Fuck Gonzaga. Glad NWG shat the bed.
Fuck Gonzaga. Glad NWG shat the bed. He was actually dominating down the stretch until the ankle injury.He tried to play hero ball, have his version of the Jordan flu game but it didn't pan out. Worth the risk for a chance at glory IMO, but playing the inside/outside game with carnitas was probably the safer bet (even though he completely shit himself on the big stage up to that point).
I will admit I know jack and shit about college basketball, but I've never understood all the Gonzaga hate. I'm cheering for the Zags. Mostly for my Dad, and I enjoy seeing a small school win it all every once and awhile.
Fuck Gonzaga. Glad NWG shat the bed. He was actually dominating down the stretch until the ankle injury.He tried to play hero ball, have his version of the Jordan flu game but it didn't pan out. Worth the risk for a chance at glory IMO, but playing the inside/outside game with carnitas was probably the safer bet (even though he completely shit himself on the big stage up to that point). He made a nice move on Jackson and arguably got away with an offensive foul when he got the banker on Pinson ... he got nothing after that point and in the process of getting denied by Pinson he overextended and turned his ankle ...Gonzaga's problem down the stretch wasn't NWG and his injury per se ... the problem was that nobody else wanted the ball. And that's what happens when you go from big fish in a small pond to swimming with the big fishes. Only a handful of Gonzaga players really looked comfortable on the court tonight.
The only Zags on the court that looked like they were comfortable playing against major D1 talent were NWG and Collins ... everybody else more or less were outmatched in one form or another by a player that could match/exceed them in their athletic ability, height, or strength. Mathews did fine but he's just a role player. That's what he was at Cal and that's ultimately what he was at Gonzaga.It's pretty clear at this point that Pete decided to look for opportunities outside of Boise once it became painfully obvious to him that there was only so far he could take the job at Boise. Few's pretty much just content at where he is and will never leave. It's one of the reasons why I thought it was possible that Marshall would move on from Wichita State as they face a similar issue to Gonzaga ... but them moving to the American conference will move them closer to where they need to be (Big East would have been ideal).
The only Zags on the court that looked like they were comfortable playing against major D1 talent were NWG and Collins ... everybody else more or less were outmatched in one form or another by a player that could match/exceed them in their athletic ability, height, or strength. Mathews did fine but he's just a role player. That's what he was at Cal and that's ultimately what he was at Gonzaga.It's pretty clear at this point that Pete decided to look for opportunities outside of Boise once it became painfully obvious to him that there was only so far he could take the job at Boise. Few's pretty much just content at where he is and will never leave. It's one of the reasons why I thought it was possible that Marshall would move on from Wichita State as they face a similar issue to Gonzaga ... but them moving to the American conference will move them closer to where they need to be (Big East would have been ideal). That's a nice post game narrative. The reality was Gonzaga lost to a slightly better team. Gonzaga beat plenty of teams this year that had major D-1 talent. That wasn't an incredibly talented North Carolina team. Neither team is loaded with future NBA studs.It was a close game the entire way. Neither team shot the ball well and the game came to a grind in the 2nd half because of the refs.
