Last week was a tough one for the Gonzaga Men’s Basketball team.  Both games they played saw the team challenged all over the court and in every aspect of the game.  The Zags were able to overcome perhaps the worst half of basketball they’ve played this season against a very good San Francisco Dons team, and emerge triumphant last Thursday night at home.  Two days later, against one of the most difficult teams in college basketball to play on the road these days, the Bulldogs weren’t so lucky.  Hot-handed BYU overwhelmed the ice-cold Bulldogs with a barrage of 3-pointers from deep and strength inside to win on their home court in front of a raucous, elated crowd that stormed the court as time expired to celebrate the surging Cougars’ win.

Both of last week’s games had a very similar feel at halftime.  Not much was working for Gonzaga and down by just under 10 points in each contest, the Zags needed some help to get back in the game when play resumed.  Against San Francisco, that deficit wasn’t the result of poor defense, as the Bulldogs held the Dons to 31 points in the first half.  The problem was that the nation’s #1 offense floundered badly in Spokane and found itself disrupted or stagnant at every turn.  In the face of the Dons’ defensive pressure, the Zags could muster only a season-low 22 points in the first half.  Though the offense was sputtering and struggling in a similar way against BYU, the Zags were able to come up with 38 points by half.  The defense, though, couldn’t contain the Cougars inside or from beyond the arc where BYU was just starting to heat up.  In Provo, the teams went into their locker rooms with a score of 38-46 at halftime on Saturday.

Over the years of watching Gonzaga play I’ve learned not to despair when the Bulldogs are down by single digits at half.  Being down is always a reason for concern, of course, but being down by single digits with a half left to play is never a place to panic when you have a great coaching staff.  Time and time again I’ve seen the team make the necessary adjustments to right the ship and turn the tables around in the 2nd.  That was the case against San Francisco on Thursday as Gonzaga used a 24-2 run when play resumed to completely flip the script and turn a 22-31, 9-point deficit into a 46-33 double-digit lead after the first 10 minutes of play.

Though Joel Ayayi continued to struggle having effectiveness on the court, mustering just 4 points and 4 rebounds against the Dons, the other 4 starters for Gonzaga turned the lean pickings of the first half into a 49-point feast in the 2nd.  Getting the start after sitting out the last few games with ankle trouble, Killian Tillie went on a rampage with a 10 for 13 effort shooting from the field, including 1 for 2 from deep, adding 9 rebounds to his 22 points.  The Zags leading scorer, Filip Petrusev, tracked down 7 rebounds and scored 16 agaisnt SF.

In the Zag’s backcourt, Ryan Woolridge continued his humble effectiveness against San Francisco, picking up a bit of everything in his stat line on Thursday by shooting 4 for 7 from the field and 1 of 3 from deep, adding 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 steals (!) to his 12 points.  He’s one of Gonzaga’s premier defenders and showed some of his best D against the Dons.  The 71-54 win was a Jekkyl and Hyde game offensively (or, rather, Hyde and Jekkyl), but Gonzaga’s defense was consistently able to hold a decent offensive team to just 54 on the night, including just 23 in the 2nd half.

Corey Kispert found his touch from beyond the arc Thursday night, going 3 for 5 from deep to round out his 11 points and 5 rebounds.  While Kispert did find the hoop on occasion against BYU on Saturday, gathering 16 points on the night, it was rarely from so far away.  A 43.3% shooter from 3-point range on average this season, he shot just 1-10 from beyond the arc in Provo.  As a team, the Zags were a dismal 20% from deep on the night in a 5 for 25 effort—one of the the main reasons Gonzaga couldn’t get the win on the road and fell to BYU by a score of 78-91.

Though Tillie and Petrusev reached double Digits in points against the Cougars, getting 18 and 14 respectively, neither found many rebounds as they combined for just 5.  Nor could the big men find ways to stop BYU’s Yoeli Childs who dominated in the paint, coming away with 28 points and 10 rebounds.  Besides the difficulty handling Childs down low, Gonzaga’s defense as a whole couldn’t get enough hand in the faces of the Cougars’ shooters who ended up averaging over 41% on the night from deep—highlighted by Jake Toolson’s 5 for 8 effort.  The Zags poor performance on both ends was further complicated by 14 turnovers, compared to just 10 for BYU.

Gonzaga did show some fight in the middle of the second half as they whittled the BYU lead down to 2, at 68-70 after Drew Timme made a lay-up with 7:56 left in the game—and it seemed like the Bulldogs might overtake the Cougars down the stretch.  But the overtaking part didn’t materialize as the shots just wouldn’t fall.  In a game that Mark Few summed up by saying:  “We were out-toughed in all phases of the game,” one thing that looked good for the Bulldogs was their performance from the free throw line.  The Zags shot 23-28 from the charity stripe in Provo while facing a very loud, and very boisterous crowd for a rare +80% performance.  Both Tillie and Petrusev shot a lot of those free throws and both missed only one each.  In contrast, despite the considerable win at SF, the Zags shot 8-15 for 53.3% from the line in Spokane, Thursday night.

