Dan Dickau answers reader questions on the latest episode of the Gonzaga Nation podcast
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00:00 Hey everybody, it's Christian Pedersen joined by Dan Dickow on another Gonzaga Nation podcast.
00:06 Thanks for tuning in on a mailbag edition where we ask Dan, because literally we have
00:11 not had a single question submitted for me other than why is this guy on the show?
00:15 We asked Dan the questions that you guys send in.
00:17 You laughed a little too hard at that one, Dan.
00:20 We asked people the questions that you guys have sent in on social media.
00:23 You can hit us up at Fan Nation Zags on all the social media.
00:27 You can hit Dan up at DanDickow21.
00:29 Dan, I being a San Diego native am really excited about this first question because
00:35 as soon as I heard it brought up, you know, national news, you know, there's some legitimacy
00:40 to this question.
00:41 The person wrote in on Facebook wanting to know, can Gonzaga versus San Diego State become
00:47 the premier West Coast basketball rivalry?
00:50 Wow, good question.
00:55 You know, when you think of rivalries, at least in college basketball, the first one
00:59 that comes to mind is Duke, North Carolina.
01:04 It just is what it is.
01:05 That's the number one rivalry that comes to mind.
01:07 There are lots of other good ones, you know, regionally, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana,
01:13 Purdue.
01:14 You know, you got the Texas schools that kind of, you know, duke it out down there.
01:18 And then you got some great rivalries out of the Big East.
01:22 You can go kind of almost in any direction as far as those rivalries.
01:26 But when you look at the West Coast, I can't think of a truly great rivalry where it's
01:33 like set your DVR, set aside your time, you're watching this game for sure.
01:38 I mean, UCLA, Arizona, I mean, yeah, they've had good games, but that hasn't really created
01:45 that kind of like, hey, I'm dropping everything and watching this game.
01:50 You know, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, those are regional rivalries.
01:53 Those don't move the needle across the area.
01:57 You know, the fact that UCLA and UFC are moving to the Big Ten, I don't think that creates
02:03 the opportunity for USC or excuse me, UCLA and Arizona to keep that going and creating
02:09 a rivalry.
02:10 You know, I'll just stop you in saying if you're trying to say that anybody other than
02:15 USC and UCLA, like that should be the rivalry.
02:18 And if you're having to reach to UCLA with another school, it's not a rivalry.
02:21 Yeah, I mean, that's a good point.
02:23 It should be.
02:24 But you know, USC is more relevant football wise.
02:28 UCLA is more relevant basketball wise, just traditionally.
02:35 This question has legitimate legs.
02:38 It's going to be a home and home.
02:39 So it's two years worth of games.
02:42 But this feels like both of these schools have maintained a decent upward trajectory
02:47 over the last 10 plus years of basketball.
02:50 Maybe Gonzaga has had more tournament prowess is sort of the hipster non power five pick.
02:57 But I don't think that SDSU is all that far behind.
03:00 Certainly last year was a coming out year for them on a really high national stage.
03:03 So what happened?
03:05 Maybe my personal follow up is what has to happen in these two years of a home and home
03:10 for this to become a sustained game, at least if not like they said, a premier rivalry on
03:15 the West Coast?
03:16 Well, for anything to be a premier rivalry, I think both teams have to be traditionally
03:20 good.
03:21 I mean, you kind of alluded to it that Gonzaga has been elite now for some time.
03:26 San Diego State has been really good for some time.
03:30 And we will now see if that final four appearance and title game appearance last year kind of
03:34 elevates them to that kind of next level of prominence.
03:38 You know, I can't say on the West Coast, true basketball people know how good they are,
03:43 but maybe nationally they've still been overlooked.
03:46 A lot of it is due to the style that they play defensively.
03:49 They're unbelievably disciplined and tough and grinded out.
03:53 At times offensively, they can be hard to watch, but they get it done.
03:57 First one to 45 is never a thriller on the postgame highlights.
