Weekly Zag Briefing

The WCC had a very interesting Tuesday evening which saw Pacific take USC to the wire after holding a halftime lead on the road against the Trojans, while Portland and Santa Clara damaged San Francisco and Saint Mary’s respective tournament bids. Forget the 4-bid WCC, the 3-bid WCC is very much in doubt if results like these continue to occur. Elsewhere, Auburn’s overtime loss to Arkansas puts Gonzaga in position to regain the #1 spot in the AP Poll next week, much to the chagrin of GU’s haters.

• In an article over at NBA.com, Jalen Suggs sings Gonzaga’s praises and discusses his invaluable experiences during his time as a Zag and the family he gained in Spokane. I miss him.
• On their latest episode of the Gonzaga Nation podcast, Dan Dickau and Adam Morrison discuss the evolution of the younger Zags on this year’s squad.
• Chet Holmgren earned Freshman of the Week honors over at CBS Sports, which like, yea of course he did after his showings at USD and BYU.
• It’s Bubble Watch SZN, and we’ll be watching this space closely considering how turbulent things have been for BYU, SMC, and USF. Eamonn Brennan of The Athletic had Saint Mary’s and USF in his “Should Be In” category as of yesterday, but that was before their respective losses. Something tells me they won’t be in that category in next week’s edition. Meanwhile, John Gasaway’s latest bubble report does include last night’s result. Gasaway still has SMC in, but BYU and USF are firmly in the “Work to do” category. Santa Clara is on the upswing though and joins those programs as they’ve improved their profile and resume since getting Vrankic bacK into the lineup.
• In his latest rankings, Seth Davis lays out the argument we’ve been fighting on the Twitter streets against Gonzaga’s detractors. Davis points out the fallacies folks have been using in comparing Auburn and Gonzaga’s performances over the last few games. Thank you, Seth.
• Myron Medcalf opines as to which player would win the Player of the Year Award in each conference. It’s no surprise that in the WCC, it’s a battle between Zags that comes down to Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren. Medcalf gives the nod to Holmgren, which is hard to argue considering Holmgren’s impact at both ends of the floor and his recent form.
• Edit - IDZagFan kindly posted this link in the comments so just placing here for greater visibility.: Ken Pomeroy put together a very good article putting into context Gonzaga’s dominance over the last six years not only in the WCC, but against quality power conference opponents as well.