Can someone please give Gonzaga a fight in conference play? In three WCC games so far the Zags have won by a combined margin of 247-154, a complete smoke-fest by the Spokane Golden Boys.At least they play Memphis in Febuary to give them some sort of semblance of competition.
However, all three of those games were at home in the friendly confines of the MAC, which a student section that could probably rumble with a group of soccer hooligans from Europe. Now they have to hit the road against Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount.
Here's a couple questions they'll have to answer during that road trip next weekend:
1. Is Austin Daye the man when it comes to scoring? He's led the Zags in scoring the past two games with 20 and 25 points. With Jeremy Pargo dishing, Josh Heytvelt rebounding and staying away from drugs and Ira Brown working on his baseball swing - I think things are solid for the Zags on offense. Which leads us to our next question:
2. Can the Zags play defense when they really need to? I mean, sure you can blow out somebody by 30, but it's only a matter of time before a WCC team takes a swing at the champ. And we saw in close games against ranked teams that wasn't the case.
Alright, take that, chew on it for a while.
As an avid Zags fan, I'd like to say a few things.
ReplyDeletePargo has been awful so far on the season. His NBA stock is as good as Enron stock at this point. (Is it too late to use Enron jokes?) If he goes in the first round, one NBA team is going to be very disappointed. He can't shoot, can be pressured and if Gonzaga falls behind, he can be out of control. Not what you want out of your senior point guard.
Daye has been average at best. Sure, he's led his team in scoring recently, but he's remarkably inconsistent (8, 20, 3, 20, 25 points in his last five games) and has had problems against tough competition (no assists, 7 turnovers and 6, 20 and 13 points against Tennessee twice and UCONN once).
Mark Few is absolutely the product of a talented roster. Sure, Gonzaga is a March Madness mainstay and yeah, they've won their fair share against elite competition, but the one common theme of their early tourney exits is Few.
However, the defense has been impressive this season (thanks Giacoletti?) and Matt Bouldin has stepped up as a leader. If AJ Price misses that fluke three, the Zags don't cough up a gimme against Portland State and eke out a victory in Utah, they could be 15-1 and in the top 10. But they're not.
Unfortunately, I see the Zags season ending before the first weekend yet again. There's plenty of time to fix things (such as rebounding), but if they don't improve, they're bound to suffer the same fate as in recent years.