Gonzaga vs BYU Post Game thoughts, analysis, media

[Reborn]

Gonzaga 92
BYU 67

Wow!!! What a great game. Zags winning by 25. That's dang good against a team like BYU. Zags scored 54 points in the second half. Outstanding second half. The defense was also really good because BYU is a really good offensive team. BYU scored 5 points in the last 40 seconds which kind of made me mad at the subs. They've done that a lot this year.

What did I like about the game. Ayayi and Gilder both got a really good dunk. I like to see guards dunk on fast breaks. Tillie missed a really cool dunk that would have brought the house down if he had made it. I liked Kisperts 2nd half a lot. He finally began to hit some shots. He had a poor first half, but came back in the 2nd as he hit 3 three's. He ended up making 3-7 and was 1-4 the first half so he was 3 for 3 the second half. He was like 1-5 the first half for the game but ended up shooting 7-12 for the game.

I also loved the foul shooting. Zags shot 19-25 for 76%. They shot 42% from behind the arc, and 56% shooting for the game. Thats good offense. And at half, I believe they were only shooting 44%. So they must have shot a really high % the second half. Kispert carried the team the first half scoring 14. He finished with 22 for the game and led the Zags in scoring. He also got 10 rebounds so he had a double double.

Gilder continues to be impressive as he scored 14 off the bench. He shot 5-7 for the game ad 2-3 from beyond the 3 point line. Ayayi scored 14 also, had 6 rebounds and 6 assists and made 5-5 from the free throw line. Woolridge scored 11 points also had six assists and 5 rebounds. Zags have 5 guys in double figures.

The defense was good, imo, and rebounding excellent. We out rebounded them 38-21.

Few was really cool in the interview afterwards. I could tell he was really proud of the way his team played. And I'm sure all of ZagNation is.

Go Zags!!!

[JPtheBeasta]

Seljaas is probably a guy I would love if he was wearing my team's jersey, but...

[Reborn]

The defense was good enough. We improved on KenPom from 45 to 38, and they moved up into 4th place overall. It was a good weekend for the Zags really. I believe they moved from 8th place to 4th on KenPom.

congratulations Zags!!!

[TexasZagFan]

There's now a 5 way tie for second at 3-2. SMC's problem is they haven't played us yet.

Return trip to Provo will be a doozy.

[TexasZagFan]

The defense was good enough. We improved on KenPom from 45 to 38, and they moved up into 4th place overall. It was a good weekend for the Zags really. I believe they moved from 8th place to 4th on KenPom.

congratulations Zags!!!

It's going to be awfully hard for Baylor to leapfrog us on Monday. Sure, Baylor won on the road, but BYU has a much higher rank than OK State.

[willandi]

Great win by the Zags. I'm not sure that even Childs 20 and 10 would be enough to change things, but that raises a question in my mind.

When Childs comes back, does BYU get to play with 6 players on the floor? How many points and boards has his replacement been averaging?
I mean if the replacement is getting 10 and 5, there is only a net difference of 10 and 5, unless they get to have 6 on the floor.

Anyway...I LOVED the beat down. The Zags left no doubt as to which team was the better one tonight.

Was Paolo here?I didn't hear any chants and the announcers didn't say anything.

[sylean]

best movie.....

[TravelinZag]

This year’s Zags continue to learn, improve and play like a unit. Petrusev’s injury could be a brief or severe test. Glad there’s just one game next week to provide a break for healing, and for any necessary adjustments.

Interesting to see how the polls react, but either way could be just fine. Wait and see. In the interim, it’s fun to reflect on how compelling a story this year’s Zags are becoming. The ride is different each year, but always fun.

[Reborn]

It's going to be awfully hard for Baylor to leapfrog us on Monday. Sure, Baylor won on the road, but BYU has a much higher rank than OK State.

BYU is the 29the ranked team on KenPom, and were 14th best offense in the nation before this game. They are now 16th. They are good offensively. Ok State is ranked 77th. I think Baylor won by five.

[Section 116]

BYU media coverage: Deseret News: https://www.deseret.com/2020/1/18/21...sketball-92-69

Salt Lake Tribune: https://www.sltrib.com/sports/byu-co...ga-pulls-away/

[JPtheBeasta]

best movie.....

I agree

[GonzaGAW]

- all around the team played very well..........except you have to admit byu had a dozen open looks from 3. they just shot bad (6 of 20). could easily have made 12 of 20 on a hot shooting night.
- even if byu shot great from 3, we had control of this game.

- byu in provo and with childs on the floor will likely be our biggest challenge until we play the 8 or 9 seed in the tourney. but no wait, that will be in Spokane, so make that until the sweet sixteen game.

[Section 116]

Tillie on Childs via Meehan tweet:
Jim Meehan
@SRJimm
Tillie on if he thought Yoeli was going to play after going through warmups: "No, I knew it was a fake, I did that before, put your jersey on right away. Hopefully he can play next game."

[StatZag19]

Was Paolo here? I didn't hear any chants and the announcers didn't say anything.

https://twitter.com/BrennaGreene_/st...687083015?s=20 - video of Kennel Club chanting

“We want Paulo!”

@ZagKennelClub letting @Pp_doesit know what’s up and he’s about it

[JPtheBeasta]

I have to say, I'm not surprised that the ref had to "have a talk" with Ayayi and Hawes. It hasn't happened all year but it happens in this game, of course. Ayayi is only one of the most laid back players I have ever seen at GU, but BYU is, well, BYU. These games against them always seem to have a little extra. The more things change, the more things stay the same, I guess.

Provo should be fun.

