The chorus of the classic John Denver song, “Country Road” is what the West Virginia Mountaineers are singing as the Zags rocked WVU 77-54 Thursday. The Mountaineers are a one and done team, and Gonzaga proved the selection committee successful as they held their own as the seven seed against the highly favored ten seed.

Distance travelled didn’t make a difference, and hometown crowd had no effect, as the Bulldogs plowed to their victory—leading from the 17:51 mark of the first half on. It was absolutely stunning. An odd mix of Zags filled up most of the minutes throughout the game, giving the key players rest, while dominating a Big East team.

In the win, several Bulldogs had trouble controlling their aggression earning several early fouls, but by the end, no one had more than three, and physicality wasn’t a concern. Rob Sacre and Gary Bell Jr. led the team with 14 points apiece. Kevin Pangos contributed 13, and Elias Harris rounded out the double figure scoring with ten.

As a team, the Zags knocked down nine threes, shooting nearly 53% from behind the arc. Mike Hart and Ryan Spangler earned some great minutes and made a tremendous impact considering their typical lack of court time. Hart drained a buzzer beating three for five points and four rebounds with 17 minutes on the court. Spangler racked up 21 minutes, in which he grabbed a team high of eight boards; he tossed in four points as well.

The Bulldogs will face Ohio State, a two seed, Saturday Morning in Pittsburgh. Tip-off is set for after the conclusion of the Syracuse-Kansas State game; roughly 11:30am (PST) on CBS.

Gonzaga's Head Coach Mark Few

Let me begin by saying Mark Few and his coaching staff have done an incredible job over the past 12 years, bringing Gonzaga’s men’s basketball program to an elite level that competes against the nation’s best competition annually. With that being said, I am about to rant off my frustrations with coaching decisions and game management from Monday’s WCC Championship game.

First of all, David Stockton should not have played for 15 minutes in that game—one third of the time he was on the court.  While the redshirt sophomore did have four assists, he did not score at all. In fact, for the season, he has the second worst shooting percentage of anyone on the team at 39%.

If you watch him play, the generously listed 5’11” point guard cannot keep up in fast paced games—he is always a step behind, and constantly caught in a size mismatch in the paint. He does have a great court sense, but when the game is very transition/fast-break oriented and not a slow it down, run the set offense kind of game, Stockton is not the guy to have at the point. Monday’s championship game was very fast paced and when Stocks was in at crunch time, it was flat out questionable.

On the other hand, why was Marquise Carter not in the game more, and in potentially instead of David? Carter was the WCC Tournament MVP last season, and although he didn’t have superstar year, he is so athletic, and much quicker than Stockton. Quise only saw four minutes on the court, yet in that time he went 2-2 from the free throw line and gathered a steal.

All season long, Carter managed to find his way to the line while he was in the game.  While at the charity strip, he shot 70%, which is significantly better than Stockton’s 60%. David averaged over two and a half minutes more than Quise, yet Carter was at the line 30 more times than Stockton. Not only does that show Marquise was more scoring oriented, but that he made better use out his scoring attempts.

Also, Marquise is a senior with pressure game experience, he knows how to make the key plays and maintain the pace of the game. Yes, Carter is more of a shooting guard, but utilizing three guards, like Coach Few did much of the game with Pangos, Stockton, and Bell, could just has easily been done with Marquise at the two or three spot. He definitely deserved more than four minutes in the title game—poor decision to have him on the bench for 41 minutes.

Other players that should have seen more time are Sam Dower, Ryan Spangler, and Mike Hart. All three bench players were extremely effective in their sparse time on the court, yet clearly the coaching staff didn’t see fit to adjust the line-up in times of need.

Sam Dower produced 14 points in 15 minutes. He nailed two threes that sparked a ton of momentum for Gonzaga, yet he only played a third of the game. That’s right, the backup center, along with power forward Elias Harris were the only Zags to make multiple shots from behind the arc. Dower also contributed with nine points inside. He is a dual threat that should most definitely be on the court more when he is having a great game like he did Monday.

