Hawkstorian wrote:I have a pretty good feeling Zags are healing up and have a good shot on the road tonight. Wish I could watch it.
Natethegreat wrote:Tillie and Anton injured again. Not sure this team will ever be fully healthy......
Shanegotyou11 wrote:Zags have a chance in this wide open field. I don't see a "dominant" team in college hoops landscape. Hopefully its the zags. Cant wait to be in K2 vs NC.
hawksfansinceday1 wrote:Shanegotyou11 wrote:Zags have a chance in this wide open field. I don't see a "dominant" team in college hoops landscape. Hopefully its the zags. Cant wait to be in K2 vs NC.
It would be incredible. They will have to improve on their FT shooting to get further than the Sweet 16 imo.
hawksfansinceday1 wrote:Zags will be fortunate to go 1-2 in the upcoming stretch of at UW, at Arizona, home vs. North Carolina. 0-3 wold not surprise me.
trans wrote:hawksfansinceday1 wrote:Zags will be fortunate to go 1-2 in the upcoming stretch of at UW, at Arizona, home vs. North Carolina. 0-3 wold not surprise me.
Keep making predictions. It is working dandily.
Natethegreat wrote:Easy win over UNC. I was a little surprised it came that easy with how dinged up GU is. I realize that unc is as well but man their was a talent gap between them.
Joel Ayayi is a really talented player and a HUGE reason this team is playing so well. He brings great defense terrific outside shooting and gets a TON of rebounds. Really impressive player. Love watching him play.
Natethegreat wrote:As long as GU doesn't lose to EWU they most likely move to number 1. GU has a history of coming out dead on games just before Christmas with the students all gone though.
They have lost a few games they had no business to lose to in the past. Honestly I am shocked they are even sniffing number one rank. They lost almost every important player from last year.
Tical21 wrote:And since they don't play any more varsity games until March, they'll assuredly still be at #1
Tical21 wrote:And since they don't play any more varsity games until March, they'll assuredly still be at #1
Tical21 wrote:How many years before Gonzaga beats UW again?
Hawkstorian wrote:WCC has some real crap teams... but St. Mary's (25 in KenPom) and BYU (38) are at least as good as the middle of the Pac12 (i.e. UW). San Francisco, Pacific and Santa Clara are all much improved.
I actually expect Zags to lose a game or 2 in conference unless somehow Killian Tillie can come back to full health. He's just a matchup nightmare that no team can deal with until late into March. Sadly, I'm not optimistic that will be the case as he's already on "load management".
Hawk-Lock wrote:Hawkstorian wrote:WCC has some real crap teams... but St. Mary's (25 in KenPom) and BYU (38) are at least as good as the middle of the Pac12 (i.e. UW). San Francisco, Pacific and Santa Clara are all much improved.
I actually expect Zags to lose a game or 2 in conference unless somehow Killian Tillie can come back to full health. He's just a matchup nightmare that no team can deal with until late into March. Sadly, I'm not optimistic that will be the case as he's already on "load management".
Let’s not try to defend the WCC. It’s garbage outside of Gonzaga. The second best team every year is at Mary’s, and they are a bubble team every year. After that it is a bunch of teams that would be near the bottom of any power conference. I’m not trying to take anything away from Gonzaga, because I think they’d win or compete for the top spot in nearly any power conference. But the WCC is a joke, without Gonzaga they wouldn’t be much different than any of those other mid major conferences we know nothing about.
Natethegreat wrote:Hawk-Lock wrote:Hawkstorian wrote:WCC has some real crap teams... but St. Mary's (25 in KenPom) and BYU (38) are at least as good as the middle of the Pac12 (i.e. UW). San Francisco, Pacific and Santa Clara are all much improved.
I actually expect Zags to lose a game or 2 in conference unless somehow Killian Tillie can come back to full health. He's just a matchup nightmare that no team can deal with until late into March. Sadly, I'm not optimistic that will be the case as he's already on "load management".
