Bud Withers article on Zags possibly playing NCAA in Spokane

[rawkmandale]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/collegesports/2011078303_zags15.html

The article points out the possible problem of creating a "winning expectation" and the resultant extra pressure.

[ZagsGoZags]

Thanks for the post
I would love to know the historical record for teams that played in their home town after 1988 -- I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't correlate

[NotoriousZ]

In hindsight, maybe we should have scheduled the EWU game in the Arena, to have more experience playing there. Don't you get up to three games in the venue before it's ineligible for you? But then again, doing that may have put us in the wrong mindset--to assume before the season started that we had a shot at a top 4 seed, let alone an appearance in the NCAA's with so many newcomers (even though I never had a doubt).

[titopoet]

The article points out the possible problem of creating a "winning expectation" and the resultant extra pressure.

Yeah, best to go play in Greenland, behind close doors. Dumb argument as the advantage of a wild home crowd certainly outweighs the "Pressure."

The second, few expected the Zags to be good enough to play in Spokane at the start of the season. Some even thought Gonzaga would have double digit in lost games by now, and they would be hurt by tough schedule to be lucky to be a bubble team.

To quote from an expert about the Zags from the preseason,

The nonleague schedule includes Michigan State, Wake Forest, Duke, Oklahoma, Illinois and Memphis — plus whatever challenges await in Maui (starting with Colorado). It's entirely possible Gonzaga could get bruised enough in the pre-conference not to compile a worthy NCAA-tournament portfolio and then fall short of a dangerous Portland team in the West Coast Conference.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/collegesports/2010251592_zags12.html

I hate revisionist historians. Bud, no problem in your analysis at the start of season. Most of us have been surprised by how good the Zags have been, but to then say the Zags and many experts were expecting a high enough seed to stay Spokane at the start shows a Soviet Pravda revision not worthy of a journalism.

[Shanachie]

Yeah, best to go play in Greenland, behind close doors. Dumb argument as the advantage of a wild home crowd certainly outweighs the "Pressure."

....

I hate revisionist historians. Bud, no problem in your analysis at the start of season. Most of us have been surprised by how good the Zags have been, but to then say the Zags and many experts were expecting a high enough seed to stay Spokane at the start shows a Soviet Pravda revision not worthy of a journalism.

Tito, maybe you read the article in haste, but I think you missed the jist of it. Regarding your first comment, the notion of additional pressure was not a major theme of the column, just a minor point, and IMO opinion a good one. I do think the expectations would be that the Zags would breeze through the first weekend if they played in Spokane. Many of us fell prey to the same kind of thinking when they went to Seattle in '04. (I was one who was guilty of that.) Neither Withers nor anyone else was saying that the Zags wouldn't want to play in Spokane. I think his point was that nothing is a given in the NCAA tourney, even if you're playing close to home.

As for the "revisionist history" I'm not sure where you're getting that. Withers point was just the opposite - that not many expected the Zags to be competing for a high seed.

As the 2009-10 college-basketball season began, a lot of people believed that when Selection Sunday came around, Gonzaga would finally find itself sitting at home.

They may have been right, though not in the manner they projected.

He's talking about sitting at home, not playing at home.