Biggest surprises for you about this year's team

[Reborn]

What are a COUPLE of the biggest surprises for you about this year's team. Please try to keep them to just two so others can also add to the list.

1. My biggest surprise is how good Woolridge is. I remember how I didn't really like his style of play at the beginning of the year. AND he has slowly grown on me, game after game. He is now really amazing me every game both offensively and defensively.

2. that they have been #1 in the polls so early in the year, and a #1 Seed in Lunardi's Bracketology

Go Zags!!!

[StatZag19]

1. How good this team is with a near-complete reset of the playing rotation. With unknown expectations and many people advising to temper expectations, this team has far and away exceeded any preseason expectations. Mark Few & Co. are absolute studs.

2. Their resiliency and tough as nails attitude. Not a characteristic we can apply cleanly to many Zag teams in Few's 20+ years. They don't care who you are; they just care about running you over and moving on. It shows in late game situations this year.

[billyberu]

The biggest surprise for me was Joel Ayayi's development and leap forward in skill. Also, he has improved his half court management from the beginning of the season to now.
The ability of Mark Few and his assistant coaches to quickly get this team to gel is nothing short of amazing. Woolridge seems the perfect PG for this squad. He has stepped up in a major way.

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[gonzagafan62]

Ayayi for sure. I thought when ravet left that we would have a big trouble spelling wooly and gilder. Boy that looks silly now in many ways

[DZ]

That the guards are the strength of the team. When forced to go small ball, we might be our best.

[FuManShoes]

1. The offensive prowess at every position.
2. That we could lose so much, have so many new faces and still gel fast and dig out some quality wins in the non-conference.
3. The lack of depth. Losing Ravet and now Watson would be a blow to most teams but these Zags seem to have little problem stepping up. Whether they can gut it out with a short bench come March is another question.

[bballbeachbum]

the backcourt

[SLOZag]

What he said: Billyberu.

[GonzagasaurusFlex]

Petrusev’s dominant post play on offense is biggest surprise for me; great footwork, multiple post moves, physically overpowering opponents, strong hands now keeping possession whenever he gets the ball and cleanly catching all kinds of passes. Dude has improved a lot in one year. D still needs work but his low post offense has given this team an identity that, once established, is now free to evolve and develop.

Ayayi’s performance all around is a close 2nd.

Seamless integration of two grad transfer a close 3rd

[LTownZag]

1. no Ravet
2. GU a legit title contender despite injuries to the 3 seniors and basically no contribution from the top 3 expected freshmen (Watson, Brock, Oumar).

[zag67]

The merging of the two grad trnsfers with the rest of the team. Admond and Ryan are both making major sacrifices to merge into the team concepts on both ends of the court.

I thought this year would be a growing year for next year. But with Tillie, Petro and Timme controlling the paint and Ayayi, Ryan, Cory and Admond the guard play, they are looking fantastic. They are a super team to watch and a nightmare for other teams to defend. On any night any one of them can be the go to guy and this eam is doing a great job of recognizing the hot hand or the mismatch.

[bdmiller7]

1. Defnitely Ayayi's play. I expected Petrusev to have a big jump based on flashes from last year, I new he could score. We didnt see much from Ayayi last year. Even with the great summer at FIBA I just didnt expect anything like this. He just seems so fluid with the ball fakes and just floating through the D on fast breaks.

2. Woolridge. I thought he'd be solid, but he has been so much more. He is so quick he can get to the rim almost any time he wants, and he is almost impossible to press because you cant contain him. His D has been amazing and he has shot much better than advertised.

3. I thought Kispert, Gilder, Tillie, Petrusev, and Timme could be as good as they have been, but it came together really quickly. We are one loss away from a perfect season right now. A loss on the 3rd game in 3 in 3 days tourney, where each was less than 24 hours after the previous, with injuries, a hard fought overtime game prior, and a team playing out of there mind. If that game was any other week of the season we may be looking at undefeated right now. Definitely wasnt expecting to be 20-1 right now.

[Reborn]

1. no Ravet
2. GU a legit title contender despite injuries to the 3 seniors and basically no contribution from the top 3 expected freshmen (Watson, Brock, Oumar).

OMG! I forgot about Brock Ravet........ That was a total shocker, and a time of sadness for me.

[Reborn]

What is blowing my mind lately is how awesome Gilder is playing. Of course we expected a lot from him, he was real good at A&M. But he got hurt and eventually Ayayi took over his spot. But now, to imagine a guy like Gilder coming in off the bench and scoring in double figures every game, and hitting big 3's every game, and making big steals every game. I believe he could be the best 6th man in the country.

Go Zags!!!

[Martin Centre Mad Man]

I did not expect this team to be in contention for a No. 1 seed. I expected this to be a bridge year when we might see Gonzaga mentioned in some of the February “bubble watch” lists while we wait for Ballo and next year’s phenomenal recruiting class to arrive. I was hoping that the team might get hot just long enough to extend the streak of Sweet Sixteens, but I had no illusions that this team might do more.

I was wrong.