​There’s a saying in basketball.  To have “numbers” means to have more of the guys on your team ahead of the guys on the opposite team while you’re heading toward your basket.  You hear it sometimes on a fast break from the bench, or on a particularly quick transition push up the floor from players trailing.  “You got numbers, man—you got numbers!” which means attack the basket and look to pass if any defender focuses on stopping you because they’ve got less than enough to cover your more.  On Wednesday night, in the much-anticipated game against North Carolina in Spokane, Gonzaga had numbers.  Sometimes it was just one Zag ahead of no defenders—as Joel Ayayi and Admon Gilder showed on two separate plays after each made a great steal and took it to the basket by themselves with everyone else behind.  Sometimes it was a pass to a streaking zag ahead of everyone else—as we saw when Corey Kispert received the perfect long pass from Joel Ayayi to take it off a big bounce and throw it down for the emphatic dunk.  Sometimes it was just more of our guys getting ahead when we recognized any one of the defenders was lagging.

 This Gonzaga team pushes the ball perhaps better than any Gonzaga team I’ve watched so far—and to say that they did it well against a team that pushes the ball as a trademark is something significant.  Against a team with a fathomlessly deep bench (North Carolina utilized 17 different players in the game—Gonzaga played only 7), the Zags got out and ran and ran and ran Wednesday night—sprinting ahead on offense and backpedaling back on defense, again and again and again with very little to no relief from the bench.  And they showed that it is with good reason they’ve got #2 next to their name on the television scoreboard because they’re not only one of the most skilled teams in Division One basketball, but also one of the best conditioned.

Of course, “numbers” also refers to statistics and Gonzaga put up some serious numbers in that sense as well on Wednesday night.  I predicted we’d get 96 in the previous blog post, but 94 points is not too shabby against a team as well-coached and disciplined on both sides of the court as the Tarheels (I did get their 81 correct).  It was disappointing to the fans on both sides, I think, not to see Cole Anthony on the court as it would, no doubt, have made this an even more exciting game had he been healthy.  He’s the kind of game changer that could have evened the scales that, considering the injury difficulties Roy Williams’ club has suffered this early season, were tipped a bit toward the Bulldogs (though the Zags have a few injury troubles of their own).  We were blessed to have a window of reasonably decent health to work with on Wednesday night, and work with it is what we did.

Filip (allow me to apologize for the many times I’ve spelled this Philip) Petrusev and Corey Kispert simply killed it in this game.  Period.  Exclamation Point!  Some sportswriters, no doubt, will express disappointment with the number of rebounds they came up with, but when a team makes so many of the shots they take, the number of offensive rebounding opportunities goes way down.  In other words, you don’t have an opportunity to go after a ball that goes through the basket—the ref gets that one—and boy oh boy was it ever going through the basket for these two Gonzaga stars.

Petrusev was 6 for 11 shooting from the field against some great forwards down low while Kispert, beyond outstanding, went 10 for 12 including 5 for 6 from beyond the arc.  Petrusev wears number "3" which may seem more appropriate for Kispert, who wears "24" but hits so many triples in the course of the game.  The important thing would be to keep a good thing going so I would say stick with whatever number you've got.  Kispert showed his skills down low as well as from deep when, after too many of our bigs got into foul trouble, he filled in as forward (he’s listed as a forward even though he rarely posts up).  He defended quite well all over the court and showed off some nice touch with the jump hook that all the Gonzaga forwards utilize so well (thinking of both Tillie and Timme). 

Together, Petrusev and Kispert combined for 46 points, just a point shy of half of the Zags total.  The Serbian big man added 3 blocks and 4 rebounds to his 20 well-earned points.  For a guy who got a lot of flak for having too much finesse and not enough attitude in the post, Petrusev not only looked strong on Wednesday—but absolutely punishing.  He finished through contact multiple times for and-1 baskets (there is a good reason he wears "3")—and made powerful moves toward the hoop to get fouled as well.  On one such move, getting his shoulder into the defender and leaping for the shot—they had to check the defender’s teeth afterward on the sideline to make sure he hadn’t chipped or wasn’t missing any.  He is truly coming into his role underneath and looking more comfortable every game against some of the best of the best. 

Corey Kispert, who went off against Arizona for 18 points and 8 rebounds last Saturday, was leading scorer for the team once again against North Carolina with his 26 points, adding 1 block, 1 assist, 2 steals, 3 rebounds and 4 turnovers (sorry CK, I just wanted to keep counting).  Any player on a Gonzaga team getting over 20 points is a rarity since the team always shares the scoring so well--but to see two reach the mark is rare indeed.

Strange alignments and series though, seem prevalent in the box score for this game.  Numerologists might find some significance in such alignments.  11 is a great number.  Not only is it a prime to mathematician type folks (prime numbers are ultra-cool and unique), but in spiritual number theory 11 is known as a “master number” signifying insight and enlightenment.  There were a lot of 11’s in the numbers for Gonzaga on Wednesday, foreboding good things perhaps.  Though we’d love to see this statistic a bit lower, maybe even in single digits, there were 11 turnovers committed by Gonzaga—pretty darn good against a decent defensive team.  An even better set of 11’s comes from Admon Gilder, Ryan Woolridge and Joel Ayayi who all scored 11 points—pointing at balance among the trio of supporting guards on the night. 

Of these Musketeers, Ayayi (who wears "11") went 5 of 11 (!) shooting from the field, Gilder 3 of 9, and Woolridge 5 of 6 (5 + 6= 11).  Like Kispert, Woolridge was just plain money at point guard on the night.  He hit his only attempt from deep, gathered 4 rebounds, and was just a good pass away from a double-double, with 9 assists.  He continues to show elite talent at point guard on both ends of the court, and though he didn’t have to shoulder the responsibility of trying to put the brakes on Cole Anthony like we thought he would have to (a challenge he very likely would have relished), he handled his defensive assignments with stern resolve.   Whoever convinced him to come over to the Zags from North Texas is sure smiling to himself after this game.

Whoever got Joel Ayayi to come to Spokane from France has been smiling for quite a while now.  Though he wasn’t as stellar from deep tonight, going only 1 of 5 from beyond the arc, he did get everything he needed for a double-double, with those 11 points and 10 rebounds.  He was the only player with over 5 rebounds on the team, getting the only offensive rebound the Zags had all night (again, some of that has to do with the ball going in a lot) along with 9 defensive rebounds.  He had 3 steals (1 for a sweet, fast-break flush), 2 turnovers and 1 personal foul—his 6 assists, combined with Woolridge’s 9 gave the duo 15 of the 18 assists for the team on the night. 
            
Besides getting 11 of our 94 points, Admon Gilder ("1") had a strange string of 2’s in his stat line.  2 is, as you might expect, a love number according to some mystical circles—and Zag nation is feeling the love for this native Texan of late.  After going 4 for 4 from deep against Arizona, he cooled off a bit and was 1 for 3 in the Kennel, but 4 for 4 from the free throw line (that’s what I’m taking about!) and he had 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists, 2 turnovers and 2 personal fouls (spooky, right?).  "2," worn by Drew Timme, also happens to be the only even prime number.

Perhaps one of the best things about Wednesday night at the McCarthy Center, and it seems strange to say this, was that Killian Tillie sat most of the game.  Tillie wears "33" which is, of course, 11 x 3--which may be foreboding of a championship game where Tillie sinks that many from deep.  He's certainly capable of that.  After a scary tweak of his ankle and perhaps some stress of his knee later in the 2nd half against Arizona, Tillie started against North Carolina, not allowing any pain he felt to stop him from participating in a game that meant revenge for the beat down the Tarheels gave last season’s Zag’s in Chapel Hill.  And he played, as he always does, very well.  He seemed slightly bothered, off balance and favoring his good side though—and got into some foul trouble early—using his hands, perhaps, when his legs weren’t responding as well as usual. 

Gonzaga’s dominance through most of the game allowed Tillie to get back to what might be best for the time being; healing on the sideline.  It’s a wonderful thing that Christmas is coming for so many reasons—one of them is so Tillie and Anton Watson ("22"--yep, 2 x 11) and the rest of the Zag players who need some mending can take a few days rest.  Tillie’s shot is simply a thing of beauty and while it was wonderful to see him hit the shot he made from deep, I think I was more relieved to see him sit.  I suspect he’s gonna look better than he ever has this season or last after the holidays give him a good chance to kick back into recovery mode after the early season knee surgery that kept him out of some of the first few contests.  His numbers against North Carolina:  in 15 minutes he was 3 of 5 from the field, 1 of 3 from deep, 2 of 3 shooting free throws, with 3 rebounds, 4 personal fouls and 9 total points (which is divisible by 3).   

One other thing I predicted in the last blog post was that Gonzaga would shoot better from the free throw line.  It wasn’t exactly a bold prediction considering the Zags went 17 of 30 for 56.7 % against Arizona.  Against the Tarheels, Gonzaga was 15 of 22 from the charity stripe for 68.2%.  Not great, of course, but better.  As I mentioned, Admon Gilder was perfect from the free throw line—which is so good to hear lately of any Gonzaga player.  Unfortunately, Ryan Woolridge continues to struggle from the line and lowered his already low FT percentage, as did Drew Timme.  Both had wonderful games otherwise, Timme getting 3 of his 5 attempts from the field down low to fall and, like always, being a tough toughie all over the court.  Together, however, he and Woolridge went 0 of 4 shooting free throws—and brought Gilder’s 100% back down to 50% in going 4 of 8 for the three combined. 

Kispert made his single attempt from the line after the sweet and-1 he had (deserving the bicep flex he gave the camera afterwards)—getting a 3 point bucket the hard way.   The lion’s share of free throws for the team came from Petrusev.  He’s going to continue to shoot more and more free throws each week as he makes stronger and stronger moves to the bucket.  He went 8 of 10 from the line and I don’t think there’s a coach out there who isn’t going to be extremely happy about those kinds of numbers. 

I shouldn’t take liberty to say anything for Mark Few, but I suspect 75% shooting free throws as a team would be a number he could be happy about.  Currently through, through these first 13 games, the Zags as a team are right at 65%.  I think Gonzaga has to, as a long-term team goal, get that number over 70%—meaning they’re going to have to reach at least that 75% mark each game for a good while to right the ship.  It might take until March, but I truly hope it’s in the works and I'll be paying close attention to those numbers.  
 
Here’s a couple more really great numbers for the night.  I said in the last blog post that 3-point shooting was going to be heavy in the scale of Gonzaga’s balanced attack.  Wednesday night it was—and it was Corey Kispert for the most part, having a field day.  The team was 9 for 18—a nice, round 50%.  Overall, at 35 for 59 shooting from the field as a team, Gonzaga was just shy of 60%.  Those are numbers to love.  Those are numbers to cherish.  So is 12 wins in 13 games—and the Zags got there on Wednesday night and in many of the contests this season with guts, tenacity and the ability to make the necessary changes to get better. 