The only Zags on the court that looked like they were comfortable playing against major D1 talent were NWG and Collins ... everybody else more or less were outmatched in one form or another by a player that could match/exceed them in their athletic ability, height, or strength. Mathews did fine but he's just a role player. That's what he was at Cal and that's ultimately what he was at Gonzaga.It's pretty clear at this point that Pete decided to look for opportunities outside of Boise once it became painfully obvious to him that there was only so far he could take the job at Boise. Few's pretty much just content at where he is and will never leave. It's one of the reasons why I thought it was possible that Marshall would move on from Wichita State as they face a similar issue to Gonzaga ... but them moving to the American conference will move them closer to where they need to be (Big East would have been ideal). That's a nice post game narrative. The reality was Gonzaga lost to a slightly better team. Gonzaga beat plenty of teams this year that had major D-1 talent. That wasn't an incredibly talented North Carolina team. Neither team is loaded with future NBA studs.It was a close game the entire way. Neither team shot the ball well and the game came to a grind in the 2nd half because of the refs. How many times have you changed your position today?Here's the possessions/shot attempts from Gonzaga starting with 5 minutes left in the 2nd half:4:47 - Missed 3 by Mathews (this was the airball that the refs erred in calling a block)4:39 - Made 3 by NWG3:58 - Missed 3 by NWG3:08 - Free throws by NWG (1 of 2)2:25 - Made jumper by NWG1:55 - Made jumper by NWG1:19 - Missed jumper by NWG0:17 - Missed jumper by NWG0:09 - Turnover by Karnowski0:03 - Missed 3 by MathewsThat's 7 straight possessions where the only person digging for their shot was NWG ... everybody else basically crawled into a corner and sucked their thumbs.Now, I will give you that Gonzaga lost to a better team (although how many people here were calling it for Gonzaga between Saturday night and today?) ... but this is the problem that Gonzaga has with their overall talent level ... it's similar to what Pete experienced at Boise.If you look at the interior for Gonzaga tonight, their bigs by and large were a non-factor outside of Collins (their only big that is a legit talent. He had 9 points and 7 boards in 14 minutes ... but got into foul trouble and showed that he was a freshman. Williams had good quickness and the ability to cause problems offensively but he couldn't match up with the height/strength combo from Carolina and got himself into foul trouble. Karnowski was visibly bothered by the quickness/length combination of Carolina's defense ... shooting 1-8 from the field with 4 turnovers. There were people saying that NWG would run all over Carolina because of Berry's injury ... he got a steady dose of Pinson and Jackson ... that led to 5-17 shooting for the game. I also said that Mathews wasn't going to be a massive problem because he was a spot up shooter and Carolina would be able to slow him down ... he was 2 of 7 and basically turned into a spot up shooter (2 of 5 from 3). Melson is ok as a player but he's not a player that's going to demand the ball in that kind of game ... 1 of 3 is about right for him. And has been stated throughout Gonzaga discussions in the past few weeks, Perkins is a disaster when he has to do too much ... he was actually better tonight than most would have expected 13 points on 3 of 8 shooting. But the point being that there's nobody on Gonzaga outside of NWG that could create a shot when they needed one. They could get locked up by a team that could match their size ... which most can't. Against Carolina, they weren't going to dominate the interior to the point where Carolina would have to dig down and double. It's a completely similar situation to what Gonzaga went through 2 years ago when they lost to Duke in the Regional Finals. Their bigs were basically rendered useless by Duke's bigs and the overall athletic ability gap showed big time. Let's be completely realistic here ... the reason that there's a lot of "hate" thrown Gonzaga's way is because while they are absolutely well coached and tend to maximize their abilities they don't have a roster or plan that allows them to readily compete against the elite teams in the country. Gonzaga's path to the title game tonight was a dream draw ... they had little overall strength in their way ... West Virginia was a tough match for them but they got lucky with West Virginia literally pissing the game away in a number of different manners ... when Xavier pulled the stunner on Arizona it eased their way to the Final Four. Then with the Villanova and Duke upsets it took 2 teams that could high end talent Gonzaga off the court out of their path. For Gonzaga to get back to future Final Fours, they will likely again need a very fortunate draw. How often are they going to get a big talent like Collins in their program? If he leaves early then that's the kind of talent they can't replace. NWG is a kind of player that they can't get on their own and only in a FS situation like playing under Romar would that kind of caliber of player even be available to Gonzaga. Pete learned all of this at Boise and that got him to UW. When Pete saw the difference between UW and Alabama in Atlanta, he's upped the ante in recruiting from that point forward. Gonzaga doesn't have that luxury ... just like Boise State doesn't. Few could have option if he left Gonzaga ... but he won't.
The only Zags on the court that looked like they were comfortable playing against major D1 talent were NWG and Collins ... everybody else more or less were outmatched in one form or another by a player that could match/exceed them in their athletic ability, height, or strength. Mathews did fine but he's just a role player. That's what he was at Cal and that's ultimately what he was at Gonzaga.It's pretty clear at this point that Pete decided to look for opportunities outside of Boise once it became painfully obvious to him that there was only so far he could take the job at Boise. Few's pretty much just content at where he is and will never leave. It's one of the reasons why I thought it was possible that Marshall would move on from Wichita State as they face a similar issue to Gonzaga ... but them moving to the American conference will move them closer to where they need to be (Big East would have been ideal). That's a nice post game narrative. The reality was Gonzaga lost to a slightly better team. Gonzaga beat plenty of teams this year that had major D-1 talent. That wasn't an incredibly talented North Carolina team. Neither team is loaded with future NBA studs.It was a close game the entire way. Neither team shot the ball well and the game came to a grind in the 2nd half because of the refs. Take a closer look at their schedule. As shitty as the UW schedule was, it was rated higher.
