Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau and Gonzaga Nation reporter Cole Forsman break down the upcoming rivalry game between Gonzaga and Saint Mary's.
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00:00 Gonzaga Nation, one of your hosts for many of the shows that we produce.
00:05 Dan Dick out here alongside our journalist who continues to pump out a ton of great content
00:12 on a daily basis, Cole Forsman.
00:15 He was at the game against Loyola Marymount.
00:18 He's got the inside scoop of a lot of things.
00:20 Got a great and unique look at both the Gonzaga Bulldogs as well as the league this year.
00:27 He's covering it in depth.
00:29 But I also got to mention he's a little bit of a viral sensation these days after shooting
00:35 and tweeting out, well I guess you can't call it tweeting anymore, it's X-ing out a video
00:40 of Nolan Hickman dancing in front of the kennel in their previous home game.
00:45 So sorry for the long intro, but it's well worth it, Cole.
00:48 Thanks for joining.
00:49 Yeah, Dan.
00:50 Thanks for having me.
00:51 Finally, months of just hearing your terrible takes on the MJ and LeBron comparison over
00:59 and over.
01:00 I'm here to finally settle the GOAT conversation once and for all.
01:03 Oh, so that means you must fall in the wrong category on that.
01:08 Okay, well we'll save that for another time.
01:11 I know you love to come ready with numbers, but no, it's been great hearing you also break
01:16 down Gonzaga basketball as a former GU player, NBA player, and of course now a well-respected
01:24 broadcaster on a few networks.
01:27 Even though it somewhat feels like you've been ghosting your Root Sports buddies, Heister
01:32 and Richard Fox.
01:35 What is that?
01:36 Like, where are you, Dan?
01:38 What hold does CBS Sports have on you right now?
01:41 Yeah, I get that a lot from people these days because my right of first dates goes to CBS,
01:48 and so that's why I've missed a number of Gonzaga games over the last few years.
01:52 As I've gotten more games and assignments, that means I've had more conflicts and I've
01:56 missed more games.
01:58 But Greg and Richard know that I still love them.
02:01 I've got, I think, two more games I'll be on the call with them for sure this year.
02:05 We're still waiting on the word if we're going to be calling the game at Portland February
02:10 22nd.
02:11 So, still a couple more for us to have some hot takes and some people to think that we
02:16 don't like each other, but we truly enjoy working alongside each other.
02:19 I'm actually in the Bay Area the next two days calling a game at St. Mary's with Santa
02:25 Clara tonight and then tomorrow USD at San Francisco before calling the big-time matchup
02:32 for Westwood One Radio.
02:33 I'll be on the national radio call, St. Mary's at Gonzaga.
02:36 So, busy times, but I enjoy it and it gives me a different and unique perspective to talk
02:42 about many of the teams throughout the West Coast Conference because I have access to
02:46 shoot-arounds and practices.
02:48 I'm talking to the coaches all the time.
02:50 So it's a chance for me to really learn the league inside and out.
02:56 I'll tell you what, the league has not performed in the non-conference the way that everybody
03:02 hoped, but the teams that you thought were going to be battling out for that top tier
03:09 are absolutely proving to be very good teams and that's being St. Mary's, Gonzaga, San
03:14 Francisco and Santa Clara.
03:16 Yeah, for sure.
03:18 You've seen them pick it up, especially St. Mary's, who you have tonight, of course, on
03:23 the call, but a big one for Gonzaga.
03:26 Yeah, we missed yesterday.
03:28 We missed probably one of the better Gonzaga basketball games of the season, if I'm going
03:33 to quote Mark Few, said it was one of the better games of the year they've had against
03:38 LMU, the 92-58 win.
03:41 So a lot of momentum building off that.
03:44 I know you somewhat followed the game.
03:46 I was curious what your thoughts were on that game after what was somewhat of an interesting
03:53 win over Pacific, I guess you can say.
03:56 Yeah, I think to put the Pacific game in full context, Gonzaga has never played well down
04:03 in Stockton.
04:04 It's a weird setting.
04:08 There's a weird kind of vibe in that gym and in that city, to be honest with you.
04:13 They didn't sell the game out, which is kind of a shock nowadays for Gonzaga to come into
04:20 town and it's not a sellout.
04:23 Gonzaga has never played well there, as I've mentioned, and they pose a lot of problems.
04:28 One of the problems is you look at their numbers and their analytics, and it's just human nature
04:32 to kind of overlook that game and think, "Oh, we're going to walk in and win."