Having split the two games with BYU during WCC play so far may not have a huge effect on Gonzaga’s placement in any of the upcoming tournaments, provided they come up with wins this coming week and in the WCC tournament.  In most polls, the Bulldogs slipped just one slot as a result of the loss, falling from #2 to #3.  Saturday was a serious bummer, no doubt about it, with a lot of winning streaks broken and feelings hurt and such.  And of all the opponents in the WCC, I hate to see Gonzaga lose to BYU the most.  There may, however, be a silver lining around the dark cloud hovering over Zag Nation.  The Bulldogs are very likely going to get a chance at redemption in just a few short weeks.

While it’s not a lock since both Gonzaga and BYU are going to have to win at least one game in the WCC tournament in order to see each other in the final, as the likely #1 and #2 seeds, provided they actually earn that seeding with their upcoming play this week, they would both receive a double-bye on the way toward the possibility of a rematch.  That could all shake out differently if WCC play goes awry from what I think will happen this week, but it is a distinct possibility.  I, for one, am hoping beyond hope—and I believe all the Gonzaga players and fans are as well—that the title game for the WCC tournament in Las Vegas will be a face-off between BYU and Gonzaga.  The tournament runs from March 5-10 and my guess is that every game is going to be a good one because when you’re playing for a punched ticket to the NCAA tournament even the hard luck teams can step up mightily.

I’m not sure if this qualifies as a silver lining, but I’m gonna put it out there anyway.  Taking too-long of a winning streak into the NCAA tournament could have been a bad thing for Gonzaga.  I know it’s a stretch of logic, but perhaps losing right now isn’t such a bad thing.  A bit of humility coming from a loss, I think, could go a long way for a team that has had some easy sailing in realizing what sort of effort and intensity is necessary to win over and over again against the best of the best in March Madness.  Gonzaga certainly got some humble pie on Saturday.  And hopefully you can assume with me that being knocked down a bit could provide the impetus to start a fire at just the right time that might not have been there if they’d gone on winning.  The fervent goal of upending BYU in the WCC tournament final, if that game happens, is going to be a challenge similar to the challenges the Zags will soon face in each set of games in the Big Dance.  I hope it happens.  I really, really hope it happens. 

First, however, Gonzaga has to take out some frustration in games against San Diego this Thursday and Saint Mary’s on Saturday—both to be played at home in The Kennel.  And though the Zags already beat both of these teams by 30 or more in the contests played on each of their home courts in California, nothing is going to be given easily—especially this time of year.  Though my predictions haven’t been stellar lately, I’ll give you a couple anyway:  Gonzaga wins both.  Against San Diego:  93-67.  Against Saint Mary’s:  91-77.  Have a great weekend and GO ZAGS!!!   

​~ Clark Karoses

The Gonzaga Men’s Basketball team’s two wins against the Pepperdine Waves this season haven’t been easy by any means—they’ve been a couple of grinders.  With a record of 14-13 on the season and 7-6 in WCC play, Pepperdine is a much better team than their record lets on—and head coach Lorenzo Romar and his assistants cooked up a good strategy against Gonzaga in both contests to keep the game close enough to threaten the #2 Zags last Saturday in Malibu, as well as nearly pull off a substantial upset in Spokane earlier in WCC play on January 4th.  Games like these are exactly what Gonzaga needs to help prepare for the challenges of the postseason in March.
In that first meeting between the Bulldogs and the Waves we saw Killian Tillie in great form, coming up with 20 points and a potentially game-saving block in the waning seconds to power the Zags to a 75-70 victory.  Filip Petrusev had his first double-double of the new year in that contest with his 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Joel Ayayi showed up in a big way by shooting 5 for 7 from the floor, including 2 for 4 from deep to round out his 12 points nicely. 

Despite some strong offensive performances on Gonzaga’s end, Pepperdine’s pressure defense threw the Bulldogs into fits in that 1st meeting—to the tune of 17 turnovers and a scoreless game for the Zags’ starting point guard, Ryan Woolridge.  Good defense, and a combined 38 points for Pepperdine’s Colbey Ross and Kameron Edwards almost spelled disaster in the Kennel that night.  Luckily the team was able to outrebound Pepperdine 39-30, cause 15 Waves turnovers, and make a couple key plays down the stretch to put that one on ice in Gonzaga’s favor. 
Last Saturday’s contest ended up being somewhat similar to the first as Pepperdine came out with some good pressure defense, caused a number of early Bulldog turnovers, and kept the score very close through a majority of the game.  It differed from the previous meeting in that there was no Killian Tillie—and despite that fact there wasn’t much drama at the end.  In response to Pepperdine’s pressure on defense, Gonzaga went early and often to its bread and butter down low, especially to Filip Petrusev.

Coming off a game against Saint Mary’s the week before in which he and his frontcourt teammate, Drew Timme, had double-doubles (Timme with 20 points and 10 rebounds, Petrusev with 18 points and 11 rebounds), the native-Serbian came out strong with 20 of the Zags 40 points in the first half.  Petrusev finished with another double-double in the game with 27 points and 12 rebounds—though not with quite as efficient a shooting percentage as his 56.8% average for the season in a 9 for 20 effort. 