Mike Hart, the one time starter who barely saw the court once Guy Landry Edi became eligible halfway through the season is the best hustle player on the entire Gonzaga roster. While he played for eight minutes in the title game, it was predominately because Edi was in foul trouble.

However, Hart grabs boards, causes jump balls, and outside of Elias Harris nailing the last second three, is the reason for GU heading into overtime. He forced a trap in the corner with his tenacious defense, which resulted in Dellavedova turning over the ball with 10 seconds remaining. That play resulted in a GU ball that led to Harris’ trey.

While Hart and Edi play in the same position most of the time, they have two completely different styles of playing. In certain situations one athlete is better suited for time on the court, but considering in 22 minutes Guy fouled out, only grabbed one rebound, and score four points, it appears that Hart’s eight minutes may have been more valuable to the team. He racked up three boards and a steal with no fouls in his few minutes.

Finally, Ryan Spangler, the most efficient player of the game if you ask me, made use of his one minute on the court in the first half. He made a basket and added a rebound to his stat line in the 1:30 he spent on the court. Oh and that rebound was on the offensive end, something that the Zags struggle with frequently.

While Spangler is typically a late sub for Elias Harris at the four position, and surly the Bulldogs wanted Harris on the court, it still seems like Coach Few should have utilized the 6’8” freshman better. One potential use for him could have been to use Dower, Harris, Spangler, Pangos, and Bell as a rotation when Sacre needed a break.

Spangler might not be as tall as Rob or Sam, but he is a legitimate post player; who, like Mike Hart, has tenacity and works hard every second he is on the court. Considering Dower and Harris were shooting well from outside the paint Monday, it would have made since to move Harris to the wing spot, while Dower and Spangler played down low.

This line up would create pressure on SMC’s defense because there would be four outside threats to guard on the perimeter, and quite frankly Spangler’s inside presence would likely take a back seat to the defense. This would have opened up the court and allowed either Spangler to sneak some interior points, or if nothing else cause a size mismatch with three bigs on the court for Gonzaga. This should not be a rotation that is used all the time, but in a game in which needed some creative coaching, and Spangler showed production in limited time, it seems only right to figure out a way to shake things up as a coach and get the kid some more minutes.

Finally, I would like to understand where the communication breakdown is between timeouts, effective clock management, and whatever is done on the court in between. When Gonzaga lost to USF a few weeks ago by one, it was the final two minutes of the game in which GU failed to score that really hurt the Zags. Two timeouts were called, but neither proved to do anything but stop the clock. Both times the Bulldogs came out of the huddle and were unable to run an effective play or even get a high-percentage shot off before the shot-clock was about to expire. That made the difference in the game, the regular season title, and the WCC tournament seeding.

In the championship game, with 1:18 left in regulation, Few called a 30 second time out. Once the game resumed, GU allowed 28 seconds of the 29 available to tick off the shot clock before Kevin Pangos launched a missed three. Considering he had made one trey all night, it is doubtful that a last second toss up from beyond the arc by Pangos was really the game plan. If it was, Few clearly had not been watching the game I was. If it wasn’t, then why is it that Gonzaga was unable to effectively use a timeout strategy in the critical moments of a game?

There is plenty to criticize when your team loses, especially a very close and emotional game. It is always easy to judge game decisions based on the game, when one doesn’t know the ins and outs of what happens behind closed doors either. However, from merely watching the WCC Championship, I think that there were several coaching decisions that just did not make since, or were not effective. Let’s hope nearly two weeks off gives the team and coaching staff adequate time to prepare for the real championship.

Gonzaga’s men’s and women’s basketball program received numerous conference awards this week for having outstanding squads on and off the court.