The only Zags on the court that looked like they were comfortable playing against major D1 talent were NWG and Collins ... everybody else more or less were outmatched in one form or another by a player that could match/exceed them in their athletic ability, height, or strength. Mathews did fine but he's just a role player. That's what he was at Cal and that's ultimately what he was at Gonzaga.It's pretty clear at this point that Pete decided to look for opportunities outside of Boise once it became painfully obvious to him that there was only so far he could take the job at Boise. Few's pretty much just content at where he is and will never leave. It's one of the reasons why I thought it was possible that Marshall would move on from Wichita State as they face a similar issue to Gonzaga ... but them moving to the American conference will move them closer to where they need to be (Big East would have been ideal). That's a nice post game narrative. The reality was Gonzaga lost to a slightly better team. Gonzaga beat plenty of teams this year that had major D-1 talent. That wasn't an incredibly talented North Carolina team. Neither team is loaded with future NBA studs.It was a close game the entire way. Neither team shot the ball well and the game came to a grind in the 2nd half because of the refs. Take a closer look at their schedule. As shitty as the UW schedule was, it was rated higher. They play in a shitty conference. Water is wet. They also beat Florida, Arizona, Iowa State, and Tennessee. They always play good non conference games.
The only Zags on the court that looked like they were comfortable playing against major D1 talent were NWG and Collins ... everybody else more or less were outmatched in one form or another by a player that could match/exceed them in their athletic ability, height, or strength. Mathews did fine but he's just a role player. That's what he was at Cal and that's ultimately what he was at Gonzaga.It's pretty clear at this point that Pete decided to look for opportunities outside of Boise once it became painfully obvious to him that there was only so far he could take the job at Boise. Few's pretty much just content at where he is and will never leave. It's one of the reasons why I thought it was possible that Marshall would move on from Wichita State as they face a similar issue to Gonzaga ... but them moving to the American conference will move them closer to where they need to be (Big East would have been ideal). That's a nice post game narrative. The reality was Gonzaga lost to a slightly better team. Gonzaga beat plenty of teams this year that had major D-1 talent. That wasn't an incredibly talented North Carolina team. Neither team is loaded with future NBA studs.It was a close game the entire way. Neither team shot the ball well and the game came to a grind in the 2nd half because of the refs. Take a closer look at their schedule. As shitty as the UW schedule was, it was rated higher. They play in a shitty conference. Water is wet. They also beat Florida, Arizona, Iowa State, and Tennessee. They always play good non conference games. And they also play really really shitty ones people seem to forget about. Like they played UW and Bryant this year.
The only Zags on the court that looked like they were comfortable playing against major D1 talent were NWG and Collins ... everybody else more or less were outmatched in one form or another by a player that could match/exceed them in their athletic ability, height, or strength. Mathews did fine but he's just a role player. That's what he was at Cal and that's ultimately what he was at Gonzaga.It's pretty clear at this point that Pete decided to look for opportunities outside of Boise once it became painfully obvious to him that there was only so far he could take the job at Boise. Few's pretty much just content at where he is and will never leave. It's one of the reasons why I thought it was possible that Marshall would move on from Wichita State as they face a similar issue to Gonzaga ... but them moving to the American conference will move them closer to where they need to be (Big East would have been ideal). That's a nice post game narrative. The reality was Gonzaga lost to a slightly better team. Gonzaga beat plenty of teams this year that had major D-1 talent. That wasn't an incredibly talented North Carolina team. Neither team is loaded with future NBA studs.It was a close game the entire way. Neither team shot the ball well and the game came to a grind in the 2nd half because of the refs. Take a closer look at their schedule. As shitty as the UW schedule was, it was rated higher. They play in a shitty conference. Water is wet. They also beat Florida, Arizona, Iowa State, and Tennessee. They always play good non conference games. First, these are all early in the season games before teams have really figured themselves out. Iowa St didn't have bigs ... Arizona missing 2 of their perimeter players ... Gonzaga needs a great draw and a little luck to get really deep ... they got that this year
