ESPN Zag stuff.

[bigblahla]

Found this am.

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/64344/five-questions-gonzagas-kevin-pangos

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/64320/three-big-things-gonzaga

Enjoy.

Go!! Zags!!!

[hooter73]

Havent read the Pangos answers yet but the other article is... interesting. Its true that four starters are returning but its more like 7 or 8 starters are returning. No real mention of Bell, the unknown forward and Center positions involving Dower, Harris, PK and oh yeah, that under the radar KO is back to play too. Maybe i should start listening to everyone that keeps saying that Dower is the next big thing for us but I just havent seen it yet.

[jazzdelmar]

KP

KP, spoken like a future PM of Canada. What a treat to have repping the Zags.

[ZagNative]

Thanks for posting that! Good stuff.

[sittingon50]

Thanks blaha.

[hockeyzag]

Can someone post the insider article?

[CaliforniaZaggin']

Great stuff. All the talk of a deep tournament run nearly gave me goosebumps.

[cjm720]

No mention of KO, KD and Dower was not a junior last year...we are even better

[Zagquette]

Pangos' Team

Pangos' Team?

Although Harris is the senior and a leader, does it not seem that Pangos' is the leader of this team?

Not a bad thing IMO.

Peace

[SteelZag]

What about KD!

Still no mention of Kyle Dranginis in any article which is fine with me, he can continue to fly underneath the radar. If he is half as talented as reported from the scrimmages in the past season, he should be more than serviceable at the 1, 2 and 3 positions.

I agree with the article's assessment of an issue with turnovers. With only the addition of PK and Drew Barham passing should only get crisper and TO's should see a reduction. Crisp ball movement and players not afraid to shoot should make our offense formidable.

[JPtheBeasta]

Still no mention of Kyle Dranginis in any article which is fine with me, he can continue to fly underneath the radar. If he is half as talented as reported from the scrimmages in the past season, he should be more than serviceable at the 1, 2 and 3 positions.

I agree with the article's assessment of an issue with turnovers. With only the addition of PK and Drew Barham passing should only get crisper and TO's should see a reduction. Crisp ball movement and players not afraid to shoot should make our offense formidable.

Re turnovers, I agree that those should be down quite a bit this year. Our balance will be much better, and it shouldn't be so predictable what we are trying to do on offense- it was pretty easy to predict that we were going to force feed the ball to a post player that didn't have the greatest hands (no offense Rob, I love ya big guy) and it was probably a pretty easy choice to pack the lane. The other gameplan issue was that we had an inexperienced PG (albeit talented) and a 5'9" backup, and if I was a less talented team (such as SF) it would make sense to go for broke, pressure the ball, and try to create turnovers. I expect both of those issues to be cleaned up a lot this year. Less empty possessions= less headscratcher losses, IMO, and that's why I'm starting to buy into some of the hype.

[DZ]

I do believe that it is Kevin's team at this point but I hope that doesn't mean he is pressured to score.

If anyone is flying under the radar it is our off guard Bell, who some might remember, almost lead us back against OSU and tended to rise to the occassion when the team was struggling. I hope that Harris and Bell are our top scoring options and not necessarily in that order.

Bell shot the three just as well as Pangos, but not as often - and Bell has the ability to create his own shot. I think he has to be more aggressive offensively this season.

[CDC84]

GBJ continues to be underrated. Not by TSN, who thinks he'll be one of the top 10 shooting guards in the nation this year.

Pangos averaged 1.8 turnovers per game last year. That's outstanding for a PG who played as many minutes as he did last year. Guys like Pargo, Stepp and Dickau committed 2.9+ TPG as upperclassmen.

Elias Harris averaged as many TO's per game as Sacre did last year, and Dower wasn't far off (despite playing just 18 MPG). There is a tendency to blame Rob a lot for the TO issues, but it was really Gonzaga's entire frontcourt that stunk in this department. The returning bigs all need to improve. I have little worries about Karnowski in this department, whose passing ability might be his greatest strength as a player right now.

The only guard who I have major issues with regarding turnovers is Stockton, who became turnover happy during WCC play last season. It was alarming because he could always be counted on to hold the fort down within league play. His number one job when he is out there is to not turn the ball over. If he fails to do that, he shouldn't see the court because he doesn't score enough, shoots poorly from the foul line and is a major liability on defense.

[JPtheBeasta]

Elias Harris averaged as many TO's per game as Sacre did last year, and Dower wasn't far off (despite playing just 18 MPG). There is a tendency to blame Rob a lot for the TO issues, but it was really Gonzaga's entire frontcourt that stunk in this department. The returning bigs all need to improve. I have little worries about Karnowski in this department, whose passing ability might be his greatest strength as a player right now.

Thanks for the reality check. Rob subjectively looked worse to me, but I never looked at the stats.

The only guard who I have major issues with regarding turnovers is Stockton, who became turnover happy during WCC play last season. It was alarming because he could always be counted on to hold the fort down within league play. His number one job when he is out there is to not turn the ball over. If he fails to do that, he shouldn't see the court because he doesn't score enough, shoots poorly from the foul line and is a major liability on defense.

Couldn't agree more. It was very frustrating, for example, in the Don's game when their pressure and length was an obvious problem for him. He takes a few more chances than others with the pass in the half court, which sometimes results in some great looks for his teammates, so I am a little less critical of that. But the dribbling out of pressure in the backcourt and failing instead of passing the ball is irksome, at times.

[Reborn]

I agree with everything CDC says. David S. was not the player last year that he was his Freshman year. I hope he finds it again because I really enjoyed his game his Freshman year. He played with so much more confidence,and he shot WAY better from both the 3 pt line and foul line. And mostly, I really missed his passing. When he came into the game his Freshman year the team nearly always did better and went on a run.