This group that Mark Few called a bunch of introverts early in the season (claiming that in his despair over the difficulty he felt working with the group, he had wanted to forget about the basketball season, take a long fishing trip and be found only much later in April) is becoming a communicative, cohesive, bonded group—they’re diving for loose balls on defense, making the extra pass for the best shot and doing everything else and whatever it takes to improve their game.  It’s exciting to see the way possibility opens up with effort like theirs—that, despite despair, willfulness can usher in greatness and celebration. 

We mentioned 11’s earlier as regards some of the point totals and turnovers.  11, in spiritual circles, is also indicative of taking notice.  You see 11:11 on the clock, for instance—you’re supposed to pay attention to what’s going on and consider what’s going to happen because the universe is trying to tell you something—something perhaps a bit hidden that you might skip over if you didn't take a hint.  If I were to wage a guess at what the universe might be hinting at, I’d say the Zags are being told something about the game on Saturday—and to take notice of the challenge they are about to face in Eastern Washington University. 

These guys just up the interstate in Cheney are no joke (and we're playing them on 12/21--forwards-backwards, backwards-forwards).  After beating Belmont earlier in the season, they scored 146 points against Multnomah on December 13th.  At over 90 points per game, they have the highest scoring offense in the country (Zags were #3 last time I checked) according to one source—a statistic which, though impressive, should be taken with a grain of salt since the competition on their schedule isn’t quite up near the same level as Gonzaga has faced.  They did get 80 against Washington—though Washington got 90 against them.  But facing this team after a very hyped game against North Carolina, with all the ESPN cameras and the McCarthy Center going wild seems like something to be very wary of—with the potential for a serious energy level shrink being likely.  Mark Few said as much in the post-game interview on Wednesday, and earlier called it a classic “trap game.”
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No doubt the coaching staff will avoid putting a foot in the snare that Saturday could be.  The Zags are going to come out and play their brand of basketball against these Eagles from EWU.  Cross-town contests like this one are bound to get gritty and they know it.  Don’t miss this one if you have a chance to watch.  I think Gonzaga is going to take it very personally that EWU is racking up crazy numbers on the scoreboard and focus heavily on defense.  They’re going to test exactly how effective they can be at snuffing the opponent out.  I say they make this one into an ugly game—maybe not right away, but fairly quickly.  I say Gonzaga by 23, with a hard-fought first half and a dominant 2nd:  93-70.  Happy Holidays folks!!!

~ Clark Karoses           

This is the first installment of The Zag Wag in the 2019-2020 season, and it comes at the end of a challenging stretch of games that have tested the Gonzaga Men’s Basketball team thoroughly.  As a team I would say the Zags have performed exceedingly well, having won 11 of their first 12 games and earned significant wins over some of the best teams in the country, and definitely the very best of the PAC 12.  There are, of course, some reasons for concern and room for improvement, but what I see right now is another team that Mark Few and his assistant coaches and staff have captained extremely well into a solid spot where the sky is the limit.  Having won two straight road games against their most talented rivals out west, Arizona and Washington, the Zags return home for a contest that might mean more to Gonzaga coaches, fans, and players than any game on the slate this season.  What I’m referring to is the titillating chance at redemption for last year’s loss and losses in years past (need I mention more?) against North Carolina who comes to town this very Wednesday.  So how does the team look in preparation for the contest?

Though Gonzaga saw a few players return to action this season, it was quite a different team stepping on the court in November with some serious question marks.  Besides the obvious question of how to replace the powerhouse, NBA-bound duo of Rui Hachimura and Brandon Clarke (who anchored Gonzaga down low last season), this year’s team also had early question-marks concerning how to find quality minutes in the backcourt with the exit of Josh Perkins at point guard and Zach Norvell Jr. at wing.  Further uncertainty surrounded who would be coming off the bench for quality minutes with the loss of the likes of Jeremy Jones and Geno Crandall.  Perhaps it should no longer surprise us how well things come together under the expert guidance of the Zag’s coaching staff, and how well players have stepped up to fill these vacant roles. 

What we’ve seen come to fruition after the first 12 games of the season is the trademark, balanced attack of a slimly rotated Gonzaga squad with very solid and talented starters and back-ups. Six players are averaging 10 points a game or more and a seventh is so close to the mark we might as well round him up (Ryan Woolridge at 9.8 ppg).  The team is developing quite nicely on the defensive end as well, playing with a tenacity that, besides being very stingy about giving away buckets to opponents at any level, has blocked shots, caused numerous turnovers and shot clock violations and translated into offense through some easy transition baskets off steals.

In its offensive attack, Gonzaga always focuses on balance, sharing the ball and the scoring in a way that lifts up the whole team—often at the expense of some greedier-handed players’ statistics.  Perhaps the best example of that offensive balance was the game in Seattle, against the uber-talented Washington Huskies with young, NBA talent in Isaiah Stewart, Jaden McDaniels, Nahziah Carter and company.  This win saw every Gonzaga starter scoring in double figures, and the team as a whole showing what seemed like very serious veteran cool down the stretch. 

Though the Zags were never able to fully pull away with a comfortable lead, they held a relentless grip on superiority throughout.  The Huskies, despite strong play inside and moments of brilliance, tried in vain to string together significant runs that would weaken the Zags resolve.  The Bulldogs were able to thwart their efforts with tenacious defense, a hard-nosed crashing of the offensive and defensive glass, consistent skillful play inside and in the mid-range holes in the zone, strong drives to the basket and unflinching confidence in the long ball.  In other words, they did a little of everything—balancing the attack all over the court, utilizing every player.

Consistent savvy shooting the three has been and is going to be perhaps the most important part of that balanced attack this year.  Everyone loves a three pointer of course—everyone loves to raise both arms up high, fingers in the classic gesture for OK .  And I think Gonzaga fans are going to get more than their share of that love this year.  It was two deep daggers late in the game; one from Killian Tillie with just under three minutes left and the shot clock expiring, then another from Joel Ayayi with under thirty seconds (both from the same NBA-range spot, sneakers on the Alaska Airlines logo), that provided the final offensive punch to put an end to Husky hopes of upsetting their rival.  A similar story put the game strongly in Gonzaga’s favor in Arizona, when Killian Tillie and Admon Gilder each hit three pointers within a minute and a half of each other between the 8 and 6 minute marks, cushioning the lead to 14—a margin the Wildcats would never quite supplant. 

While Gonzaga has relied heavily on their inside game to carry them through many hard stretches last season and in years before, I believe it is going to be shots beyond the arc that keep us marching strong this year.  That is not to say we’re weak inside and that Gonzaga is going to hoist up a crazy numer of 3’s in the dim hopes a few might drop.  Each of the previously mentioned pairs of 3’s were the sandwich ends of shots at the rim.  At Washington, Ryan Woolridge had 2 of his numerous lay-ins between the aforementioned 3’s.  Philip Petrusev had an ESPN highlight-worthy dunk between Tillie and Gilder’s threes in Arizona.  Our inside game is strong enough to provide the necessary boon to open up our outside shooting and vice-versa. 

Gonzaga doesn’t, however, have anyone quite like last season’s dynamic duo of Brandon Clark and Rui Hachimura—dunking like crazy all over and/or ruthlessly swatting shots on defense.  Don’t get me wrong, Killian Tillie and Phillip Petrusev are as apt and able a starting duo of big men as any college team (or NBA team for that matter) could hope for—and provided they stay healthy they’ll have plenty of highlights to fill their reel when the time comes for that.  Rui and BC were something special down low together.  Tillie and Petrusev would be the first to admit that, having learned a great deal from them both.  The two starters this year, both from across the Atlantic, are extremely crafty forwards, with excellent discipline, strength and the ability to both block shots and throw down the occasional hammer.  They differ a bit in their styles of play, but compliment each other perfectly.

Consider the Serbian first.  Philip Petrusev is as legitimate an NBA prospect as anybody out there.  He’s started every game so far for Gonzaga this year and has performed extremely well against all but one opponent (against whom he performed only swimmingly).  In two of the three signature wins for Gonzaga, Petrusev had double-doubles with 22 and 15 in the OT win against Oregon and 17 and 10 against Washington.  Against Arizona and the most certainly NBA-bound Zeke Nnaji, he was excellent again with 16 points on 6 of 12 shooting, adding 7 rebounds and 4 emphatic blocks.  He’s the leading scorer, rebounder and shot blocker on the team, averaging 15.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game.  When he does well, the team has done well and the only game in which he had less than double digits scoring (he had 9 points and 9 rebounds in the Battle for Atlantis title game against Michigan), Gonzaga lost.

It was against Michigan, and the Wolverine’s hefty John Teske (and very talented Isaiah Livers) that we saw Petrusev and Gonzaga flounder.  He was bottled-up on offense and taken to school on defense.  And like the whole team, it seems Petrusev came out of the loss with a great lesson and great resolve.  It’s easy for a fan like me to look for a silver-lining in such a thorough thrashing, but I truly believe Petrusev and the team have taken the lesson to heart and manned up to face every challenge without shrinking.  I don’t think there’s a member of Zag Nation out there who hopes we don’t see Michigan again this coming March. 

Keith Ybanez, who put forth the criticism soon after the Michigan game that Petrusev’s style of play has “a little bit too much finesse and not enough attitude,” has seen a different Petrusev and a different Gonzaga team since that conclusion to The Battle for Atlantis.  Though now and again he defers to craftiness at the expense of a strong, power move that would yield either a dunk, an easier bucket or a trip to the charity stripe, Petrusev has been strong of late.  And that craftiness, which is going to get points at times when a power move would fail, get blocked or turn the ball over, seems no longer to be what he defers to.  His game is solid of late and its simply a matter of his leaning toward craftiness/finesse or strength/power at the right moments—and having both available all the time.

That balance of finesse and strength was on full display against Arizona where Petrusev showed great rim protection with four blocks, punished the rim a few times with two handed slam dunks (once a bit too emphatically for the referees’ tastes and earning him a technical foul).  I believe through facing the challenges of the likes of Zeke Nnaji, John Teske, and Isaiah Stewart, Petrusev is truly going to fully arrive at his best game of poise, patience and strength by March.

In regards to attitude, strength, ferocity, leadership and determination, the team is going to continue to see more and more from our beloved starter down low, Killian Tillie.  Mark few calls Tillie his “problem solver”—perhaps due to both his excellent hands and anticipation defensively (he leads the team in steals), and his ability to score from absolutely anywhere and against anyone on the offensive end with excellent ball-handling, touch, power and range.  Sharing Petrusev’s finesse and craftiness, the very skilled French big man and Gonzaga veteran has been and is going to continue to be an absolute force everywhere on the court, especially from beyond the arc where he has proved himself to be a more than significant threat.  It was Tillie’s misfortune with injuries last season, and during the last NBA tryouts, that may have truly saved Gonzaga from being sub-par this season.  Zag Nation let out a great sigh of relief when it heard he would be returning to Spokane this season, and it is everyone’s hope that this year will prove worthwhile for him; that he will be injury-free and will significantly boost his NBA stock.  If he continues along at the pace he’s maintained since he started playing in the fifth game of the season, I have no doubt it will.