Many of Pepperdine’s 20 fouls were given in an effort to stop Petrusev.  Even fouls didn’t stop Gonzaga’s leading scorer as he converted numerous and-1 opportunities and ended up a very decent 9 for 13 from the foul line.  Though the Zags’ freshman rising star in the frontcourt, Drew Timme, didn’t best his career high scoring against Pepperdine like he did with his 20 against the Gaels a week earlier, he shot more efficiently than any other Zag from the field in a 4 for 6 effort to earn 10 points and boost his shooting percentage to 62.3% on the season.

Corey Kispert was a star again in Gonzaga’s backcourt, shooting 5 for 8 from beyond the arc and adding 6 rebounds and 5 assists to his 19 points.  Despite all these strong efforts in Malibu, it did take Gonzaga three-quarters of the game to finally pull into a comfortable, double-digit lead.  The Bulldogs took a slender 40-36 lead into the locker room at halftime, compared to the earlier game in Spokane where the score was tied at the break, 37-37.  It also took a full half last Saturday for Joel Ayayi to get going on offense.  Held scoreless in the first half and struggling to connect from deep, Ayayi came up with 11 points in the 2nd half and added 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals to his stat line.

Much like the first contest, last Saturday saw Colbey Ross and Kameron Edwards coming up big for Pepperdine with 23 and 22 points respectively.  But it’s hard to beat a team with the kind of balance we see from Gonzaga where all 7 of the players who play a significant number of minutes average double digits scoring.  And despite the fact one of the better of those 7 was sitting on the bench, all 6 of the others reached double digits against the Waves in Malibu as well.  Ryan Woolridge, who was held scoreless in the last meeting of these teams, earned 10 points and helped Gonzaga best Pepperdine on the boards by grabbing 8 himself.  The Bulldogs ultimately won the battle on the glass by coming up with 39 total rebounds to Pepperdine’s 32, and 10 offensive rebounds to the Waves’ 7.  Woolridge’s fellow graduate transfer from Texas, Admon Gilder continued his humble excellence as well, going 1 of 2 from deep and 4 of 4 from the charity stipe to reach 11 points, and adding 5 assists to Gonzaga’s 20 assists for the game. 

Martynas Arlauskas made an appearance in the game early for about 8 minutes, and got another opportunity to find his pacing and his legs.  As the 8th Zag in a tight, essentially 7-man rotation, his ability to contribute in some way could become very important in games where the already slim Gonzaga lineup is further thinned by foul trouble or injury.  Tillie’s difficulty lately with stringing together more than 2 or 3 games in a row before having to sit two or more out is worrisome to say the least.  His dominant presence on both ends of the court is going to be helpful if not essential to the Bulldogs’ high hopes of finding themselves in the Sweet 16, the Elite 8, the Final 4 and hopefully the title game this season.

Before we go looking too far ahead, however, Gonzaga still has a slate of games in February to finish up.  San Francisco comes to Spokane on Thursday of this week, followed by a trip to Provo to face the now #23 BYU Cougars on Saturday—both available to a national audience on ESPN2.  Both will be serious challenges, and if the Zags are still sans Tillie, they’re going to be downright difficult.

Last time the Bulldogs faced off against the Dons in San Francisco, the game went down to the wire with Corey Kispert putting on his hero cape and scoring 5 points in the last 2 minutes to lead the Zags to a very narrow 83-79 victory.  If it’s a six-man rotation for Gonzaga minus Tillie, like it was in San Francisco, we could see much the same—a very close game.  Despite the fact that Gonzaga sailed past BYU, 92-69 in the Kennel during their first meeting this season, I’m even more concerned about that game on Saturday than I am about the one at home against SF.  In the first meeting between GU and BYU, Yoeli Childs, the Cougars’ star forward and leading scorer with 20.7 points per game, was sitting out with a hand injury.

I don’t expect easy sailing this time in Provo with Childs playing some great basketball of late and the Cougars having won 6-straight, including particularly strong wins against Pepperdine, 107-90, and San Francisco, 90-76.  BYU is going to want to win this one badly to both stay in the top 25, punch the teams ticket to the big dance, and get some revenge against the Bulldogs who have embarrassed them in Provo and Spokane multiple times in the last few years.  This cat and dog fight is one you shouldn’t miss.

I’ve got separate predictions for both games depending on whether Killian Tillie is going to be playing or not.  If he’s tweaked his ankle really good, I suspect Gonzaga will keep him on the bench against the Dons and leave it to the might 6 to take care of business against San Franscisco.  It’s just as likely, though, that he’ll play in both and I sincerely hope so.  If Tillie doesn’t play I say Gonzaga doesn’t quite control the game, but uses the energy of the home crowd to stay comfortably on top, pulling away at the end.  My guess is 88-77.  If Tillie plays in good form it won’t be as pretty:  95-69.  If Tille doesn’t play against BYU, Gonzaga edges past the Cougars despite the hostile crowd 91-87.  If Tillie plays against BYU, I think we win by double digits and we reach triple digits: 104-71.  Those numbers may be a little inflated by love, but I’ll stick by them.                    

