Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau previews Gonzaga's big WCC battle at home vs. San Francisco and what the Bulldogs' NET Ranking means moving forward
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00:00 What's happening, everybody?
00:01 We welcome you back to another episode of the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
00:04 Christian Pedersen joined by Dan Dickow.
00:06 Dan, this is starting to become a little bit of a highs and lows roller coastery season.
00:13 Uh, you have long said though, that this is not a panic season.
00:16 So I'm going to try and temper my, um, my, my, my ping ponging around that I do
00:23 sometimes emotionally with you on these episodes, and I'm just going to ask you
00:25 kind of where are we at, what's going on?
00:28 It feels like we are close to, if not, I think, I believe we have played everybody
00:31 once, yes, in WCC play.
00:33 Not quite.
00:35 We're getting there.
00:35 We got five games in.
00:36 So let's real quick.
00:37 We got St.
00:38 Mary's, San Francisco, LMU, San Diego, and Pacific left.
00:44 So actually we've, uh, because we've played Pepperdine and San Diego twice
00:48 already, that's why that's what seems so weird.
00:50 They kind of front loaded with two of the, uh, teams towards the bottom of, uh, of
00:54 the standings.
00:55 Okay.
00:55 Well, so we're still, we're solidly into the season.
00:58 We have a pretty good sample size where this is no longer wait and see on this
01:02 guy or what's going to happen with this line.
01:05 Like we kind of know that we are who we thought they are type vibes of this
01:09 season.
01:09 Um, that being said, give us kind of the here and now of like, you know, if you
01:15 want to talk literally about what's going on the upcoming week from us recording
01:19 this game with some of the bigger games coming up, or if you want to just talk
01:22 more, uh, general state of the union for Gonzaga basketball at this point in the
01:25 season, the floor is yours.
01:27 Where do you want to get started in all this?
01:28 Well, I think first off it was a good, uh, road trip for Gonzaga.
01:34 You know, the, the first true road game in league against Santa Clara, they just
01:39 didn't have the pop, the energy that they needed.
01:42 Um, and honestly, it kind of looked that way a little bit, uh, in the first half
01:47 against Pepperdine, um, you know, I, I think you could do have to give Pepperdine
01:51 some credit.
01:52 I mean, they played well in that first half.
01:53 They shot it around 50% from the field in the first half.
01:56 Uh, Gonzaga missed some shots they should have made, uh, which they usually make in
02:01 that first half.
02:02 And so that was the reason they hung in tight, but you know, those last 60 minutes,
02:06 I thought for Gonzaga on the road were good.
02:08 Um, Pepperdine in that second half, Gonzaga did a really good job of locking
02:13 down and taking care of business.
02:14 Uh, when you look at it, I mean, three guys in double figures that night led by, uh,
02:20 EK with 24, Hickman, I thought had a nice bounce back with 19 points, Watson at 16.
02:26 Uh, and then you like the, the, the pace that Nemhart played with, with, with zero
02:31 turnovers, eight assists.
02:32 Um, so that was really good.
02:34 Um, but now that the test comes being able to do it again on the road and Gonzaga got
02:41 off to an unbelievable start at USD.
02:43 I think they had a 30 to two run, if I'm not mistaken, kind of midway through that
02:49 first half, that really just kind of was the separator up 54, 27 at the half ended up
02:55 winning one Oh five 63, six guys were in double figures.
02:58 I mean, that's ridiculous.
03:00 Six guys were in double figures for Gonzaga that night.
03:02 Uh, you know, Graham EK was the only starter in single digits was six points, but he
03:09 only played 17 minutes.
03:10 And a lot of that is because Brayden Huff was spectacular.
03:14 I mean, 26 points in, in 20 minutes, 12 of 17 from the field.
03:18 Uh, kind of had his way with, with any of the, the young bigs on San Diego with what
03:23 he wanted to do.
03:24 Um, there were three double doubles, um, from Gonzaga in that game.
03:29 I don't know if I ever remember a game.
03:31 Gonzaga's had three guys and that have had double doubles.
03:34 Ben Gregg at 15 and 11.
03:35 Um, I Anton Watson, 12 points, 10 rebounds, and then Andrew Nemhart, 12 points, 12
03:43 assists.
03:43 And again, was zero turnover.
03:45 So on the weekend, Ryan Nemhart, 20 assists to zero turnovers.
