Gonzaga vs Duke Post Game thoughts and analysis

[demian]

Great post, Demian. One of the best in this thread. You are such a good writer, and can say things in a much shorter and concise way then i can, Keep writing and contributing more to this Board (forum).

Go Zags!!!

Hey thanks Dad. Yeah maybe I will start to get back to being more interactive here on the board like I used to be

[sittingon50]

That bald pated ref last night---hope Zags don't see him again this season.

There were 2 of them.

One is a WCC/PAC official.

The other Big 12/Missouri Valley.

[Bogozags]

While I don't agree the refs cost us this game those blocks by Williams were not clean and the right call. Just because you get a hand on the ball does not make it a clean block if you went through the shooters body to get there. Which is clearly what happened. Yes he got ball but he also slammed into him as he was going up as well.

Not challenging your comment but these two goal-tending calls were not about fouls being called or not but rather, that they were good blocks and the refs missed these two and others as well...just pointing out that calls did not just go towards Duke but rather were indiscriminate...

[jazzdelmar]

When it came to working the refs, it was golf claps vs Big Bertha.

[TacomaZAG]

Duke 23 points off turnovers Zags 2.

Game, Set, Match....................................

Simply cannot have 17 TO's against an elite opponent. Seemed like Nemby and Timme got "sped up" in the first few minutes, settled down after that but the damage was done. Great learning game, rather lose to Dook or anyone else in November than in March/April.

Pretty simple. Keep the TO's to 12 or fewer and the ZAGS win by 6+.

Go ZAGS

[zagsfanforlife]

When it came to working the refs, it was golf claps vs Big Bertha.

Few has to work the refs more if he’s facing Duke. You know it’ll come from K and he’s naturally going to get a whistle. Few can’t be sitting back and hoping things take care of themself.

[SorenTodd45]

I've already moved on. CBB is not like the NFL, in which they only play once a week. We have a game tomorrow against Cupcake State. That's the game I'm focused on. You can't live in the past.

[bartruff1]

For a variety of reasons, I do not attend many games now days....one of them is that I inevitably sat within earshot of a retired Hall of Fame Coach who was pontificating constantly about what the coach should do....or a retired official who disputed every call against his team...

[daskim]

Exactly what is "working the refs?"

Is it the same as "framing a pitch" in baseball?

[jazzdelmar]

Exactly what is "working the refs?"

Is it the same as "framing a pitch" in baseball?

Good analogy. Seeking extralegal advantage, outside the rules of the game. Tilting the playing field.

[daskim]

Good analogy. Seeking extralegal advantage, outside the rules of the game. Tilting the playing field.

And that's my point exactly. Even if this does influence refs, which I've read aren't influenced by being "worked," I don't perceive it as GU's way or Few's.

[jazzdelmar]

And that's my point exactly. Even if this does influence refs, which I've read aren't influenced by being "worked," I don't perceive it as GU's way or Few's.

That may be, and it’s Gonzaga’s loss if it is as it’s considered gamesmanship with no penalty. Right, I’m sure refs would admit needlenose’s icy glare has an effect. Nor his enormous power in the US basketball industry.

[daskim]

That may be, and it’s Gonzaga’s loss if it is as it’s considered gamesmanship with no penalty. Right, I’m sure refs would admit needlenose’s icy glare has an effect. Nor his enormous power in the US basketball industry.

Having an effect is one thing. If any referee acts on it to the detrimental of unbiased refereeing, then it's time to clean house.

[TheOtherGreatOne]

Banchero is a stud. Leader. Watched him in layup lines before game and he was determined. Took Chet to the hole and drew a foul with the bucket. Dropped 20 on zags in first half. Gonna be a great player at next level. Great handles and can shoot and d up.

Good kid. Visited gu twice if I recall. Very interested and then koach swooped in and nabbed him to Durham.

We will see about his stardom at the next level. He is not athletic and does not like contact, that is 2 things going against him at the next level. Superstar as you say, or average player as I say.

[TheOtherGreatOne]

This game wasn’t about bad calls costing us the win. To me it came down to the sheer physicality of the Duke players, especially the guards. On defense Moore and Keels were up in our guards bodies the entire night. You could certainly say a lot of that action was fouls, but the refs made it clear they weren’t going to call that early on, and we needed to adjust. Keels in particularly used his strength to blow up our hand off action, and forced our offense to be remarkably one dimensional (high pick and roll) down the stretch. My guess is we are still early in the year, lots of new bodies, and don’t have as deep a playbook as we usually do…that hurt us. On our defensive end it was the same story to me. The Duke guards got hip on hip and outmuscled our guys to the rim time and time again, either getting buckets, or putting fouls on our bigs and Strawther. Truth is at this point in their careers, Williams is a better defensive anchor than Chet. For the most part Williams was able to slow/stop our interior efforts (but he picked up 4 fouls in the process) while Chet had moments, but got muscled around by John’s, Banchero and Williams (Keels too).

I think the entire game came down to Duke’s physicality. We turned the ball over in large part due to that pressure (again…clearly COULD be called tighter…but it wasn’t. And the refs were pretty consistent in letting that body to body stuff go with one crazy exception on Keels late in the game for some reason) and on defense, Duke put us in a ton of tough positions through that same physicality.

I don’t mind that loss one bit. Even while all of that was happening, we were a BANKED 3 pointer away (Joey Baker…seriously). If we just come up with a bucket here or there down the stretch, or Bolton gets one stop on Roach (by the way, this is where Banchero is so tough. Pulled Chet out of the paint and leaves Bolton on an island) and we probably win that game. I think it helps us develop.

We need KP, BG and HS (at least 2/3) to develop quickly.

If duke was so much more physcial than us, why did they shoot 14 more free throws than we did ? If we shoot 25 free throws like they did and only make 11 of them, we win.