past Gonzaga for WCC supremacy in the present.
• John Gasaway of ESPN put together his latest Top 25 ranking of individual men’s college basketball players, and curiously, there are no Zags in the Top 5. Chet Holmgren is the highest rated amongst the Zags at No. 8 and Drew Timme checking in all the way down at No. 15. Those are both surprising placements considering Timme has played exceptionally well all season and came into the year as the Preseason Player of the Year.
• Folks are sleeping on Rasir Bolton. David Cobb of CBS Sports put together a list of the top 20 most impactful transfers at the midpoint of the season, and Bolton is nowhere to be found on the list. That is incredible to me.
• Related to Peter’s article earlier this week about the WCC grabbing four tournament bids, Joe Lunardi is still firmly in the camp that the conference has earned that in his latest bracketology projection with Gonzaga (1), BYU (8), San Francisco (10), and Saint Mary’s (11) in the field. This would truly be a phenomenal outcome for the conference and Gonzaga. Those four teams are also in The Athletic’s latest bracket iteration.