SB Nation - Jeremiah Dominguez

Busy Thursday Preview/Championship Wednesday Recap

Chris Dobbertean — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:01:53 -0000

Today is an extremely busy day so I'm going to dive straight into my hybrid review/preview for today.

First up, two new teams know they're going dancing.

Northeast - Robert Morris knocked off Mount St. Mary's, 48-46, after a titanic defensive struggle. Dallas Green gave the Colonials the lead with 2.5 seconds left and the Mountaineers threw an interception on the inbound to send RMU dancing.

Big Sky - Portland State, the two seed, is in. The Vikings, led by pint-sized powerhouse Jeremiah Dominguez's 22 and Julius Thomas' 17, knocked off sixth-seeded Montana State, 79-77.

Meanwhile, just about everyone on the bubble will be in action today. Here's a brief rundown of these games.

ACC First Round (day session and 9:30 game on Raycom/FS Florida/Full Court, 7 pm game on ESPN2)

Virginia Tech vs. Miami (12 EDT) - This is a virtual elimination game for two teams who are right at the cut line.
Clemson vs. Georgia Tech (2:30 EDT*) - In my opinion, the Tigers seed is dropping because of their late season mediocrity.
Maryland vs. NC State (7 EDT) - The Terps beat the Wolfpack to open the month up. They need to do it again to keep their hopes alive.
Boston College vs. Virginia (9:30 EDT*) - The Eagles should be in good shape if they get this one.

A-10 Quarterfinals (FS Ohio/MASN/Cox RI/CSN Philly for the day session, FS Ohio/MASN/Comcast Network, Cox RI for the night session)

Xavier vs. St. Louis (12 EDT) - The Musketeers need to win the A-10 to have a real shot at a protected seed.
Temple vs. St. Joseph's (2:30 EDT*) - This is a rematch of last year's championship game. This year, only the Owls find themselves on the bubble.
Rhode Island vs. Duquesne (6:30 EDT) - The Dukes beat the Rams by 2 at the Palumbo Center to start off the month. A loss here would end URI's at-large hopes.
Dayton vs. Richmond (9 EDT*) - The Flyers should be safe with a loss, but really shouldn't try to test that out.

Big East Quarterfinals (all games on ESPN)

Providence vs. Louisville (12 EDT) - Since the Friars' case wasn't helped by beating DePaul yesterday, this is an elimination game for them. The Cards are looking to keep building their case for a one seed.
Villanova vs. Marquette (2:30 EDT) - The Golden Eagles finally won a game without Dominic James, in style, holding St. John's to 10 points in the first. However, the Wildcats aren't the Red Storm.
Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia (7 EDT) - The Mountaineers all but ended Notre Dame's chances last night. Tonight, they'll look to stop the Panthers' run to a one seed.
Connecticut vs. Syracuse (9:30 EDT*) - The Orange pulled away from Seton Hall last night. They also look to be a roadblock to a team building a case for a spot on the top line, while working toward a potential top four seeding of their own.

Big Ten Opening Round

Minnesota vs. Northwestern (Big Ten, 12 EDT) - This is another virtual elimination game. The Wildcats will probably need one more win if they get this one.
Michigan vs. Iowa (ESPN2, 2:30 EDT*) - A second loss to the Hawkeyes would doom the Wolverines to the NIT.
Penn State vs. Indiana (ESPN2, 5 EDT*) - The Nittany Lions swept the Hoosiers this year, but the second meeting, in State College less than two weeks ago, was a close one. Like Michigan, PSU can't afford to drop this one.

Big 12 Quarterfinals

Baylor vs. Kansas (ESPN2, 12:30 EDT) - A win here, and the Bears are back in the discussion. Jayhawks need to keep winning to earn a two seed and, who knows, maybe even a slot in KC next weekend.
Kansas State vs. Texas (Big 12/Altitude/Full Court, 3 EDT*) - The Wildcats would be back in the frame with a season sweep of the Longhorns, with both wins away from Manhattan.
Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State (Big 12/Altitude/Full Court, 7 EDT*) - The Sooners and Cowboys meet up for the second time in six days. OU still has a shot at a one seed, while the Cowboys have a little breathing room after defeating Iowa State last night.
Missouri vs. Texas Tech (ESPN2, 9:30 EDT*) - The Red Raiders put a major dent in Texas A&M's hopes, thanks to a record-breaking night by Mike Singletary (43 points (tournament record), 29 consecutive TT points (2nd best in NCAA history)). That's good news for the Tigers, as they beat the Red Raiders by 11 in Lubbock and lost to the Aggies by 10 on Saturday.