His all-around presence offensively against the Husky Zone, and defensively against Washington’s elite athletes, was the decisive factor giving the Zags the win in Seattle.  He went 5 for 11 from the field (2 for 5 from beyond the arc), finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals, and truly earned the honor of ESPN’s Player of the Game.  In the Michigan game where almost every Zag player struggled, he was the lone star on the team to score in double figures in any statistic.  Facing up to the Wolverine’s, bulky, hounding defense, Tillie scored a season-high 20 points on 9 for 14 shooting (2 for 4 from deep).  On the season, he averages 12.7 points, 5 rebounds and 36.4% on 3 -point attempts in limited minutes.  He is perhaps the best defender underneath for the Zags—and all said, I think he’s just beginning to get his legs underneath him.

Maybe the biggest worry going into this season was replacing Gonzaga’s all-time assist leader and all-around baller at point guard, Josh Perkins—along with his back-up at point and Gonzaga shooting guard, Geno Crandall.  But the two guys who’ve taken on those roles this season have, in my humble opinion, far exceeded expectations.  Ryan Woolridge, a graduate transfer out of North Texas, has added a mature, slashing, drive-and-dish, disrupting element to the offense that has frustrated many a defense already.  Almost every one of his baskets against Washington (where he scored 16 points on 8 of 11 shooting and had 3 steals) were lay-ins, many of them heavily contested and stupendously gravity-defying.  Woolridge is shooting an outstanding 55.6% from 3-point land, perhaps largely because too many teams have made the mistake of discounting him as a threat from deep and sagged on defense.  When UT Arlington decided to pack the paint whenever Woolridge had the ball, leaving him open on a regular basis, Woolridge took serious offense and expertly dissected their defense. He ended up with three 3’s and a season-high 19 points and stared down the coach of the opposite team much to the chagrin of both Mark Few and the UT Arlington bench.

On top of his considerable offensive production, including nearly 10 points and 4 assists a game, Woolridge is an excellent defender.  He is quick, fast and anticipates extremely well, leading to numerous steals.  Tasked with the job of covering one of the best point guards in the country on Sunday, Nico Manion of Arizona, with the help of Joel Ayayi and the rest of his teammates, Woolridge performed wonderfully, limiting the known expert shooter to a 3 for 20 night from the field, and a stat line with only single-digit points, strong only in his 10 assists.

Joel Ayayi, Gonzaga’s team leader in assists with 4.1 per game, gets time at both point (to relieve Woolridge) and shooting guard to spell Corey Kispert or Admon Gilder.  Ayayi started the season as a substitute off the bench and surprised many with stellar performances in very limited minutes, filling almost every category of statistics’ sheets with numbers.  It was largely his heroics that carried the team to victory in the last seconds of both the Oregon and Washington games.  In the second game at the Battle for Atlantis tournament against Oregon, Ayayi made an acrobatic, reverse layup with 1:18 left in OT to even the score at 72, leaving it to Drew Timme to make one of 2 free throws in the final minute to seal the win.  Ayayi’s reverse lay-in earned him 2 of his 13 points on the night, as he went 5 for 8 from the field, 3 of 6 from beyond the arc, and added 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block.
 
Ayayi’s heroics at the end of the game against the Huskies included another bold move by the young native of France.  It was a particularly brave shot to take with 27 seconds remaining, considering that, besides it having been beyond NBA-range, Ayayi had missed a 3-point jumper with 1:11 remaining on the previous possession.  Gonzaga ahead by a slim 3 points, instead of doubting himself as the shot clock ticked down single digits, he stepped into a shot without hesitation to hit what made any further attempt by Washington to win moot.  His 40.0% shooting from beyond the arc, ferocious rebounding, excellent passing, creative scoring from anywhere on the court, and quality defense have earned him a starting spot in the wake of Admon Gilder’s knee problems.  Consider his stat line against Arizona where he was 5 of 9 from the field, 2 of 4 from deep, with 6 rebounds, 7 assists 1 steal, and 15 points total including an incredible and-1 late in the 2nd half that stretched the lead and allowed Gonzaga to hold on for the victory.

Ayayi’s rise and continued health is a very welcome addition to Gonzaga’s backcourt that has been hobbled and is healing of late.  He and Corey Kispert have been the only two players not to suffer from health problems this season.  A Gonzaga veteran of 3 years and a team leader, the expectations for Corey Kispert this season are great.  He has suffered, however, from a few cold shooting spells in games where, unable to dial in his range, he finished in single digits.  After the season opening blowout of Alabama State where Kispert went 5 of 6 from deep and 10 of 13 from the field, finishing with 28 points, those expectations lulled a bit after games like the ones against Texas A&M and Michigan.  In both, Kispert scored only one field goal.  After shooting through these cold stretches as any pure shooter should, Kispert is back to his expert form, averaging 14.1 points per game and hitting threes at a clip of 40.3%, including an awesome 5 for 8 performance beyond the arc against Oregon. 

Lately, Kispert has done what sharp-shooters like himself should do when faced with any difficulties scoring—he’s found other ways to score.  In the games against Wasington and Arizona, we saw him being useful in many capacities offensively and defensively beyond his obvious talent shooting the long ball.  He’s been rebounding extremely well lately, especially on the offensive glass, pulling in a number of weak side rebounds and earning some easy put-backs as well as utilizing his considerable vertical leap to take the alley-oop from Ayayi against Washington for a sweet dunk.  In Arizona he and the team as a whole utilized the shot fake at the three-point line to repeatedly unsteady a defender and drive to the hoop for lay-ins.  Leading the team in points and rebounds for the game with 18 and 8, the strategy of faking and threatening with the drive opened up some space for Kispert to hit the two three pointers he had at key moments in the game. His rebounding, defensive toughness, athleticism and offensive play both in and outside the arc are extremely important to a proper balance and success for this team against elite competition. 

We can’t leave our discussion of Gonzaga’s backcourt without mentioning Admon Gilder.  Though Gonzaga has a reputation as an internationally flavored team with players from France, Serbia and Lithuania, more representation comes this season from Texas than anywhere else.  Admon Gilder, a transfer out of Texas A&M, along with Woolridge of North Texas fame and freshman, Drew Timme have added some of that state’s attitude and toughness to Gonzaga’s game.  With perhaps the least attitude of the three, Gilder, a starter for the Zags until knee problems sidelined him and limited his game of late, has averaged an even 10 points per game.  His 4 for 4 shooting from beyond the arc against Arizona was a consistent and necessary lift for the Zags in Arizona—both in the team’s recovery from being down early to go up by a point at halftime and to gain the considerable lead later that would allow them to narrowly hold on for the win.

Drew Timme, another Texan, has perhaps the lion’s share of attitude, at least according to Kispert in a pre-season television interview.  A star high-school player, Timme, despite his youth, has become a consistent substitute for the bigs down low.  His all-around toughness, excellent post play, and good defense allow Mark Few to give needed rest to Petrusev and Tillie without losing firepower on either end.  He’s off to an excellent start and has proven himself toe to toe against some of the best bigs in the county, exercising calm composure and patience along with fiery aggressiveness.  He averages 10.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.  If he doesn’t make an early exit for the NBA, he’ll be an integral part of Gonzaga’s offense this season and hopefully at least another season to come. 
The same goes for the local, Spokane-ite, Anton Watson who showed early brilliance and elite athleticism off the bench for Gonzaga.  Lately, however, he’s been sidelined for what appears to be (I’m admittedly no doctor) a repetitive shoulder stinger and/or dislocation problem.  It’s a very unfortunate problem because Watson had been a key element off the bench, adding frustrating length to the defense and elite athleticism to the offense in earlier games.  He is able to play and substitute for almost any position and has every part of what could make a dangerous NBA player one day, except health.  All of Zag Nation truly wishes him a speedy recovery and hopes he will return to the line-up very soon.

The very serious concern that I’ve avoided talking about so far for Gonzaga is free-throw shooting.  The Zags have been extremely lucky so far to win as many games as they have while shooting such a low percentage from the charity stripe.  Against Arizona, they were a dismal 17 of 30, or 56.7% from the line.  In the loss to Michigan, it was 46.2% (Ouch).  Overall this season, Gonzaga has shot 65%, which would, perhaps, be a disappointing figure for many high school teams in the area.  This is obviously something to be concerned about and, no doubt, the coaching staff is acting accordingly.  That Gonzaga has been able to win despite such poor performances at the line is quite a testament to what they’re doing well everywhere else, but eventually you can’t hide your weak points with strong points anymore.  It is particularly distressing that the point guard on the team, a position on any team that needs to shoot good free throws since they have the ball so often (especially when they specialize, like he does, in driving to the basket through contact) Ryan Woolridge is shooting the poorest percentage on the team, with (I cringe to say) 54.3%.  He did, however, ice the game in Arizona with the two free throws that made it an impossible 2 possession contest with just a few tics left on the clock.  Maybe he’s got ice in his veins when it matters but I’d rather have some higher numbers whatever the case.  Corey Kispert, as he should, leads the team at 78.6 %—and I watched in amazement when he was fouled on a three-point attempt against Washington and hit all three in a row as it seemed a rarity for anyone to get even one after another.  In the wins against Oregon and Washington, the team shot at or very near 80 %, giving hopes to fans that things weren’t as bleak as suspected.  But the poor performance against Arizona says issues there haven’t been put to rest and we’ll have to see how it pans out against the likes of North Carolina who might foul a lot as a strategy in the hopes of keeping the score in check. 

In the same Arizona game just mentioned, another issue was exposed in the poor team performance down the stretch by a Gonzaga team leading 81-65 with 1:35 left in the game.  How do you end up at 82-80 with a few ticks left, needing two free throws from a 55% free-throw shooter to ice the contest.  You mess it all up—that’s how it happens!  I have no doubt, however, that Mark Few will be sure to shore up those difficulties along with the woes from the charity stripe, and prevent potential heartbreak losses of the lead that have doomed a few of Gonzaga’s best squads to painful, heart-rending losses in March as potential trips to the final four slipped through our very able fingers (I won’t mention which team I’m thinking of—perhaps you remember one or more).