04:35 And then next thing you know, you're on your heels and Pacific's hitting shots at the end
04:41 of the first half, and I think they were up one going into the second half.
04:45 So Gonzaga's got to kind of regroup at half and finish the game off.
04:50 But I think what you saw was a tremendous response from Gonzaga in that LMU game is
04:56 because any player that's been through a tough game where you feel you should win by 20 or
05:02 the expectations are you win by 20, but you only win by 7 or 8, 9, whatever it was, Pacific,
05:08 even though it's on the road, that's a tough win.
05:11 But what you get out of it is learning how to then prepare again quickly, because the
05:17 game against LMU, we all know it was on a Tuesday instead of the normal cadence of Thursday,
05:22 Saturday, which has been typical in the West Coast Conference.
05:24 And I think Gonzaga had a terrific response.
05:27 I watched the game.
05:28 They seemed to have energy from the start.
05:31 You know, LMU, they're talented.
05:35 Merck Velazquez came out ready to go.
05:37 I think he had 10 points in that first five minutes, including a big-time dunk where Graham
05:42 Ekay couldn't quite get out of the way in time.
05:45 You know, and Hill played with a lot of confidence and aggressiveness, even though his numbers
05:49 didn't necessarily dictate it.
05:53 You know Dom Harris wanted to play well, but I thought Gonzaga did a really good job there.
05:58 And then it's just a battle of staying with the focus and the emphasis and the game plan.
06:05 I think Gonzaga did that as well as they've done at any point this season, which bodes
06:10 well because we've got a big one as a Gonzaga fan on Saturday.
06:15 But curious what your take was in regards to that LMU game, being there, covering it
06:20 in person.
06:21 Yeah, I had the Pacific game on my mind just because from just a schematic standpoint,
06:28 it looked like, and I was thinking about the guards, Pacific did a lot of going underneath
06:32 screens and I mean, Gonzaga hasn't shot the ball well this year, so I can see why.
06:37 And it kind of worked in that first half.
06:39 So I was curious to see what LMU did and they played a lot of just trying to chase and go
06:43 over the top of screens.
06:46 And you saw Nolan Hickman, Ryan Nembhard really get downhill.
06:50 And to kind of quote for you, he also said, you know, just we made the right basketball
06:54 play a lot tonight.
06:56 And that was that was pretty much it is, you know, you said execute the game plan.
07:01 LMU had, they came in turning the ball over a lot.
07:05 I think they had one of the worst turnover differentials in the WCC, but a lot of the
07:11 errors were unforced on their part.
07:13 But Gonzaga did a great job of capitalizing off of those mistakes, I think.
07:18 And yeah, a lot of things went right.
07:23 They stuck to that game plan.
07:24 And so I'm wondering, with St. Mary's, you know, a much stronger defensive team, do those
07:32 opportunities to make the right basketball play still present themselves?
07:35 I mean, you got to think St. Mary's does a better job of taking away a lot of things,
07:40 especially with their height.
07:41 I think they're one of the top 20 teams in the country and average height on the roster
07:46 going to Kemp Home.
07:48 So you know, just from Graham EK down low, they really fed him against LMU and he got
07:54 going early.
07:55 And I think that really takes a lot of pressure off the guys.
08:00 And so then Hickman's able to sort of probe with more attention going to EK.
08:05 But St. Mary's, their rotations are crisp.
08:09 They don't miss a beat offensively.
08:11 So you're not getting that extra transition opportunity, that extra, you know, 4-0 quick
08:16 run to really try to pull away in a game that I don't see a big lead coming at any point
08:22 unless a run presents itself.
08:24 But yeah, it's interesting trying to take away from a 34-point win against the team
08:32 that's ranked in the 200s in Kemp Home and the net going to a team that's got the, I
08:38 think, the fifth or I think, yeah, the fifth longest win streak in the country.
08:42 So yeah, I mean, you had some good points there.
08:44 The one that really stood out early was, you know, Gonzaga made the right basketball plays
08:49 time and time again against LMU.
08:52 And that is absolutely paramount against St. Mary's.
08:55 And the reason why, and you started touching on it when you talked about how good they
08:58 are defensively, you're not going to beat St. Mary's with your first action.
09:03 You're very rarely going to beat them with your second action.
09:06 It's that third action.
09:07 You try to move them defensively into rotations, and then you have to make a basketball play,
09:11 whether it's hands and feet ready and knock down a catch and shoot three, whether it's
09:15 a second side pick and roll where maybe the weak side is just a tad bit late on rotation
09:21 and you can get that pocket pass threaded through the needle.