I don’t know if you’ve heard the news, but the Gonzaga Men’s Basketball team is really flippin’ good this season and they’re only getting better.  If their 11-0 record in WCC play and their 25-1 record for the season hasn’t convinced you yet, maybe this last week of play will.  In the week prior to last, with a rotation whittled down to 6 main players after losing Killian Tillie to an ankle sprain, the Zags were supremely tested.  The team responded with some serious mettle in the midst of adversity—especially on the road against San Francisco on February 1st where the Bulldogs won by a narrow 4 points thanks to Corey Kispert’s heroics late in the game. Gonzaga kept Tillie on the bench for the first of last week’s games against the Loyola Marymount Lions as well.  That proved to be a good decision, as the Zags were able to travel to Moraga with a somewhat well-healed Tillie to face the Saint Mary’s Gaels.  In the first meeting of the two teams since the Gaels beat the then #1 Bulldogs 60-47 in the WCC tournament final in March 2019, Saint Mary’s took the brunt of Gonzaga’s fiery wrath.  The Zags handed the Gaels their worst loss at home since 2001 with a 90-60 victory, and let out a triumphant, bellowing bark that was heard nationwide on ESPN.

Gonzaga’s game last Thursday night, with Tillie on the bench resting his ankle, saw 5 of the 6 main players for the Zags picking Lions’ pockets, and accounting for 13 steals.  Filip Petrusev was the only starter without a steal, while Corey Kispert grabbed 5, Drew Timme added 3, Joel Ayayi stole 3 more and Ryan Woolridge and Admon Gilder pilfered 1 a-piece.  One of the few downsides on the night for the Bulldogs was the fact that the Lions were able to get 9 steals themselves and cause 12 Gonzaga turnovers.  But the Zags were able to capitalize on 17 LMU turnovers in a big way—especially on the more and more common quick pushes in transition from the defensive end to the offensive one resulting in lay ups or dunks.  Those quick pushes and sometimes easy baskets helped boost the Zags shooting numbers on the night, as the Bulldogs finished shooting 60% on a 30 for 50 effort, including a decent 7 of 20 from beyond the arc for 35%.  That was good enough for a well-earned victory at home that saw Gonzaga up by a slim 8 at halftime, but able to extend that lead considerably in the 2nd half by as much as 28 before finishing with a score of 85-67
 
Gonzaga’s bigs, especially, were rolling against LMU.  In the absence of Tillie, we saw the freshman native of Texas, Drew Timme, start the game and reassert his excellence on both ends of the court. Filip Petrusev, the other anchor down low for the team, has simply been money down low from day 1 this season and was no different on Thursday night.  Both forwards missed only 1 field goal each in the game against the Lions: Timme on an 8 for 9 effort shooting, Petrusev at 5 for 6. Timme added 8 rebounds and 2 assists to his 17 points, while Petrusev added 6 rebounds to his 21 points—getting a lot of those at the free throw line in an 11 for 15 effort.

Besides stealing the night away on defense Thursday, the backcourt for Gonzaga was outstanding on their offensive end as well.  Joel Ayayi had the only difficult week, getting just 5 points and 3 rebounds against LMU and 5 rebounds and a single 3-point basket against Saint Mary’s to open up scoring on Saturday night.  Kispert and Gilder picked up the slack against LMU, both shooting 50% from deep on mutual 3 for 6 efforts, adding 11 and 17 points respectively.

Gilder’s fellow graduate transfer from Texas on the team, Ryan Woolridge (Gilder from Texas A&M, and Woolridge from North Texas University) has been absolutely on point at point—and he was phenomenal again this week.  He was 5 for 7 shooting against both LMU and Saint Mary’s, adding 12 and 11 points respectively.  In addition to his lightning-quick drives to the hoop and acrobatic finishes at the rim, I thought one of his 7 assists for the week was particularly noteworthy.  Against LMU, after Ayayi was able to poke the ball away on D, and get it upcourt to Woolridge, Ryan crossed the ball over to avoid a defender at half court and seeing a streaking Petrusev sent a bullet pass from halfcourt perfectly between defenders, hitting Filip in stride for a monster dunk without even a dribble. 

Both of the graduate, native-Texan guards have been devastating for opponents on both ends of the court and the Lions and Gaels found that out the hard way.  The two continued their thieving ways against Saint Mary’s by getting 3 steals each, and succeeded in doing more than their parts to further stifle the Gael’s offense.  Gilder made those steals count, especially when he found Woolridge streaking down the court after making them, which was a common occurrence on Saturday.  Woolridge had, about midway through the second half against SM, a 7-0 scoring run by himself—scoring an and-1 basket after an acrobatic finish at the rim and then two lay-ups—the first off a steal by Gilder who sent an alley-oop at the Zags rim his way, and the second off a steal of his own that Woolridge was able to dribble in for an easy finish on the other end.  Though Gilder had a more subdued scoring night against the Gaels, going 3 for 6 shooting, adding 3 rebounds, 5 assists and a block to his 7 points—his one 3-pointer came off an assist from a driving Woolridge who took the defense with him toward the basket and left the ball for Gilder in the right corner in front of the Gaels’ bench, hitting the shot as time expired in the first half to put Gonzaga up by a back-breaking margin of 53-28. 

