@Pepperdine Post Game Thread

[zagitarious]

Discuss your thoughts. I thought our guys had a good bounce back.

[DZ]

It looks to me like MM needs more minutes. I think that he needed more even after missing 3 straight at BYU. He brings excellant length, good rebounding, he does not turn it over, he passes well and his defense is good enough - no real drop off from Hart of GLE. Just pulling him after missing 3 straight sends the wrong message, tell him to look for assists, RB and play D.

I think the 3 spot should be GLE 18-20 or so, MM 12-15, Hart 5.

Carter should play guard, when he is having a good night.

[Baldwinzag]

Nice win on the road vs scrappy Pepperdine who is obviously well-coached.

Great effort to start the game. Drifted a bit in the 2nd half, yet kept chopping wood and didn't play flustered as we did at Marriott Center.

If we woulda come out with the same fire/focus vs BYU, we could have come away with a victory...yet, we didn't and learned from it.

I almost prefer Gonzaga when we play outside-in, rather than stare at our bigs for the first 5 mins of the game to make a play -- that gets old.

Our guards didn't wait for Sacre/Harris/Dower to assert themselves, instead they were aggressive, fast, and pressured the defense throughout, especially Pangos who showed a nice floater and dribble-drive we haven't seen in a long while.

With our guards, including Edi & Monninghoff are aggressive(and hit open shots) it opens up everything for Sacre to get one-on-one match-ups, put-backs, and draw fouls.

I think our guards need to carry us the rest of the way...yes, our literal strength is our inside game and size underneath, yet we *suck* when relying on our post-players to assert our team, esp on the road. BYU and St Mary's had identical game plans...extend their zone and hound our post players underneath. It worked to neutralize our so-called strength. When our guards are pushing, playing with confidence/focus, and playing at a fast pace, we are SO much more balanced and better.

Enough waiting around for our bigs inconsistent play -- Pangos Bell Edi Monninghoff Stocks Carter need to step it up and play with urgency as they did vs Pepp (Carter a little too much tonight).

I liked this game for many reasons, yet mostly b/c our guards played with a no non-sense attitude that was palpable. Refreshing to watch and Pepperdine is actually a solid defensive unit, maybe better defensively than BYU, yet we played on our heels in Provo and on our toes in Malibu.

Keep it up!

[DZ]

Nice win on the road vs scrappy Pepperdine who is obviously well-coached.

Great effort to start the game. Drifted a bit in the 2nd half, yet kept chopping wood and didn't play flustered as we did at Marriott Center.

If we woulda come out with the same fire/focus vs BYU, we could have come away with a victory...yet, we didn't and learned from it.

I almost prefer Gonzaga when we play outside-in, rather than stare at our bigs for the first 5 mins of the game to make a play -- that gets old.

Our guards didn't wait for Sacre/Harris/Dower to assert themselves, instead they were aggressive, fast, and pressured the defense throughout, especially Pangos who showed a nice floater and dribble-drive we haven't seen in a long while.

With our guards, including Edi & Monninghoff are aggressive(and hit open shots) it opens up everything for Sacre to get one-on-one match-ups, put-backs, and draw fouls.

I think our guards need to carry us the rest of the way...yes, our literal strength is our inside game and size underneath, yet we *suck* when relying on our post-players to assert our team, esp on the road. BYU and St Mary's had identical game plans...extend their zone and hound our post players underneath. It worked to neutralize our so-called strength. When our guards are pushing, playing with confidence/focus, and playing at a fast pace, we are SO much more balanced and better.

Enough waiting around for our bigs inconsistent play -- Pangos Bell Edi Monninghoff Stocks Carter need to step it up and play with urgency as they did vs Pepp (Carter a little too much tonight).

I liked this game for many reasons, yet mostly b/c our guards played with a no non-sense attitude that was palpable. Refreshing to watch and Pepperdine is actually a solid defensive unit, maybe better defensively than BYU, yet we played on our heels in Provo and on our toes in Malibu.

Keep it up!

Excellant post Baldwin. Agree with everything you said. I hope that our good minutes tonight remind the staff of where our strength really is. Our big guys are good players, they become great players when they are not the sole focus of the defense and can just flow with the offense.

This team will go as far as our guards and 3 spot can take us. Given that our best 2 are true freshman, it may not be as far as we would like, we may not win our conference, we may not win the WCC tournament and we may only play a game in the Dance or 2 - - but that is where we are right now and when you start two freshman, a JC transfer and your 6th man is a Soph, that is pretty good.