Those concerns aside, things look really good for the Bulldogs.  Really, really, surprisingly good.  The Gonzaga ship has weathered its worst stretch very well.  It has passed through the roughest center of the storm, and though it has a few bruises and is in need of a some repairs, all aboard can see the break in the storm ahead—the Christmas break.  We still have North Carolina on Wednesday.  That’s always gonna be tough, even though its at home, and even though North Carolina looks like they’re even more hobbled than the Zags at the moment.  I predict a really good outcome in that contest.  I think North Carolina is going to foul us a lot and we’re going to be very decent from the line this time despite our recent troubles.  If everyone is healthy—in particular, if Killian Tillie is able to play at near his best—I suspect this is going to be a blowout Gonzaga win.  If he’s not playing or not playing well, I still think we win by 9, 10 or 11.  I’m going to say 96-81 Gonzaga—maybe a bit pretentious me—but I’m gonna stand by it. 

With the excitement of Wednesday looming, let’s not forget that before Christmas there is another contest scheduled that no Zag fan or player should look past, or look though.  It’ll be the very tail end of the storm before the break, but it could get a little rough at the exit.  The inter-city contest against Eastern Washington University (technically they’re in Cheney, but let’s call it inter-city like it is) is not going to be easy.  EWU, while not an elite out west, has shown resilience and toughness and faced up valiantly against the likes of Boston College and Washington who by no means easily came away with wins against the Eagles.  Belmont suffered a loss against EWU this season.  Let’s not be another ranked team slapped out of the top ten by someone no one knows is very decent.  No doubt the McCarthy Athletic center is going to be up and rocking for the North Carolina game on Wednesday—for the opportunity to finally get a W against perhaps one of the most historically prestigious teams we’ve yet to beat.  No doubt about that—but once that happens, once the W is in the books, let’s make sure we get our heads back out of the clouds and set our eyes on clipping the wings of some high-flying Eagles here at home.  Only that will make it a truly brilliant and jubilant Christmas where Gonzaga could find, under one of the many Christmas trees here in Spokane, a box with #1 in the Nation inside.                            

~ Clark Karoses

For Gonzaga, it was a night for the unsung heroes.  You might have thought the Baylor coaching staff read a scouting report of Gonzaga with a bunch of asterisks on it—but forgot to read the asterisks.  I imagine a line like:  “Rui Hachimura is very good and scores almost at will.  He needs to be stopped!  Killian Tillie, besides being very handy in the paint himself, is an excellent shooter from distance.  Be sure to have a hand in his face at all times.*”  Oh, the staff thinks, we need to key on this guy, Rui Hachi-, Hachi-moto or whatever, and make sure Tillie doesn’t kill us from deep.  And it seems, from what my sweet girlfriend and I watched on Saturday night, they left it at that.  Of course, the asterisk reads:  “*Brandon Clarke is a complete badass, plays defense like a man possessed and can jump out of the damned building.  Don’t let him block shots, dunk, hit any floaters, or get into his mid-range game.”  Oops, sometimes those asterisks are important to read.  Another possibility:  “Zach Norvell and Josh Perkins can hit from anywhere on the court.  Deep NBA 3 pointers, jumpers, floaters, whatever.  And they both drive extremely well to the basket.**”  OK, lets really get out on those two from deep and be ready if they put the ball on the floor and drive.  And the double asterisk they missed:  “**Don’t leave Corey Kispert alone either.  He’s like a basketball Samurai, precise, deadly, and waiting patiently for the proper moment to strike.  He’s a strong, excellent defender who hits the glass hard.  Get a body on him or he’ll be serious trouble on the offensive glass.”  Double oops, missed that one too. 

Kidding aside, I doubt Baylor missed any asterisks.  Its just that Gonzaga has so many asterisks!  You key on something and they’re going to burn you somewhere else.  Baylor, it seemed, did a good job on defense as 4 of Gonzaga’s main guys shot a less than stellar 9 of 29—including our leading scorer who went for just 6 points and 5 rebounds due to some early foul trouble (and, I speculate here, likely wasn’t feeling well).  All their effort to stymie Rui went for naught as Brandon Clarke scored a Gonzaga team NCAA tournament record-setting 36 points.  Baylor’s attempts to limit “snacks”/to chill “the microwave,” Zach Norvell, though somewhat effective, just opened it up for Corey Kispert to take advantage of open looks and pull in a team second-best 16 points of his own for the game.     

Brandon Clarke was absolutely the man on Saturday, no doubt about it—but if you’ve been paying attention to Gonzaga this season, that’s kinda old hat.  Though not the leading scorer as often as Hachimura, he has scored in double figures every game (every game!) of the season.  He’s a rock on both ends—a very, very solid, springy rock.  It’s wonderful for him to have a game like the one he did on Saturday and get the kind of national attention he’s deserved for so long.  Clarke’s phenomenal stat line for the game includes 15 of 18 shooting (no wonder he leads the nation in shooting percentage!) for 36 points (the most by a Gonzaga player in an NCAA tournament game—besting Adam Morrison’s record by a point).  He had 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 5, count ‘em, 5 blocks (that’s 8 in the first 2 games of the tournament!).  Steve Cameron, in his column “The Zags Tracker,” mentions two interesting points about Clarke in his review of the game.  He has more blocks than missed shots (110 to 105) this season.  That there just leaves you a little speechless.  He’s also only the 3rd player in NCAA tournament history to garner 35+ points and 5 blocks in a game.  The other two were Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson. 

It was great to see that kind of performance live.  If Clarke didn’t quite have 10 dunks in the game, he was really close, and a lot of them were spectacular enough to bring you out of your seat with your arms up and make you yell “Ohh!  Ohh!” (really loudly so the obnoxious Baylor fans behind you badmouthing your team know he just threw it the f- down).  The one that really lit up the arena was off a dunk that Tillie tried to put down himself on a lob from Crandall if I recall correctly—but when it came off the rim with some pretty good zip, Clarke caught it and threw it down with authority.  Clarke has some of the best hands in college basketball and anything in his reach rarely gets away.  He and Tillie had another awesome highlight together when Tillie tossed it, hook-like from the free throw line, over his shoulder to Clarke streaking from the left along the baseline who took it from under the rim over the top and smashed it home.  That clicking between the bigs--between Clarke and Tillie and Rui and Tillie in the past couple of games (which we’ve seen so much of with Rui and Clarke in Tillie’s absence) is a great sign.      ​

Clarke and Corey Kispert are truly the heavy lifters on this team, doing a lot of work without getting a huge amount of the credit.  Mark Few called Corey Kispert his “player of the game” on Saturday because of his excellence facing very difficult defensive assignments as well as his scorching shooting.  Kispert had 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting, including 4 of 6 from beyond the arc, and 7 rebounds to boot.  Much of the openness in the paint that Clarke took such wonderful advantage of was due to Kispert’s searing the defense with his long jumpers.  And many of Kispert’s rebounds came as he crashed the offensive glass, leading to easy put backs if not alley oops back into the hoop.  Though his shooting can sometimes run cold, Kispert can’t be left alone from distance, and shows immense strength, stamina, hops and pure heart on both ends.  It’s great to see the guys who don’t always get the headlines, show how great they really are in this game.  Happy, I’m sure, to let Clarke and Kispert have the brighter lights, Zach Norvell and Josh Perkins also played a quality game as well.  Perkins had 11 points and 6 assists, while Norvell finished with 9 points and 7 rebounds.  Geno Crandall had a very modest night, his only points coming off a somewhat laughable attempt to feed Clarke with an alley-oop that, with very little rotation on the ball, went in the basket for 3 points.  All he could do was shrug his shoulders and chuckle.  It's great to see these guys have fun when they play, even when it's accidental! 

Largely due to Clarke, Kispert, Tillie and Norvell’s efforts, the Bulldogs bested the Bears on the boards, with 39 rebounds to Baylor’s 27, including 13 to 12 on the offensive glass.  This is a great sign prior to the next game against Florida State.  The Zags were over 50 % on a 31 of 57 effort from the field, with a slightly less stellar effort than last game from deep going 7 of 20 for 35 %.  The Bears held it fairly close for a good amount of the game, down by only 5 points with 16 minutes left in the second half, but the Zags just kept tightening the choke hold.  Mark Vital, and Makai Mason each had 17 points, and Jared Butler and King McClure had 11 and 15 respectively despite strong efforts on the part of the Zags all game long on defense.  The assist ratio was almost 2 to 1 in favor of Gonzaga with 19 to Baylor’s 10.  To the Bulldog coaching staff’s chagrin, the free-throw percentage dipped below 70 again.  I have no doubt its going to come up in the game against Florida State on Thursday.

Though any game you win in the tournament is a great game, as Mark Few mentioned in his post-game interview, Florida State is “vastly under-seeded.”  If you’re a Gonzaga fan you remember the Seminoles from the Sweet 16 last year, and the difficult end to an excellent season that wasn’t expected to go nearly as far as it went when people projected things at the beginning of the season.  The Bulldogs weren’t expected to win the WCC in 2018—not the conference nor the tournament.  They won both and handily set aside all opposition in the WCC tournament that gave us such trouble this year.  The end to a very nice string of wins late in the season came in the Sweet 16, at the hands of Florida State and Leonard Hamilton’s fathomlessly deep bench.  Like the game against the Zags last year, Hamilton went often to his bench against Murray State in the game that earned them the right to play Gonzaga in this Sweet 16.  He kept fresh bodies in to defend the likes of Ja Morant and snuff out further tournament hopes for that superstar despite his stellar shooting to begin the game.  It is, no doubt, the same strategy he will employ against Gonzaga on Thursday night.  I think the best defense against a depth like Florida State’s is a depth of your own and the Zags are in a much better spot this year than last. 

Last year we didn’t really have it.  Tillie was, unexpectedly, out for that Sweet 16 game in 2018.  With him, as I’ve mentioned already, last year’s game would no doubt have been closer.  Geno Crandall, a seasoned veteran of the game who lends a great deal of depth to the Zags' backcourt, wasn’t a part of the team either.  Nor was Brandon Clarke—and Clarke is a serious game changer, as we’ve already seen.  Jonathan Williams was, of course, an excellent player in the 2018 game, but neither he nor Hachimura had convincing answers to solve how the team could compete against Florida State’s endless supply of fresh length and strength.  Rui scored 16 in the game to lead the Zags, Norvell had 14, and though the Zags narrowly outrebounded the Seminoles by a 42 to 40 margin, all the shooting percentages were extremely low for Gonzaga, going only 25% from deep and just under 34% from the field.  It wasn’t good enough to win then and it won’t be good enough to win on Thursday.  We have the answers to solve those problems this year and I suspect Mark Few will have some tricks up his sleeve to further frustrate the Seminoles.   

I have no doubt that this team, unlike last years team, has all the pieces necessary to make it over the hurdle of Florida State in the Sweet 16.  Making it over that hurdle, I believe, will put Gonzaga in very good territory to continue on toward a national championship.  One really positive sign is that Hachimura, leading scorer for the Zags in that 2018 game, has a lot more game-time under his belt and is infinitely better prepared to meet the challenge.  He’s learned to bang with the best of the big boys.  He’s stronger, faster and his intensity level is on the rise every game he plays.  Brandon Clarke had all those qualities to begin with and no doubt about it, will be seriously primed and pumped for this one.

