Gus Johnson said it best...

[skan72]

The commentator did just say it best. Earlier this year, as Few said recently, around their first couple practises, he wasn't sure they'd even make the tournament at all. They came together and have had a great season thus far with only one senior who contributes, Bouldin. We had 7 newcomers? We were young, and even Few was questioning early whether or not we'd make the tourney.

We're young, we had 7 (7 right??) newcomers this year. We have 8 freshman, 3 sophomores, and 1 junior. Only 2 guys graduating, and only one that really contributed. We are probably going to have an even better team next year. Imagine Sacre makes the same progress this summer as he did last? I'm sure he will, he has seen what hard work does. I remember going to a pick up game and watching his very first summer in Gonzaga. Some old guy sitting beside was talking to his buddy saying Sacre wouldn't amount to much at Gonzaga, just based on one scrimmage. Well, we've got a young group of guys, and Sacre is looking more and more like a stud in the making. Not to mention Harris, Meech, Gray, Olynyk, Kong, Arop, Vilarino, Dower, Gibbs, Hart, and Stockton.

Next year is going to be as much fun and excitement as this year, if not more. We're going to be better shooters, we're going to be better inside, and we're just going to be better and more EXPERIENCED all around.

Good work Zags. Put in work this summer.

[billyberu]

The commentator did just say it best. Earlier this year, as Few said recently, around their first couple practises, he wasn't sure they'd even make the tournament at all. They came together and have had a great season thus far with only one senior who contributes, Bouldin. We had 7 newcomers? We were young, and even Few was questioning early whether or not we'd make the tourney.

We're young, we had 7 (7 right??) newcomers this year. We have 8 freshman, 3 sophomores, and 1 junior. Only 2 guys graduating, and only one that really contributed. We are probably going to have an even better team next year. Imagine Sacre makes the same progress this summer as he did last? I'm sure he will, he has seen what hard work does. I remember going to a pick up game and watching his very first summer in Gonzaga. Some old guy sitting beside was talking to his buddy saying Sacre wouldn't amount to much at Gonzaga, just based on one scrimmage. Well, we've got a young group of guys, and Sacre is looking more and more like a stud in the making. Not to mention Harris, Meech, Gray, Olynyk, Kong, Arop, Vilarino, Dower, Gibbs, Hart, and Stockton.

Next year is going to be as much fun and excitement as this year, if not more. We're going to be better shooters, we're going to be better inside, and we're just going to be better and more EXPERIENCED all around.

Good work Zags. Put in work this summer.

Well said. It doesn't remove the pain of this loss, however and nothing will except the beginning of a new season.

I was proud of the way Elias, Robert and GJ payed today. It wasn't enough and I'm sure nothing short of a miracle performance would have been enough to defeat Syracuse with the way they were hitting their outside shots. It was sick.

I like Meech and his hard-charging attitude. I have staunchly defended him through this year, but I'm not sure he should be the starting PG next year. Perhaps the last half of the 2nd half was an inkling with GJ getting most of those minutes. We need a scoring threat at the 1.

Next year beholds many great things. I am looking forward to it. It's always dissappointing to lose, whether by one point or twenty. This team will be back and no detractor of this program will ever understand that simple fact. Let them stew in their gleeful malice.

[dawgfather11]

The commentator did just say it best. Earlier this year, as Few said recently, around their first couple practises, he wasn't sure they'd even make the tournament at all. They came together and have had a great season thus far with only one senior who contributes, Bouldin. We had 7 newcomers? We were young, and even Few was questioning early whether or not we'd make the tourney.

We're young, we had 7 (7 right??) newcomers this year. We have 8 freshman, 3 sophomores, and 1 junior. Only 2 guys graduating, and only one that really contributed. We are probably going to have an even better team next year. Imagine Sacre makes the same progress this summer as he did last? I'm sure he will, he has seen what hard work does. I remember going to a pick up game and watching his very first summer in Gonzaga. Some old guy sitting beside was talking to his buddy saying Sacre wouldn't amount to much at Gonzaga, just based on one scrimmage. Well, we've got a young group of guys, and Sacre is looking more and more like a stud in the making. Not to mention Harris, Meech, Gray, Olynyk, Kong, Arop, Vilarino, Dower, Gibbs, Hart, and Stockton.

Next year is going to be as much fun and excitement as this year, if not more. We're going to be better shooters, we're going to be better inside, and we're just going to be better and more EXPERIENCED all around.

Good work Zags. Put in work this summer.