We are 18-4, we have some trouble areas - bad 3 pt shooting, bad TOs which they did much better with tonight, still very suspect, but good to see it going the right way before SMC.

[gamagin]

a lot of Zags stepped up

and that is what they needed to do.

From Pangos starting with a nice trey to Edi canning a dagger trey from a farthest corner. Fairly balanced scoring and a good workout in preparation for SMC.

[roxdoc]

Boy - I couldn't agree more Baldwin. Relying for our inside people to win the game for us does not work, particularly against better opponents. Outside is where our strength is. 22 % of tonights points came from the 3 position (not counting Carter's 2) If we can keep that up (knock on wood) plus have confidence with our guards maybe there is hope.

[EngineerZag]

Pepperdine played well tonight - thankfully we also brought a pretty good game to the house. Nice to see Pangos do so well. Edi had a great game as well, very efficient.

[gamagin]

+1

Nice win on the road vs scrappy Pepperdine who is obviously well-coached.

Great effort to start the game. Drifted a bit in the 2nd half, yet kept chopping wood and didn't play flustered as we did at Marriott Center.

Keep it up!

well said, the entire post. best,

[GeorgiaZagFan]

More made threes than turnovers!!!!

...any time you can go on the road and make more threes (7) than turnovers (6) ...it was a GREAT game.
At BYU in the first half it was ... threes (1), turnovers (15)
...not a great game

[fedwayzag]

Glad we won. However, if we would have committed 20 turnovers we would have lost. Gotta value the ball as BZ says. I say we will beat SMC if we have 8 or less turnovers.

[zagitarious]

...any time you can go on the road and make more threes (7) than turnovers (6) ...it was a GREAT game.
At BYU in the first half it was ... threes (1), turnovers (15)
...not a great game

wow! favorite stat of the year!

[jim77]

I thought the game was an EXCELLENT tuneup for St Mary's.

The first thing I liked was coach Few giving MM extended minutes....the kid got caught a bit on a couple of defensive switches but, I think the kid is MUCH better on defense. I also loved Mathis follow up by the hoop and scored a few boards....and also hit a 3. But, the kicker was Few re-inserting Mathis when the GAME WAS CLOSE (2nd half)....that is how you build a guys confidence...TRUST. I hope Mathis has a picture of Steindl on his locker with a target on it....he needs to get glued to Clint come Thursday. If we could do 1 thing by Thursday...it would be to get a set play to get Mathis more open 3 looks.....the kid also made few nice passes to our bigs...GOOD GAME Mathis!

The next thing that I liked was our bigs coming out to the top of the key to help give our guards some room. This will be huge Thursday....our guards also did a better job of limiting turnovers.....the cool thing about not turning it over is that you actually get a shot attempt.

I was hoping for more minutes for Hart but, hes one of those guys that doesn't need a lot to stay sharp. If you watch Mike on offense he always positions himself between the guards and the boards so he can go to either...SMART BB IQ.

I was also glad to see coach FEW scrap the 3 guard set in the 2nd half BEFORE we blew it....he immediately inserted length into the lineup. RALLY OVER.

In closing, I thought the coaching staff did a near perfect job at not only winning. but preparing us for ST Mary's.

Kudos to Pepperdine for playing their hearts out....the WCC is going to get tougher in the years ahead.

P.S. The GU program has reached its success by being greater than the sum of its parts...we don't win because we have superstars...we win because we play smart and as a team...we lose when we don't...we'll need all hands on deck Thursday.

[northsidezagfan]

It looks to me like MM needs more minutes.

\
+1 billion. Also I agree with Baldwin Zag we HAVE TO play outside in. No reason not to with Pangos/Bell/Hoff/sometimes Stockton outside.

[gozags09]

I thought we came out with more intensity to begin the game; however, when we had a chance to blow it open at about the 8-12 minute mark, we came down and hoisted up 5 consecutive threes early in the clock. While a couple of those going would have had the effect of stretching the lead to 20, it seems as though we should have run some offense and got some higher percentage looks to prevent the Waves from getting some transition points that allowed them to stay within striking distance.

[RenoZag]

I thought we came out with more intensity to begin the game; however, when we had a chance to blow it open at about the 8-12 minute mark, we came down and hoisted up 5 consecutive threes early in the clock. While a couple of those going would have had the effect of stretching the lead to 20, it seems as though we should have run some offense and got some higher percentage looks to prevent the Waves from getting some transition points that allowed them to stay within striking distance.

Yup. Dog had to leave the room after the fourth of those 5. . .