04:01 Yeah.
04:02 But when you talk about a premier rivalry, it has to be a game that is played over in
04:08 over and over again and have highlight reel type endings.
04:14 You know, Kawhi Leonard and that crew came into Spokane and beat Gonzaga against Elias
04:20 Harris years ago.
04:22 You know, when Gonzaga was ranked really highly.
04:24 Gonzaga played down in San Diego State a few years back.
04:28 Those are really kind of the only matchups that they've had that I can remember quickly
04:31 over the last 10 years or so.
04:34 You know, it's starting with the two year series.
04:37 Obviously both schools and both programs feel it was well worth it.
04:41 And then it extends into a longer term series.
04:43 And then I think at that point, if they're closely contested games, they provide excitement.
04:50 Then I think you can start talking about a rivalry because, you know, at this moment
04:53 in time, I don't think they've played enough consistently to make it a true rivalry.
05:00 That's at least just my thoughts about it.
05:02 Let me put my tinfoil conspiracy hat on for a second and provide also that I think that
05:06 these two schools maybe kind of somehow hold each other's fates in their hands in terms
05:12 of long term conference realignment or health or whatever is going on.
05:17 And if they can help lift each other up into a national prominence of, oh my gosh, like
05:22 you said, it's appointment television.
05:24 It's wow.
05:25 Saturday at 4 p.m.
05:26 Gonzaga and SDSU are teeing off up in Spokane.
05:31 That's going to be the ESPN game that helps elevate both of these two in a way that leads
05:36 to TV dollars.
05:37 So yes, I am.
05:38 I am all for that.
05:39 I think that there's no other options like you kind of listed off all the other schools
05:44 and there's not a second.
05:45 There's no one else coming for the throne right now.
05:46 So yes, I am all in on this becoming an absolute throwdown showdown of a matchup on.
05:54 I'm not against it either.
05:55 It's just going to take a while for it to truly become a rivalry.
05:58 I think it's a great two game series that's coming up.
06:01 It almost I hate to say this, but it almost requires a requires road wins from like I
06:08 feel like Gonzaga has to win at San Diego.
06:10 San Diego State has to win at Gonzaga.
06:13 Like there has to be bad blood.
06:14 There has to be a little like fire in it.
06:16 I'm absolutely with you on that front.
06:18 It either has to be that or it has to be games that go down to the wire and create big time
06:24 finishes like you look at Carolina Duke.
06:27 I mean there are so many even when even when one of those teams has been you know banged
06:33 up with injuries and or bad at times.
06:37 There's iconic moments and iconic shots that you can look back and remember.
06:41 You know Capel hits a three.
06:43 I think for my half court Austin Rivers hits a big three.
06:46 Then you look at the UNC side with Stackhouse and that big baseline dunk against Duke.
06:52 I mean there's so many things that you memory wise can remember about those two.
06:57 So you gotta have iconic shots and moments within tight games.
07:00 At least we're starting though.
07:02 At least we're getting there with the games being played themselves.
07:05 Next question that we had and this one comes in.
07:07 I think I'm still allowed to say this one comes in from Twitter.
07:10 It might come in from X.
07:11 I'm a little confused on the note.
07:12 I can't get you that one is going to take me a while to get used to.
07:15 I'm going to wait till my boss tells me exactly how to introduce it on these, but they want
07:20 to know who is a Gonzaga alumni or player that you have not yet had on the show that
07:25 you would love to interview.
07:26 Wow.
07:27 Yeah, I mean I've been able to connect with, reconnect with a lot of teammates, connect
07:35 with other guys that you know either came slightly before me or slightly after me and
07:39 have conversations and will continue to do that as we get you know closer into the season
07:44 and into the season.
07:45 But I think there's two guys really, actually three that I would love to have on the podcast
07:52 just to kind of you know allow people to hear a little bit more of their stories and or
07:59 me get to know a little bit more about them.
08:01 The first would be you know, Chad Holmgren.
