Gonzaga vs Tarleton Your thoughts and Analyses of the game

[TexasZagFan]

It is obvious JUST from looking at the stats and the play by play Gonzaga was not ready to play. This may have been one of the worst games ever by a Gonzaga team. How could we commit 16 turnovers AGAIN. I shoot that poorly from the foul line. The answer is obvious....lack of focus

All night long after the game I have been thinking about Tommy LLoyd. And I was thinking about after the Duke loss. And now tonight. I wonder if it is going to be the same Gonzaga team without Him. And it's really good seeing how good Arizona is playing. Gonzaga was NOT ready to play tonight. Why takes responsibility for that.


Go Zags

I'm going to credit Tarleton for playing a great game. They made up for their offensive shortcomings by being in the Zags' grills the entire game. Billy Gillespie had the right plan for the Zags, and his players bought into it. Despite playing only six players, they all played HARD.

The flaw in their game plan was when they took the air out of the ball for several minutes, starting around the six minute mark. The Zags were on the ropes, but slowing the game down gave us a chance to catch our breath and regroup.

You'll be hearing from Tarleton in the future. It's about an hour west of DFW, Billy won't have to leave North Texas to recruit. He's the kind of coach that can take 2 star players, and develop them into 3 and 4 star players.

We did not value our possessions last night. I can't recall a game when they were sloppier on offense. They better start, the last two games have provided a road map on how to slow down the Zags on offense.

[allnet59]

The first ten minutes of the Duke game reminded me of last years championship game with Baylor. They Zags looked intimidated. Last nights game they stepped on the court uninspired and not at all ready to play another game so soon after their first loss. It was tough watching our size advantage go to waste against a much smaller six man team. The way they took out Timmie and Holmgren down low was certainly a recipe for the rest of their schedule. BYU is going to give them fits with their length and quickness. The WCC schedule will be no cake walk playing the way they did last night.

[GonzagasaurusFlex]

On tbe whole, I agree Fonebone’s silver lining take re: now these guys will truly understand that any D1 team (or almost fully D1:-) can beat them on a given night. Grinding out a win when playing poorly is good for the psyche should they find themselves in another such game again. Two caveats: this team’s 3pt shooting % concerns me and Timme’s body language in this game concerns me. After Strawther made a horrible entry pass for a turnover Timme just raised both of his hands in the air like “come on man, what’s your problem.” Getting frustrated by one’s own or a teammates performance is gonna happen, publicly admonishing a teammate like that cannot happen. Very bad juju and hope coaches chew him out in front of the team for that.

On a positive note, Zags played extended minutes w single post and 4 guards…I like when Holmgren is in as solo post and Zags look for him to score more. Also think Strawther is rebounding well enough to play the’4’ defensively in spurts. Hopefully Dom Harris returns during WCC play and adds 3pt shooting and D to the squad. Are 4 littles and a big the plan B for when Chet and Timme are in foul trouble? I was surprised Gregg didn’t get any minutes.

Reborn, I found myself wondering about Lloyd and what impact his absence may be having on this Zags team too. As assistant coach he built a lot of relationships with players and could leverage that mutual goodwill when needing to get fiery with and challenge them for lack of effort, passion, intensity etc. Hope Few has a guy who can do that. Michaelson and Powell too nice to do that…or just not their style… or perhaps they do, but I’d be surprised. Gentry too new to have the depth of relationship this generation needs before they can handle being shouted at and challenged.

[jazzdelmar]

My wonderful big time feed kept rewinding to the start of the game. So I watched Yellowstone instead. Great program.

[FloridaZagFan]

Watched it on Stadium steam and it was great! Go figure? Its like a crap shoot.
One thing I earned watching that game is speed neutralizes skill. If you shoot the way GU did from behind the arc its going to be a long night. That team is super fast and athletic, I dont care what the uniform says on the front. They forced Michigan into 21 turnovers and Michigan shot the 3 only slightly better than the Zags thats why the game went down to the last few minutes. Kansas shot 9-20 45% from 3 and the were able to put the game away with 10 minutes to go. If you shoot 4-19 21% from the 3 its going to be like stepping on a hornets nest in the paint and that makes it super difficult on skilled big guys. The only time it felt like Zags got any separation is with back to back 3's late in the second half. Ugly Ugly Ugly but a win is a win.

[zagfan08]

Basically, I think this year’s team has a low 3 point shooting floor and it was on display last night. Our offense is beautiful when there is spacing and we can do our thing. Tarleton basically stuck defenders in the paint and said we weren’t going to beat them playing how we want to play, we’d have to make open 3s. And we are capable of making those 3s and winning a game like that easily. But we are more susceptible than I’d like us to be to have a game like that, where we don’t make anything and many attempts aren’t especially close.