Against Saint Mary’s we saw what every true Zag fan has been waiting anxiously for in the previous 3 games:  the ever-so-welcome return of Killian Tille, aka: KT, aka: Godzilla.  KT was coming back from a nasty ankle sprain suffered the Thursday prior to the LMU game when the Zags were playing Santa Clara.  After a good week and a half without playing, Tillie went on another tear on both ends of the court Saturday.  In 25 minutes Tillie helped suffocate the Gaels’ offense with his hustle and strong position on defense, and crushed them on his own offensive end by going 7 of 10 shooting, 3 of 5 from beyond the arc, adding 2 rebounds and an assist to his 19 points.  He shared defensive responsibilities on the very dangerous Malik Fitts with his fellow veteran-Zag on the team, Corey Kispert.  Together, they helped limit Fitts to just 12 points in the contest.  Kispert continued his humble excellence on offense as well, taking only the best shots and sinking 2 for 4 from deep, 4 for 7 overall, adding 2 assists to his 10 points.

Seeing Tillie pick up where he left off with another performance over or near 20 points was a blessing for Zag Nation fans.  But it was Tillie’s absence that has allowed for another Godzilla-like candidate to further emerge out of the deep—boding very well, I think, for Gonzaga’s post-season hopes.  When Tillie was injured against Santa Clara, freshman Drew Timme more than just stepped in to fill the void.  For a good portion of the season, Timme has been getting considerable play as a sub for either Tillie or Petrusev in the front court and doing quite well off the bench.  As a starter against San Francisco on February 1st, and last Thursday against LMU, he was outstanding.  He earned player of the game honors in the very tight contest at SF, where he scored 19, added 3 blocks and shot a very cool, collected 7 for 8 from the foul line to help seal the win. 

We already mentioned his 17 points and 8 rebounds against LMU, but he was able to eclipse both of those efforts off the bench against Saint Mary’s on Saturday in just 23 minutes of play.  Timme had a team-high and career-high 20 points on 7 for 8 shooting as well as a double-double with his 10 rebounds—3 of those on the offensive end where he always attacks the boards with gusto.  Though he has shown occasional difficulties from the free-throw line, Timme’s stroke there seems to be smoothing out and he was a perfect 6 for 6 in Moraga.  Not only is he the block leader for the team at the moment, he is one of 7 players (all 7 of the essentially 7-man rotation for the Zags) who is averaging in double digits scoring per game.  He and Ryan Woolridge are tied at the bottom of that list right now with 10.3 points per game. Last time I checked no team in college basketball had more than 5 players averaging in double digits. With balance like that, no wonder Gonzaga owns the #1 offense in the country.

At the top of the points per game list for the Zags, with 17.2, is Filip Petrusev—the Serbian native who also leads Gonzaga in rebounds with 7.9 per contest.  He had another stellar showing against Saint Mary’s, topping both averages and joining Timme on the double-double list with his 18 points and 11 rebounds.  Going 8 for 11 shooting and exhibiting a host of post moves, a very deft touch around the rim, as well as the ability to slam the ball home, Petrusev was outstanding once again.  He did, however, have an awkward moment that caught the attention of one of the ESPN announcers enough to play it back in slow motion.  In the play that happened about 7 minutes into the 2nd half, he was calling for the ball down low while sealing off a defender who was struggling to defend him.  He had good position it seemed, and when Gilder shot a 3 instead of passing to him in the post, he seemed to just walk away from the play in obvious frustration, ignoring the rebound and all that was happening around him. 

Keith Ybanez of The Slipper Still Fits very aptly called it a “little tantrum” and a “moment of madness”—finding it as inexcusable as I do. Petrusev has, at times this season, seemed to be a bit of a whiner.  Perhaps it’s his immaturity and/or ego getting the best of him.  It’s likely very difficult not to be egotistical when you’re as good as he is at his young age—and I’m willing to forgive his perhaps all-too-common complaints to the refs for fouls against his opponents when he should be running back on defense. But getting so frustrated with your own teammates that you walk away from a play that’s still going on is another matter altogether. Ybanez brings up the possibility that Petrusev was being held in the post (maybe he had been being held all night) and the frustration was with the ref, not Gilder.  Either way, that shit’s got to get set aside while dealing with the task at hand.  Whatever the case—let’s not do that anymore.  Zag Nation loves you and thinks you’re awesome, but you need to act like a GU Bulldog should act.  It seemed Mark Few pulled him from the game shortly thereafter and likely told him just that (probably without any of the kindness mixed in).  On a positive note, Petrusev added insult to injury by sinking a rare straight-away 3-pointer later in the game, during a series of 3 consecutive 3’s from the Zags’ Tillie, Petrusev and Kispert that stretched the lead to its widest margin of 88-54.

