Filip going pro

[Grand Valley Zag]

Pendo sacrificed a lot to fit in the team concept. I love my Pendo jersey.

That brings us to 6. Pretty good squad. Final Four material.

[jazzdelmar]

That brings us to 6. Pretty good squad. Final Four material.

Final Four in terms of character that’s for sure.

[Markburn1]

zagfan 24 , great post and thoughts. Thank you. Zag fans do you know what your response would have been at 19 if you were told you could make millions quickly if you turned pro? I red somewhere he's receiving $500,00 a year for multiple years.

I don’t see anyone criticizing his decision to turn pro. His exit strategy was less than stellar. And his contention that he wasn’t allowed to expand his game at Gonzaga, while possibly true, shouldn’t have been aired in public.

[zag buddy]

Well if you want me to respond to one of the criticisms I will say about his attitude of walking off the court. We do not know what caused it. Everyone here states it was selfishness. Maybe it was something like frustration at working so hard for a week on certain plays only to have other players not executing the play as designed when he was open and pass the ball to him like the play was destined to do. I would be interested in that game how many times he put out maximum effort to get open and not passed to. As to the other criticism of auguring with the ref I would ask what ref was it, what is that refs record of calling unwarranted fouls on our players, what was the score at that time.Were the coaching staff sticking up for the players? I just don't like posters jumping to conclusions at least in a derogatory fashion without knowing the facts or to assume something is true and then act like it is a fact. And for you more occult (hidden) people was he on a critical day according to his biorhythms (probably over a fifty fifty chance he was --lol A japenese cab company claims to have driven over 5 million miles without an accident ,keeping their drivers on a favorable biorhythm schedule).

[Markburn1]

Well if you want me to respond to one of the criticisms I will say about his attitude of walking off the court. We do not know what caused it. Everyone here states it was selfishness. Maybe it was something like frustration at working so hard for a week on certain plays only to have other players not executing the play as designed when he was open and pass the ball to him like the play was destined to do. I would be interested in that game how many times he put out maximum effort to get open and not passed to. As to the other criticism of auguring with the ref I would ask what ref was it, what is that refs record of calling unwarranted fouls on our players, what was the score at that time.Were the coaching staff sticking up for the players? I just don't like posters jumping to conclusions at least in a derogatory fashion without knowing the facts or to assume something is true and then act like it is a fact. And for you more occult (hidden) people was he on a critical day according to his biorhythms (probably over a fifty fifty chance he was --lol A japenese cab company claims to have driven over 5 million miles without an accident ,keeping their drivers on a favorable biorhythm schedule).

It’s called poise. All the external factors are irrelevant. It’s just not acceptable behavior for a teammate to do that. It translates to showing up a teammate for not feeding him the ball. It translates to the player not respecting what the coaching staff is trying to do. And it’s a lack of respect to the refs no matter how many bad calls they may have made.

I don’t think Filip is a bad kid. I do hope he learns from his mistakes.

[zag buddy]

I'm more interested in Truth than non acceptable behavior or respect. Be quiet and let people call you selfish , I don't think so. My rant is ended.

[Zag Man]

Nice video from KREM 2: https://www.krem.com/article/sports/...2-18f54dc9b0ab

Thank you for sharing this with us. It's something many of us would have missed seeing.
Have a blessed day!

[scott257]

I think he made the right choice but believe it was influenced by the strong potential that his playing time was going to be diminished during this next season. He is leaving after being the most valuable player on last season’s team and realistically not repeating as the most valuable on this team. I am not in anyway trying to take anything away from him as a player but the star quality on this year’s team is expected to rise and that includes at his position. As an economic move going out on top seems smart.

[ZagsObserver]

Not sure I agree with a lot of the commentary here. Petro was a sophomore last year. Let that sink in. He would have been great next year. Again, he made a choice in light of the current situation (pandemic/unknowns). GU will be fine, but let’s not understate his contributions.