Being a young team isn't really a valid excuse, it's all about having the leadership and the team buying into the team concept and playing tough d. Your team should feed off your leader and as i've said for years I don't think Bouldin is a good leader, he disappears to much in big games. Bouldin had a good year, but he shouldn't ever be the primary option, he's better off as a 2nd or third option. As to tough D, it just doesn't ever seem like that's something that Mark Few ever coaches, if it's one of his assistants who is in charge of the defense he needs to fire them and bring someone in who can actually coach defense. We will see GU could be very good next year if harris comes back, although not sure how likely that is.

[skan72]

Well said. It doesn't remove the pain of this loss, however and nothing will except the beginning of a new season.

I was proud of the way Elias, Robert and GJ payed today. It wasn't enough and I'm sure nothing short of a miracle performance would have been enough to defeat Syracuse with the way they were hitting their outside shots. It was sick.

I like Meech and his hard-charging attitude. I have staunchly defended him through this year, but I'm not sure he should be the starting PG next year. Perhaps the last half of the 2nd half was an inkling with GJ getting most of those minutes. We need a scoring threat at the 1.

Next year beholds many great things. I am looking forward to it. It's always dissappointing to lose, whether by one point or twenty. This team will be back and no detractor of this program will ever understand that simple fact. Let them stew in their gleeful malice.

I agree with you. But, Meech's shot isn't completely broken (you didn't say this, I just want to touch on the subject), looking at it I think some adjustments and hard work could make him into a reliable shooter. And we all know he can get to the tin, he's just gotta work on finishing in traffic.

The loss sucks, yes. But it'll make us better as a team. The guys are gonna do great things this summer that will set them up for success next year. Arop, Olynyk, Kong, and Sacre getting some burn for Team Canada won't hurt anything either. Whether they tryout and make it or not, it'll still help them.

I can't wait for next season already. It's gonna be one of the best in recent memory methinks.

[billyberu]

Being a young team isn't really a valid excuse, it's all about having the leadership and the team buying into the team concept and playing tough d. Your team should feed off your leader and as i've said for years I don't think Bouldin is a good leader, he disappears to much in big games. Bouldin had a good year, but he shouldn't ever be the primary option, he's better off as a 2nd or third option. As to tough D, it just doesn't ever seem like that's something that Mark Few ever coaches, if it's one of his assistants who is in charge of the defense he needs to fire them and bring someone in who can actually coach defense. We will see GU could be very good next year if harris comes back, although not sure how likely that is.

Isn't it great that even simple minds can have opinions.

[skan72]

Isn't it great that even simple minds can have opinions.

very amused.

[skan72]

Being a young team isn't really a valid excuse, it's all about having the leadership and the team buying into the team concept and playing tough d. Your team should feed off your leader and as i've said for years I don't think Bouldin is a good leader, he disappears to much in big games. Bouldin had a good year, but he shouldn't ever be the primary option, he's better off as a 2nd or third option. As to tough D, it just doesn't ever seem like that's something that Mark Few ever coaches, if it's one of his assistants who is in charge of the defense he needs to fire them and bring someone in who can actually coach defense. We will see GU could be very good next year if harris comes back, although not sure how likely that is.

Yes, being inexperienced is an excuse. Young, maybe not, because all these guys are young relatively speaking. But we had 10 guys who had never played D1 ball, and they came together well and because of their play it caused us to put expectations on their shoulders. Which is a good thing! We expected them to beat Syracuse, and heck, they could have if Syracuse doesn't shoot the lights out, or we look in the post a lot more once Jackson goes out. But we didn't, the EXPERIENCE isn't there. Next year we are going to be really good, even if Harris doesn't come back, with him we'll be great, IMO.

Let's look at last year's national championship team UNC, how many seniors were coming back for more every year on that team?
Kansas in 2008? Chalmers, Rush, Robinson, etc. Who was the point guard for Memphis? An inexperienced freshman.
2007 Florida? All juniors, repeating.
2006 Florida? A lot of sophomores, but not 10 newcomers to D1, but also with Lee Humphrey a stud junior.

Need I go on?

Being inexperienced...I don't want to use the word excuse...I'm not excusing us, I never said that, we didn't play well against Syracuse...if you missed my point, what I was getting at is that we are SO young and we did such good things in spite of that...next year is going to be stellar. You did really miss my point completely.

[dawgfather11]

No, why the do the experts bring that up every year? Year in and year out, the experienced teams advance in the tourney and teams as young as the Zags are lucky even to get there.

it's a factor but not the whole point. GU has what 7 fresh/sophmore playing significant minutes, UW has 6 this year (When they won the pac-10 last year they had 7 fwiw). Really not that much of a difference, I think it has more to do with the other factors I brought up than anything else.

[dawgfather11]

Isn't it great that even simple minds can have opinions.

says someone who brings nothing to the table...

[BlueVoodoo07]

it's a factor but not the whole point. GU has what 7 fresh/sophmore playing significant minutes, UW has 6 this year (When they won the pac-10 last year they had 7 fwiw). Really not that much of a difference, I think it has more to do with the other factors I brought up than anything else.

