Its a scrimmage people!

[GUDan07]

I know everyone is excited for the start of the season but the projections that are being drawn from watching a brief public scrimmage are crazy. Its just a couple of minutes of the team playing together for the first time in public trying to put on a show for the fans. Roles will be defined and players will immerge as the season progresses.

[Ekrub]

Speculation and debate is what drives this board. We have all had a long off season, and excited about the snippet we saw last night. No harm in that.

[ZagNative]

It's All Good!



I've loved reading what people gleaned from watching in K2 last night.

Now we just need to find someone to do all the kids' astrological charts!

[GUDan07]

I'm just as excited as everyone else for the season to start and I understand the anticipation. I just don't get the need to make premature, unfounded statements on what roles will be for the season based on a short, public scrimmage.

[CB4]

I'm just as excited as everyone else for the season to start and I understand the anticipation. I just don't get the need to make premature, unfounded statements on what roles will be for the season based on a short, public scrimmage.

Thanks for clearing this up. Let's shut down the board until Mid-November since there's nothing to talk about until then.

[GonzagasaurusFlex]

Gary Bell Jr. & January Eligibility!

I'm trying to go down in GU boards' history as the most outrageous poster still standing. Let's grab a martini and put up some outlandish statements!!!

We're not the only ones getting too excited from last night's scrimmage. The martini leaves are telling me Gary Bell Jr. is so hyped about this team that he's gonna follow the lead of his football playing pals. GBJ will be graduating from high-school this December and enrolling at Gonzaga in January, so he'll be playing alongside Steven Gray come February.

[CDC84]

I warn everybody about this every season (as i did yesterday afternoon), and yet some people still feel that a street ball game where the players are playing to the crowd and showing off is a sign of how the players will do throughout their Gonzaga careers.

There were people on this site who were unimpressed with Elias Harris last season during the intrasquad scrimmage. Not polished enough, not skilled enough, etc.

The most useful aspect of the intrasquad scrimmage, if you ask me, is to look at the returning players and see how their bodies have grown, and if they are trying to do some new things on both ends that they didn't do the previous season. Other than that, the game is pure entertainment....nothing else. Maybe you get to find out if one of the newcomers has great hang time.

[Robzagnut]

I know everyone is excited for the start of the season but the projections that are being drawn from watching a brief public scrimmage are crazy. Its just a couple of minutes of the team playing together for the first time in public trying to put on a show for the fans. Roles will be defined and players will immerge as the season progresses.

I have to disagree. I got two things by watching the scrimmage live:

* I will no longer groan when Sacre gets his 2nd foul, because Dower is a beast and will fill in nicely. My prediction is by the end of his GU career he will be mentioned in the same breath as Bastita concerning his low post scoring.

* Manny will not turn into a PMac. He looked for his shot and was aggressive at the offensive end. I was impressed with his game.

[seasontixholder]

I warn everybody about this every season (as i did yesterday afternoon), and yet some people still feel that a street ball game where the players are playing to the crowd and showing off is a sign of how the players will do throughout their Gonzaga careers.

? The S-R quoted Few as saying that they intentionally ran a structured scrimmage in order to test execution, run some defenses, and to be able to watch film of it afterwards. There was method to this particular madness.

[NEC26]

I warn everybody about this every season (as i did yesterday afternoon), and yet some people still feel that a street ball game where the players are playing to the crowd and showing off is a sign of how the players will do throughout their Gonzaga careers.

There were people on this site who were unimpressed with Elias Harris last season during the intrasquad scrimmage. Not polished enough, not skilled enough, etc.

The most useful aspect of the intrasquad scrimmage, if you ask me, is to look at the returning players and see how their bodies have grown, and if they are trying to do some new things on both ends that they didn't do the previous season. Other than that, the game is pure entertainment....nothing else. Maybe you get to find out if one of the newcomers has great hang time.

Yeah I have to chime in and say it is hard to say too much about a 15 minute scrimmage. However it was easy to see who will be big contributors this year. Manny Arop was outstanding and if he isn't a starter (I think he will be) he will definitely get major minutes and Dower has obviously put on some weight and strength since last year and will be a strong contributor this year as well. And yes it was easy to see from 15 minutes of scrimmage.
Besides the point of this board is to discuss the Zags and right now this is all we have to go on so I don't get why its wrong to discuss and talk and maybe even do a little projecting from it.

[dim4sum]

free speech.

i dont like the fact that political correctness has morphed into free speech repression. virtually every thread brings up an element of why bring this up.
may i offer that what with the zags playing the only structured game that i saw last night, why wasn't heister calling play by play. instead he was mouthing off his familiar blah blah blather and totally ignoring what was transpiring on the court. Hats off to Few trying to simulate real game conditions instead of making it a dunkin donut showboat spectacle like the rest. But the camera work was terrible. Saw Steven can a few from afar, the rest was hard to discern.
I'm going to be very mad if the season starts and Heister continues blah bla blathering while the game is in progress. I will most certainly let FSN know if this continues and I urge the rest of you to do the same.

[VaBeachZAG]

...and I am going to be mad if we don't get HD coverage on Fox Sports Northwest home games (come on, get with the 21st Century already).

[snebzag]

Sorry Dan,
If you did not see by watching that scrimmage last night that the Zags are obvious National Champions then we were watching two different games. I could tell at the first tip, it took others the whole game to find vital info.
Every year gets better, with more talent incoming, to see how coach and staff will play it out. I think this year I'll just sit back and enjoy how Few plays his hand. I do think we need a "Who's gonna redshirt thread."

[Nevtelen]

I warn everybody about this every season (as i did yesterday afternoon), and yet some people still feel that a street ball game where the players are playing to the crowd and showing off is a sign of how the players will do throughout their Gonzaga careers.

There were people on this site who were unimpressed with Elias Harris last season during the intrasquad scrimmage. Not polished enough, not skilled enough, etc.

The most useful aspect of the intrasquad scrimmage, if you ask me, is to look at the returning players and see how their bodies have grown, and if they are trying to do some new things on both ends that they didn't do the previous season. Other than that, the game is pure entertainment....nothing else. Maybe you get to find out if one of the newcomers has great hang time.

I remember last season (I think) when Sacre just didn't show anything in the scrimmage and people were wondering if he'd gotten better at all coming of the redshirt year. Then we saw him in a real game.

Wonder what surprises we'll get this season?

[MickMick]

I think Dan was simply trying to get across that you can't take too much from a 15 minute scrimmage involving several players that are new to the environment and have not been coached as a collective group. Dan is certainly correct.

Having said that I saw:

A White White team having a group that some here think should start (Sacre, KO, Harris, Gray, Meech). All players with experience.

VS

A Blue team that included Dower, Kieta, Manny.

You can glean something from this. The supposed "starters" had no answer for Arop, Dower can bang down low with Sacre, and Kieta's length is gonna be a nightmare for smallish guards. The stars (Harris, Gray, Sacre) will be the same excellent players we have become accustomed to, but it is the first look at the depth that has people excited. The bench looks far more capable than the group from last season.

The entire team was playing defense. A "pickup" game with little coaching and the players were getting after it on the defensive end. This has me excited as well.

Seems that as a whole, 90 per cent of the posts have said something similar to all that.