Oh yea, and Tillie’s back.  It still rings like angel trumpets in my ears.  Clarke and Hachimura have slightly different games, I think. I would call Hachimura a finesse player, with excellent moves around players, using the basket often to his advantage as a way of losing defenders on the other side.  And his smooth jumper is a thing of absolute beauty.  He can play D and bang down low with the big guys, but perhaps smooth, poetic play is his natural state.  As we saw against Baylor, Clarke is going to give it all he's got everywhere on the court, swat you if you come up with even a pinch of weakness, get to the basket directly, and hit you in the teeth if you’re in his way.  Both players, I believe, have learned the style of the other—perhaps best by necessity from practicing against it all year.  Clarke has developed some very smooth moves, and Rui has had to become stronger and more forceful in his all-around game.  I remember watching the team scrimmage just before the opening of the season for the fans at the McCarthy Athletic Center.  It's a free, yearly event that draws a lot of people in and allows the team to introduce itself to the fanbase.  One thing I noticed right off the bat, because I suspected Rui would dominate the scrimmage, was that Brandon Clarke was really giving him some serious trouble during the scrimmage.  That, of course, boded well for the rest of the season because anybody who can give Rui trouble has got to have some serious skills.  Tillie, I would say, is a wonderful balance between the two extremes that Rui and Clarke represent.  He can finesse as well as bang with the best of them, and both seem natural to him.  And though Rui and Clarke pull the trigger from deep occasionally when left wide open (and make it at a pretty darn high percentage), Tillie makes 3’s with guys in his grill all the time.  They are an absolutely lethal triumvirate with such an incredible range of skills, and the Seminoles are not going to dissuade all three from having great games easily.  Oh, and Petrusev, our other tall guy off the bench, showed he can both shoot from deep, pull off sweet post moves and dunk against the likes of Duke and North Carolina earlier this season as well.  It seems to me, we’ve definitely got depth to contend with Florida State down low. 

In the backcourt, Perkins, Norvell and Kispert return from the 2018 team with the added help of our beloved Geno Crandall and his precision skills, imaginative execution and tenacious D.  Jeremy Jones, another veteran player with serious skills on both ends, plays with that wonderful quality of fuzzying the line between guard and forward.  He will be right in the grill of anybody he’s up against on defense, big or not, picking pockets, rebounding and he will not hesitate to take advantage of any scoring opportunities he’s offered.  All this is to say Gonzaga’s really, really good, and as prepared as they can possibly be, with the personnel to make amazing things happen.  There’s good reason the committee had them down as a #1 seed.  Florida State is going to be facing something they haven’t seen as of yet in this team--very different and, I believe, more lethal than any other Gonzaga team in the history of great Gonzaga teams.  Needless to say, I’ve got Gonzaga in ink as my pick to move on to the Elite 8, the Final 4, the Final and as the Champions.                       

If you watched any games this last week, you may have seen that the NCAA had warm-up shirts made for the teams that brought a smile to my face seeing them on the Gonzaga players.  The shirt simply said “FAMILY,” with the team logo underneath it.  It sounds like the kind of sentimental thing that gets printed on shirts a lot around tournament time, but when it comes to Gonzaga the word resonates with so many who have been a part of the program.  I’ve been reading an excellent recent history of Gonzaga basketball written by Bud Withers, called Glory Hounds.  Besides an in-depth look at the hard work always being done at Gonzaga to improve the team and the program in whatever way possible, the overarching take-away from that book (written mainly about the last 20 years of Gonzaga basketball) is that the whole program is a tight-knit family and that love, warmth and caring are very much at its heart.  Withers quotes Ray Giacoletti (former head coach at Drake, North Dakota State, Utah and Eastern Washington and who had been a Coaching assistant in many different places) who said of his 6 year assistantship at Gonzaga:  “Most places talk about family, and that’s all BS.  This place is truly family, and they live it.  You can feel it just being on that campus. . . I never felt that before in a college setting.”  Withers also interviewed a number of former Gonzaga players for the book who share a deep-seeded feeling of love for the program.  Of Ronny Turiaf, a player dear to so many fans here at Gonzaga, Withers writes:  “When I asked him if he felt the love [while at Gonzaga], Turiaf took it a step further.  ‘Not that I felt it,’ he says.  ‘It was that I was in it.  It never appeared to me any other way.’”

I have gone on at length to praise the players on the Gonzaga team over the past few blog posts.  I’d like to take a bit of room here to praise the coaching staff that has done such an excellent job of fostering that love, warmth and family spirit.  The current coaching staff, no doubt about it, are a bunch of precious gems.  And as precious gems they’re often gazed upon longingly by other programs with thoughts, perhaps, to steal them away.  Praise should especially go out to the man who has been loyal to steering the Gonzaga Men’s Basketball team for 20 years and has been a part of the program since way back in 1989.  Mark Few, who was once again named WCC coach of the year this season and is now one of 11 coaches named as a semifinalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year (he already won that distinction in 2017 when he and the team won a program record 37 games), holds the record for ongoing tournament appearances since beginning his career as head coach.  It’s incredible to realize that the Bulldogs, under his leadership since July of 1999, have never missed March Madness!  As Withers mentions in the book, to have been so consistently great is a feat no program like Gonzaga has been able to replicate.  And it is largely Mark Few and his staff’s dedication to the program, where “literally, there isn’t a stone that goes unturned here,” that has nurtured that greatness.    

I played basketball in a small town in North Idaho back in the late 80’s and we had a head coach who taught the fundamentals of basketball well, had a smart system in place, and his players gave him a lot of effort and respect.  He got gallons of sweat out of us preaching a strong emphasis on defense, teaching that “charges taken” was the best statistic any player could hope to accrue.  “Defense creates offense” was his mantra.  He molded rag-tag groups of mostly farmers and loggers kids into decent basketball players, got the support of a fair percent of the community and the school, and won a fair number of games.  But as part of the basketball team, I knew his coach-player relationship was based on heavy-handed control, and a too often belittling of his players.  His rhetoric lacked even the modicum of compassion and respect that makes a good player-coach relationship.  Besides the fact that he told inexcusably racist jokes sometimes (perhaps as his best attempt to bind players together through a backwards, small-town mentality),  I don’t think many of the players enjoyed playing for him.  As a coach, it seems to me you have to walk a very fine line between, on the one hand, asking/demanding/ harassing your players to do what you want them to do to be their best and, on the other hand, showing compassion toward them as individuals, allowing them to have fun playing basketball, and allowing them to use their natural talents as they’ve developed them already. It became, for me and my fellow teammates, difficult to enjoy the game we were playing whether we were winning or losing.  What I felt on the court then was not the love of the game and the desire to compete and win and play well.  Instead I felt the hesitancy, second-guessing and anxiety that comes with not wanting to mess up and garner his reprimand.  My feeling is that the team was far worse as a result. 

My idea of Mark Few as a coach is as a man who walks that line well, choosing love over fear.  Withers quotes Ray Giacoletti again, speaking about Few, as saying: “I’d be hard-pressed that there’s maybe anybody in college basketball that’s as good at keeping things in proper balance.”  This proper balance, in which a player finds his coach not only a very demanding, trusted authority on what is best to improve his and the teams’ basketball skills and direct their efforts and performance in games, but also a compassionate proponent of the player as a fun-loving, caring individual with goals, feelings and desires separate from his use as a player seems a very necessary part of being a great coach.  What I think the best coaches get as a result of walking that fine line so well is not simply fearful effort that comes from a desire not to do poorly, but expansive effort from the heart to do well not only for yourself, but for your teammates, your fans, your coaches, , your family, everyone involved that you care for, and perhaps your God on top of all that.  You can see it in the way the Gonzaga players put heart-felt effort into the games they enjoy playing and enjoy playing together.  It’s one of the important, intangible things that rarely get mentioned.  Sam Scholl, head coach of the San Diego Toreros men’s basketball team said it well when talking about the Zags after his team was bested in a very good effort this season:   “The thing that doesn’t get talked about enough with Gonzaga is that they play for each other, as good if not better than anybody they play against.  You can see it in everything they do, the way they celebrate for each other’s baskets, the way they talk to each other on the floor, the way they come in and out of timeouts, the way they huddle.  That for me is the most impressive thing.  They’ve got an unbelievable amount of talent, but man do they play for each other.”                  

One of the things Spokane and Gonzaga fans everywhere are so thankful for is something Mark Few’s wife, Marcy, says of him in the book while reminiscing about their early years together:  “What I remember sticking with me is how loyal he is, and what a good person he is.”  His loyalty has kept him in Spokane despite being wooed toward other head coaching positions. In Glory Hounds, Oregon’s attempt to woo Few away from Gonzaga and closer to his hometown of Creswell, Oregon was mentioned as perhaps the most difficult offer he had to refuse.  Another attempt to take him away is mentioned in which someone offers to build Few a trout steam on his potential new property (should he take the coaching job) so he can continue his beloved hobby of fly-fishing while coaching somewhere in the Mid-West.  But Mark Few seems to recognize that a real trout stream (or a river for that matter) in the Pacific Northwest is far better than more money and a fake one somewhere else.  (Maybe they should have offered to build a wave pool to surf in as well).

Mark Few’s insistence on loyalty, integrity and family has also brought together an excellent bunch of assistants.  From Tommy Loyd (in his 17th year with the program) and his hard work recruiting overseas, nearby and all over to the inventive strength and fitness routines put together for the players by Travis Knight.  From Donny Daniels adding his considerable experience from places like UCLA and Cal State Fullerton, to Brian Michaelson in his 10th year with the Zags program scouting and developing players.  Few and his assistants’ focus on family, loyalty, hard work, integrity, sincerity and honesty have created and defined Gonzaga basketball.   

The current players say as much whenever they can, never hesitant to use the word “love,” when referring to the players, coaches, fans and the program.  Zach Norvell calls Mark Few “one of the most humble guys in the world,” and in the next sentence demands that “he loves to compete” and that Few’s motto is “never settle.  And always get better.”  Rui Hachimura, after his considerable trials coming into Gonzaga with extremely limited English to play basketball for a team he somehow trusted to do the best they could for him, in English improved through the dedication of so many on the staff and at the University:  “I just love being here.  I love my coaches.  I appreciate everybody.”  

The love definitely goes back and forth, round and round between players and staff and fans and the rest of Zag nation.  This is truly a “Family” in the best sense of the word.  

