Gonzaga needs to do something in this tournament

Spokane collectively held its breath yesterday as Akron gave a valiant fight against the Gonzaga Bulldogs. They certainly had upset in their eyes, but the Zags proved to be too much for them - pulling away at the end for the 77-64 victory.

What should be promising to Spokanites is the fact that the Zips put up a battle (hard fouls and tough defense) and Gonzaga responded. Sure they came out flat for the game, something that wasn't lost by the announcers, but at least they turned it up when it mattered.

Now that being said, the Zags need to do something in this tournament because their reputation is at stake here. Long have they been the media darlings and frankly, some people are starting to grumble about when the Bulldogs are going to "get over the hump." One Sweet Sixteen appearance in the last seven years is really "all" Gonzaga has to show.

That may seem a little harsh but if you think about the label that is put on the program as "elite" - you've got to show more than getting knocked out in the first round the past two years. 

It seems like they have a good shot to make the Sweet Sixteen this year since they're in Portland which basically means they're playing in front of a home crowd and they'll have to beat low-seeded Western Kentucky to go there. Beating a 13-seed and a 12-seed to go to the Sweet Sixteen? These are games that the Zags should win.

And please, don't give me the whole "they're Spokane's team, we should support them anyways" because Gonzaga carries themselves like an Elite program and they need to show they can produce like an elite program. No incarnation of the Zags since 1999  has gotten back to the Elite Eight despite all the prized recruits, the shiny new arena and the media attention. 

Spokane still supports their teams no matter what, but the local media sure tends to butter them up regardless of whether they get shown the door early or not. 

I'm convinced that if this were a bigger market - people would be calling for Mark Few's head (which by the way, did you see the Zags inability to rotate on defense against the three? Just saying). Not that it's warrented, but he'd certianly have more pressure on him as opposed to the campfire song treatment he gets in this town everytime they beat a crummy WCC team.

You don't make a splash in this year's tournament - you have to look at this season as a disappointment. Many people had this team going to the FINAL FOUR in the preseason.

I'm sorry but if you have a program that's so big that the head coach wont even show up to his own coaches show - you better do a hell of a lot more than lose to Western Kentucky in the second round. That's all I'm saying.

Gonzaga Weekly Update: Anyone in the WCC going to give up a fight?

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.

Gonzaga "Cougs" It

What the hell happened?

A few days after losing to No. 2 UConn, Gonzaga was looking at a tune-up, feel good home game against Portland State.

Portland State of the Big Sky Conference, Portland State that had trouble getting to the arena because of road conditions, unranked Portland State.

And the Zags laid a big, fatty 77-70 loss nugget of an egg game.

While I'll give the Vikings credit, they played Washington very tough this year and have one of the better college basketball players in the country in Jeremiah Dominguez.

But Gonzaga came out flat, a fact not lost by the usual home-town announcers on KHQ. You could tell their energy level was not very high and they seemed to be suffering from "post-traumatic big game syndrome."

Either way in one evening the Bulldogs have gone from Final Four possibility to a team that now has a lot of questions. They can't put it in cruise control for the rest of the season.

As for Portland State, I'm dreading the day when they come into Reese Court to play EWU.

Remember how bad football season was?

Well the hoops season has started oh so much better. Washington State is receiving votes in the Top 25 poll instead of providing less competition to USC than their practice squad, the Gonzaga Bulldogs are ranked No. 5 in the nation and the Eastern Washington Eagles are playing some pretty good ball and kickoff their Big Sky Conference schedule this Saturday against Montana State at Reese Court.

While everyone expected the Cougs and Zags to be doing pretty good at this point, the Eagles are a bit of a surprise at 5-2. Namely because of this guy...

No not Bobby Knight, he's moonlighting as an ESPN analyst at the moment, the guy on the right is Benny Valentine, perhaps the best athlete EWU has seen walk through its doors since Rodney Stuckey. Don't believe me, here's the stat line for every game so far for Valentine.

vs. Illinois - 14 points
vs. UC Irvine - 17 points
vs. Texas Arlington - 28 points
vs. Minnesota - 29 points
vs. UC Irvine - 21 points

That's every game he's led the Eagles in scoring this season. If this were a player for Gonzaga, we'd probably be hearing about how he should be named Player of the Year.

And speaking of the Zags, they showed what they made of at the Old Spice Classic and they seem to be doing just fine without this guy...

I'm glad that Spokane will be remembered for producing the athlete that looks like the hero who wears a mask in V for Vendetta. Way to improve this city's image!

But hey, if Pargo does his thang, I think we'll be forgetting about Morrison a whole lot quicker since he seems to not be making very many waves in the NBA.

And as far as WSU goes, we'll I'm fully convinced they'll win 20 games this season and only cross the fifty-point barrier in conference play about three times. Who's ready for a 35-20 NCAA Tournament first round win?