03:49 That's pretty darn good.
03:50 I thought he, he looked much more in control.
03:52 He looked much more decisive, uh, much more in tune with, with what needed to be done
03:58 possession by possession.
03:59 Um, but you know, again, I think it's, it's showing steps of growth, uh, for him.
04:06 It's showing signs of growth for the team.
04:08 Uh, those last 60 minutes in, in Southern California.
04:12 Now things don't get any easier and we'll talk about it.
04:15 I want to, you know, see what questions you have in regards to this upcoming game
04:19 or, or the league in general, but, uh, San Francisco is good.
04:22 They come, uh, come to Spokane on Thursday.
04:24 Uh, and then Gonzaga goes back out on the road at Pacific on Saturday.
04:29 But, um, you know, the one disappointing loss to, to Santa Clara.
04:34 Yeah, it hurts.
04:35 But when you look at everything, it's not the end of the world.
04:37 Cause I think, I still think it's going to be a two dog race.
04:40 Gonzaga, St.
04:41 Mary's, um, St.
04:42 Mary's looks good right now, but, um.
04:45 You know, Gonzaga, they keep handling business, improving, uh, with some of the
04:50 things they showed improvement in this past weekend.
04:52 Uh, I think there's going to be a lot less concern from Gonzaga fans as there
04:57 has been the last 10 days or so.
04:58 Uh, lots of impact there.
05:01 I would agree wholeheartedly though, that your analysis of a 30 to two run being a
05:06 separator is pretty small.
05:08 I get that.
05:08 Else the, that you have ever said about basketball, uh, we'll put that, etch that
05:12 in stone that a 30 to two run is a separator.
05:14 Yeah.
05:15 So to me, the things that I'm taking away from what I'm hearing is the loss was
05:19 hard, but the fact that it was at the beginning of a stretch of road games,
05:23 that then Gonzaga went on to win the other two and win decisively shows in a
05:27 very short turnaround time.
05:29 Like that growth and that mentality that you were talking about, cause they're
05:33 going to have to win the WCC tournament, which is going to be technically a
05:35 neutral site, but it's not going to be in Spokane.
05:37 And you would assume that if this team goes anywhere in the postseason
05:40 tournament, it's probably going to be on the road, uh, you know, environment wise.
05:45 So I'm hearing.
05:47 Maybe it was a little bit of bad to help put some context on
05:51 the good and let's not panic.
05:52 So, uh, moving forward though, USF is literally the team directly
05:56 above Gonzaga in the WCC standings.
05:59 So this opportunity that they have before them for the next game is a chance to,
06:03 you know, inch themselves up one spot.
06:05 You have said USF long time.
06:07 Now they are, uh, champions of the transfer portal and that coach
06:12 girl, listen, there has built like a pretty solid squad.
06:14 Give the people what they need to know.
06:17 Cause this USF team is also going to be one of the last teams that they're
06:19 going to come around and see again in the season.
06:21 So what, what is the here and now of this next game in the immediate future?
06:24 Yeah, I just had them actually Saturday in their game against St.
06:28 Mary's with some of my bar broadcast responsibilities and, um, St.
06:32 Mary's was dominant at the start.
06:34 And so USF was playing catch up the rest of the way and they couldn't
06:38 quite close that gap, but they're a good team.
06:40 Uh, yes, they've been active in the transfer portal.
06:43 Jonathan Mobo, uh, is their leading scorer, leading rebounder.
06:46 He averages a double double, like right around 15 and a half points,
06:49 10 and a half rebounds a game.
06:51 Um, and so he's been tremendous for them.
06:54 I think he's top 10 in the country in double doubles.
06:57 Uh, he had five in a row going into the game against, uh, St.
07:01 Mary's where, uh, I think he had 13 points and eight rebounds.
07:04 So he didn't get his double double, but he is really good.
07:06 They play a five out offense a lot of times because he plays their five,
07:11 but he can handle the ball.
07:12 He can make decisions.
07:13 Um, when they do throw the ball in the post, uh, they do a lot of split action.
07:18 So, uh, two players come together.
07:20 One screens is either come off it with a curl or a straight cut, maybe a back cut
07:23 and then the other guy pops to space.
07:25 Um, so they're a really tough team to prepare for because they'll run, uh,
07:29 different actions as opposed to maybe complete sets.