Just to give you a sense of how dominant the Zags were in this game:  1.  Gonzaga started the game by going 14 of 15 from the field, missing only one shot in the first 12 and a half minutes.  2.  GU shot 74% in the first half of play and finished near that mark at 67.9% on 36 makes in 53 attempts—including over 53.3% from beyond the arc on an 8 of 15 effort.  3.  GU went on a 22-2 run in the first half during which the Gaels were held without a basket for over 7 minutes, ending with the Zags up 34-12.  4.  I counted 5 and-1 baskets for the Zags, adding many 3's the hard way to their 3-point efforts from deep.  5.  The Bulldogs outrebounded the Gaels 33-23--and I won’t even complain about the 9 to 6 margin in favor of SM on the offensive boards since there’s very little chance to get offensive rebounds when you make so many shots.  6.  GU shot about 72% from the free throw line in both games this week and though that wouldn’t be reason for many teams to celebrate, it is for this team as the Bulldogs continue to improve their season average, having had 4-straight games over 70%. 

The complaint that can be made in both games concerns turnovers.  Against LMU, despite forcing 17 turnovers, the Zags gave up the ball 12 times.  In the first few minutes in Moraga, it was turnovers and sloppy play that kept the score close.  It’s surprising that a team who wins so convincingly can have 7 turnovers in the first 8 minutes of play.  Though Gonzaga caused 14 turnovers in the game, they gave the ball up 15 times.  That’s as much as I’ve got for complaints, though.  Gonzaga was simply dominant and as good as one could hope for in every other aspect of the game.  They were even better than I could hope for as I predicted they'd win by a score of 88-77--getting the Zags score pretty close but not expecting the defense to keep a very good Saint Mary's team from scoring more than 60 points. Despite the hefty loss, Saint Mary’s definitely has some dangerous folks on their squad.  Jordan Ford and Malik Fitts are very good players.  They showed moments of brilliance and were a combined 15 for 30 shooting from the field, scoring 23 and 12 points respectively.  They will have to be well accounted for when the Gaels travel up to Spokane to finish WCC play on the 29th of February.

Next on the slate in Gonzaga’s pursuit of WCC perfection is a road game against the Pepperdine Waves in Malibu.  Pepperdine gave the Zags a good run for their money during the last contest between the two teams in Spokane.  Killian Tillie scored 20 in that game and blocked Colbey Ross’s shot attempt that could have tied the game in the waning seconds—sealing a 5-point victory for Gonzaga 75-70.  Ross was very good in the game and both he and Kameron Edwards had double-doubles for the game—Edwards with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Ross with 24 points and 10 assists.  Though Tillie, Petrusev (16 points and 10 rebounds) and Ayayi (5 for 7 shooting and 2-4 from deep) played well in that game, the team struggled to come away with a narrow win at home.  This game is going to be a good gauge of how well the Zags have improved since early in January.  My guess is they’ve improved a great deal and they’re going to surf to a victory over the waves down in Malibu.  My guess: 88-63. 

P.S. I don't know if you've been paying any attention to what former Zag turned NBA-rookie Brandon Clarke has been doing with the Memphis Grizzlies and fellow NBA-rookie Ja Morant lately, but he had a career-high 27 points tonight against Portland.  Have a great weekend, and GO ZAGS!!!                   

~ Clark Karoses

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs weren’t the only team that had to muster some serious gumption to come from behind and find a way to win amid adversity last weekend.  The Gonzaga Men’s Basketball team took the show on the road to California last week—and what I’d expected and predicted to be smooth sailing in Santa Clara, and just a bit of a test in San Francisco turned into quite a test on Thursday night and a nail-biter Saturday afternoon that required Corey Kispert’s heroics late in the game to turn a considerable deficit into a win.  The only thing I got right in my predictions from the last installment of The Zag Wag was the fact that Gonzaga would win both games.
 
At halftime, the Bulldogs found themselves struggling against a team that was gaining confidence, momentum and the belief that they could knock off the now #2 team in the nation on their home floor in both of these contests.  In a the previous meeting on the 16th of January, when Gonzaga played Santa Clara in Spokane, the Bulldogs had opened up a halftime lead of 58-22.  On Thursday the 30th,  it was only a Ryan Woolridge layup with 7 seconds before the half that put the Zags up by more that a basket, 40-36 on the Broncos home court.  On Saturday, playing very short-handed against San Francisco for the first time this season, it was a Jamaree Bouyea jumper as time expired in the first half that put the Dons up by 8 points, 43-35—and had San Francisco fans in War Memorial Gym hungry for the huge upset.  SF had been up by as many as 12 points, 24-12, earlier in the half after heating up from beyond the arc. 

One thing I’ve learned in my years as a Gonzaga fan is to have great confidence in the fact that Mark Few and his assistants on the coaching staff are going to make the best adjustments to cure any ills or woes at the halftime break—and that they will make everything better in the final half of play.  The coaching staff did just that in both contests and the players came out with a vengeance after the break.  Gonzaga notched two more WCC wins despite the fact that their star post, defender and sharp-shooter, Killian Tillie, went down with what looked like a nasty ankle sprain halfway through the first half of play on Thursday and missed the whole game in San Francisco. 

Some Zags players stepped up in a big way in these contests to help make up for the loss of Tillie, playing long minutes and hitting baskets at critical times.  Let’s start with Filip Petrusev, who had a career-high scoring night in Santa Clara.  Before and after Tillie’s injury, Petrusev was absolutely brilliant at Santa Clara, receiving a number of lobs into the paint from Gonzaga guards and dunking them with flair to help him gain an amazingly efficient 14 for 18 shooting from the field.   He was just one rebound short of a double-double, with a team-leading 9 rebounds, and added 3 steals to compliment his 31 points.  It is the rebounding numbers that stand out in the contest as something the Zags truly took control over.  Five Gonzaga players had over 5 rebounds in the game, and the Zags dominated the boards both offensively (10-5) and defensively (33-27), gaining 43 total rebounds compared to 32 for the Broncos.