08:04 Obviously that's an easy one for a lot of people to say they'd love to have him on a
08:06 podcast.
08:08 You know he's got a high profile where you know he was just on I think Kevin Garnett's
08:12 podcast.
08:13 So you know he's going to be a tougher one to get to and the other reason he's going
08:16 to be tougher to get to is simply for the fact that his one year at Gonzaga you know
08:21 they were still kind of limiting the availability to get into practice due to all COVID and
08:27 all these different things.
08:28 So I wasn't around practice much watching in depth that year.
08:33 I mean I was still there but not as much as normal years.
08:36 That year and then the year before with Jalen Suggs I mean practice availability was really
08:41 limited so I'd like to connect with him and hear more of his thoughts on the game and
08:45 his time at Gonzaga.
08:48 Another one would have been a teammate of mine Rony Turjoff and if anybody that follows
08:52 Gonzaga knows about Rony they know about his infectious personality, his energy and excitement
08:59 for life but you know he's a hard guy to pin down as far as where he's going to be two
09:06 hours from now let alone two days or two weeks from now.
09:10 You know there was a we connected a year or two back a year or so back on text message
09:18 you know say hey I'd love to have you on my podcast at some point kind of talk about everything.
09:22 He goes I'd love to I'm just too busy right now because he's traveling the world.
09:27 He's got one of the most unique jobs you know as far as with the NBA.
09:33 He's an ambassador for the game in the NBA.
09:37 At least he did I think he still is in that role where he's literally traveling weekly
09:42 being a part of this.
09:43 Sounds like a great opportunity for you to say to our bosses hey we need a little budget
09:48 we're going to Greece to get an interview with Rony and we might do it on a beach in
09:52 Mykonos so yes let's hunt him down.
09:56 And then the third one would be a guy who never got eligible at Gonzaga but I think
10:03 two things here I think he was a he would have been a difference maker for the teams
10:08 that I was on allowing us to go further into the NCAA tournament.
10:13 But on the other hand had he not ever been had he been able to play for Gonzaga since
10:19 the NCAA never ruled him eligible Rony Turjanov probably would not have come to Gonzaga because
10:23 essentially that was his roster spot and that would have been Mario Kassun 7'1 unbelievably
10:29 talented.
10:30 He was drafted into the NBA and played a couple of years in the NBA after basically just hanging
10:36 out in Spokane and waiting for the NCAA to deem him eligible.
10:42 They never did so he was just in Spokane working out with us.
10:46 That shows you how talented he is that he never even played a game of college and he
10:50 was still drafted.
10:51 I feel like that's a fun trivia answer somewhere that like the who was the Gonzaga player that
10:57 wasn't a player that still made it to the NBA.
10:59 I'll take that for 500 please.
11:01 Last question we got in this one.
11:03 If you guys want to check out we did another podcast this week talking a lot in depth about
11:07 the new partnership with the Zags collective but go if you wanted to know do you think
11:12 Gonzaga is doing enough in the NIL space?
11:15 What more could they do?
11:17 Kind of a vague question but also kind of a vague space right now we're starting to
11:21 get a little bit more idea of what this exists as in terms of concrete boundary rules and
11:26 laws and how it can be applied but it seems also like it's the right time to ask this
11:30 question given the new Zag collective partnership that's going on.
11:34 Yeah that's that is a tough question to answer because there are always going to people that
11:39 are going to say I want you to do more.
11:41 Why aren't we doing more?
11:43 Well it's still a very new space and figuring out and learning what works what doesn't work
11:49 what's allowed what's not allowed what players may be interested in you know are a few things
11:55 to consider and think about then some of the other things you know are things that can
12:01 negatively impact Gonzaga and the fact that you know Gonzaga is a smaller school I mean
12:07 if you want to just kind of split it down the middle there's 6,000 students.
