Mark Few is a great coach and has for a long time been willing to play hard games out of conference.
There is a big difference in the grind of P5 league vs. West Coast Conference competition in Jan-Mar which has caused the questions, but Mark Few can flat out coach, he recruits well and gets talent (and has been good in the international/transfer game for a while).
Should be a fun game. We need more games like this every year
No doubt Gonzaga stopped being a Cinderella back in 09 they are a legit program whoās stuck in no mans land. That same weak conference they play in ran the hoos off the court back in Thanksgiving
Zags 4th longest tourney streak in the country
Too bad UNCās streak couldnāt end last year. But maybe Kentucky will go down this year.
Should have a big old asterisk next to it since they were already eliminated before the tournament was canceled.
I think you can get a doctorate in Fake Stats and Eligibility at UNC.
Had a few minutes and looked over Gonzagaās box scores for their 3 games so far. Couple of observations. The donāt take a lot of 3s - one because they donāt need to as the front court is really good and is a huge chuck of their scoring, and two, thatās a good thing for them as so far itās not an above average 3-point percentage shooting team.
Three, they turn the ball over a lot. 15 or more times a game.
Three, they go to the FT line at a pretty good clip.
Four, they get a a lot of fast break points.
So, it looks like a team that we ought to be able to play it close and beat if we play to our (hopeful) strengths:
Take care of the ball - turn it over less than 10 times.
Get back on D - limit the Zags to les than 10 fast break points (hopefully 6 or less)
Good D in the paint - all the bigs are going tu have to step up and make sure they play good positional defense - let them have tough shots, but donāt give them the and 1. Jay is going to need to play like itās Duke and stay out of foul trouble, but keep aggressive at rim protection
Keep it at 63 possessions and take about 20 3-pointers. And make at least 8 (hopefully 9 or more).
This is a really good Gonzaga team, one that is capable of getting Few his 1st natty. But, we have the potential to be great and get CTB his 2nd. Go Hoos!
Honestly weāre already way too deep as it is 
. Also is he 6ā7 or 6ā10? Lol.
Jay Huff shows up in big games
Watching this Gonzaga Iowa game, I have no idea who Hauser guards whether it be their two big set or their 4 guard line up. May just have to be a case where we roll him onto the floor and hope his offensive output exceeds his defensive struggles.
If Gonzaga is making 3ās they are going to be tough for anyone to beat.
Gonzaga is a true #1 team in the country.
Iowa has been awful defensively in this game ā¦ but we will need to make a big leap on that end to keep this one competitive.
Suggs is better than any player we will face this year. Legit top 3 lotto pick. Though Tony has had to deal with plenty of them playing Duke every year.
Counter point is that this is a lotto pick coached by an actual coach. Not 70 year old coach K
Yeah and heās playing with good upperclassman, which Duke rarely has.
Itās crazy that Few is still in his 50s, feels like heās been around forever
We are going to have our hands full. I missed the 2nd half. They keep hitting their 3s?
Less their 3 point shooting and moreso how they are generating their 3 point shots is what concerns me. We are naturally inclined to collapse on drives and double skilled posts.
Gonzaga looks great, but if there is a weakness, their defense doesnāt look fantastic. They play defense with a ton of energy, but their guards gamble for steals too often and take themselves out of the play. To take advantage of that, weāll need to act quickly and not allow them to recover.
They remind me of some of the better UNC teams of recent years. They want to push it quickly in transition and have a ton of offensive talent, but arenāt terribly disciplined defensively. If weāre going to beat them, weāll have to slow them down, hope they arenāt as hot as they were today from three, and then punish their defensive miscues decisively. Not sure our team is quite capable of doing all of that yet, but we will see!