Timme hasn’t played to his standard since Texas basically and Nembhard has had two bad games in a row after everyone declared him the best PG in the country last Tuesday night.

I believe a key to unlocking offense is allowing Chet to create more outside of the normal looks he gets in the system but we’ll see what kind of adjustments we make going forward and none of it will matter if we are missing open 3s. A bit concerning how many of those misses were left/right misses too.

Ultimately, this was the ultimate trap game but it also magnified weaknesses we have in making 3s and taking care of the ball. Hopefully a much better game against Alabama.

[strikenowhere]

Is there some sort of defense out there where you stick three guys right in the middle of the paint at all times and have two guards matching up on the best (aka only) 3 pt shooters? Seems like that would be a great way to defend against this team.

[strikenowhere]

Timme hasn’t played to his standard since Texas basically and Nembhard has had two bad games in a row after everyone declared him the best PG in the country last Tuesday night.

Maybe all the accolades and declarations have gone to their heads; I know the pre-season hype levels clouded my judgement of just how good this team is: a flawed but good team, not world-beating, and certainly not the odds-on favorite to win it all. Hopefully they're able to right the ship and make improvements but you don't just turn on the 3pt shooting after a couple of hard practices. I'd bet getting Dom back would improve the situation a lot.

[jazzdelmar]

The sooner this becomes Holmgren’s team, the better. Timme is a terrific CBB player but a better second banana, as he was last year. Hickman and Sallis are going in opposite directions. Maybe Perry’s misfortune will lead to more PT for Gregg. Straw is solid, shot poorly but rebounded.

[Hoopaholic]

Is there some sort of defense out there where you stick three guys right in the middle of the paint at all times and have two guards matching up on the best (aka only) 3 pt shooters? Seems like that would be a great way to defend against this team.

Called triangle and two. Can have regular triangle in paint or invert the triangle depending on how the opposing team may try to attack the zone

[gueastcoast]

The sooner this becomes Holmgren’s team, the better. Timme is a terrific CBB player but a better second banana, as he was last year. Hickman and Sallis are going in opposite directions. Maybe Perry’s misfortune will lead to more PT for Gregg. Straw is solid, shot poorly but rebounded.

Good summary -- Timme seems to be trying to do things he didn't do last year, presumably because he feels he has to. Hickman looks great and better than I expected at this point of the season, too early to get down on Sallis though -- raw buy very talented. I want Straw's heart transplanted into the entire team. AN is in a funk it seems but he's a steady eddy type and I expect him to come out of it quickly.

[SorenTodd45]

So even though we won last night, it still felt like kind of a loss. We were favored by 30. And yet Tarleton came into one of the most hostile BB arenas in the nation, and they didn't fold until the very end. Gotta give props to them. I'm just glad our next game isn't until Saturday, looks like we need some rest. 4 games in 8 days is a lot, this isn't the NBA.

As to those in Washington who are having issues with ROOT, my only advice is just pretend you are out of market and stream the game. Looks like they are giving priority to the Blazers and Kraken, which makes no sense.

[kitzbuel]

My wonderful big time feed kept rewinding to the start of the game. So I watched Yellowstone instead. Great program.

I can’t get into it. Seems to me to be a sexed up version of ‘Dallas’.


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[jazzdelmar]

I can’t get into it. Seems to me to be a sexed up version of ‘Dallas’.


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More like Missoula mafia to me.

[GoZags]

So even though we won last night, it still felt like kind of a loss. We were favored by 30. And yet Tarleton came into one of the most hostile BB arenas in the nation, and they didn't fold until the very end. Gotta give props to them. I'm just glad our next game isn't until Saturday, looks like we need some rest. 4 games in 8 days is a lot, this isn't the NBA.

As to those in Washington who are having issues with ROOT, my only advice is just pretend you are out of market and stream the game. Looks like they are giving priority to the Blazers and Kraken, which makes no sense.

I feel the exact opposite.

There are MANY years where this game would have resulted in a loss. I love the fact that the guys dug down deep and pulled it out. Sure, the Zags were favored by a lot ... but they gutted it out and won.

As for Tarleton State, there's a reason there game in Ann Arbor was a "one-possession" game with 3 minutes left. They are scrappy and they can play (4 of their losses are to Stanford, Kansas, Michigan and Gonzaga ... with a 5th loss being a 1 point loss at NDSU ... oftentimes an NCAA team).

I cherish every win ... including unexpected gut wrenchers like last night.