Let’s not try to defend the WCC. It’s garbage outside of Gonzaga. The second best team every year is at Mary’s, and they are a bubble team every year. After that it is a bunch of teams that would be near the bottom of any power conference. I’m not trying to take anything away from Gonzaga, because I think they’d win or compete for the top spot in nearly any power conference. But the WCC is a joke, without Gonzaga they wouldn’t be much different than any of those other mid major conferences we know nothing about.
And yet the WCC is 9-11 against the Pac this year. Last I checked GU is part of the WCC. Taking teams out to make arguments is really quite ridiculous. Lets take teams out of the Pac then too. SMC is a good team as is BYU. USF has been a good team recently and Santa Clara and Pacific are getting much better.
WCC will be a top ten league again this year and closely rated to the Pac again. Now admittedly WCC is nowhere close to as good as ACC, Big East, Big 12, and Big 10.
But those trying to push the Pac as a top tier Basketball conference are living in the past. Maybe they get back there some day but they haven't been for about 10 years + now.
Natethegreat wrote:Personally I am stunned the Zags are ranked number one this year and have a really good shot at a 1 seed. This team lost so much from last year. The Recruits we got have potential but none of them are elite. The biggest player to step up in my mind is Ayiyi.
He has been pretty good and has really helped this team gell. We needed someone at the guard spot to do this and with Gilder and Woolridge the guard play is good enough for this team to compete.
Hawkstorian wrote:That's debatable --- i think WSU is more like 7 or 8 .... but at the end of the day this is about Gonzaga not the WCC. If Zags could find a way out of the WCC they would take it in a heartbeat but they have no place to go. Can't go to the PAC without football and the MWC was just a chip to leverage staying in the WCC with better terms. MWC really isn't much better than the WCC ... San Diego St. is good this year but Nevada has fallen off and the rest of the league is YIKES.
It will always be the same. Gonzaga will need to schedule a big pre-season schedule to make up for their lousy conference. They get it and get that they can't really change it. The rest of the world can crap on them for it but there's nothing that can be done really to fix it.
Hawkstorian wrote:Duke losing to Clemson will swing enough first place votes back to Baylor that Gonzaga will slip to #2 next week.
Natethegreat wrote:Zags absolutely crushing SC right now. 58-22 at half pretty impressive.
Hawkstorian wrote:Sucks about Watson -- hopefully Arlauskas can chew up some minutes. He looks pretty skilled. After him there really isn't anything. Zacharov isn't ready to play and probably should have red-shirted this year if injuries hadn't shorted the roster so much.
Hawkstorian wrote:Not sure how far you get with a 6 man rotation. Arlauskas looks to me like he should be able to eat some minutes but so far Few hasn't let him play much.
St. Mary's in 8 days. Getting Tillie back is probably the difference between a W and L that day.
Hawk-Lock wrote:This team is very good. I’d probably pick them or Baylor to win it all if the dance started today. Gonzaga needs to take advantage of this down season in college basketball. Expectations are going to be extremely high going into March. Anything less than a final four is a bust. At some point Few needs to win a championship, pressure is starting to build.
hawksfansinceday1 wrote:Hawk-Lock wrote:This team is very good. I’d probably pick them or Baylor to win it all if the dance started today. Gonzaga needs to take advantage of this down season in college basketball. Expectations are going to be extremely high going into March. Anything less than a final four is a bust. At some point Few needs to win a championship, pressure is starting to build.
Disagree that pressure is starting to build. He's there with almost none as long as he wants imo. I felt last year was a bust not getting to the FF more than this year would be. Thought the same of Duke last year too. Do think they have a great shot at it this year though that free throw shooting could be the Achilles.
Hit 14 of their first 15 shots last night. That'll make for a coasting win.
Hawkstorian wrote:I live in Spokane and talk Zags with folks all the time.... I've never once heard anyone say that they need to win a championship. On the contrary, folks here legitimately appreciate what's happened the last 20 years. Sure -- getting to the top of the mountain would be amazing but in no way to I sense pressure from anyone.
There was some truth to the "never been to a final 4" gripe --- but after playing in the final game once and a couple of other elite 8 years that beef has quieted down.
It is currently Thu Feb 25, 2021 9:30 pm