 ~ Clark Karoses

So here we are again.  Selection Sunday is upon us!  It’s March, tournament time, and the madness is about to begin!  Once again, the Gonzaga Men’s Basketball team can count their losses this season on the fingers of a single hand.  And despite a slip-up in the WCC tournament final, everything looks golden.  It’s Saint Patrick’s Day as I write this, the sun is shining, and I believe the luck of the Irish is with us here in Spokane as the Zags are about to embark on a journey to the top of the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament (and that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow).  The Zags goal this season is to have the best final outcome of any Gonzaga team, and there’s only one outcome that will fully satisfy Gonzaga players, fans and the coaching staff.  It’s no longer just about getting into the Final Four.  It’s not about surviving.  It’s about thriving into April and cutting the nets down after the National Championship game in Minneapolis.

Coming off a disappointing end to the WCC tournament in Las Vegas, it can be difficult for Zag fans to think positively about things to come.  But we’ve got plenty to be positive about.  Being the fan of a team that wins so consistently can make any loss difficult to stomach.  I think it’s best to remember Nietzsche’s:  “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”  Know that any weaknesses revealed in our most recent loss will be used to further strengthen the team’s play.  And we should thank goodness that the game Gonzaga Men’s Basketball lost last Tuesday to Saint Mary’s wasn’t played in the round of 64, 32, the Sweet 16, Elite 8, etc., etc. of the Big Dance.  I have no doubt that since that loss emphasis has been placed on the problematic areas of the Zags game that were revealed.  Before we touch on the game every Gonzaga fan will want to forget, let’s remember what we are thankful about from the WCC tournament. 

Zag nation received perhaps its greatest gift of the season on Monday night facing Pepperdine when it welcomed Killian Tillie back onto the court at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.  He seemed in quite excellent form for his first night back after missing time due to his foot fascia difficulties.  Tillie picked up where he left off last year in the WCC tournament (in the 2018 tourney he went 13 of 14 from deep, shot 78 percent overall, and averaged 24 points a game over 3 games—and picked up MVP honors).  Few limited Tillie to 15 minutes last Monday night where he was perfect from 3-point range against Pepperdine, going 3 of 3, accounting for all his 9 points.  He also had 6 rebounds and Zags fans everywhere were breathing a deep sigh of relief. The Prodigal Son returned.

In that game, all the starters and six players total (Petrusev had 10 off the bench) finished in double figures for the Zags (A point for Tillie and 2 for Jeremy Jones would have made that 8 players).  This included the dynamic duo of Rui Hachimura and Brandon Clarke, going for 16 and 15 respectively.  Clarke, 6 for 7 from the field, also had 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks.  Rui added 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks himself.  Besides getting up and denying some shots the opportunity to get to the basket, the Zags were picking a lot of pockets on Monday night, with 11 steals (4 by Geno Crandall who also had 6 assists).  Josh Perkins, who got in a bit of early foul trouble, also had 6 assists and 11 points in 26 minutes and was perfect from the free-throw line.  In 24 minutes, Zach Norvell (aka snacks, aka microwave) fared even better.  He was 8 of 10 from the field, 2 of 4 from deep, finishing with 18 points to lead all Zags, adding 2 steals and 3 assists.

Team-wise, the numbers were great too.  The Zags were up 37 to 28 in rebounds.  Gonzaga shot 37 of 62 overall on field goals, just shy of 60% overall.  They were 11 for 23, or 47.8% from deep.  If you want to nit-pick for problems, the turnovers were a little heavy and Gonzaga gave it up 13 times.  Free throw shooting, which had been on a stairstep up in percentage each of the last few games dipped below 70% overall on a 15 of 22 effort.  But the way Gonzaga shared the ball for good buckets and great shots was reminiscent of the best moments all season.

Oh, how quickly and mysteriously the tables can turn in college basketball.  Sometimes you just have an off night—and Tuesday night against the Gaels was that for sure.  Gonzaga was 18 of 48, or 37.5% on field goals overall against Saint Mary’s, and shot an embarrassing 2 for 17 from deep (just 11.8%).  The Zags were bested on the boards as well by a margin of 34 to 27.  Norvell, 8 of 10 the night before, was 1 for 11 shooting field goals and 0 for 6 from beyond the arc.  Perkins, making good decisions and shooting well during the games leading up to the championship, went 4 for 14 and 0 for 3 from deep.  He and Brandon Clarke were the only Zag players scoring in double figures on a team that regularly has at least 5 players going for more than 10.  Brandon Clarke, such a reliable bright star for this team this season, had the best stat sheet for the night with 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting, 4 of 4 from the charity stripe, with 8 rebounds and a block.  Tillie, in limited minutes again, was 2 of 3 from the floor, 1 of 2 from deep and finished with 5 points. 

Sometimes the train just goes off the tracks.  Sometimes things just go awry.  You stand up and shake it off, take what you can learn from it and move forward, leaving as much bitterness behind as possible.   As much as human beings long for certainty and the ability to predict outcomes, the world (and college basketball especially) consistently denies us the privilege.  You have to hand it to Saint Mary’s for putting together a stellar effort in the game, playing outstanding defense, and just out hustling the Zags.  Jordan Ford had a career night.  I’m sure the administration of the WCC likes that outcome a lot, with two teams from a very underrated conference making the tournament.  It would be great to see the Gaels make some waves in their bracket and lets all hope for a rematch in April (though that’s a serious longshot)! 

I have no doubt that Gonzaga and its phenomenal coaching staff have done and are doing everything they can over the extended break to prepare the players for the tests they’re going to face in the tournament.  And while this loss hurts, I think it does two positive things for the team going into the big dance.  First, it may have revealed some areas where work can shore up potential difficulties to come on Thursday and beyond.  I also think it can put the team in a more hungry, focused mindset to help the team be more aggressive.  Tasting defeat makes those who haven’t felt it for some time realize how distasteful it is and can turn the complacent, superior-feeling mind back into one focused on the moment and the work at hand.

I don’t know what you’ve got on your bracket, but I’ve got Gonzaga slated for a rematch with Florida State in the Sweet 16 and another rematch in the National Championship with North Carolina, this time faring better than last time, besting the Tar Heels 88 to 77.  I made up another one in which Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga meet in the national championship just for the heck of it—wouldn’t that be some sweet revenge!  Best of luck to you in your brackets.  If you’re smart you’ll send the Zags on a stairstep down the West bracket as far as they can go! 

​~ Clark Karoses 

I went back and watched the last Gonzaga Men’s Basketball Senior Night game against BYU.  Re-watching a game, I think, brings out the critic in everyone.  I noticed that the game (which I considering a near perfect 40 minutes on first watching), though it ended as a 34-point landslide victory for the Zags, wasn’t as pretty on a second viewing.  The highlights are spectacular and the emotional intensity of the team and the crowd in Spokane was way, way up.  Though it never seemed to me like the Zags were going to lose, the game wasn’t secure for quite a while.  The Zags had a 13-point lead at halftime, and BYU was hanging tough.  And though they outscored the Cougars 51 to 30 in the second half, a lot of the Zags offense, besides a good number of ridiculously sweet highlights, came from the saving grace of free throws—and a few of those from technical fouls.  It turned out great of course.  The Zags took care of the ball well, but took some bad shots, missed some easy buckets and made a few bad decisions.  

Our team basketball IQ, a somewhat arbitrary measure of the ability to make good decisions in games, looked like it was drooping at times.  It’s difficult to say that about a game where the team scores 102 points and does pretty darn great on defense, but that’s what I noticed on seeing it again and I suspect there will be some moments when the team re-watches the game, where Mark Few will be pointing out flaws.  So going into the weekend in California, with a game on Thursday night against Pacific, and the final conference game of the season against Saint Mary’s on Saturday in Moraga, I was definitely looking for poor decisions.  

Luckily, I didn’t see too many.  I remember a few errant passes, and a couple of the inevitable “what are you thinking?” moments, but I thought the road game in Stockton against Pacific showed us a team that deserves it’s spot as #1 in the nation because it makes really good decisions, plays with intensity on both ends of the court, and finds its rhythm and the ability to score without becoming flustered after a few misses or mistakes.

And Gonzaga’s two starting bigs, Brandon Clarke and Rui Hachimura, came out to play basketball in Stockton.  Both have scored in double figures in every game they’ve played this season.  Both of them!  In every game!!  That’s an amazing stat.  It’s amazing neither has had an off-night scoring and stayed in single digits—or that neither so dominated a game that the other suffered.  They are an outstanding, complimentary and humble duo, providing the foundation of a team that I don’t believe is going to lose again this season.  The first meeting against Pacific this year was the closest both came to faltering in that double-digit scoring streak.  Josh Perkins led all scorers on that night with 14, while both Rui and Clarke scored exactly 10 points.  Our two bigs, and the team as a whole, were thrown off-balance by the Tiger’s slow, physical style of play in that first meeting of the two teams this season on January 28, that ended with Gonzaga besting Pacific 67 (the Zags lowest total this season) to 36.  Rui wasn’t able to garner a rebound in that contest—and I believe he came out Thursday, February 28 on Pacific’s home court with the memory of that frustrating game in mind, intent on changing it up.  After the game, Brandon Clarke said that he and the team had been working on absorbing contact and playing through the sorts of bumps Pacific, Saint Mary’s as well as all the good teams they’ll face in March will inevitably bring.  They obviously did a good job working on that, according to the game stats.  The two forwards more than doubled their combined point total from 20 in the first meeting to 48 in the second!  

Hachimura went on a tear with 27 points on 11 of 16 shooting, one of those makes being a 3, and pulled down 6 rebounds.  Clarke had his third straight double-double with 21 points and 13 rebounds, as well as 4 blocks.  Leading the country with nearly a 70% field goal percentage, his 8 of 10 shooting bumped that number up a smidge.  Geno Crandall, such a spark in Zags play these last few games and steadily adding even more firepower to an already explosive offense, finished in double digits as well, with 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals.  Zach Norvell went 4 of 7 and finished with 12 points, hitting one of his two three-point attempts.   Despite going 2 of 4 from beyond the arc, Josh Perkins ended up just under double digits with 8 points, 2 steals and just one assist to add to his record-breaking career total at Gonzaga.

Pacific gave a valiant effort on their senior night.  In the second half, Gonzaga only outscored the Tigers by a single point, 47 to 46.  The shining star on the team, Roberto Gallinat, shot 4 of 8 from beyond the arc and garnered 23 points.  The Tigers as a team, like Gallinat, shot a very impressive 50% from deep.  But Gonzaga did too many things well and wouldn’t let the Tigers claw their way back into the game.  Gonzaga’s defense was really good, I thought, despite the good numbers the Tigers had from deep.  Most of the looks Pacific had anywhere on the court were well contested, they just ended up hitting a good number of them.  Gonzaga rebounded well with a 34 to 28 advantage on the boards, turned the ball over only 8 times (while forcing 12 turnovers), and shot 60% on field goals as a team.  Another night of great free-throw shooting was the icing on the cake for Gonzaga.  One cannot stress the importance, I think, heading into March, of strong free-throw shooting—and at 15 of 18 from the line, or 83.3%, Gonzaga looked great on Thursday night.