You have not played at a high level of sports if you really think being young doesn't matter. Also trust me UW had a cake walk into the sweet 16 Cuse would stomp your Dawgs bad. Before you say no Lobos are a joke and your first game cuse already took care of them this year.

[billyberu]

it's a factor but not the whole point. GU has what 7 fresh/sophmore playing significant minutes, UW has 6 this year (When they won the pac-10 last year they had 7 fwiw). Really not that much of a difference, I think it has more to do with the other factors I brought up than anything else.

The underlying message to your wavering point is that Gonzaga has no true leadership, but that your beloved Huskies do, right? You have come onto our boards after a difficult loss to spread your misguided wisdom and enlighten us with nonsense.

[MickMick]

John Wall and Cousins can get it done. I doubt they do because of experience.

The cumulative effect of youth is amplified by the size of the group. You can get by with a few, but you still need some veterans. Further, it is less about youth and more about time spent together as a unit.

Maui still boggles my mind. The team had just met each other a month prior.

UNC assembled a group of youngins and struggled. UNI has a group of veterans that took out Kansas.

The argument is more than valid.

I give this team much more leniency than the senior laden squad last year.


As for the UW youth, New Mexico is a long ways from Syracuse. Perhaps Marquette (and where they finished) is a better baramoter of how good Cuse is. If QPon needed a buzzer beater to beat Marquette.......just sayin'

[skan72]

it's a factor but not the whole point. GU has what 7 fresh/sophmore playing significant minutes, UW has 6 this year (When they won the pac-10 last year they had 7 fwiw). Really not that much of a difference, I think it has more to do with the other factors I brought up than anything else.

This really wasn't an excuse thread, nor is there an argument...not that I started or intended to start at least.

However, we had 7 freshmen this year and 3 sophomores. We had 10 guys on the team in total who had never played D1 basketball before, not a minute. Four of which got significant minutes.

Let's look at you last year: Your guys with 10 mpg+ - Jon Brockman (Sr.) 30, Isiah Thomas (Fr.) 28, Justin Dentmon (Sr.) 28, Pondexter (Jr.) 28, Overton (So.) 20, Darnell Gant (Fr.) 18, Bryan-Amaning (So.) 16, Justin Holiday (So.) 15, Elston Turner (Fr.) 13. So you had 2 freshmen play 13 and 18 minutes and one play 28...but you had 2 seniors, a junior, and a sophomore who played the majority after that. Plus another 2 sophomores. You "situation" last year was not even close to what ours was. Not the same turnover of players.

This year: you have 1 freshman playing significant minutes, and a heck of a lot of sophs, juniors, and a senior. Pondexter (Sr.) 32, Thomas (So.) 31, Overton (Jr.) 23, Bryan-Amaning (Jr.) 22, Holiday (Jr.) 21, Gaddy (Fr.) 18, Elston Turner (So.) 15, Scott Suggs (So.) 14, Darnell Gant (So.) 11. So again, not even close to the same situation.

Us this year: Bouldin (Sr.) 35, Gray (Jr.) 31, Harris (Fr.) 29, Sacre (So.) 25, Goodson (So.) 25, Kong (Fr.) 12, Olynyk (Fr.) 12, Arop (Fr.) 11. The next two in minutes were also freshmen Gibbs 9 and Vilarino 7. We had 1 senior...one...and one junior playing significant minutes, the rest were a couple sophs and a ton of freshmen.

There is a huge difference when you break it down.

I do wish you guys luck the rest of the way though.

[dawgfather11]

The underlying message to your wavering point is that Gonzaga has no true leadership, but that your beloved Huskies do, right? You have come onto our boards after a difficult loss to spread your misguided wisdom and enlighten us with nonsense.

you can call it misguided, I see it for the truth, that's fine. I've been on here for a long time and these are my boards just as much as they are yours... Ignore the board name if it will help you out. As a zag fan I say this team was lacking leadership and the defensive coaching was non exsistent, which was my original point. You can only point to inexperience so much, I think it has more to do with my 2 points than your experience issue.

I've never been a fan of bouldin as a leader, and it does seem fitting that in the biggest and last game of his career he was non exsistent and his team folded. Now bouldin did have a great career overall with gonzaga noone is taking that away my only issue with him is his leadership. I had hopes early in the season with his good play in Maui that he had turned the corner, but it didn't last. As to the defensive issues, i'm not sure if it's coaching or just scheme but it's been bad for awhile and really needs to change if we want the zags to go far in the tournament!

[BobZag]

There are reasons and there are excuses. The two are very different. An excuse is, say, a bad reffing call. A reason goes deeper. Just wanted to make that clear, fwiw.