[DZ]

Well if you want me to respond to one of the criticisms I will say about his attitude of walking off the court. We do not know what caused it. Everyone here states it was selfishness. Maybe it was something like frustration at working so hard for a week on certain plays only to have other players not executing the play as designed when he was open and pass the ball to him like the play was destined to do. I would be interested in that game how many times he put out maximum effort to get open and not passed to. As to the other criticism of auguring with the ref I would ask what ref was it, what is that refs record of calling unwarranted fouls on our players, what was the score at that time.Were the coaching staff sticking up for the players? I just don't like posters jumping to conclusions at least in a derogatory fashion without knowing the facts or to assume something is true and then act like it is a fact. And for you more occult (hidden) people was he on a critical day according to his biorhythms (probably over a fifty fifty chance he was --lol A japenese cab company claims to have driven over 5 million miles without an accident ,keeping their drivers on a favorable biorhythm schedule).

I had no real problem with him, his game, his attitude, or definitely his decision - it makes total sense to me given the circumstances.

But with respect to your points, with each one, every single big we'd ever have had would have had the same "thoughts" at any point and not reacted quite that way.

I always thought his reaction thing, attitude, whatever was overblown. Everyone's unique. He had a bit of an edge that rubbed some. NOt a big deal to me. But hope he does well. He'll be a beast when he fills out.

[ZagNative]

I don't think I've seen this Alyssa Charlston video interview of Fillip yet ... https://twitter.com/Alyssacharlston/...55314232868869

Alyssa Charlston
@Alyssacharlston

"The best and most passionate college fans."

Filip Petrusev (@PetrusevFilip
) says goodbye to #Gonzaga, where he had the "best 2 yrs of his life."

And BIG expectations for next year if they can play because...look at that roster
��

[Zagceo]

I don't think I've seen this Alyssa Charlston video interview of Fillip yet ... https://twitter.com/Alyssacharlston/...55314232868869

nice.....Thanks.

love the line about Oumar "doing things in practice not a lot of people can do"

[JPtheBeasta]

Thanks +1

He seems to be sincerely invested in the success of the team and his teammates.

[JPtheBeasta]

I had no real problem with him, his game, his attitude, or definitely his decision - it makes total sense to me given the circumstances.

But with respect to your points, with each one, every single big we'd ever have had would have had the same "thoughts" at any point and not reacted quite that way.

I always thought his reaction thing, attitude, whatever was overblown. Everyone's unique. He had a bit of an edge that rubbed some. NOt a big deal to me. But hope he does well. He'll be a beast when he fills out.

I have a foot on either side of the fence on this (maybe one and a half feet on one side, if I’m honest with myself). I was annoyed with his antics at times but also appreciate his contributions and his willingness to play hurt. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t able to root for him and enjoy his successes as much as I have with most every other Zag.

For comparison, I remember the complaints here about Austin Daye but didn’t mind his persona on the court at all. I don’t know what the big difference is, actually— maybe it’s age, which could mean it’s either wisdom or “get-off-my-lawn” curmudgeonliness.

[scrooner]

I can't help myself, I loved watching Daye play here. Didn't mind his edge at all.

[White lightning]

Let's be honest. Filip was a good college player in a great program. He in my opinion was soft. Never was a rim protector, had difficulty finishing with contact, and struggled with the ball being taken away from him. At 6'11 he played several inches shorter. This is what separates him from blue blood talent.

He had visions going pro as a freshman and left as a sophomore. Good for him. This is what he wanted to do. With the upcoming talent and players like Timme and Ballo growing leaps and bounds I'm sure the decision was easy for him.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[GU69]

love the line about Oumar "doing things in practice not a lot of people can do"

The more I hear about Ballo the more excited I get. I really want to watch a season with him in a Gonzaga uniform.

And if Ballo is really that good I may forget about Fillip pretty quickly.

[Kong-Kool-Aid]

I can't help myself, I loved watching Daye play here. Didn't mind his edge at all.

Daye was great, seriously underrated Bulldog, and arguably the player that opened the door for us to be recruiting top players.

He deserves more credit.

[Zags11]

Daye gets hated for his on court antics but Pendo did same and was a "true zag".