Most importantly, redshirt junior Mike Hart and senior Shannon Reader were named to the WCC All-Academic teams. Hart is a Business Administration major and tallied a 3.63 GPA. Reader earned a 3.26 GPA as a Public Relations major.

On the court, GU had a strong presence, with numerous men and women making the all-conference team, as well as earning individual awards.

Gonzaga dominated the WCC awards, proving they are the best of the WCC

Four lady Zags were honored as Kayla Standish and Katelan Redmon were named to the All-WCC first team squad. The seniors, who both represented the United States in the Pan-Am games prior to the season starting, had a great year individually, and as a team for the Zags. They are a part of the winningest class in GU Women’s Basketball history.

Haiden Palmer, a red-shirt sophomore, was honored as the Co-newcomer of the Year for the league—she transferred after her freshman season at Oregon State. Palmer was also a first-team Honorable Mention. Freshman Sunny Greinacher was named to the All-Freshman team.

For the men, senior Rob Sacre was named the West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year. His seven foot presence and ability to block-out in the paint made it extremely difficult for opponents to move inside on the Zags. Sacre also racked up enough blocks this season to move to second all-time in that stat at GU. He was given a spot on the league’s 10-man WCC First team, as well.

Kevin Pangos, the freshman super star from Canada was honored as the WCC Newcomer of the Year. Pangos lit up the conference awards, earning spots on the all-WCC first team roster, and the All-Freshman team. He was joined by fellow freshman starter Gary Bell Jr. on the conference freshman squad.

Joining Pangos and Sacre on the 10-man team, was junior Elias Harris. For his third straight year the power forward was honored by the conference. As a freshman he earned a spot on the first team and as the New Comer of the Year. Last season he was recognized as an honorable mention for the all-conference roster.

This was it; the last game in the Kennel for Robert Sacre and Marquis Carter, and they went out with style and stardom. The two seniors were recognized prior to the game, and featured throughout the 40 minutes of play. Rob was rested for most of the game, since he is a typical starter and key player in the Bulldogs’ line up, yet managed five points and six rebounds in limited minutes. Marquise added 13 points as a starter and dished out five assists—including the first three assists for the first three baskets of the game.

Marquise Carter delivers a goodbye speech with fellow senior Rob Sacre (00). Photo from @GonzagaBulldogs the official GU Athletics Twitter

As the final minute counted down in the game, and Mike Hart waited to replace Carter, so he could receive the proper farewell cheer, a dead ball seemed impossible to come by. Hart was signaling his teammates to foul in order to stop the clock, but the referees wouldn’t blow the whistle. Finally Quise had a drive inside and rolled the ball in the bucket, while he hit the floor hard with Longview players flying into him. He made the free throw. Carter left the game, and the court, with the perfect “And 1” scenario.

That moment captured the night as a fan. The emotion, the passion, the execution, it was all present. Considering the final score favored the Zags 92-60, it is hard to really find how the atmosphere of the MAC really factored into the game, but man it was still good.

Unfortunately, the visiting Lancers from Virginia only had seven available players. The independent division one team that will be joining the Big South next year struggled to hang with the Zags after about the first seven minutes. Most of the starters for Gonzaga sat on the bench for the majority of the game, as the bench players earned valuable minutes.

Freshman Ryan Spangler earned a career high and double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. He wasn’t the only freshman to have an outstanding game, though; Gary Bell Jr. came off the bench to net 20 points—18 from behind the arc (6-9). Bell was unreal, that is the only way to explain it. He is a usual starter, but was replaced by Carter for the first half in the two guard position. GB2 started the second half in place of Guy Landry Edi, considering he had drained four three pointers in the first 20 minutes—few of which he was actually on the court—Few couldn’t leave him on the pine.

Pangos was also in double figures with a strong first half from the trey—he finished with 13 points. He went 4-5 from the three, contributing to the 46% outside shooting.

