Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau on what needs to change for the Bulldogs moving forward after the loss to Washington
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00:00 Hey, everybody, it's Christian Pedersen,
00:01 joined by Dan Dickout.
00:02 Welcome back to another episode
00:03 of the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
00:05 We're ruffling, rummaging, I don't know what ruffling is.
00:07 We're not getting chips out of the mailbag.
00:09 We're rummaging.
00:11 I don't know what I was going for there, apologies.
00:13 But again, as always, we leave it in to prove
00:15 that Dan is the true reason you guys are here,
00:17 and I'm just the bumbling court jester
00:18 that helps set up the softball questions for him.
00:21 On this mailbag edition,
00:22 we deliver fan-submitted questions from you guys
00:25 that are sent in via social media @FanNationZags
00:27 on all the socials,
00:28 or directly to Dan at DanDickout21.
00:30 Dan, the first one, I like this one.
00:32 This was on X.
00:33 I believe this was in regards
00:36 to the University of Washington-Gonzaga game,
00:39 but I'm gonna let you take this
00:41 in whatever direction you want to.
00:43 And the question just says,
00:44 Dan, what the heck was that?
00:45 - A flat performance.
00:48 You know, I think Gonzaga had some okay stretches,
00:51 but they didn't play with the pop, the energy, the vigor
00:54 that they have been playing with recently,
00:57 which is, I don't want to say it's to be expected
01:00 'cause that's not the case,
01:01 but it was surprising simply for the fact
01:03 that it's a quote-unquote rivalry game.
01:05 You know, the game seemed to mean a lot more to U-Dub
01:09 than it did to the Gonzaga players, which is unfortunate.
01:11 You know, I think EK had a couple of nice stretches.
01:14 I think Nolan Hickman played well early,
01:15 didn't play great late.
01:17 Andrew Nembhard, you know, was a little inconsistent again.
01:21 I mean, he's still trying to figure out, you know,
01:25 when to attack for himself, when to attack to get others,
01:27 how to control the pace in the best way
01:32 to provide an opportunity for Gonzaga to win.
01:34 So there's lots of things to learn from
01:37 and take from with the game.
01:38 But all in all, I mean, give U-Dub credit.
01:41 They played well.
01:43 The losses that they had coming into the game
01:46 were against good teams, San Diego State in overtime,
01:49 Colorado State on a neutral site.
01:52 So, you know, they're an older, experienced basketball club
01:56 that's finding their way after so many incomers
02:00 from the transfer portal that, you know,
02:02 there's potential there.
02:03 And they played with a lot of passion.
02:04 They made some big plays, big shots down the stretch.
02:06 Frank Capnong, their big was tremendous.
02:09 And Gonzaga, you know, had some inopportune turnovers,
02:13 some empty possessions where they just didn't make shots.
02:15 I think they missed 12 of their last 13,
02:18 if I'm not mistaken.
02:19 But there also was some hesitancy at times
02:22 about certain guys wanting to take the shot.
02:25 It's things that, you know, many times early in the season,
02:29 when you're in a game like this,
02:31 you want to see someone step up and want to be that guy.
02:35 You know, and I think because this was really Gonzaga's
02:38 first time, I think, this year in that type of setting,
02:41 because it was a true road game, wasn't a neutral site,
02:44 that it was a little bit of different atmosphere.
02:47 But that's a learning experience.
02:48 I think guys are going to learn from it.
02:50 I think they're going to come back better for it.
02:53 I think there are a lot of positives to take away from it.
02:57 And the fact is, as an athlete,
02:58 you got to have a short memory.
02:59 So, you know, watch the film, listen to the coaches critique
03:03 and the breakdown of the film session, get better from it,
03:05 move on and get ready to go for the next one.
03:08 - Again, not that any questions are ever directed towards me,
03:10 but if I had to answer that, what the heck was that?
03:13 I would hopefully, after hearing Dan's answer,
03:15 say that that was a chip on their shoulder now,
03:20 or that was an early season thing that like that loss
03:24 helps motivate some of the younger, truer, fresher,
03:27 newer guys, like you said, to become battle-hardened
03:31 and not take anything for granted
03:34 and not fall into any trap games down the road,
03:37 because the UW thing sticks out as like maybe a necessary
03:41 evil, like a learning type of experience.
