Sweet 16 Pre-game Media Thread: Gonzaga vs Florida State v 2.0

[GonzagasaurusFlex]

Is it just me or have there been relatively few articles about this game to date other than from Spokesman Review?

Here are a couple I found this morning. Please add more here so we can all partake!:

https://www.slipperstillfits.com/201...-florida-state

https://www.tomahawknation.com/2019/...noles-sweet-16

https://bustingbrackets.com/2019/03/...w-tv-schedule/

[Zagceo]

Nothing new but local OC newspaper ran story about Few & Monson

https://www.ocregister.com/2019/03/2...onzaga-family/

[Zagger]

Here are 3 more ....

Good one on Clarke:
https://www.deadspin.com/brandon-cla...1833578744/amp

Another reseeding of the 16 by SI:
https://www.si.com/college-basketbal...et-16-rankings

And another by the Noles:
https://www.tomahawknation.com/platf...oles-seminoles

[gonzagafan62]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.the...ella-blueblood

[RenoZag]

Clarke Feature article:

https://theundefeated.com/features/h...-lead-bulldog/

“He was with us all last year, so we knew he was a real talent, what he was capable of doing,” said Gonzaga coach Mark Few. “I’m pleasantly surprised with how consistent he’s been and how he’s been able to deliver not just on the defensive end but on offense as well.”

That steady play all season, along with that standout effort March 23, is the reason Clarke has been soaring up NBA draft boards.

Ojanen, who is now the assistant athletic director of men’s basketball at Saint Mary’s College of California, said a number of NBA teams have asked him about Clarke, who’s been compared to high-energy players such as former Phoenix Suns forward Shawn Marion and Houston Rockets forward Kenneth Faried.

[jazzdelmar]

Is it just me or have there been relatively few articles about this game to date other than from Spokesman Review?

Here are a couple I found this morning. Please add more here so we can all partake!:

https://www.slipperstillfits.com/201...-florida-state

https://www.tomahawknation.com/2019/...noles-sweet-16

https://bustingbrackets.com/2019/03/...w-tv-schedule/

When you follow the team on a molecular level, as most here do, none of these "stories" shed any significant light on the Zags. More likely, they infuriate with wrong information.

[jazzdelmar]

When you follow the team on a molecular level, as most here do, none of these "stories" shed any significant light on the Zags. More likely, they infuriate with wrong information.

[jazzdelmar]

62, I don't get your personal irritation w my comment. I was speaking for myself, and for many here, not for the great unwashed. Sure, nice public service to trot out all the lore ... and nice public service for you to kudos the effort.

[gonzagafan62]

62, I don't get your personal irritation w my comment. I was speaking for myself, and for many here, not for the great unwashed. Sure, nice public service to trot out all the lore ... and nice public service for you to kudos the effort.

I wasn’t really harping on you either, I think I misunderstood your comment jazz, and that’s why when I reread your comment I immediately deleted my comment. My bad jazz.

[jazzdelmar]

I wasn’t really harping on you either, I think I misunderstood your comment jazz, and that’s why when I reread your comment I immediately deleted my comment. My bad jazz.

Not a prob. Beat freaking FSU!!!!!

[Markburn1]

Have read this story many times over the years. Nothing new.

Always fun for me to have a reminder of where the Zags were and how they got here.

Thanks 62

[Zags_Fanatic]

Man, FSU fans are really great. Would be so easy for them to be elitist considering their conference and last year’s result but the comment section after the Q&A is fantastic. I hope Zags win the game but if they don’t I’ll be 100% in for Hamilton, Phil and their fans.


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[willandi]

Clarke Feature article:

https://theundefeated.com/features/h...-lead-bulldog/

I don't remember where (what thread), but I liked the statement by Few, on Clarke, that last year they had to stop letting him guard J3 in practice because it was demoralizing for J3.

paraphrased from my memory.

[zagfan24]

Thanks for sharing '62. I actually liked the article, and while it offered nothing new, I didn't expect it to. This wasn't a local writer like Withers or Blanchette offering pearls of inside info; so I enjoy reading it from the outsider perspective and appreciating that more college basketball fans at a national level can recognize the accomplishments of the Gonzaga program.

I also think the article serves as a great reminder of the history of this program. A history that helps with my anxiety building up to Thursday, because while a national title will be a great capstone to this program's journey, the "story" of Zag basketball is not about a little engine that could making a great run or two in March. This is where the Gonzaga program has differentiated itself from Butler, Wichita St, VCU, etc in my opinion. The pattern of sustained excellence over the past 20 years is truly remarkable and quite possibly not replicable. The stunning number of factors that have, in confluence, contributed to this run would be hard to duplicate; from Few and Roth to the wonderful young men that have put on the Zag uniform, and including but not limited to the GU administration, boosters, community, students, and fans that have all been a part of this run.

[LongIslandZagFan]

Thanks for posting it 62.

Gotta ask, was it really necessary to attack the article? How about, if you didn't appreciate it then don't say anything.