07:33 And so, um, that, what that means is Gonzaga has got to be really good in
07:38 their base defense and their understanding of how to guard, um, concepts as opposed
07:42 to in particular sets.
07:43 Uh, they've got a couple guards who are, who are talented Malik Thomas, USC
07:50 transfer, uh, scored it really well this year.
07:53 Mike Shroff jams, uh, transfer from Dayton.
07:56 Very versatile six, seven handles a lot of the point guard duties.
08:01 And then they've got a freshman who's aggressive to score off
08:03 the bench, uh, in Ryan Beasley.
08:05 So, um, it's going to be a, it's going to be another challenge.
08:08 Um, you gotta take care of things defensively.
08:11 Don't give them back cuts.
08:13 Don't give them easy looks by, by communicating well, um, understanding
08:17 your base principles defensively, and then making them shoot with a handout.
08:20 Um, but on the defensive floor, San Francisco likes to pressure.
08:24 Uh, so Gonzaga, they've done a better job taking care of the ball as of late, uh,
08:28 as evidenced by Nembhardt 20 assists, zero turnovers in this last road trip.
08:32 Um, so, uh, one of the things is you're going to see is, um, if they can get
08:37 stops, get out, push and transition, um, you know, that's going to absolutely be
08:41 a benefit and then in the half court, uh, If they can get mobile and foul trouble,
08:46 which St.
08:46 Mary's did early, uh, that really limits the depth for San Francisco at the five.
08:51 They will play a lot of small ball after that because, uh, they, they really don't,
08:55 they they've got some size Baltimore, Markovetsky seven, two, but, uh, it's
09:00 not much of a scoring threat that you can't play in a game with pace
09:04 like Gonzaga typically plays.
09:06 So, uh, I think that's something else to keep an eye out and is, uh, you know,
09:09 can Gonzaga establish the interior, maybe put some foul pressure on mobile.
09:13 I want everyone to run the tape back there in the last two minutes, Dan has
09:17 done more confident and concise and precise name pronunciations of and
09:23 Slavic and Eastern European than he has ever done at any point.
09:26 And I mean, I get that you had the broadcast, you had a parent, but still
09:29 Dan, a couple of days later, you pull those out.
09:30 Absolutely.
09:31 Perfectly.
09:32 So, okay.
09:33 It's, uh, it's the start of the clock and Gonzaga has got a big one about,
09:38 uh, you know, about every game now, but this next WSF is big looking
09:43 with WCC though, as a whole, are we even at a point where this is going to be
09:48 a two bid to the tournament conference?
09:51 Is this just going to be one, like, it's just the tournament champion going,
09:54 what do you see WCC strength wise and post season wise as the opportunities?
09:59 Well, as it stands now, I mean, now you're starting to get a lot of the
10:03 comments or in about, Hey, the bubble team, first team in last team out
10:09 first for all that kind of stuff.
10:11 Uh, and so you start really kind of seeing it, paying attention to it.
10:14 Um, Joe Lennarty with ESPN is one of the guys who's been around the longest.
10:18 He has Gonzaga as one of the first four out.
10:20 Um, and you gotta remember the net has become important over
10:24 the last four years or so.
10:26 Um, but it's not the be all end all it's, uh, maybe the most important
10:31 metric they use, but they still look at Ken Palm, they still look at,
10:33 uh, you know, a number of different things.
10:36 Um, but if you look at the, the, the net and I'm pulling, I've
10:40 got it pulled up right here.
10:42 Um, the net for the WCC looks like this as of this morning, January 22nd.
10:49 St.
10:50 Mary's is at 22.
10:51 Gonzaga is at 30, San Francisco is at 57.
10:56 And then there's a huge drop to Santa Clara at one 13 and a big drop again to LMU.
11:02 And the reason that's important, uh, is because the selection committee
11:07 looks at quad one and quad two wins as being very important.
11:10 And a quad one win is if you're a home.
11:13 At home and you beat a one versus 30 ranked team.
11:18 So right now, Gonzaga at home, St.
11:20 Mary's comes to the building.
11:21 That would be a quad one win if they were to get it.
11:23 Gonzaga doesn't have any quad one wins at this time.
11:25 So that would be important.
11:26 If it's a neutral court, one through 50, that would be quad one.
