ESPN storm warning

[jazzdelmar]

Gonzaga Bulldogs (No. 8 AP, No. 11 BPI)
Area of concern: 3-point defense
At first glance, the Zags appear to do a decent job against long-range shooters. Opponents shoot 33.1 percent from deep against them, which is just about average for Division I. But here's the thing: Gonzaga is just inviting top-shooting teams to go off. Illinois went 11-for-26 from 3-point range to hand Gonzaga its lone loss, and someone else will exploit that same weakness. Why? Gonzaga allows opponents to take an absurd 37.9 percent of their shots from deep. That's 309th in the country and a big reason the Bulldogs are only 72nd in defensive efficiency. It's pretty simple: If you can't chase your opponent off the arc, you're susceptible to a tourney upset.

Upset alert: A Butler win Saturday night wouldn't be much of an upset, but the guys from Indy are built to hurt the Zags. San Francisco (39.9 percent), Loyola Marymount (36.8 percent) and San Diego (37 percent) all have a shooter's chance against Gonzaga; Saint Mary's has more than that.

[ZagLawGrad]

Zags have a propensity to bring out the best in an opponent's 3 pt. shooting.

Or, at least it sure seems that way.

[HenneZag]

Same ole story

GU has always been a team that allows opponents to get looks from the 3, some capitalize (Illinois) and some don't. Definately a concern moving forward. I really don't get why we haven't corrected this, the coaches obviously have to realize this is a problem.

GU allows teams to take 37.9 % of their shots from 3...wow! ranking us @
309th in the country, staggering to me.

Well we are obviously doing alot of things right, hopefully we can tighten this up though, you know some teams are licking there chops...as mentioned, a number of teams could hurt us here, I don't like those stats.

[ZagsBaby]

GU allows teams to take 37.9 % of their shots from 3...wow! ranking us @
309th in the country, staggering to me.

.

Well that IS the lowest percentage shot, so I'm not sure it's not somewhat by design.

[hondo]

Most of the time it's pick your poison and picking that poison has led to a near 80% winning percentage. Not bad.

[zag67]

Also I think that there is a high number of threes because they are behind and that gives them a chance to get back in the game

[bostonzagfan]

still though, teams wouldn't shoot close to 40% of their shots beyond the arc if most were tightly contested.

[GU69]

Gonzaga allows opponents to take an absurd 37.9 percent of their shots from deep.

Allows? Can't it also be said that:
"Gonzaga forces opponents to take an absurd 37.9 percent of their shots from deep because Gonzaga takes away the inside."

Would it be better to let other teams take closer shots?

Obviously the ideal would be to not allow any shots at all, but even if a team is held to no shots through the possession timer, they'll toss up something when the clock runs down.

Getting teams to shoot threes is fine with me. However, they need to be contested, rushed threes.

[Rangerzag]

Gonzaga Bulldogs (No. 8 AP, No. 11 BPI)
Area of concern: 3-point defense
At first glance, the Zags appear to do a decent job against long-range shooters. Opponents shoot 33.1 percent from deep against them, which is just about average for Division I. But here's the thing: Gonzaga is just inviting top-shooting teams to go off. Illinois went 11-for-26 from 3-point range to hand Gonzaga its lone loss, and someone else will exploit that same weakness. Why? Gonzaga allows opponents to take an absurd 37.9 percent of their shots from deep. That's 309th in the country and a big reason the Bulldogs are only 72nd in defensive efficiency. It's pretty simple: If you can't chase your opponent off the arc, you're susceptible to a tourney upset.

Upset alert: A Butler win Saturday night wouldn't be much of an upset, but the guys from Indy are built to hurt the Zags. San Francisco (39.9 percent), Loyola Marymount (36.8 percent) and San Diego (37 percent) all have a shooter's chance against Gonzaga; Saint Mary's has more than that.

Or at least some clues as to where you found this, please.

[AK457]

yeah i don't agree with the wording. "allows" could be read as "forces." any team at any time can shoot threes. good defense makes that their only option. and it's always going to be a lagging, i.e., not predictive, statistic that teams we lose to tend to have shot a good 3 point percentage.

[kclubfounder]

Allows? Can't it also be said that:
"Gonzaga forces opponents to take an absurd 37.9 percent of their shots from deep because Gonzaga takes away the inside."

Would it be better to let other teams take closer shots?

Obviously the ideal would be to not allow any shots at all, but even if a team is held to no shots through the possession timer, they'll toss up something when the clock runs down.

Getting teams to shoot threes is fine with me. However, they need to be contested, rushed threes.

[WallaWallaZag]

yeah i don't agree with the wording. "allows" could be read as "forces." any team at any time can shoot threes. good defense makes that their only option. and it's always going to be a lagging, i.e., not predictive, statistic that teams we lose to tend to have shot a good 3 point percentage.

allows or forces...by design or not...the key point lost in all of this is that gonzaga is not in the nba where the law of averages are likely to play out over the course of a best of seven series. college basketball is one and done, which means it only takes one hot half or one hot shooter to end your season. the flip side of this is that a team giving up a lot of threes should hardly ever be giving up dribble penetration...unfortunately, that also doesn't appear to be the case with the zag perimeter defense.

[Oregonzagnut]

allows or forces...by design or not...the key point lost in all of this is that gonzaga is not in the nba where the law of averages are likely to play out over the course of a best of seven series. college basketball is one and done, which means it only takes one hot half or one hot shooter to end your season. the flip side of this is that a team giving up a lot of threes should hardly ever be giving up dribble penetration...unfortunately, that also doesn't appear to be the case with the zag perimeter defense.

It seems we have an elite offense with a tweener defense. We really miss that 3 spot on D and rebounding too. We are needy for Edi.

The long rebounds off missed 3 pt clankers seem to favor an offensive rebound too. Esp, if they are committed to rebounding. What bothers me after any shot is when they start running back up the court before the shot even starts coming down.

[bartruff1]

exactly

Allows? Can't it also be said that:
"Gonzaga forces opponents to take an absurd 37.9 percent of their shots from deep because Gonzaga takes away the inside."

Would it be better to let other teams take closer shots?

Obviously the ideal would be to not allow any shots at all, but even if a team is held to no shots through the possession timer, they'll toss up something when the clock runs down.

Getting teams to shoot threes is fine with me. However, they need to be contested, rushed threes.

.....I believe it is by design and recognizes the limitations our athletes have...and it is working.....

[WallaWallaZag]

It seems we have an elite offense with a tweener defense.

zags only truly have an elite offense when pangos is on...considering his track record, it doesn't bode well for a deep run in march unless bell turns things around to offset the inconsistency of pangos.