12:10 Yeah if you taught law school you taught grad school sometimes it's close to 7,500 if it's
12:15 just undergrads you're talking more 4,500 but if you just say 6,000 you know you're
12:21 talking about alumni base of a school that's essentially 6,000 maybe going up against collectives
12:27 for universities that are maybe 50,000 enrollment and so if you multiply that out by 25-30 years
12:34 in regards to you know alumni that have the ability to back NIL initiatives and programs
12:43 you know you are at a little bit of a disadvantage.
12:46 The average Gonzaga alum would need to be like five times the average income for a USC
12:52 or UNC alum or something like that.
12:55 And so that's you know that's a numbers game that you're having to overcome but the thing
12:59 is is this Zags collective is doing an unbelievable job of getting ahead of it and I think they're
13:05 going to stay ahead of it because they're being very proactive they're being creative
13:11 you know and then the Gonzaga alumni and the Gonzaga fan base and the faithful and the
13:15 businesses in Spokane have also stepped up to the plate and they continuing to step up
13:22 in this new wave of college athletics and how it works.
13:25 So yes there are disadvantages but I also think there are advantages because Gonzaga
13:30 has built such a name brand recognition not just in Spokane but on the west coast and
13:36 people want to support you know a program that is become elite and they've become elite
13:43 in doing it the right way.
13:45 I would also be long-term curious you know I you mentioned a program we've always talked
13:52 about like with this conference realignment and some of this stuff going on that Gonzaga
13:57 not having a football program can be a bit of a hindrance in terms of them making that
14:01 TV money and everything but I will be curious long-term if Gonzaga not having a football
14:05 program maybe helps level that playing field because some of those bigger schools that
14:10 you mentioned probably are splitting donors.
14:13 There's probably some people being like hey I'd rather cut a check to the the LSU football
14:17 program than instead of the LSU basketball program because I like football when Gonzaga
14:22 only has basketball and that's the brand and that's the only focus and that that's not
14:25 just the tip of the pyramid that's the whole thing.
14:29 I'd be curious if long-term that maybe helps boost back up the numbers a little bit because
14:33 that's where people want to go with all their money because there is nowhere else really
14:36 at Gonzaga with those donations.
14:39 You're exactly right that's a really good point.
14:41 You know sometimes having a another sport helps you as far as you know recognition or
14:47 name awareness but I think in this case the fact that there isn't a roster of you know
14:55 say 75 to 100 football players that would essentially be you know dipping their toes
15:00 in the same pool of NIL money that could negatively hurt Gonzaga in this instance.
15:08 Because there's no football I think it helps Gonzaga basketball players in this instance.
15:13 So you're exactly right it's a good point to be made I think that's something that obviously
15:17 is very important in the realm of Gonzaga and NIL.
15:22 Yeah I don't this will I'll say like maybe long snappers don't deserve to catch a stray
15:27 here but yeah you don't need the Gonzaga long snapper taking 500 bucks away from a from
15:33 a you know a Kaden Perry or something like that in terms of appearance fees.
15:38 I'll be curious to see you know it's got like you say with some of this stuff it's going
15:42 to take a while for it to all flesh out but I will be curious to see in a couple of years
15:46 when they start getting true legalized aggregate numbers where Gonzaga maybe actually ranks
15:53 like like on a per capita type balanced out basis because I would hope that especially
15:59 with stuff like this Zags collective partnership that we're launching that the people can be
16:04 there to support Gonzaga because the enthusiasm is there in the regular season.
16:07 The you know the kennel is huge those kids go on to become adults like they're everywhere
16:12 so I am hoping that the fans come check it all out and you guys can all check out all
16:17 the great content that we're going to be doing with the Zags collective throughout the whole
16:20 year there's going to be some huge exclusives dropping on the sooner rather than later but
16:25 as well as throughout the entire year.
16:27 So make sure you follow us at Gonzaga Nation wherever you get your podcasts so that you
16:31 never miss anything about that and you can also go read the articles you can follow us
16:35 at Fan Nation Zags on all the social media until we meet again Dan we'll talk to you