11:30 Gonzaga is only neutral for an opportunity the rest of the years against
11:33 Kentucky, who's clearly, um, you know, going to be a quad one game.
11:37 Uh, there I think eight or nine in the net, if I remember right there,
11:42 potential final four team.
11:43 I mean, they look good right now.
11:44 And then another quad one opportunity would be a one through
11:48 75 net team on the road.
11:50 So Gonzaga would have a road.
11:52 Quad one opportunity at San Francisco and at St.
11:57 Mary's that Santa Clara loss.
12:01 Falls into the quad two category.
12:04 So you got to hope that at least that St.
12:07 Santa Clara team does not drop below 135 in the net, because
12:11 then it becomes a quad three loss.
12:12 And those are really important to stay away from.
12:14 So there's really not a lot of opportunities for Gonzaga left to really
12:20 kind of bolster their quad one and quad two opportunities, because I don't think,
12:24 um, you know, if Santa Clara were maybe to knock off either San
12:28 Francisco or St.
12:29 Mary's, they're going to move in the net some, but they're not going
12:31 to move up an incredible amount.
12:33 So what you got to hope is that Santa Clara beats everybody below them in the
12:37 net, um, and then Gonzaga takes care of business as well.
12:41 So at this moment in time, if Gonzaga were 30 in the net, I think they're in.
12:47 But record wise, you're going to get some pushback.
12:51 I'm sure when the selection committee starts kind of, uh, you know, hashing
12:55 it out in the room on Sunday, but, um, you know, at this point, if they were
13:00 30 in the net at the end of the year and didn't make the tournament, I believe
13:03 that would be the highest ranked net team ever to not make the tournament.
13:07 So, um, things still look good.
13:08 Are you saying that they are the second team in from the WCC or 30 is the
13:13 context that they also win the tournament and get the automatic bid?
13:16 Well, and that's, I kind of was avoiding your question to a certain extent
13:22 because I, that's why I asked the anticipation or the expectation that
13:26 Gonzaga wins the league or excuse me, wins the automatic bid through the
13:30 tournament, but if it's not, but if they don't, and they're sitting at a 30 in
13:34 the net, right.
13:35 And for them to stay 30 at the net, you would, I would imagine they would
13:39 have beat San Francisco both times.
13:42 I would imagine they would beat Santa Clara, uh, one, if not both of those
13:46 times, if they don't, and that would be a lot, they would be more in the 45
13:50 range, I would imagine, but if they're at the 30 in the net at the end of the
13:54 year and they don't make the tournament.
13:56 As a, uh, you know, at large bid, that would be a shock to me if they were
14:03 that high in the net and didn't make it.
14:05 I think that that's a fair enough answer that I don't need to press any further.
14:08 I'm with you that we should be operating under the premise that they win, but
14:12 this is reality check season.
14:13 This seems to be the year that like things are a little bit more human.
14:17 Do you have any in insight inclination idea as to, you know, what is coach few
14:24 doing at this point in terms of like messaging to the player?
14:29 And I'm not, I know that you're not like there to hear exactly what he's saying,
14:32 but you've been around him long enough to know how he handled, like, is he the
14:35 kind of guy that's riding this emotional wave and it's now turning into like,
14:39 he's going to light a little bit more fire under these guys, or is, is this a
14:43 year where he's treating this group with a little compassion so that it can grow?
14:45 Can you give any insight as to what coach few is doing in a season?
14:49 No, I mean, you know, the biggest thing with coach few is, is it always been.
14:52 Handle your business day to day.
14:54 And then the culmination of everything is going to take care of itself
14:57 and you'll be happy with it, you know?
14:58 So, um, don't let the highs be too high.
15:02 Don't let the lows be too low, be consistent with your approach, your
15:05 effort, your energy, um, and the production should fall.
15:09 So, uh, there, there's no pause, but, or panic button that's being
15:12 pushed, uh, at the practice facility.
15:15 There's, there's nothing like that.
15:16 I think if you look at, um, you know, everything big picture wise, there
15:22 have been a couple of small changes, you know, Ben Craig inserted in the
15:25 starting lineup, so you're going big now.
15:27 And, and I like that simply for the fact that now you have one guard coming
15:31 off the bench in your rotation and one more, more of one true big coming off.
15:36 Uh, the bench in your rotation is, is your first seven guys.