At San Francisco, without our beloved Tillie, Petrusev did much the same—this time managing a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds on 8 for 14 shooting (you don’t get on the 20-man Wooden Award short-list for nothing).  Accustom to being the team-leader in scoring and rebounding, anchoring the defense in the paint, and playing at or near 30 minutes, domination is nothing new to Petrusev.  But it was his fellow big-man down low, Drew Timme whose clutch performance down the stretch and solid excellence throughout earned him player of the game in San Francisco.  While not as dominant on the boards as usual, Timme came up with a career-high 19 points on Saturday afternoon in 30 minutes of play, with a 6 for 11 effort shooting from the field, an impressive 7 for 8 from the foul line, while adding 4 rebounds and 3 assists.  After coming up with 2 blocks against Santa Clara and 5 blocks against Pacific the previous Saturday, Timme added another 3 against SF, including a key block with 23 seconds left as Jordan Ratinho went up for a layup to try to make it a single-basket game.   
                     
Though his career-high scoring game against SF was definitely an excellent one for Timme, the game against Santa Clara wasn’t half bad either.  In 20 minutes of play, Timme went 5 for 8 from the field, notching 5 rebounds, 2 blocks and 11 points.  One of the things that characterized these two games, besides some less than inspired defense by Gonzaga in both first halves, was struggle from the Gonzaga guards to find or to hit good shots, both allowing and requiring the big men to feast down low.  Against San Francisco, Timme and Petrusev had the first 12 points of the game as the guards struggled against a hounding Dons defense that was disrupting the offense and forcing too many turnovers.    

Mark Few called Killian Tillie his “problem solver” for good reason.  His ability to shoot from anywhere on the court, especially from deep, allows him to drag defense away from other players, opening up so much for everyone else on the court (you don’t get on the Karl Malone Award 10-man short list for nothing).  Without Tillie, both the Broncos and the Dons found Gonzaga’s defensive pressure and help often lacking and at times, hit mildly contested 3’s or slashed to the basket with ease.  On the other end the Dons strove to choke Gonzaga’s offense with stifling, overplaying defense on the perimeter—a brand of defense that would have been much more problematic with Tillie’s versatility on the court.  Though Petrusev and Timme are outstanding in their own right, Tillie adds so much to the Gonzaga line-up on both ends and it will be integral to the Zags success in the post-season that Tillie is healthy.    

Against Santa Clara, we saw Corey Kispert and the Zags go ice cold shooting.  Kispert was 2 for 12 from the field and 1 for 5 from deep, though he added 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks to his 9 points.  Joel Ayayi, who adds a brilliant element whenever he plays, was a tepid 3 for 7 from the field, and 0 for 2 from deep—adding 8 rebounds, 5 assists and a block to his 7 points.  Ryan Woolridge and Admon Gilder were the only guards who scored in double figures against SC, though both stayed below 50% shooting—and together could only knock down 1 3-pointer in 5 attempts.  Woolridge was able to come away with 13 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals for a very decent night, while Gilder added 11 points and 6 rebounds.  The Zags finished just 3 of 16 from beyond the arc for an uncharacteristically poor 18.8% from deep.  In fact, Gonzaga didn’t make an attempt from deep in the whole second half of that game at Santa Clara, or in the 1st half of the following game against San Francisco—that’s a downright frigid cold spell. 

Luckily the big men were on point in both games and Gonzaga’s free-throw shooting wasn’t half bad either (72.7% against SC).  If you take a look at the offensive play-by-play feed for Gonzaga in the second half of the game against Santa Clara, there’s not much variation.  Hit the post is the major theme, or get it to him on the fast break.  It reads something like:  lay-up, lay-up, dunk, free-throw, free-throw, lay-up, lay-up, dunk, dunk, lay-up, free-throw, etc.  That strategy ended up working very well as the Zags pulled away with a 15-point victory 87-72.  No need to razzle-dazzle with the long ball, just lay it in, stuff it in the hoop or hit from the charity stripe—letting the big guys get a lion’s share of the grub, and the guards pick up some scraps.

Though the guards struggled through the second half of the SC game and the first half of the SF game, they more than redeemed themselves in the second half against the Dons.  While the Zags only had 5 attempts from beyond the arc on Saturday, the only one they missed came in the first half.  Both Kispert and Ayayi went a perfect 2 for 2 from deep for the game, helping the players lift themselves out of the hole they found themselves in at halftime.  Held scoreless in the first half, Kispert went 4 of 5 from the field shooting for the game, adding 3 rebounds and a steal to his 11 points (you don’t get on the Erving Award 10-man short list for nothing).  Ayayi, while only shooting 2 of 6 from the field, was just a rebound short of another double-double, adding 4 offensive rebounds and 5 defensive boards to his 12 points.  Gilder (3-3), Kispert (1-1) and Ayayi (6-6) were all perfect from the charity stripe to help boost the Zags free throw shooting numbers over 78% in the contest.  Gilder, master of the reverse lay-up and so dangerous everywhere on both ends the court, went 4 for 9 shooting from the field, had 5 rebounds and added a steal to go along with his 11 points.