Conference USA Quarterfinals (all games on CSS)

UAB vs. Southern Miss (3:30 EDT*) - The Blazers still have slim at-large hopes, but they'll need to make the final.
Memphis vs. Tulane/East Carolina (7 EDT) - The Tigers are among the many teams playing for a one seed.

MWC Quarterfinals (all games on the mtn./CBS CS)

BYU vs. Air Force (3 EDT) - The good news for the Falcons, they repeated Colorado State's feat of going winless through the conference and winning the opening round game yesterday afternoon. The bad news is they have to face a Cougar team looking to win the MWC tournament and improve their seeding.
San Diego State vs. UNLV (5:30 EDT*) - The Aztecs swept the Rebels in the regular season, making this a must win for UNLV. It's also a must win for SDSU, whose non-conference strength of schedule is a bit of an issue.
Utah vs. TCU (9 EDT) - Utes are looking to improve their seeding.
New Mexico vs. Wyoming (11:30 EDT*) - The Lobos need to continue their hot play of late to make their way into the field.

Pac-10 Quarterfinals (all games on (FSN/selected CSN outlets)

Arizona State vs. Arizona (3 EDT) - This is an absolute must-win for the Wildcats. The Sun Devils, meanwhile, need to win to stop their seed's freefall.
Washington vs. Stanford (5:30 EDT) - The Cardinal knocked Oregon State out last night. Next, they'll try to stop the Huskies run at the title and up the S-curve.
California vs. USC (9 EDT) - The Trojans need to make a big run in this tournament to get themselves back in the conversation.
UCLA vs. Washington State (11:30 EDT) - The Cougars were unmerciful in putting an end to Oregon's season last night. Next, they'll try for a repeat of their upset win over the Bruins back on February 21.

SEC First Round (all games on Raycom/Full Court/FS South/Sun Sports)

Kentucky vs. Ole Miss (1 EDT) - The Wildcats have absolutely no chance if they lose this one.
Mississippi State vs. Georgia (3:30 EDT*) - I'll refrain from making any bad Bulldog jokes here. The question for the day is, can Georgia repeat their magical run of last year? You know, the one that temporarily saved Dennis Felton?
Alabama vs. Vanderbilt (7:30 EDT) - Like I've said before, if you're talking about Auburn being in the discussion, you need to talk about the Commodores too.
Florida vs. Arkansas (10 EDT*) - Like Kentucky, the Gators cannot lose this one. UF cannot repeat their performance against Alabama in this stage last year.

WAC Quarterfinals

Utah State vs. Fresno State (ESPNU, 5:30 EDT*) - Aggies look to start their run to a WAC championship.

The MAC tournament (which I will get to one of these years!) will also be on FS Ohio and FS Detroit.

Why are We Surprised that Gonzaga is Awful in the Clutch?

Zach B — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:49:22 -0000

In a post that I wrote after the Portland State game, I begged someone on the Gonzaga roster to fire up this team, hell I was even encouraging them to "KG" it and make a teammate cry. Because I tend to think that my words have the power to reach this team, I was not that concerned going into the New Year's Eve game with the team that lost to a Division II team. It turns out that this blog may not be as widely read by the Gonzaga basketball team as we thought...

I tend to be a statistics addict. With pro sports, it's obvious. You look at stats and you know who won the game by looking at a few categories. Turn the ball over too much, your going to lose. Shoot lousy from the field, your probably going to lose. In college sports their is so much emotion that you might not see the whole picture from the stat line. Last night with Gonzaga, the stats did a pretty good job. From now on, I'm going to try and not watch the games and see if I can recognize a Gonzaga stat line. It would be pretty easy, just look for two things. 1) They will be outrebounded and 2) They will shoot horribly from three-point range. They succeeded at both against Utah, especially from beyond the arc where they passed with flying colors, shooting a RED-HOT 15%.

Like I said, there is more to college sports than stats. Emotion and ability in the clutch is a huge part of the college game. For the Zags, clutch is something that is historically bad.

once again, continue at your own will...

I've had about 30 directions for this post, spanning from "FIRE MARK FEW" to "It's okay, we're just tired". The tired argument completely bottomed out with the Portland State loss. They were bused to Spokane for God sakes, I'm sure they were more tired. As for the FIRE MARK FEW post, I'll give it at least until conference play.