Gonzaga went into Saturday’s game in Moraga looking to keep the good things going and win their 20th straight game this season to cinch down the final win that would give them a clean sweep of every WCC conference game—hoping, of course, to win by double digits as they have in every one of those conference wins so far.  And they pulled it off impressively in a hard-fought game at a very hostile, humid, and slippery (thank goodness nobody got hurt) gym.  First off, I’d like to give Josh Perkins his well-deserved props.  He has become the perfect point guard for this team with its wealth of talent.  He is quite content to rack up assists in the games where everyone else is hitting shots; when Snacks is going off with a barrage from deep for instance, or when Rui and Clarke are shoveling in what’s being served up inside.  But when necessary—when the Zags are being tested like they were on Saturday night—Perkins has proved that he can rack up the points as well.  With what might have been Gonzaga’s worst performance from beyond the arc of the season, shooting a dismal 2 of 14 (14.3%) from deep, with starting wings Norvell and Kispert struggling to find their range, Perkins did exactly what he had to do in picking up the scoring slack himself—recognizing what was being given and taking it.  Perk had 19 points (one basket coming nearly from the seat of his shorts as he was falling to the floor during one of the many slips that occurred on that sweating floor), was a perfect 5 of 5 from the free throw line, had 2 assists and 2 steals as well.  

Brandon Clarke and Rui Hachimura continued their down-low dominance, both again in double digits.  They had almost an identical stat line, going 7 of 10 from the field.  Clarke had 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks.  Clarke not only finished the season leading the nation with a field-goal percentage of 69.9%, but had a Gonzaga record-breaking total of 99 blocks (I think he got cheated out of at least one this season—I’m gonna call it an even 100).  His excellent play earned him both the WCC Defensive Player of the Year honor as well as WCC Newcomer of the Year.  Hachimura, the WCC Player of the Year, had 17 points and 8 rebounds.  One of the things boding well for Gonzaga in everything to come is to see these two big men leading the fast break and passing to one another for an emphatic slam dunk.  Any of the starters, point-guard to forward, can begin the fast break, handle the ball on the way and dish at the opportune moment.  We saw it on one particularly strong play, where Hachimura got the defensive rebound, dribbled (he is very quick pushing the ball) up the court and hit Clarke in transition for a rim-punishing slam.  Watching two bigs take off like that and beat both teams up the floor bodes very well for the team.  And to see these two scoring so well and so consistently in every game, makes me think even if the Zags have some lack of decent outside shooting, (which won’t happen often because Norvell is too good a shooter, Kispert is great when he has the right looks, Perkins is excellent, and Geno is getting in rhythm as well), one or both of these guys is going to make up for any slack.  

Geno Crandall, who is showing less and less of what I might call the “reckless abandon” that didn’t go so well with Mark Few’s game plan as he was acclimatizing himself during the beginning of the season, continues to show stretches of great poise, intensity and moments of absolute brilliance.  His talent, utilized as a part of the smarts of the Gonzaga offensive schemes is, I believe, only beginning to more fully bloom.  And I think it will come to fruition near the first day of spring.  He was 3 of 5 against Saint Mary’s, hit his only 3 attempt, finished with 8 points and had the greatest assist of the game, tossing it up perfectly for Brandon Clarke who, sprinting toward the hoop, rose into the air and took that lobbed ball off the top corner of the backboard square behind the rim for an extraordinary slam dunk that even the fans in Moraga must have appreciated seeing and hearing.  Though there were some exceptional assists on Saturday night, no one player has been garnering a great number in the last two games.  It was a given for most of the season that Josh Perkins was going to be the leader with somewhere close to 10 assists a game, but his numbers have been down recently.  He only had 1 assist at Pacific and 2 against Saint Mary’s.  The assist leader has been Zach Norvell in both games, with 3 assists, but he shared the honor with Brandon Clarke against Pacific.

Rebounding wasn’t so strong in Moraga.  The two teams both had 30 rebounds.  Maybe the best and most hopeful thing watching this game, for me, was seeing Gonzaga find a double digit win despite significant struggles from 3-point shooting, decent but not great rebounding, too many turnovers (10 as opposed to 13 for Saint Mary’s) and struggles from Philip Petrusev on both ends of the court.  Petrusev did, however, have a sweet fade away shot to finish the 1st half and reclaim the lead going into the locker room.  Despite first-half troubles, and a collapse of their lead early in the second that found them nearly even with Saint Mary’s at 47 to 44, the Zags showed their dominant defense and offense by going on a 17-0 run, putting the game well out of reach for the opposition.  Their free throw percentage, an all-important statistic going into March, went up another rung on the ladder.  Gonzaga was 11 for 12 for the night, or 91.7% from the charity stripe.   

After having the good fortune to watch most of the first half of the Gonzaga Men’s Basketball’s game against Pepperdine on Thursday night at work, and having listened to Tom Hudson and Adam Morrison on the radio broadcast narrate the rest of the 2nd half on my commute home, I was anxious to see some highlights from the game.  And scrolling through the GMB twitter feed, the first thing I run across when I find some highlights is another Gonzaga troll trying to kill whatever joy fans are having up here with a comment under a celebratory post that read:  “Gonzaga hasn’t played anyone decent in like 7 weeks.”  Who the hell are these people?  Is it some Duke, North Calolina or Tennessee fan, nursing the hurt from a recent loss or just a little too high on their horse after a win, who has to go out and squash whatever happiness is being had in the realm of college basketball anywhere else it might be had?  I want to reply with something equally snide and say something like “I don’t come to your place of business and slap the bleep out of your mouth!  Why you got to go knocking the Zags like that, Mr. Killjoy?”  But no, I stop and breathe and exercise some restraint.

First off, if you’re going to knock the Zags, wait until whoever it is you’re a fan of is on the court with them, not after one of their conference wins—and not while you’re trolling the internet trying to work away life’s frustrations or some personal vendetta by putting the kibosh on people cheering about something they love.  I hope there’s no Gonzaga fans looking for easier wins by ranked teams in other conferences and trying to demean them.  That’s just petty.  Admittedly, wins in the Big 12, ACC, SEC, Big 10, etc. are, perhaps, harder to come by than in the WCC at times.  But that is just the lot each of these teams has been given, and I think that Gonzaga did the best it could to try to make their situation as difficult as possible by scheduling one of the toughest non-conference schedules of any team.  If the issue you have is the number next to your team’s name on the television screen (Gonzaga’s got a 2 right now, and many assume it will be a 1 on Monday), same your comments for the people who rank teams.  It’s not like any of those numbers matter anyway.  

I do take offense, though, at “hasn’t played anyone decent”—not because I think Gonzaga’s opponents have been stellar compared to other teams.  But these are Division 1 college basketball teams.  Anyone playing on any of these teams is very likely a whole hell of a lot more “decent” than any of the people making these comments—in terms of their skills on the court as well as their morals.  Before you go popping off a slanderous comment about any team, remember all the guys on these teams, on any of these teams, are college student-athletes.  Many of them are not so far from high school, they’re studying their asses off, finding their identities and at the same time trying to excel and compete in the very demanding world of Division 1 collegiate sports.  And you’re going to demean them, saying they’re not anyone decent?  Weak sauce.  In all seriousness, you should be ashamed of yourself. 

As far as the game with Pepperdine goes, it was a momentous one in that Josh Perkins became the career assist leader for Gonzaga, by passing Matt Santangelo’s record of 668 assists.  Perkins had a good night breaking it, with 9 assists and 10 points on 4 of 6 shooting.  The only gripe with Josh Perkins that anybody on the Zags side of things had before or after the game, perhaps, is we wish he’d shoot some more.  But he’s making a whole lot of pretty damn good decisions as far as I’m concerned, often allowing his point total to linger in the single digits when, with his great assist-ance, everyone else is tallying big numbers.  He only seems to be taking a few more shots when things are getting stagnant for everyone else—giving the team the boost it needs to get back on track.  He’s truly elite (should get more attention from the NBA if he’s not getting it now) and like an elite player, when asked about his record-breaking career so far, he said:  “All the credit goes to my team.”  Humility is truly a wonderful quality.

I’m calling this bi-weekly bit “The Zag Wag,” and this first installment comes at a time when the Zags have a lot to wag about.  There’s something particularly special going on in Gonzaga Men’s Basketball again this season and, as a loyal fan, I have plenty to wag my tongue about as March gets closer—as do a lot of naysayers.
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I got into one of those childish arguments on Facebook the other day with one of those naysayers—one of the many who, in the comments of a post that celebrates a Gonzaga win,  say snide things like:  “Gonzaga’s  good, but they’re only a Sweet 16 or an Elite 8 team at the most,” or who demean Gonzaga’s latest conference wins with:  “Get in a better conference.”  Or last but not least, who show their distain and disrespect with:  “Can’t wait to see Gonzaga choke in the tournament again this year.”  After telling him why Gonzaga is in the WCC, that the WCC isn’t really that bad of a conference, and that I think Gonzaga is not only going to be in the final four, but will win the whole thing, we were at odds for some time.  When I mentioned that I’ve been a fan for about 20 years and I ask him who he’s picking to beat Gonzaga, not only will he not offer me an answer, he has the audacity to call me one of the people who jumped on the Gonzaga bandwagon when they started winning a lot of games.  This, coming from a guy who “likes a lot of teams,” won’t even offer up an opinion about who is good enough to beat the Zags, and doesn’t owe allegiance to any team.

I’m not going to stoop to his level and demean the way this guy enjoys his basketball, but I think it’s a good thing to be loyal to a team.  It teaches you something about the ups and downs that come with just about any long-term, worthwhile endeavor.  If an open relationship with his favorite basketball teams is this guy’s gig though then so be it, just don’t knock me for being committed to something.

Naysayers are all over the place though—especially when it comes to Gonzaga.  I admit, he may have a point about me becoming a fan at a time when Gonzaga was good.  I became a fan around the turn of the century when my dad, who knew Gonzaga had been good for some time, said I should come over to his place and watch a game.  We both lived in Moscow, Idaho, and though the Vandals at the University of Idaho (my Alma Mater) and the Cougars at Washington State weren’t bad teams nearby, my dad recognized that something special was going on in Spokane—and we both love basketball.  We watched a lot of great games together.  It became our ritual to get pizza and root beer and sit down together to cheer Gonzaga on.  We were able to follow many elite athletes that have come through the program and we saw a lot of great team wins and a few loses.  We paid close attention as Adam Morrison and the Zags rose to great heights and we felt the bitter heartbreak with the 2006 tournament loss to UCLA that put an end to his days at Gonzaga.  My dad passed away a few years after that, but I keep our tradition and love for basketball alive by cheering for Gonzaga every year.  A Spokane resident now, I watch the games with my own kids and loved ones.  

