Folks, I'm finding it therapeutic to divert my attention away from the Zags specifically to college hoops in general. Where do we fit into the overall picture?

Just went through all the conference standings and I counted 75 teams that could get in, give or take. Obviously we have to finish the year strong to get in. The balance in the NCAA is a double-edged sword: If we do get in and suddenly get hot, who knows. But there are also a lot of teams out there. Look at the Atlantic 10 and Conference USA. How many get in? The Colonial is trouble, especially with the recent heroics of George Mason and VCU. Do the big boys (Big East, ACC, Big12, and Big10) get in if they finish .500 or above in their leagues? Are we better than Kansas State, who is .500 in the Big12? Other teams to worry about are a couple mid-majors who may end up with comparable resumes as ours: Montana, Ohio, Wagner or LI, and Loyola(Md) or Iona, etc. If we keep sputtering, hello to our friends in the Pac10 and Mountain West. Are we better than New Mexico? (copied this from a post I made last night.)

Any thoughts on GU getting in? Obstacles, besides our poor play to us getting in? Is our national popularity and/or respect for our tradition starting to wane?

I'm really interested in what you think about other leagues. I personally think the biggest factor for the selection committee is what they think about the strength of the various leagues. It also affects SOS and RPI. One cannot talk about a team without referencing the league it plays in. For example, is the WCC on the level of the Pac12, or Mountain West? How does the WCC stack up with the Big Sky?- If they get 1 bid, should the WCC get 3? (Wyoming?)

Living East I look at the Atlantic 10. An entire league of traditional basketball programs. We know how tough St Joe's is. One could argue that they should get just one bid and maybe one could say that they should get 4-5 bids. The dominoes fall. Would we want to play Duquesne in Pittsburgh right now? When one is "on-the-bubble", teams all over the country become intertwined. What affects one, may affect all. Did anyone notice that Iona went to Manhattan and beat them by 22 last night? The second place finisher in the MAAC will have a mighty strong resume! Let er' fly! Have fun! Fore!

Watching college hoops across the country this season, I have started using home court advantage as my reference point for everything that is happening. In close match-ups, I would argue that home teams have been overwhelmingly dominant. In fact, some games this year that traditionally have been close finishes have actually resulted in blowouts: UNC at Fla St, GU at St. Mary's, etc. Therefore, I put even more importance on strong road performances. By this standard, I think Cincinnati is playing some of the best basketball in the nation right now: they have beaten Gtown and UConn at their places, with another road test at WVU today.

Following this theme, I think GU's signature win this year is Xavier. (I think they were still in a post-fight funk, but we went over there and got it done.) IMO, that's pretty much it, although if we can avoid road hiccups to the second tier WCC competitors, that will be significant. Obviously the next big date is Feb 2 at BYU. I think we will enter that game tied for first and we will get our 2nd big road win that night. BYU has Virginia Tech away next week before their meeting with St. Mary's next Sat at home. I think BYU will hold serve at home versus SMU, but will be drained win or lose for another critical game with us the following week. St. Mary's has 4 of their next 5 games on the road, including the Feb 9 date with GU. There are a couple trap games in there for them besides BYU and us.

I think the schedule is set up for us, as it has been all year. Obvious pluses to this: best record ever at this point and a serious opportunity to still get the top seed in our tournament. Negatives: are we being challenged to play great basketball?, are we going to peak at the right time?

What do you think about these possible trends? My theory for the reason why is that college hoops gets more and more balanced every year and road teams are not good enough to overcome the home court momentum.

I want to talk about the Gonzaga-St. Mary's rivalry. All aspects of it. I personally don't think we are talking enough about the Thursday confrontation. If sports is life, what is the metaphor for this game? Educate me folks. I live in Md (I'm only a doctor of basketball in Maryland. A couple of you know what I mean.) and I've seen some east coast rivalries up close: UNC-Duke, Georgetown-Syracuse, my own college basketball experience- Washington and Lee vs. Hampton-Sydney. Put this matchup in perspective for me. I think rivalries are great! Heiser and Fox think we have a traditional rivalry with Santa Clara, since the two teams used to travel together. Sorry, that one doesn't get me excited. The impetus for my writing this post was the exchange here regarding Dellavadova's mouthpiece. Are we worried about civility, politeness, fairness toward St. Mary's or do we consider them a lower life form, or something in between?

Please write about anything related to this rivalry: 1) this particular game 2) game strategies and match-ups 3) any history or tradition associated with this game 4) rivalries you've been associated with (fascinating 30 for 30 on ESPN about the Alabama-Auburn football rivalry) 5) How should we be behaving, interacting (golf claps or frothing at the mouth)?

