Gonzaga:
22-2, 11-0 in the WCC, #1 in the country.
You all have seen them play so I won’t waste too many keystrokes. Bottom line is they’re hitting on all cylinders. Scary thing is Holmgren is playing better and better, overshadowing Timme and others; has 5 double-doubles in his last 6 games and now nearly averaging a double-double at 14+ pts and 9.6 rebounds…plus 3.3 blocks and draining 3’s at a 46% clip. I can understand why may refer to him as a unicorn…a unique skill set. Don’t know what we do with him, just hope he has an off night or gets in foul trouble I guess.
Yours truly will be in attendance…just hoping we keep it reasonably close, cover the spread, and Herb avoids another of the 50+ pt blowouts he’s suffered vs. Gonzaga. Maybe the Zags are getting a little bored and will be unfocused.
Crazy to think this is our best squad talent-wise in a long time and the gap is still a massive chasm.
The WCC has gotten better at the same time Gonzaga has ascended from a perennial NCAA team to a perennial Top 25 team to what appears now to be a multi-year run as one of the 3 or 4 best teams in the country, with no end in sight. I hope they cap it off with a title.
I disagree. After Butler’s back-to-back finals appearances, and Gonzaga’s two finals appearances in the past 4 finals, a mid-major conference team needs to breakthrough with a championship. If Gonzaga is in the finals, I will swallow my pride and hope they win, for the benefit of the conference.
Excerpt about Gonzaga from a recent SI article predicting the eight teams most likely to win the NCAA championship this year:
It should be no surprise that the sport’s most consistently dominant program of late makes the cut—in fact, the Bulldogs have been among SI’s Magic Eight every season since 2016–17. And while the narrative nationally is that there’s no single team that clearly stands above the rest in college hoops right now, the gap between the Zags’ KenPom adjusted efficiency margin and No. 2 Arizona’s (+4.95) is larger than the gap between Arizona and No. 10 UCLA. While my personal eye test doesn’t see that wide a gap, Gonzaga has been out-of-this-world good since a COVID-19 pause around New Year’s that coincided with the start of league play. Just two teams have played it within 20 points in that stretch (San Francisco and Saint Mary’s both lost by 16), impressive consistency regardless of the quality of the opponent).
The biggest differentiator with this Gonzaga team compared to last year’s is defense, particularly on the interior. Freshman Chet Holmgren’s rim-protecting ability has changed the game for teams trying to attack the basket against the Zags, as they rank third in the country (per KenPom) in two-point field goal percentage defense. A look at the on-off numbers truly illustrates Holmgren’s impact: Per Hoop-Explorer, teams shoot 47.8% at the rim when Holmgren’s in the game compared to 55.5% when he’s off the floor.
Adding this defensive strength to Gonzaga’s elite offense that ranks tops nationally in effective field goal percentage makes the Bulldogs the most complete team in the sport. They have a go-to scorer on the block in Drew Timme, a steady point guard who makes great decisions in Andrew Nembhard and they surround that duo with guys who can all knock down threes in bunches.
The lone concern with Gonzaga is how it deals with teams with elite athleticism. They looked overwhelmed by Baylor’s athleticism in last year’s national title game, and the feeling was similar in November when Duke took them down in Las Vegas. Could that come back to bite the Zags again in March against a team such as Duke or Arizona?
Solid posts. There’s definitely been a split over the years on whether the Zags’ success is good for us. Like Buckets, I think it absolutely helps as a whole and it’s important that they win it all at some point.
Funny, because I wonder if it’s split by age. Several of us who were at SCU in the Nash years or prior seem to have an affinity for Gonzaga hoops, what the program has done, the coaching and the style of play, and how fun it is to watch. I’m guessing part of this is that the Zags stunk for so long that we never really saw them as the enemy or menace they probably are to others. It’s actually an amazing case study in my opinion because Gonzaga was about to implode financially, so there’s an argument that hoops saved the school. I find the entire narrative to be super fascinating. If you were an SCU student over the past 20 years, the narrative probably sucks. No parity, total blowouts, limited student support. Fast forward to now though, and I think we’re getting glimpses of why it has been good for the league and us. More dollars, better coaches, better recruits, media attention, a reason to sell out. How many times have we heard SCU come up in other broadcasts with WCC or Pac-12 teams? It’s all over the place. I think it’s awesome.
It sort of reminds me of the Pac-12 in football. The league has been the doormat of the Power 5. Lincoln Riley’s move to USC and their expected return to prominence will singlehandedly be the best thing for every other team in the league imo. It helps dramatically with recruiting and coaching. Will Cal ever beat USC again over the next ten years? Maybe not, but I think they and others in the league get better overall, so I’ll take it as a Cal fan.
Side note, but it’s great to see dialogue happening here that is not combative and can have differing views that ultimately still support the same cause. It’s refreshing, and I’m stoked on that. The vibe around SCU hoops is on the up, so glad to see people coalescing around that on this board. Go Broncos. Take down the Zags today… and hope they win the natty this year so we can say we knocked them off along the way.
can someone please explain WatchStadium.com? It says that the game is only available “out of market only” – I am in San Diego, how can this game not be available to me? Really frustrating that I can’t watch this game.
Same with me. They usually have it somewhere on my cable package, but I can’t stream or get it on TV. Meanwhile LMU vs UOP will be available on TV. Makes no sense.
Good job in the final few minutes when it looked like the game might completely get away from us. Pipes playing very well. Bediako definitely helps protect the paint against Gonzaga (did not play our last game against them.) Thought we turned down some open looks from 3. Those shots are the best you are going to get when Chet is on the floor so might as well just let it fly. Not sure what Holt’s ceiling is but he will definitely reach it. So scrappy and willing to mix it up. Love his attitude on the court as a true freshman.
I need to put in my annual complaint about our grating, wholly generic and sterile commercial. It was created when I was on campus. Didn’t like it then, like it even less now. It feels cold and unemotive for a community that’s decidedly not that.
I’m not one to complain about announcing, but my goodness is this awful. SCU has basically been within about ten the whole way, and they cannot stop talking about how “explosive” or “dominant” the Zags are. They don’t need to praise SCU to that degree but at least acknowledge that a real game is being played and not some 40 point drubbing.
Moral victories are allowed on the road at the #1 team in the nation. Nice job guys. Thought we showed good toughness defending the paint, similar to how we played at home against St.Mary’s in that regard.