15:39 So Stromer coming off the bench, Huff coming off the bench.
15:42 Uh, I think that's good.
15:44 Um, you know, I do think, you know, Fans read in a little bit too
15:48 much to who starts, who doesn't start.
15:50 Um, but Ben, Ben, Greg's been great.
15:52 I thought he's, he played really well in the starting role the last
15:55 two games since it's been changed.
15:56 It is a largely symbolic gesture of who starts and who doesn't start.
16:01 Because if you start, then you come off the court six minutes in like that other
16:05 person is still contributing pretty early on in the game.
16:07 So I'm with you.
16:07 Okay.
16:08 So we've got the, we've got the short term of the USF game.
16:12 We've got the longterm of the net game.
16:15 Uh, what else have we missed this week?
16:17 What is maybe some other games in the WCC that need people need to scoreboard
16:21 watch for anything that we just didn't get to?
16:24 Well, I mean, I think the big game of the week is going to be the game on
16:30 Thursday where San Francisco visits Spokane.
16:33 Um, you know, that would be if Gonzaga wins, that's a two game loss for
16:38 St. Mary or San Francisco.
16:39 Sorry.
16:40 Then they'd really be trying to play catch up, uh, the rest of the way out,
16:44 you know, St. Mary's, um, you know, you don't want to just expect wins, but they
16:50 play at home against Pacific as well as LMU.
16:54 So you would imagine those are two wins.
16:57 Uh, LMU has shocked people before, you know, you look at last year, LMU beat
17:01 St. Mary's, they beat Gonzaga and they beat, uh, BYU last year.
17:05 So, um, that's something to keep an eye on and know that, uh, they are a capable
17:10 team, they've got a good roster that could do it.
17:12 They've just battled some injuries throughout the rest, uh, throughout this
17:15 season, which hasn't allowed them to play to their potential.
17:17 Um, you know, uh, Santa Clara only has one game this week.
17:21 It's against Pepperdine.
17:22 So I would imagine since that's at home, you chalk that up to, to a
17:27 win on, on the Santa Clara side.
17:29 So really, I don't think there's going to be much movement at the top of the
17:33 league, other than the San Francisco Dons and Gonzaga, they're both sitting at four
17:38 or one.
17:38 So on Thursday, whoever wins, uh, is now is in the driver's seat against
17:43 that other program for third place.
17:45 But, um, you know, there's, there's no truly exciting game, uh, on, on the
17:51 schedule other than that Thursday game when Gonzaga hosts USF.
17:55 Or given the, the broadcaster curse is a real thing.
17:58 Congrats to LMU on a massive week.
18:00 Uh, one of those two results is about to happen.
18:02 Uh, but Hey, that's why we're here, uh, to give people chalkboard material.
18:07 So, okay.
18:08 We are going to focus on that USF game.
18:10 There's tons of great coverage that will be coming before, during and after the
18:14 game, all over the, uh, the domain.
18:17 So make sure you follow, uh, at fan nation zags on all the social media.
18:20 You can check us out on the website.
18:22 You can follow Dan on social.
18:23 There's a ton of great podcasts, Dan, anything on that front that people
18:27 need to know, uh, coming out this week, talking zags is always fun
18:30 with you and Adam Morrison.
18:31 You have coaches, you have players, you have people constantly coming
18:34 through this kick-ass studio and I can't even get a hat.
18:37 Um, but yeah, what do we got coming up this week on the podcast?
18:40 Uh, Adam and I are back in studio.
18:42 We're actually recording in about 20 minutes here on, on Monday morning.
18:45 So, uh, Corey Violet, um, from the early two thousands will be our guest.
18:50 Um, he was part of four NCAA tournament teams.
18:54 Uh, he was a former teammate of mine, played professionally for a number of
18:57 years in Europe, as well as the G league.
19:00 Um, and he's got, you know, a really good discerning eye for bigs
19:07 and what can make them successful.
19:09 Uh, so it's going to be interesting.
19:11 We'll talk to, talk to him and, uh, that should be released later this week.
19:14 All right.
19:15 Love it, Dan.
19:15 Thank you guys for checking in, tuning in, watching in, however you consume this.
19:20 We hope that we see you next week for some more good news.
19:22 Talk to you later, Dan.
19:23 All right.
19:24 Take care.