09:24 So I think, you know, Gonzaga in particular, their guards can build on the confidence of
09:29 making those right basketball plays because many times that is, you know, just move it
09:35 to the next guy and then you've got a duck and seal on the weak side from Graham Ekay,
09:40 who's really been playing well as of late.
09:43 And to kind of emphasize a little bit more about how good St. Mary's is defensively,
09:48 you know, they're only averaging or they're only allowing, I think it's 58 points per
09:52 game, which would put them third or fourth in scoring defense in the country.
09:57 You know, they've kind of been hovering in that three, four range throughout the year
10:01 and they don't make mistakes.
10:05 They very rarely make mistakes on the first action that you make.
10:08 So again, you have to move them, try to get them to break down and then make a basketball
10:13 play.
10:14 The other thing you touched on was try and see if you can get a four or run a six or
10:18 run that's easier said than done against St. Mary's because they're the offense they run.
10:25 They're very patient.
10:26 They're very methodical.
10:28 They've got tremendous balance and spacing.
10:30 And so very rarely do you get beat?
10:34 Do they get beat in transition?
10:36 Typically what you're going to see from St. Mary's two guys, two perimeters getting back
10:40 as soon as a shot is up, three guys crashed in the glass.
10:44 And very rarely do they make mistakes with their spacing and don't get those two guys
10:47 back because you know, that's one of their core key components of their defensive base
10:52 philosophy is don't give up transition.
10:55 And we all know Gonzaga wants to play as fast as anybody in the country.
10:58 They've led the league in scoring in the past few years, but they haven't been able to get
11:04 out and run against St. Mary's the way they want.
11:06 So that's always an important thing to look at in this matchup is who can kind of impose
11:13 their will on the pace of the game and make it make the game played at their pace early
11:18 in the game.
11:19 Yeah, I agree.
11:20 And to your point on the defense, St. Mary's along with that scoring defense, number one
11:26 in scoring defense, number one, opponent field goal percentage, number one, an opponent three
11:31 point field goal percentage, number one, a rebounding margin, number one in blocks, and
11:35 even number three in steals in the league.
11:37 Yeah, they are a tight knit group defensively.
11:42 And then I think on the offensive side, you're kind of seeing a resemblance of both teams
11:47 that kind of struggled to shoot the three to start the season.
11:51 And on St. Mary's side, I think offensively, you kind of saw the loss of Logan Johnson
11:56 have a bigger impact that people kind of thought he was a guy that really like could go off
12:01 script I feel like and get his buck and get a bucket on his own.
12:05 And Aiden Mahaney has done a great job of leading the group and well balanced group
12:09 in scoring but St. Mary's did not shoot the three very well.
12:15 I think they're 32% on the season, but now in WCC play, they're up to 38.
12:21 And you kind of seen Gonzaga trying to sort of somewhat of a similar pattern.
12:26 So it's kind of like, you know what you're getting somewhat.
12:30 I mean, Gonzaga defensively has been great in WCC play.
12:33 Yeah, let's not forget that.
12:35 So I think you know what you're getting almost every night defensively.
12:39 But that three and in the trenches as well, like I mentioned the size, but from behind
12:44 the arc, I think that might be a real difference maker of who can knock down not even just
12:49 the most threes, but in a game like this, where a four or six point lead feels like
12:55 12 or 15, given the pace usually goes, Gonzaga has done a great job, I feel like in the past
13:02 of trying to play fast, and you've seen it when they've blown out St. Mary's over the
13:07 years.
13:08 But as of late, St. Mary's, it's just hard to beat a team that plays so slow and try
13:13 to get them out of that rhythm.
13:14 But like I was saying, a six to eight point lead just feels huge.
13:19 So making those timely threes down the stretch, and really being mentally locked in defensively
13:25 after slugging it out for 36-37 minutes in the trenches and on both ends of the floor.
13:32 So I think that'll be something to watch out for is who makes those those threes in the
13:37 right moments.
13:38 Yeah, you're spot on.
13:39 And the fact that you mentioned that, you know, like a six point lead would feel like
13:42 12 if St. Mary's is in the lead.
13:46 And you know, Gonzaga, we've we've talked about it at length.
13:48 I know you've touched on it in some of your articles is they haven't shot the ball great
13:53 over the course of the season.
13:55 But you know, in WCC play, they're trending in the right direction.