I would argue that this is our biggest game of the year and frankly, following the rivalry theme, our biggest game EVERY YEAR- St. Mary's at their place. Come on folks, get pumped!

I am finding myself dabbling in bracketology. Of course, no matter which teams are chosen, there are always at least a half dozen teams with legitimate cases to be a part of the dance. With our beloved Zags mired in mediocrity most of this year, I have resolved myself that they will make the NCAA tournament by winning the WCC tournament and that's it. Do you folks think we could get multiple bids? Just look at some of the scores from yesterday. Many teams are starting to gather in the middle. The water is getting muddier and muddier. For example, Memphis had an ugly loss. Illinois had been penciled in and they continue to be hugely up and down. St. Mary's got manhandled in the 2nd half. I read CBS Sportsline and they have a bracket that they adjust every couple days. I live in Maryland and the ACC, Patriot League, Atlantic 10, Colonial, and of course the Big East are conferences covered here on the right coast. Here's a question, is the NCAA selection process east coast biased? Jerry Palm has 11 teams from the Big East in. Newsflash- we beat Marquette. Jerry Palm has 3 teams from the Colonial in. George Mason had a nice road win at N. Iowa last night, but N. Iowa is in 4th place in the Missouri Valley. I think Gonzaga should get in over an Old Dominion or a Virginia Commonwealth. I think the argument should be based purely on merit. ( an argument not based on merit is, who wants to see some of these teams in the tournament? Teams with 12 losses. Boston College, Clemson, Marquette, West Virginia, etc, etc.) The ACC is brutal this year. My alma mater UMd has zero quality wins and they are a victory away (today vs. NC St.) from being .500 in the ACC and a serious bubble team. The quality of the NCAA tournament is enhanced by the inclusion of teams from across the country, from all conferences. The PAC10 (and yes, I hate Lorenzo Romar too) is always better than advertised. They prove it every year. The best game of the day yesterday was Wash-Arizona. Compare that game to a middle of the pack Big East slugfest which is almost unwatchable. 

What do you think? 

Zag fans, I want us to take a breath and reassess what the goal(s) of our program is/are. An analogous situation would be to look at an organization's mission statement. Once we have decided what the goals of our basketball program are, let's talk about whether we are going about getting there in the right way. Our goals could be to win the WCC and therefore advance to the NCAA tournament. Maybe a victory or two that may come in the tournament would be icing on the cake. Our goal could be to put a competitive team on the floor and graduate players. In that case, a WCC title, etc could be a bonus. Our goal could be to win a national championship. I believe that Mark Few has veered the direction of the program toward this later goal. I would argue that we're not going about it in the right way. It is in this facet that I would criticize Few as a coach. A transition to national prominence for Gonzaga basketball is brutally difficult as we as fans all know. Again, like a business analogy, we're a small town community hardware store going national. There are wonderful examples of transitions like this and also other nightmare examples. I think the ills of our team all originate with Gonzaga basketball going big-time. I truly believe it can happen, but not using the current formula. Remember, Duke Univ for example barely has a larger student body than Gonzaga. Small schools can excel in college basketball, unlike in football.

1) our early season schedule has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. Our kids get blasted by the schedule. The travel alone would debilitate a normal person. Of course the competition is awesome. This season, the early season had no flow to it. It was just a mish mash of games all over the country. At least, the early season needs to have a sense to it, a strategy to it- leading to a couple of "big" games. I remember our incredible win over NC with a young Josh Heyfelt overpowering Tyler Hansbrough. Or the heartbreaking loss to UConn. Our big win over MichSt. The UConn loss was truly a body blow to that team, but it had more of a natural feel. 

2) I question whether we can truly think about a national championship, while playing in the WCC. We overschedule early because our league is so quirky. We overschedule early to attract recruits. We overschedule early to prep our kids for tournament type opponents. In my opinion, the overscheduling is not working on any of these fronts. (actually what it is doing is showing us early on, is that we are not consistent and/or ready for primetime) Are we getting bigtime recruits? It looks like we're still getting obscure west coast players, Canadian players, and International players. Sorry for my bias folks, but I'm from Wash DC, and what we need are some tougher, city type players. Derek Ravio, Jeremy Pargo. We've got a bunch of pretty boys. You cannot have a nationally renowned program without a tough point guard. We have not been doing well in the tournament either. We enter the WCC schedule tired and beatup and we never regain our top form by tournament time.