All good things must come to an end, and so after five years of Rob Sacre on the Gonzaga bench, and two years of Marquise Carter wearing No. 2 for the Zags, it is time for the Kennel to bid farewell. Their contributions to the team, program, and atmosphere of Gonzaga Basketball were remarkable and cherished.

Thank you Rob and Quise for contributing to the Zag experience, you will be missed.

Now it’s time for the postseason: Vegas Baby!

Mike Hart was the starting wing guy in the Zags rotation the first half of the season. Once Guy Landry Edi returned from his NCAA penalty of a nine game suspension, Hart’s time on the court faded.

Recently he has seen a few minutes at a time—typically at the end of the game—and definitely isn’t starting. Well, as the Bulldogs played at Santa Clara Thursday, Mike’s limited time proved to be quite valuable.

Mike Hart capitalized on his eight minutes on the court

Gonzaga won the game 73-62, which kept the Broncos winless in WCC play. It wasn’t a very exciting game. GU led the game almost the whole time. It fluctuated from double digit leads to one possession leads, but it was obvious SCU just didn’t have enough gas to hang for 40 minutes with the league leading Zags.

However, they kept it close. And with 10 three pointers, it got to be very close at times. So close that the reminder of last season’s loss in Santa Clara was starting to flash back.

Enter Mike Hart.

He played for eight minutes at the end of the game. He grabbed six boards—the second most of anyone on the team; scored three points; took two charges; and had a blocked shot. Combine that with the best defensive effort of anyone on the team, and it is a complete curiosity as to why the coaching staff is stapling him to the bench until the game is essentially over.

As the title of this piece indicates a play on words, the heart in Thursday’s game also seemed to be missing. There were a few adrenaline rushing plays, like a buzzer beating three by Gary Bell Jr., but in general, the Zags looked flat.

I’m pretty sure the whole team, at least by the looks of their Tweets, along with a majority of GU students were more excited about LMU beating St. Mary’s Wednesday than they were about the Bulldogs beating the Broncos. There better be more passionate Saturday at USF, because the Dons fell to BYU by one Thursday night, so they know they can compete with the top. Also, the last two years GU has lost in San Francisco, so I’m sure the Dons will continue their hope for an upset.

Ugly. Careless. Down right awful. Those words pretty much summarize Thursday night’s performance by the Zags at BYU.

The Bulldogs failed in the very important and very prominent game 83-73. It’s honestly a surprise that it was that close of a finish. GU trailed by 19 with less than 10 minutes to go in the game. The best basketball was actually played near the end when the Zags were scrapping for points and put in the nonstarters, aside from Gary Bell Jr. to pick things up.

BYU gave Gonzaga the Blues

If it hadn’t been for Sam Dower’s surge of seven points, Marquise Carter’s four points, and David Stockton’s five points and five assists in the last 9:11, who knows what kind of whooping the Zags would have faced. In the last portion of the contest, Mike Hart, Dower, Carter, Stockton, and Bell Jr. were left on the court to chase the Cougars and the desperate need for a win to keep the hopes of a conference title alive.

By the looks of the beating in Provo, and St. Mary’s getting another W, the 11 year WCC regular season champs may end their streak at 11. There is still a lot of basketball to be played, but tonight showed the weaknesses the Bulldog’s have, and their inability to win the big games.

GU was just 3-19 from behind the arc, and two of those threes came in the final seconds of the game nonetheless. Oh and if that wasn’t bad enough, the Zags turned the ball over 19 times, in which the Cougars gained 20 points from those 19 mistakes. That is what truly lost the game.

Clearly the ball needs to be taken care of better. And the starters need to perform like starters.

Guy Landry Edi started the first half, played for a total of five minutes the entire game, and accumulated two fouls with no points; Carter replaced him to begin the second half. Elias Harris racked up 4 turnovers, all in the first half, and only scored seven points. Kevin Pangos also had four turnovers and only scored four points. As a starting five, they committed 12 of the 19 turnovers; Carter added four more making only 3 turnovers for the guys that are the “backups.” That is a big problem.