13:59 They're making timely threes.
14:01 And you're right, that is going to be very important for a big three to be made at some
14:06 point, I feel in the game on Saturday.
14:09 You know, you also mentioned Logan Johnson.
14:11 And, you know, just like Gonzaga had to find a way to replace a couple core key guys, Timmy
14:17 and Strother, and that kind of takes a little bit of time to figure out, you know, Logan
14:21 Johnson was as important to St. Mary's as anybody in the league was a season ago.
14:27 I mean, you're right.
14:28 He could kind of create something out of nothing and transition in the half court defensively.
14:34 You could essentially take his matchup and just cut his scoring average in half.
14:39 He was that good defensively.
14:41 And you saw that early in the season Mahaney and Marcellonis were trying to figure out
14:47 how do we play without him.
14:48 And they've figured it out because they've won 13 of their last 14 games.
14:51 They've got a couple of really good wins in that stretch.
14:55 And you know, they're 22, I think, now in the net.
14:58 So they're sitting in a great spot.
15:00 But you know, Marcellonis, I think, is the absolute key to what's turning their season
15:04 around is he's taking the reins as the point guard.
15:07 He's got a solid assist to turnover ratio.
15:09 He does a good job of feeling out the game, whether it's, hey, we're going to get Saxon
15:13 going or Mahaney's hot.
15:14 Let's find him or Dukas is feeling good tonight.
15:17 Let's get him some buckets.
15:19 And if none of those things are fitting his eye, he's a good enough scorer this year.
15:24 And he's got enough freedom this year where he can fill that role on occasion as well.
15:28 Yeah, for sure.
15:31 And then that all just combines.
15:32 I mean, a lot of good players in the matchup.
15:36 It's going to be one that probably determines sort of how the WCC standings will shape up
15:42 leading into the regular season finale, that last regular season week for Gonzaga with
15:50 San Francisco and St. Mary's on the docket.
15:53 I'm just curious, you know, you, former GU player yourself, like the rivalry back then,
16:00 I'm guessing was St. Mary's and you've talked about Pepperdine being good.
16:03 But just when you have a game like you do Saturday for this Gonzaga team, just as a
16:08 player, what are you sort of thinking about that week, especially when you have a game
16:15 like Gonzaga did on Tuesday against maybe not as stiff of competition, maybe not the
16:20 much hype as you do going in, but just what's your mental state?
16:26 How do you think Fugue kind of keeps his guys locked in on the moment at this point in the
16:32 season?
16:33 Well, first off, when I was there playing at GU, Pepperdine was clearly our rival.
16:38 St. Mary's, my senior year, was Randy Bennett's first year.
16:41 And so that started kind of the transformation of St. Mary's becoming a great program.
16:47 And now clearly St. Mary's is the rivalry with Gonzaga.
16:51 I would argue anyone to say it is maybe the best rivalry on the West Coast because Arizona,
16:57 UCLA, Arizona, other teams, they've all had their ups and downs where these two teams
17:01 have been the cream of the crop for 18 or so years in the league.
17:05 But in regards to, you play on a Tuesday, you don't play again until Saturday.
17:11 So you got more days of prep than you would expect in a normal Thursday, Saturday cadence
17:17 of your league play.
17:18 Now St. Mary's plays tonight, so they'll have one more game, or excuse me, one more
17:22 day of practice and prep to get ready for Gonzaga as well.
17:26 So that does add a little bit of a unique layer.
17:28 But the fact is both these coaches know the other team and the opponent and their strengths
17:32 and weaknesses so well that that doesn't necessarily, I don't think, become too important.
17:39 Now where it can become important is if maybe a player has a bump or bruise, maybe a little
17:44 ankle tweak that an extra day or two of rest could really help them at this point in the
17:49 season.
17:50 And now I don't know of any on either team that fits into that description.
17:53 But I think the league changing the cadence of the scheduling in some ways I think is
18:01 awesome.
18:02 I think it adds more interest on more nights of the week for the league and the teams that
18:07 are playing.
18:08 And I had this conversation with Stu Jackson when I saw him a week or so ago down in San
18:12 Francisco is they're looking to continue to evolve the scheduling of the league in regards
18:20 to not being so set on a Thursday, Saturday.
18:22 It'll open up more TV opportunities for all teams in the league, whether it's CBS Sports
18:28 Network or ESPN networks.
18:31 And they think that's very important.
18:33 It makes it easier as well now that BYU is not in the league because you could add an
18:38 occasional Sunday matinee game.