03:43 Best I can do at softening the blow there.
03:45 Next question coming in on Facebook
03:47 and reminder to everybody out there,
03:48 if you want your questions answered,
03:50 please submit them to FanNationZags on all the social media.
03:54 Dan, they want to know, do you think the team looks ready
03:56 for the next stretch of games
03:57 because they got UConn and SDSU coming up,
03:59 or do any changes need to be made to the lineup?
04:02 - No, I don't think there's any changes
04:04 that need to be made.
04:05 I don't think there's anything that's coming
04:08 in regards to that.
04:09 I think they will try to get June a few more minutes.
04:12 I would like to see them get Kranjevic a few minutes,
04:15 although he didn't play great against Pine Bluff.
04:20 He had a couple of nice plays,
04:21 but then he had a couple of frustrating ones,
04:23 I'm sure for the staff as they watched the film,
04:25 but they're going to need one of those two guys
04:28 to step up and say, you know what,
04:30 you can count on me for 12 to 15 minutes consistently,
04:34 or longer stretches if somebody gets in foul trouble.
04:37 That's going to be important,
04:39 but they've got a get right game
04:41 with Mississippi Valley State.
04:43 This will probably be released
04:45 after the fact that game is played,
04:48 but they're the worst team in Division I basketball.
04:50 362 in Ken Palm, they're 362 in offense in Ken Palm,
04:55 they're 355 in defense in Ken Palm.
04:58 So it might be a layup line for Gonzaga.
05:02 It's hard to say because we haven't watched the game yet,
05:05 but there's a good chance everybody's going to get right
05:08 in that game leading up to the UConn game.
05:11 - Dan, I'm sorry, but of all of the years
05:15 of us working together and you being this delicate,
05:18 gentle, broadcasty dancer around,
05:22 yeah, they're a rebuilding squad, love their head coach,
05:26 lot of enthusiasm.
05:27 My boys are going to play the worst team
05:30 in college basketball.
05:31 We're going to be out there whooping that ass.
05:33 I love this.
05:33 This is a great transformation, Dan.
05:35 You're giving into the dark side of podcasting.
05:37 Thank you.
05:38 - Well, I mean, it's flat up.
05:41 It's, I mean, you look at the numbers and it is what it is.
05:43 - Oh, you came with receipts.
05:45 - The adjusted metrics, you know,
05:48 they're number 362 by a long mile.
05:51 And I'm not trying to sugar coat it
05:53 because you can't when the numbers
05:55 show you that discrepancy.
05:57 So hopefully that's the get right game
05:59 for not a lot of guys on the roster.
06:01 - Absolutely.
06:02 We hope that's a get right game
06:03 for all of the guys on the roster.
06:05 Maybe we'll have coach few in a mustache
06:07 and a wig sneaking out there,
06:08 trying to be a walk on,
06:10 sneak in for a couple more minutes in his career.
06:12 Remember everybody, Dan is doing a lot of great work
06:15 in that studio, on location.
06:18 Cole Forsman's writing stuff.
06:19 We got photographers.
06:20 There's a ton of Gonzaga Nation content
06:22 coming for every week with us,
06:24 but also every other day of the week
06:26 with everything else that we've got going on.
06:28 Make sure you check out all the cool interviews
06:29 that are in studio,
06:30 the things that Dan is collaborating with
06:32 the Zags collective on.
06:34 There's all sorts of great stuff.
06:35 Dan, is there anything that the fans did not ask
06:37 that we did not get to this week before we sign off?
06:40 - No, I think those were solid questions.
06:43 I mean, you kind of hit it on the head.
06:45 There's lots of good things going with Gonzaga Nation.
06:47 So share the word 'cause, you know,
06:50 there's former players that are joining out of an IN studio
06:54 that a lot of people would love to hear
06:56 about their recollections, their memories,
06:58 their time at Gonzaga, as well as what they're doing now.
07:01 So definitely share the word.
07:03 There's lots of good stuff going on.
07:05 - Absolutely.
07:06 Dan, thank you very much for checking in.
07:07 Thank you everybody for submitting your questions
07:10 for another mailbag edition of the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
07:12 I'm Christian Pedersen saying, we'll see you next time.