Dower led the team with 15 points and Bell added 14, while Carter chipped in 13 points and also in double figures was Rob Sacre with 11. Stockton led the team with five assists on the night.

There really isn’t much good that came out of this game, but one highlight is that when Stockton plays point guard and Pangos fills in at the two spot, the flow of the team appears to be a lot more effective.  We shall see how the Zags rebound from the loss at Pepperdine Saturday, and if Coach Few is willing to make the necessary adjustments to win a game; rather than leave in unproductive starters for too long as it appeared Thursday.

As Gonzaga continues their pursuit for their 12^th consecutive WCC regular season title, they must pass through teams all over the western coast (and oddly Utah). Thursday, the Zags hosted Pepperdine in the Kennel and showed them exactly why they are the defending champs—and ranked in the top 25.

Gary Bell Jr. was the leading scorer for GU with 15 points. He contributed three assists. Three other Bulldogs were in double figures and only one Zag—Mike Hart did not score tonight. Elias Harris tallied 10 points and eight rebounds, while Rob Sacre missed a double-double by one board grabbing nine and scoring 11. Kevin Pangos also had 11 points.

Off the bench, Sam Dower and Mathis Moenninghoff contributed to the teams’ success with nine points each. It was a balanced night for the entire roster, as everyone earned decent playing time and had one positive mark in the book next to their name.

The Waves didn’t make much of a wave in Spokane, as GU dominated Pepperdine 73-45 to move to 2-0 in conference play and 12-2 for the season.

Happy about the win, sad about the performance

Ninety-three percent—the best statistic compiled for tonight. Gonzaga hosted their 100^th game in the McCarthy Athletic Center Thursday night to Oral Roberts of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Zags clinched their 93^rd win.

ORU came to the Kennel and nearly beat the Zags. The Summit League favorite put up a tough fight, but in the end, was slightly overmatched and fell 67-61.

Gonzaga struggled yet again to hold onto a big lead and take advantage having superior height, depth, talent on their side. A win is a win on the schedule, so I guess there is no reason to complain, but after the carelessness on the court Thursday night, there really isn’t a whole lot to be happy about.

High points included Elias Harris tallying a double-double after playing subpar against Michigan State last week, Kevin Pangos knocking down a perfect 8 for 8 from the free throw line, and a strong first half finish. Harris grabbed ten boards and scored 12 points for the night. The Zags ended the first half on a 17-2 run to take over the game.

The low points would be the Golden Eagles out scoring GU the second half, 17 turnovers, and Kevin Pangos going 4-17 from the field (2-9 from two point range and 2-8 from beyond the arc). It was sloppy on both sides of the court. Defense was bad, but offense seemed to be worse.

Some big shots, including a pair of threes from Mike Hart and Gary Bell Jr. down the final stretch helped keep the Bulldogs in the game, but the numerous turnovers inside the paint on the offensive end was terrible.

The Zags have Arizona next at the Battle in Seattle on Saturday. There is tremendous pressure to step up and play well in the Key Arena against a pretty god PAC-12 team.

Michigan State’s colors are green and white; the star of their team is Draymond Green; and Gonzaga’s team is filled with green players. The Spartans took down the Zags 74-67 in Spokane Saturday night.

It was only the seventh loss GU has suffered in the MAC since it opened in 2004—an average of one loss per year. The problem is, I’ve been at Gonzaga for three and already witnessed four losses. This is infuriating. All of those losses were extremely close games, which makes it even more difficult; knowing they could have easily been victories. The seven point loss to MSU is actually the largest margin of victory an opponent has had against GU since I’ve been here.

So back to the color of the night; Draymond Green racked up 34 points against the Zags. He destroyed the defense—not like that is very hard to do against the Bulldogs who aren’t exactly a defensive team. While Green was the leading scorer of the game, and dominated the Spartan’s offensive performance, the rest of the team worked hard enough to get the job done too.