18:41 You wouldn't do that until February just because nobody in college basketball wants to compete
18:45 with football until the Super Bowl is over.
18:48 But those are a couple of key unique things that the league I know is looking at.
18:53 But in regards to preparing for this game, these teams know each other so well that an
18:58 extra 24 hours isn't going to make a huge difference one way or the other.
19:03 Yeah, I like your point about just the league scheduling.
19:07 I had Mark View actually address that.
19:09 I believe a couple of games ago, it was a Thursday.
19:12 I think it was the last week, last San Francisco game and then going to Pacific.
19:17 He didn't seem too much of a fan of Thursday, Saturday, just from the standpoint of rest
19:22 and preparation.
19:24 And I feel that trying to cover the games that start at 7 p.m. and don't end until two,
19:30 three hours later.
19:31 But yeah, it's funny you mentioned Stu Jackson was at the game last night.
19:37 I didn't get a chance to talk to him.
19:40 But I definitely feel like, and you see it with Gonzaga's scheduling, you got two games
19:46 against San Diego, Pepperdine to start two more right after a Santa Clara game to sort
19:51 of sandwich in between.
19:55 And now they're going to end the season with, you know, like I said, San Francisco, St.
19:59 Mary's.
20:00 And it kind of it's like the NFL where you get the rivals, the best two teams in the
20:04 league almost at the end of the season.
20:06 The NFL does that because they know what the race is like at the top.
20:09 So they want to make each game at the end matter.
20:13 And how you do that is pit them against each other.
20:17 But yeah, I think in regard to just preparing, yeah, it is a familiar matchup.
20:24 There's new faces on each side, Gonzaga.
20:27 But it's the same concepts, I feel like.
20:30 It's going to be a war in the trench.
20:34 And you're on the call for Santa Clara, St. Mary's tonight.
20:38 So just kind of curious what you're looking at with your take off your journalist eyes
20:43 real quick and your Gonzaga fan eyes.
20:45 Like where are you?
20:47 Well, I mean, St. Mary's, you know, they're in the driver's seat, obviously, you know,
20:51 with Gonzaga having lost to Santa Clara, you know, so if St. Mary's wins tonight, they've
20:58 got a one game lead on Gonzaga without having played them.
21:02 They'll have two game lead on on Santa Clara, you know, and it's unique because of the way
21:07 you kind of talked about the schedules matching up.
21:10 St. Mary's has played LMU twice already, and both of those were close games.
21:13 One was a four point, one was a five point.
21:16 Gonzaga blows out LMU.
21:18 But then you look at Pacific.
21:19 Gonzaga struggled with Pacific and St. Mary's blew them out.
21:23 I mean, Pacific shot 20% from the field, a number that I don't think I've ever seen for
21:28 a Division One basketball team in regards to shooting the basketball.
21:31 So there's lots of unique ways to look at the league this year.
21:35 But in regards to this game tonight, you know, I think for Santa Clara, you got to get production
21:41 from Napper and you got to get production from Adamo ball.
21:44 The one thing Santa Clara does have is great size.
21:47 And you saw that against Gonzaga.
21:49 It's like they just kept rotating in 610, 611, seven footers to wear down EK and Watson
21:55 and Ben Gregg and Braden Huff as well.
21:58 So they've got the size to battle St. Mary's on the boards.
22:02 They do want to play a little bit faster than St. Mary's does.
22:07 But I think it comes down to tonight's game because St. Mary's won the first game in this
22:14 matchup, I think by about 24 on the road at Santa Clara.
22:19 I think it's going to come down to a battle of the glass.
22:21 I mean, you know, St. Mary's, they're just dominant in that category.
22:26 You know, I think it's plus 13 a game on the glass.
22:29 And that's something that they really hang their hat on.
22:31 They don't give second chance opportunities.
22:34 You know, and I think the way they defend makes you take contested shots.
22:40 But if you can't find a way to get extra possessions on the glass, you're really struggling.
22:44 So I'm really looking to the glass to be in kind of a deciding factor tonight for St.
22:49 Mary's Santa Clara.
22:50 Yeah, yeah, I agree.
22:51 It seems like that's kind of a theme in the WCCU or just getting the paint and owning
22:57 the glass owning the paint in general is big.
23:01 And I mean, we can't address the St. Mary's game without at least a little bit of NCAA
23:07 tournament talk, I feel like is this game.
23:09 It feels like I don't want to call most winnings.
23:12 I hate that term in sports, because I feel like you're always trying to win.