[MDABE80]

Daye gets hated for his on court antics but Pendo did same and was a "true zag".

Don’t rememberPendo with a whiny face when something did not favor him or his team. I always thought he played a good solid game without complaining . Tough floor burn type kid.

[zag buddy]

Just saw interview on krem news with Petro. He stated that it wasn't his fault on not notifying the coaches. The news got leaked out when it wasn't supposed too. But everything is good now between them and he loves Gonzaga and always will.

[zag buddy]

Pendo and Mike Hart are my favorites. Each had more skills than displayed in any given year but chose to do exactly what the coaches wanted and the team needed.

[mgadfly]

Daye gets hated for his on court antics but Pendo did same and was a "true zag".

While I found it seriously hard to watch Daye complain up and down the court about every call and perceived injustice, the real problem I had with him was his historically awful offensive contribution to an otherwise very talented 2009 squad. Whether it was "selfish" to gun away while being teamed up with some real offensive firepower or not, I'll leave up to you. But if you don't think there is a difference between him and Pendo, on the court, you weren't watching the same game as me.

Offensive Rating (higher is better). Guess which one is Pendo and which one is Daye:
101.7 vs 123.9
108.7 vs 123.8

I took a look at the top 70 big man seasons at Gonzaga during the KenPom era. By top, let me define that as setting cutoffs for the number of minutes played and percentage of shots taken while on the court (no need to include guys who only played a few minutes as their small sample size isn't meaningful). I've included Pendergraft (since he was brought up and played some 4 at times), Morrison who did a lot of his scoring in the midrange and inside, and Downs who played both forward spots depending on need.

Of those 70 seasons Daye's sophomore year ranks as the 67th most efficient with a dismal O-Rating of 101.7. Of the three seasons worse than that, none of them came close to hoisting the ball up as much as he did in 2009. In other words, they had the decency to pass the ball to teammates who could actually make a shot. The only season that comes close to Daye's in both minutes played and Shot% while on the court is Gourde's 2002 campaign. His last season in the starting role before making way for Violette and Turiaf to takeover. He is one of the two or three examples of Mark Few benching a veteran and going with the younger guys ... not great company for Daye to be keeping.

Here are the rankings for "bigs" that played at least half of the team's minutes and took at least 22% of the shots while he was on the floor. Daye was BAAAAAD. I loved his shot-blocking (his on-ball defense was subpar at times), and give him credit for helping open the door to other higher ranked recruits, but he didn't pass the ball, he didn't score with any efficiency, he didn't have enough size/strength to be a good on-ball post defender, he turned the ball over quite a bit, rarely got offensive rebounds ... that's plenty of on-court basketball stuff that one could criticize him for (or at least not consider him their favorite Zag).

2019 Clarke 134.3
2015 Wiltjer 128.2
2013 Olynyk 123.3
2019 Hachimura 121.7
2006 Batista 121.7
2016 Wiltjer 120.3
2018 Hachimura 120.2
2014 Dower 120.2
2016 Sabonis 120
2006 Morrison 120
2005 Morrison 119.4
2009 Heytelt 118.8
2002 Violette 117.9
2004 Violette 117.8
2004 Morrison 117.4
2013 Harris 116.3
2005 Batista 116.3
2003 Turiaf 116
2020 Petrusev 114.6
2010 Harris 114.4
2011 Harris 112.4
2017 Karnowski 111.4
2005 Turiaf 111
2012 Harris 110.9
2015 Karnowski 110.5
2004 Turiaf 110.5
2011 Sacre 110.4
2003 Violette 106.2
2002 Gourde 102
2009 Daye 101.7

[sittingon50]

Don’t rememberPendo with a whiny face when something did not favor him or his team. I always thought he played a good solid game without complaining . Tough floor burn type kid.

Pendo never thought he committed a foul in 4 years (& I loved the kid).

[NotoriousZ]

And to this day, Austin still has not committed a foul. Sorry Mama Daye, but the incredulous looks from your son on every foul called on him and on every non-call he thought he should have gotten made me smile.