Of the winning team, none may have been more invaluable than Coach Tom Izzo. He is impressive. As a basketball junkie, it sure was fun watching him coach live; as a Gonzaga fan and student, it sure sucked watching my team play against his squad.

He is a general on the court—despite never touching the ball. He knows how to get his players to adjust and is great at managing the game. For instance, the Kennel was rowdy tonight, but when MSU opened up big late in the second half, it got quiet. David Stockton made a huge three to bring the Bulldogs within nine and the crowd went wild. There were still over five minutes to play and Michigan State had been dominating, but Izzo called the time out and shut the arena up.

It’s that simple; he knows what he is doing and is dang good at it.

His counterpart, Mark Few, on the other hand, is a great coach according to the record books and stats, but rarely makes necessary adjustments. Several times things just didn’t fall into place for the Zags and something needed to change, yet no alterations were made in the rotation.

Once again David Stockton had a great game, coming off the bench with 19 points. He was the stud that kept GU in the game near the end. Rob Sacre and Gary Bell Jr. both hit double figures with Sacre notching 16 and Bell throwing down 13.

On the subject of Sacre, he is just not playing at the level he should be. The seven foot redshirt senior had seven rebounds. Guess what, 6’6” walk-on redshirt junior Mike Hart had seven rebounds too. There is no reason for Sacre not to be averaging a double-double EVERY night. He needs to be a big presence in the paint and control the boards all the time.

There is so much talent on this Gonzaga team. Several players have had incredible performances throughout the first seven games, yet they are so inconsistent. If each starter could pull together a solid night at the same time, then the Zags would be an extremely elite team. But for now, at this rate, the 5-2 No.22 Bulldogs will likely be out of the top 25 come Monday.

The Zags travelled to British Columbia to face the University of Hawaii in their third game of the season. It was a mess. Sloppy on both sides, but in the final five minutes of the game, GU pulled away, showing their height and outside shooting were too much for the Warriors after 40 minutes of play.

Rob Sacre, returned to his hometown of Vancouver, BC, Canada to produce a double-double for the Zags

It was a homecoming for three Bulldogs, as Rob Sacre, Kevin Pangos, and Kelly Olynyk are all natives of Canada. Sacre stood out in his hometown with a double-double. He notched 16 points and ten rebounds in his performance.

Pangos, and fellow freshman Gary Bell Jr. impacted the game from beyond the arc combining for six three pointers. Bell finished the game with four, and a total of 14 points; while Pangos added 12 points, half of which were treys.

Elias Harris had eight boards and eight points and Marquise Carter tossed in 10 points for the Zags. It was good to see four of the five starters combine for 46 of the 73 points on the scoreboard, but the problem was the fifth starter not producing a single point.

Mike Hart again started the game, but hardly saw playing time. Mark Few went with a guard focused rotation, especially in the second half; utilizing Bell, Carter, Pangos, and David Stockton. At multiple times three of those four guards were on the court for the Zags.

By the looks of it, Hart had his chance to start and is quickly losing his time to prove himself. In the first game of the year against Eastern Washington, he didn’t come off the court in the second half. In the third game of the season, Saturday, Hart road the bench in the second half.

The biggest key in GU’s 73-54 win over Hawaii was the foul ratio. The Warriors racked up 27 personal fouls, while the Bulldogs escaped with 11. Two Warriors fouled out of the game, and their coach earned two technical fouls in the game to head to the locker room early.

The Hawaii bench also received a warning early in the first half, indicating the frustration the team was having with the referees.

For the majority of the game, Hawaii hung close—within ten points—until the final minutes when, just like against Eastern Washington and Washington State the Zags success at the free throw line sealed the game.

GU needs to really step it up. With a week to prepare, it is necessary to figure out why subpar teams are hanging around and making matchups much closer than they should be!