Shooting 4 for 4 from beyond the arc in the second half may have been a huge boost for the Zags to pull themselves out of the hole they found themselves in, but it was getting the 3 the hard way that really won one of the most challenging contests so far for the Bulldogs.  Fouls on both sides dominated play throughout in this unusually long game and every starter on the Zags roster had 4 fouls by the end except for Ayayi who had 3.  Two Dons’ big men fouled out of the game and it was largely the ability of Gonzaga to get to the line that allowed them to prevail—especially because they often hit the basket on the way to the line as well as the additional free-throw.  Just 14 seconds into the game, off the opening tip, Petrusev caught a pass from Timme down low, drew a foul on the way up and sunk the lay in.  He is getting tougher and so much more willful down on the block lately.  Petrusev added another bucket and foul shortly thereafter in the 1st, as did Admon Gilder a bit further along toward the half.  Drew Timme added two and-1 conversions in the second half in a crucial stretch between 14 minutes and 9 minutes left that saw the lead change a number of times as the Dons battled to quell the Bulldogs’ surge.  

The last and-1 conversion came after Taavi Jurkatamm made two free throws at 1:59 left to put SF up 76-75.  Corey Kispert got the pass at the top of the arc and drove, muscling a bit of space to go up for the hoop and getting fouled hard, he managed to kiss in the lay-up off the glass for a triumphant score.  Kispert had 5 points in the last 2 minutes in San Francisco, including the fade-away dagger with 35 seconds left that put the red wax on the victory letter that Gilder and Timme stamped by hitting three out of 4 free throws in the waning seconds to notch the Zags final points and send the players off to a gutsy 83-79 victory. 
   
I have a few lingering difficulties to bring up.  I mentioned offensive rebounding in the last installment.  Rebounding was good against Santa Clara again on both ends, though shooting wasn’t stellar.  Shooting against San Francisco looked pretty good number wise.  The Zags were 27 for 50 from the field (54%), 4 for 5 from deep (80%) and stellar at the free throw line with 78.1% on 25 for 32 attempts (that’s 2 games of +70% FT shooting).  Overall the Bulldogs edged the Dons on the boards 38 to 32 in total rebounds, but on the offensive glass, SF was able to track down 12 offensive rebounds, while Gonzaga only came up with 7.  The Dons’ lower shooting percentages could account for some of those as they had more misses to try to track down the board for, but I think the Zags could improve in that category. 

The truly worrisome statistic in the game, and perhaps the biggest reason Gonzaga found themselves nearly notching another loss, was in the area of turnovers.  San Francisco limited themselves to a stellar 7 turnovers (anything under 10 in a game is quite good, I think).  Gonzaga doubled that number and-1 with 15—every starter having at lest 2 and 3 players adding 3 turnovers on the night.  Not so good there, especially in the first half. 

Whatever we can say here, positive or negative, Gonzaga showed some guts and resolve in these road wins in California without one of their most valuable players, and learned some great lessons about perseverance despite adversity along the way.  Luckily our team travels with some cushion, and Gonzaga fans made some noise and added some energy in San Francisco especially.  They saw Gonzaga rise to the challenge with essentially a 6-man roster for 70 of the 80 minutes of play.  Mark Few, talking after the game said:  “They had us reeling there early” and asked about how he felt about the game and the way his players responded, said:  “I’m proud of them.  We’re low on numbers, low on bodies, low on everything, and we had foul trouble.  So it was a very, very good win.”

Gonzaga has a heck of a schedule approaching.  Though LMU coming to Spokane on Thursday may not sound so intimidating (the Zags beat them 87-62 on their court in January), its back to California after that to face the only team we haven’t seen in WCC play yet, the always intimidating Saint Mary’s Gaels—in the absolutely hostile (even truculent) gym in Moraga, on Saturday the 8th on ESPN.  My guess, and everyone else’s that I’ve read so far, is to look for Tillie to play for sure in the game against the Gaels and more than likely not to play against the Lions in Spokane.  It doesn’t get much easier from there as the Zags take another plane south to face Pepperdine the following Saturday the 15th (we only had a 5 point victory against the Tigers in Spokane), then facing San Francisco again 5 days later in the Kennel before traveling to BYU in a much anticipated contest on the 22nd in Provo that will hopefully pit superstars Yoeli Childs and Killian Tillie against one another in a dramatic battle.  Exciting times ahead as Gonzaga does its best to keep both their record-setting conference win streak of 36 games, their home winning streak of 35 games, and their road winning streak of 16 games alive. 

My prediction for this week (though if you saw my prediction last week you’ll probable want to take this with a grain of salt) is that Gonzaga shows up strong at home against LMU and bests the Lions 95-65.  On the road against Saint Mary’s the Zags win by 11, 88-77.  Best wishes to all and GO ZAGS!!!                 

​~ Clark Karoses