I wish there was an alternative to the WCC. I wish a strong western basketball league could be formed. Remember the original Big East was purely a basketball league. For example, Georgetown had Div III football. Villanova had no football at all when the league formed. Syracuse was a national football powerhouse. 

In my mind, the root of all evil is our shift toward national prominence. It is not working on any level, for anyone. Worst of all, I see the players suffering. We're expecting these players to give us what they are not capable of giving us. Calvary, Santangelo. They were tough, gritty warriors. That's the style of play that we all want again. "The Slipper Still Fits" applies to that Gonzaga. Overachievers. We celebrate people pulling together and reaching their highest level of achievement. That's what Gonzaga basketball stands for. 

It is my belief that we get too bogged down with the "chess pieces" and maybe it would be more interesting to talk about the "chess strategy". When I watch a game, I do not ever worry about Coach Few's substitution patterns. Frankly, I think this is one of his strengths as a coach. One of the consequences of his "liberal" use of the bench is that he gets athletic recruits to come to Gonzaga. Many of our recruits are not ready to see action on a college basketball floor, much less for a top 10-15 program. I grew up 10 miles from DeMatha HS. Morgan Wooten's starting five graduated groomed to step up instantly and contribute to Div I programs. I'm weary of reading in the blogs about how much playing time Grant Gibbs is getting. I want Gonzaga to be in the hunt for a national championship. I contend enthusiastically that Mark Few is searching for the right formula to get Gonzaga to that promised land. What do you guys think that formula should be?

I challenge you fellow bloggers to watch the ESPN video, called "Black Magic". Within the story, John McLendon is highlighted. His lineage was as an assistant at Kansas with Naismith. He pioneered a fast break/pressing style of basketball which caught the basketball world by storm. The reason I mention that is that I believe for Gonzaga to "reach the next level", it needs to hone and polish a unique style, which the top competition finds uncomfortable. I would argue that under the circumstances, Mark Few cannot recruit better than he is now. It's spectacular. I would argue that he cannot schedule better than he is now. It's fantastic.

Not being an insider, but just an observer, I think Mark Few is trying to do just that. Offensively, he tries to play at an extremely fast pace, borderline frantic. Sometimes it deviates into helter/skelter. When we lost to UNC last year, we realized, oops, they play faster than us. Ballgame. One thing that is missing is the defense. Do we have the quickness to press? One thing about pressing, it gets people in the game. Arop, Kong, Gibbs. Athletes. What seems more effective in the half court, zone, man, match up zone, mixing them up? What do you guys think? I think that if a mid-major is going to win an NCAA basketball championship, they are going to have to play the game differently. (there's more than one way to skin a cat.)

Ladies and Gentleman- Let’s start talking about an NCAA Championship. Our gripes, our criticism, our enthusiasm can have at its core what the team needs to do to go all the way. A lot of this conversation is just blather if we don’t take this approach. Of course, for the Zags to reach their fullest potential, Dimitri Goodson HAS to be the point guard. Let’s be patient. Unfortunately young kids often need to make mistakes to learn. He is a walking, talking genetic mutation. He’s the fastest player in the NCAA with a ridiculous vertical. Matt Bouldin is our best all-round player and steady at the 1, but his best position is 3. From the 3, Bouldin can help the Zags reach their fullest potential. He can post up, he can look for big shots from the wing, he can penetrate from the wing, and most importantly he can act as a "point forward". (Anyone remember Larry Bird, arguably the greatest PASSER that ever lived.) We are the best we can be with Steven Gray at the 2. Let’s watch him become more consistent and stop asking Mark Few to bench him. Let’s watch Robert Sacre grow as a center. Consider how well he has already done with such limited experience. Maybe we should root for Will Foster contributing more but frankly I think Mark Few is a genius to have gotten this much out of him. How many of us have ever played with a real big man or coached a real big man. They are different breeds, different species. They spend their childhoods as somewhat outcasts. They generally are not good in sports overall and are ridiculed for being unusual, gawky, and clumsy. Suddenly, when they arrive at high school, they are courted by coaches to play basketball. Do they even like basketball? Now, consider Will Foster. Is this him, or is he a caged lion ready to take the NCAA by storm.
I’m not sure what rnplijusn was blogging. What’s with all the Mr. stuff. It was hard to even comprehend. Heck with the polls. We’ve done all we can re: the polls. I don’t even think we should rise in the polls. Should a hometown team of mine, Georgetown fall below Gonzaga, after 5 or 6 Big East losses? We had our chance to rise and we did pretty well! One more thing: the success of this team is for the players and coaches on this team, not for the program. The program will live on because of the integrity of those participating. Let’s watch and share in it with them!