[Reborn]

https://twitter.com/BrennaGreene_/st...687083015?s=20 - video of Kennel Club chanting

“We want Paulo!”

@ZagKennelClub letting @Pp_doesit know what’s up and he’s about it

Thanks for the video, StatZag. Great to see Paulo there, and great to see the Kennel Club sending him some love.

Go Zags!!!

[willandi]

https://twitter.com/BrennaGreene_/st...687083015?s=20 - video of Kennel Club chanting

“We want Paulo!”

@ZagKennelClub letting @Pp_doesit know what’s up and he’s about it

Thanks. Regular TV didn't cover that.

[MDABE80]

This is a different team. As this group moves deeper in the season, they look to be improving both as a team and as a contender for the big prize. Im irritated by the ESPN media and CBS.and a few others who are solidly behind us as a nonfactor. Baylor, for some reason...….the analytics and their record is constantly being held up as a no 1 with little regard to the Zags' record. Even Joey Brackets today is emphasizing Baylor as superior and says that anyone who understands the game should be in agreement with Baylor as a no 1. It's annoying. Very annoying.
But watching the way the team plays..not necessarily the analytics, the team is functioning as teams 15-20 years ago functioned....the one big difference is the talent level. These guys are mostly new or, if not new, are getting much more minutes. Adner, Woolridge, Timme are all ascending and doing it quickly. We always emphasized "team" play and we do have that.

I'm not going to belabor the point. I really don't care about the ""Baylorphils who tend to ignore us. I am continuing to watch this fabulous group of kids who look and play like they're always improving. I'm do not know how good this group can be but I' not ashamed to say we could easily have a FF group on our hands. I hope so. They guys who weren't supposed to be one of our better teams just may find themselves as a FF team come March.

[LTownZag]

Thanks. Regular TV didn't cover that.

I wonder if the KC always does these chants during halftime or a certain media timeout. It'd be hard to ignore on the broadcast.

[SorenTodd45]

ESPN guys talked about our return trip to Provo, Utah. If Yoeli plays, it could be a whole lot closer game. Props to BYU, they played their hearts out, but the 3 was just not falling for them. Glad to hear that Petrol is not seriously injured; the upcoming Thursday off could not come at a better time.

[kitzbuel]

I have watched a couple of BYU games leading up to tonight’s game. I was confident that our interior size would overwhelm them, especially without Yoeli playing. The Zags did overwhelm them, but in a completely different way than I expected. We matched our guard play up against their guard play, head to head, and blew them out.

I have to think that if you told Mark Pope before the game that the GU bigs would largely be out of the game and we would be going small, he would have been stoked. But GU played BYU’s game and thumped them anyway.

[23dpg]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId=401175179

The Zags (20-1, 6-0 West Coast) shot 74% (17 for 23) from the field after halftime.

[Pargo the Destroyer]

Great win by the Zags. I'm not sure that even Childs 20 and 10 would be enough to change things, but that raises a question in my mind.

When Childs comes back, does BYU get to play with 6 players on the floor? How many points and boards has his replacement been averaging?
I mean if the replacement is getting 10 and 5, there is only a net difference of 10 and 5, unless they get to have 6 on the floor.

Anyway...I LOVED the beat down. The Zags left no doubt as to which team was the better one tonight.

Was Paolo here?I didn't hear any chants and the announcers didn't say anything.

Chanted his name a few times.....we want paolo....

[Reborn]

This is a different team. As this group moves deeper in the season, they look to be improving both as a team and as a contender for the big prize. Im irritated by the ESPN media and CBS.and a few others who are solidly behind us as a nonfactor. Baylor, for some reason...….the analytics and their record is constantly being held up as a no 1 with little regard to the Zags' record. Even Joey Brackets today is emphasizing Baylor as superior and says that anyone who understands the game should be in agreement with Baylor as a no 1. It's annoying. Very annoying.
But watching the way the team plays..not necessarily the analytics, the team is functioning as teams 15-20 years ago functioned....the one big difference is the talent level. These guys are mostly new or, if not new, are getting much more minutes. Adner, Woolridge, Timme are all ascending and doing it quickly. We always emphasized "team" play and we do have that.

I'm not going to belabor the point. I really don't care about the ""Baylorphils who tend to ignore us. I am continuing to watch this fabulous group of kids who look and play like they're always improving. I'm do not know how good this group can be but I' not ashamed to say we could easily have a FF group on our hands. I hope so. They guys who weren't supposed to be one of our better teams just may find themselves as a FF team come March.

Good post, Doc. Some good ideas to think about. i saw Baylor play Ok State today, and I was pretty impressed by the way they finished that game. This guard hit 4 straight three's, back to back to back to back. AND that buried Ok State. Gonzaga is also playing good, and even Few said that they played a #1 team both games this week. AND Mark Few doesn't throw out compliments like that very often. AND he knows what a #1 team looks like. He's coached against a lot of them.

I felt the same way about one of the analysts during the game tonight. He talked about how good BYU is all game long, and gave me the feeling that he felt BYU would beat us with Childs. I can hardly wait until we go to Provo to play them with Childs. I believe our boys will be ready. If Baylor goes to #1 I'm fine with that. For Gonzaga the emphasis needs to just be on playing one game at a time, staying focused on that game, and listen to the coaches. Pay no attention to Baylor. Let them do what they do. Maybe we'll meet them in March Madness.

Go Zags!!!

[MickMick]

I believe it was the best I have seen this team play.

The spacing and ball movement on offense is how you draw it up. The players are hitting their shots. The offense was a joy to watch. They are scoring in transition. They are rebounding.

Very good outing.