[Radbooks]

Thanks for posting it 62.

Gotta ask, was it really necessary to attack the article? How about, if you didn't appreciate it then don't say anything.

Amen! I often find articles that I enjoy but I've stopped sharing them here because of the way some people react.

[LongIslandZagFan]

with a headline like "Great Ringer article MUST READ" with its own thread as Zag fan on this board I expect new info call me stuffy.

I am not saying you have to like the article. Just saying that there wasn't a need to say anything at all. What it does is discourage people from posting anything for fear of this exact reaction. Didn't your parents teach you that if you don't have anything nice to say... then say nothing? Is civility a lost art on the internet? Does it have to be?

[Robzagnut]

with a headline like "Great Ringer article MUST READ" with its own thread as Zag fan on this board I expect new info call me stuffy.

Stuffy is not the word I would use when you discourage people from posting excellent articles on popular national sites that do nothing but expand the Gonzaga brand, but I don't want to be banned right in the middle of another Final Four run. Ever think that some of us enjoy reading those articles?

[raise the zag]

Man, FSU fans are really great. Would be so easy for them to be elitist considering their conference and last year’s result but the comment section after the Q&A is fantastic. I hope Zags win the game but if they don’t I’ll be 100% in for Hamilton, Phil and their fans.


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Noticed this as well.

Very humble, pragmatic, respectful fan base, esp considering their conference affiliation.

Ive browsed all of their 3 message boards and each have been open minded, honest, objective.

Haven't seen that in some time from a Power 6 school.

Impressed.

[jazzdelmar]

Thanks for posting it 62.

Gotta ask, was it really necessary to attack the article? How about, if you didn't appreciate it then don't say anything.

Right back atcha. Why it always necessary to attack my personal POV? Last I looked, you're not the lunchroom monitor here.

[Zagger]

I don't remember where (what thread), but I liked the statement by Few, on Clarke, that last year they had to stop letting him guard J3 in practice because it was demoralizing for J3.

paraphrased from my memory.

Pretty sure it’s in this one (likely others stories as well) that I linked above.
https://www.deadspin.com/brandon-cla...1833578744/amp

[gonzagafan62]

Not a prob. Beat freaking FSU!!!!!

That’s what I’m hoping for!!! Go zags!

[sittingon50]

Enjoyed it, 62.

[Section 116]

I , for one, enjoy this. I can't get enough of it even if it is a rehash of stuff I already know! Thanks "62"!

[CDC84]

This is a wonderful article that really captures the Gonzaga rise to power so well. But I have one small quibble.

This is just my view, but however amazing Gonzaga's story has been, and how many outstanding achievements the team has achieved, we still have a ways to go until we get the "Blue Blood" tag. That's probably going to require multiple final fours, 2 or 3 national titles, and proof that the program can continue to thrive and survive and succeed after Coach Few retires, which, as I have said all along, I predict will be sooner than later. I also feel it takes more than a 20 year reign of power to achieve "Blue Blood" status. While I don't let the opinion of BCS homers influence my thinking, I do feel that some of the anti-Zag sentiment that continues to exist on message forums and comment sections has to do with various media people grouping Gonzaga with a category of teams that includes Kentucky, Kansas, Duke and North Carolina. It takes years and years of big time, huge success across multiple coaches in order to do what those programs have done.

I feel where Gonzaga is at the moment is at that next level below the Blue Bloods. And honestly, this year more than any other, I have seen less anti-Zag sentiment if the media person identifies Gonzaga as being where it truly stands in the pecking order of college basketball. The days of BCS homers believing that Penn State, Ole Miss, TCU and ASU could do exactly what Gonzaga has done in the WCC are over. Making 5 straight sweet 16's or better (an incredibly rare achievement in the expanded bracket era), combined with the national title game appearance and Gonzaga's consistent presence in the top 10 at kenpom.com (and the massive improvement in the program's defensive prowess) has led to a new view towards the Zags by outside people. When several media people mentioned on Saturday that we had just made our 5th straight sweet 16 or better, BCS homers said things like "Gonzaga is a great program that is just stuck in a trash conference." While I would object to the fact that the WCC is a "trash" conference, I cannot tell you enough what a change of attitude there has been. Even the people who objected to GU landing a #1 seed (which sort of lessened after some of the big boys started dropping games early in the league tourneys) still felt that Gonzaga was capable of winning a national title. They just felt they didn't deserve a one seed for this or that reason.

So things are improving......slowly. But I really wish that certain media members would cool down this talk about GU being a "Blue Blood" program. They still have a ways to go before they achieve that. But that just really reflects what MY view of what a "Blue Blood" program is. If it isn't your view or the writer's view, I can understand the difference of opinion. But I think when anti-Zag folks, or shall I say, former anti-Zag folks who are "coming around," see Gonzaga identified as a Blue Blood team by a media entity, its gets their blood boiling. Partly, because honestly, I think they are correct. Gonzaga still has more to do to achieve that.