Some of our comments lately have pointed out that all the negative trends that we have been weary of are coming true. We can't rebound, we look scared, we have no leadership, etc, etc, etc. This is true, the four losses this season have seen Pandora's Box open and sweep the Zags away. These four losses have also seen some terrible Gonzaga starts paired with the inability to close games. Arizona was up 6-0, Connecticut was up 13-5, Portland State was up 12-6, and Utah was up 14-5 before the Zags could blink. But every time, the Zags come back and make it close. They were tied with Portland State and Arizona with about two minutes left. They owned the early second half against UConn and looked in control. They were back and forth with Utah all game after the atrocious start. But when the clock winds down, Gonzaga has always been on the losing end. I'm starting to feel like I am a broken record but the clutch shooting and leadership seems to be something that is a recurring nightmare for this team. Here are two key sequences from two of Gonzaga's losses.

Portland State

1:15		69-69	Austin Daye missed Two Point Layup.
1:15		69-69	Josh Heytvelt Offensive Rebound.
1:11		69-69	Josh Heytvelt missed Two Point Layup.
1:11	Portland State Defensive Rebound.	69-69
0:49	Phil Nelson made Three Point Jumper. Assisted by Jeremiah Dominguez.	72-69

Arizona

1:21	Jeremy Pargo missed Three Point Jumper.	62-62
1:21		62-62	Jordan Hill Defensive Rebound.
1:17	Foul on Josh Heytvelt	62-62
1:17		62-63	Jordan Hill made Free Throw.
1:17		62-64	Jordan Hill made Free Throw.
0:39		62-66	Jordan Hill made Two Point Jumper.

It's not like Demetri Goodson is lining up threes at the end of the game while we all pull our hair out. The guys involved in these two sequences are probably the three most important players on this team and are not getting it done late. These two sequences are also adaquate representations of what drives me absolutely insane about this team. In the Portland State sequence we see our "bigs" Austin Daye and Josh Heytvelt successfully miss two short range layups. This is no surprise as they have shown no real dedication to playing interior basketball. And in the Arizona sequence we see Gonzaga's reliance on the three-point shot by Jeremy Pargo. For God sakes! A three-pointer by Jeremy Pargo in a tie game on the road is the best you can give me? Why did I ever believe this was a top five team? We saw the same thing against Utah when the game was in the balance and Matt Bouldin pulled up for a transition three-pointer. Mark Few needs to do whatever it takes to get through to these guys that they are 35% from three-point land and have much better skills in other areas.

Gonzaga's biggest flaws (bad interior play and three-point shooting) come out down the stretch. This is the sign of an immature team. It's the same deal in football or any other sport. Some quarterbacks can get you from 20-yard-line to 20-yard-line beautifully but when they hit the red zone, they throw picks or settle from field goals. This team is repeatedly freezing up in the clutch. It honestly breaks my heart to have to watch them down the stretch because it is like watching a train wreck. We saw some hints of it at the end of the game against Tennessee, Indiana was no walk in the park, and then it all came tumbling down against Arizona.

How the (expletive) can this be happening to such an experienced team? We should be the team starting fast and finishing tough. The meltdown issues of this year are nothing new to this program and have historic roots to one of the worst days in Gonzaga basketball history (and my life). Gonzaga's current senior "leaders" were there for the worst collapse in Gonzaga history. March 23rd, 2006 against the UCLA Bruins in the Sweet 16. Jeremy Pargo played 25 minutes and Josh Heytvelt committed three fouls as UCLA scored the final 11 points to beat Gonzaga. The Zags had a 17 point lead in the first half. Every year since, it has been the same story. On March 23rd, some sort of mental block went up in the Gonzaga program and I'm not sure we can get over it.

This pattern should have some very severe consequences. Maybe this is why Mark Few has been recruiting from Canada and Germany. Maybe he is trying to get players from out of the country that have no clue about March 23rd, 2006 and Gonzaga's choking ways. Like I said before, I'm not ready to march on McCarthey and demand Mark Few's job but you have to look at the coaching when you struggle like this. Whether they are not drawing up the right plays or are just flat out not getting through to these kids, it has become a serious issue.

I really never thought this would be a huge problem at the start of the year. You can fix free throws, rebounding (which does need fixing), defense, etc but it is going to be hard to change the culture of this team mid-season. All offseason we heard about the comraderie this team had with one another and how close they all were. All I want to see now is change. Change the starting lineup, change the defense we come out in, simplify the offense. Do something to make these kids stop thinking and just play basketball. There is no questioning the talent that is on this team. The upside is huge. But more often than not, upside is never reached because it is never adaquately lead. Now, whether they like it or not, they have a few more opportunities to get their shit together or completely fizzle away.

Poll

What or Who is the main reason for Gonzaga falling off the face of the Earth in December? Sorry, you can only choose one!

Interior Play/Rebounding

46 votes

Player Leadership/Lack of Passion

63 votes

The three-point shot

17 votes

Veteran Players Struggling

26 votes

Coaching

38 votes

190 votes | Poll has closed