Throughout the years that I’ve had the pleasure of being a fan, I’ve watched a lot of Gonzaga games, and I’ve closely followed a fair number of Gonzaga basketball seasons.  They’ve pretty much always had a great team, and I’ve almost always been very excited about the possibility of them making a deep run into March Madness.  This team though—this team in 2019, I believe, is special in a way that I haven’t seen yet.  Perhaps I’ve got blinders on because I love Zags basketball.  Every Gonzaga team over the years, I admit, has seemed special.  The team this year, however, seems to transcend even the highest of standards and might be the best yet.  And though I’ve seen too many basketball games through the years not to recognize that on any given night a lesser team can upset a better team, I want to say it right now:  Gonzaga is going to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament this year.
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This 2019 team with, as one analyst put it, its “embarrassment of riches,” is steadily at work making great strides every game.  Praising Brandon Clarke after a win, Mark Few said:  “He brings his lunch pail every day.”  This is true of the whole team.  Every opportunity to work is taken very seriously, including every minute of games against teams that might be considered sub-par.  If you watch their games lately you’ve seen it.  The Zags are relentless in their pursuit of perfection.  The work ethic, talent, experience and smarts of both the players and the coaching staff is going to put them on top in March.  They have a great synergy developing in which the energy of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  Sam Scholl, head coach of San Diego Men’s Basketball, had this high praise after the most recent Gonzaga win against the Toreros:

“The thing that doesn’t get talked about enough with Gonzaga is that they play for each other, as good if not better than anybody they play against.  You can see it in everything they do, the way they celebrate for each other’s baskets, the way they talk to each other on the floor, the way they come in and out of timeouts, the way they huddle.  That for me is the most impressive thing.  They’ve got an unbelievable amount of talent, but man do they play for each other.”

Mark Few has always instilled unselfish play into his players and the best Gonzaga teams are great because of their ability to work so well as a team.  What I see more than anything this year is a bunch of guys enjoying the hell out of playing basketball, who know their potential is near limitless, and who know that hard work is the impetus to make all that potential blossom.  Besides the work they do improving the nation’s highest scoring offense, Gonzaga has made it a mission to tighten up on defense, especially since the back-to-back losses suffered against Tennessee and North Carolina in which their defense was a bit lax.  Every game since those losses, you see a concerted effort to get better on that end of the court.  The wrench on the defensive pressure is being torqued tighter and tighter.  Each game is a click or two clicks on the ratchet.  The culmination of that effort so far, might have been the recent game against Saint Mary’s, but you saw it on full display against BYU and the second meeting with San Francisco as well.
Consider the last game against Saint Mary’s—perhaps Gonzaga’s best 40 minutes of basketball this season.  I happened to be watching the movie Free Solo (watch it if you haven’t—it’s amazing) at The Magic Lantern in downtown Spokane during the game, and I was only able to catch the beginning.  I did feel confident though, after seeing the initial 14-2 Zags run to start, how it would turn out.  The first time I got a chance to check the score Gonzaga was up 53 to 20 at halftime.  Gonzaga held the Gaels (a long-standing rival notorious for its toughness and with a very decent offense this year) to 20 points in the first half and just 46 by the end of regulation while scoring 94 points themselves, just over their season average.  The Gaels shot 7.7% from beyond the arc and 26% on field goals overall.  I’d say that’s pretty good D!  Along with his 24 points on 9 of 12 shooting, Brandon Clarke added 3 blocks to his now 82 block total (he had 5 against San Francisco last time they met, along with 16 rebounds and 20 points).  Clarke, perhaps, doesn’t get all the attention he deserves for Player of the Year (he’ll get a lot more attention soon) because Rui Hachimura mania is taking such a lion’s share.  Rui had 18 points (he had 32 against San Diego last Saturday) on 8 of 11 shooting, with 7 rebounds and 2 blocks of his own.  These two big men, Gonzaga’s peanut butter and jelly in 2019, almost always have at least 40 points combined per game.  And one or the other is either close or gets a double-double.  They are also very good at passing to one another and other teammates and neither is stingy with the ball if someone has an easier look at the hoop.

Some things that Gonzaga is not always consistent with were clicking that night against the Gaels.  Gonzaga outrebounded Saint Mary’s 42 to 31.  Rebounding as well as 3-point shooting haven’t been strong points for the Zags in a few games this season.  They shot 44.4% from beyond the arc on this particular night though, with Zach Norvell and Cory Kispert combining for 5 makes on 10 attempts.  Besides playing great defense, both wings finished in double figures.  Josh Perkins, the team captain as senior point guard, who is very comfortable facilitating other people’s baskets with precision passes and perfect lobs (but is also a very apt at scoring when necessary), had 9 assists and 2 points.  Gonzaga also got great numbers from their bench, which isn’t always the case.  Jeremy Jones had 7 points on 3 of 3 shooting, one from deep.  And Geno Crandall who, like Jones, is a defensive specialist as well as serious offensive threat, had 6 points of his own and 4 assists.  Filip Petrusev had perhaps his best performance of the year, scoring 15 on 5 of 7 shooting.  The Zags, who sometimes get a bit careless with the ball to the tune of double-digit turnovers, had just 6 turnovers for the game.

The two games since that game weren’t as impressive and highlight some of the key factors for improvement for Gonzaga.  In the game against Loyola Marymount, though the Zags ground out a win against a really tough team on the road, wasn’t pretty.  Clarke and Rui had to be great again as LMU not only kept things close, but took a small lead midway through the 2nd half.  Clarke finished with 17 points on 7 of 12 shooting, with 12 rebounds and 3 blocks (he averages 3!).  Rui was 7 of 13 with 22 points, 7 rebounds and a perfect 8 of 8 from the charity stripe.  A saving grace, the whole team only missed one free throw, going 21 of 22 (96 %) from the foul-line.  Zach Norvell was 3 of 6 from beyond the arc.  The game as a whole, though, seemed pretty sloppy.  Despite Clarke and Rui’s efforts, Gonzaga got outrebounded 36 to 35 in the game and turned the ball over 10 times as opposed to LMU which only had 5. 

The San Diego game last Saturday was a bit better perhaps.  It was a tale of two halves—the second half being significantly better than the first.  In the LMU game, the Zags had a great final quarter, going on a 20-6 run to close the game, similar to what happened in San Francisco this year when the Zags closed out a very close away game with a burst of energy to finish.  Luckily, the Zags have been running strong in tough games at the right time.  At San Diego the last 20 minutes were much better than the first.  Both teams went into the locker room with 30 points at half, but the Zags came out in a rampage, shooting 69% in that half, scoring 49 points and besting the Toreros in another hard-fought contest.  This time, Rui had the double-double with 22 and 10 rebounds.  Clarke had 14 on 6 of 7 shooting with 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.  Zach Norvell had 18 himself on 7 of 11 shooting, but he and the rest of the team shot a poor 21.4% from beyond the arc.  Again, double-digit turnovers led to trouble and worry for Gonzaga which had 10 while San Diego only gave it up 9 times.  The Gonzaga bench wasn’t firing on all cylinders either, scoring only 2 points in the contest.  Josh Perkins, who found a lot of his passing lanes blocked up, made wise decisions and shot a lot more often in the game, scoring 15 points to help boost things.  Another strong team performance from the free-throw line (12 of 14) helped seal the victory despite some troubles.   

Apart from these last two games in which Gonzaga seemed to struggle a bit, and a closer contest away in San Francisco, the Zags have been stellar in conference play, blowing by the opposition by an average of more than 30 points.  The defense is getting tighter every game they play and the offense, apart from rare slumps, is humming along nicely.  In the years I’ve followed Gonzaga in conference play I’ve never seen them win so convincingly so often.  What I remember most consistently about WCC play in the past is Gonzaga playing it pretty close to the competition until halftime, working out a few kinks, and then pulling ahead or eeking it out at the end—or every now and again falling to a rival.  There’s been some worrisome moments in conference play this year, but they are few and far between.  Noone had much of an answer for Gonzaga last year at the end of the season and into the WCC tournament, but what I see happening this year is, perhaps, a team that’s even better than that. 

One huge question looming in the minds of Gonzaga fans is:  What is going to happen with Killian Tillie?  Some say that the Zags can’t win the tournament without Tillie.  It is certainly a serious concern.  Tillie’s absence from the Sweet 16 game against Florida State last year may have cost them the game—or at least his healthy presence would have made it a much closer contest.  Seeing him limp off the floor against Saint Mary’s was tragic.  There is some speculation that he will be ready to play by the postseason but easing him into the lineup as part of gradual recovery from the ankle injury that kept him out for so long prior to the beginning of conference play was an important part of getting him ready for the postseason.  This recent stall in that plan is a serious bummer for all of Zag nation.  Having him back, whatever his condition will be a boon in March.  My assumption is the Zags will be concentrating on getting the very talented Filip Petrusev as many minutes as possible in the meantime.  He has already shown great proficiency and poise in the post and from behind the three-point line.  He was solid in the win against Duke.  Look for him to get more minutes, especially when the Zags start to gain a comfortable lead in upcoming games.  Getting him on the floor will be a good sign for Gonzaga.

Although I truly wish Killian Tillie were healthy, there is, perhaps, a positive I can see in him having to sit out.  I wonder if Tillie might be back next year in order to get a better pre-NBA showing.  As little as we want Tillie to be limited in his possibilities in any way, the idea of a Tillie-Petrusev frontcourt next season is really exciting.  A starting 5 with those two bigs would be a starting 5 that can all shoot and make the 3 consistently.  Not that Rui and Clarke suffer from beyond the arc.  They don’t, but they don’t pull the trigger very often.  Having Tillie back might be a pipe dream, but the future of Gonzaga basketball is something that’s fun to dream about and the prospects lately are looking pretty good.

As March approaches, I’m going to be watching for Gonzaga to rebound the ball more effectively, take better and make more 3-pointers, put together games that are a complete 40 minutes of great basketball, limit turn overs and work the excellent guys we have on the bench in more consistently.  The truth is anyone can lose in March and almost everyone does.  You can have an off night and your opponent can sizzle.  Steph Curry could step in and light you up for 40 like he did with Davidson against Gonzaga in 2008.  Of all the Gonzaga teams I’ve seen, I believe this is the one that can handle whatever befalls them.  With veterans that are cool under pressure and talent to match any excellent team, I believe they can handle any situation.  I’m excited to see some rematches from earlier in the season as the tournament field narrows with Michigan State, Tennessee and/or North Carolina—perhaps against Duke as well.  Whatever it all comes to, I believe this team has everything it takes to come out on top as the national champions.

~ Clark Karoses