23:16 But anyway, I feel like at least for the outlook, regardless of WCC, whoever wins, whoever gets
23:23 that auto bid with a championship, like, this is a resume builder for both St. Mary's.
23:30 I know the Leonardi of ESPN came out with his Bracketology update.
23:36 I believe today, Gonzaga is still on that bubble as a quote for spore out.
23:43 And just to kind of put it into perspective, I will go a lot on bartormick.com, which does
23:48 a great job like Ken Palm with efficiency numbers, but as well as his little tournament
23:54 forecast and Gonzaga after last night's game.
23:58 I'm sorry, that's that LMU game sitting at 80% chance to get into the tournament.
24:05 And that's vastly up from the 65% that it sat at after the Pacific game, which dropped
24:14 actually from the San Francisco game.
24:16 So kind of like the net, even you might win a game, but you kind of will drop if you're
24:22 playing these worst teams.
24:23 And so, you know, we could talk about Gonzaga having to take care of business and of course
24:28 they do, but it'll certainly help if a lot of the other teams across the country start
24:34 picking each other off because there's only so many 68 teams get in this field.
24:39 But in this in this season of college basketball, where there's just parody and T top 10 teams
24:46 losing on the road and just, you know, chaos going on, it's, it's, it's hard to determine
24:52 who's going to get in, even if you look at the numbers or, or, you know, practical just,
24:57 I mean, I, I think, you know, as it sits now I think Gonzaga is 28 or 30 in the net.
25:04 I can't remember.
25:06 But I would be shocked if, if at the end of the year they're at 28 or 30 and they do not
25:12 make the NCAA tournament.
25:13 I believe that would have been the highest ranked team in the net to ever not make the
25:17 tournament.
25:18 So I'll have to double check those numbers, but I'm pretty sure that's correct.
25:22 The problem for Gonzaga is they don't have any true resume building wins right now.
25:26 The ones that you thought were going to be resume builders, USC, UCLA, both have been
25:31 downright bad, you know?
25:33 So what you're hoping is that USC and UCLA can pick up a good win or two as the PAC 12
25:39 play goes so that then that would bolster Gonzaga's strength of a win against those
25:43 teams.
25:44 Same thing with the University of Washington, same thing with Syracuse.
25:48 You know, you want those teams, obviously Purdue and UConn, San Diego State, they're
25:52 going to do what they do.
25:53 I mean, UConn and Purdue are top five net ranked teams, so they're going to continue
25:59 to help.
26:00 Those will not be viewed as bad losses.
26:01 San Diego State, I think it's at 18 or 22, something like that.
26:04 So that's a good, a better looking loss.
26:08 But you know, Gonzaga doesn't have a quad one win yet.
26:12 And they've got four opportunities as of now, the way the schedule looks, two against St.
26:17 Mary's home and away at Kentucky and then San Francisco, as long as they stay in the
26:22 top 75 of net, which I'm sure they will.
26:25 I think you're sitting around 55, 56 right now.
26:28 That will be a road quad one game.
26:30 So there's a potential for four quad one games.
26:34 Now, to be honest with you, if Gonzaga wins all four, they're good.
26:38 They're in.
26:39 No worries, no concern at all.
26:40 If they win three, I think they're in.
26:42 If they win two and one of those is the Kentucky game, I think they're in for sure.
26:47 But you don't want to leave things up to chance and having to go to the WCC tournament in
26:50 Vegas and absolutely having to win that thing.
26:53 But you know, it's funny because you go around Spokane and people ask about, you know, what's
27:00 going on?
27:01 Are we going to be in or going to be out?
27:03 There is so much basketball still to be played.
27:07 And, you know, last year, Gonzaga was 15 and five after the loss to LMU, and then they
27:12 made the elite eight.
27:13 So, you know, coach, he understands the process of getting teams ready.
27:18 And I don't see any reason to worry that they will not continue to improve and they're going
27:23 to get a couple of big wins down the stretch here.
27:25 Yeah, for sure.
27:27 And then to just to clarify, currently, St. Mary's is 22nd in the net.
27:34 Gonzaga moved up five spots to 26 for beating LMU.
27:39 And then San Francisco just moved a smidgen down to 57.
27:47 And Gonzaga, yeah, 0-4 and quad one, that U-Dub loss is the one that's kind of teetering.
27:53 They're sitting at 75th in the net, which is literally the borderline.
27:57 Yeah, if they drop to 76, that becomes a quad three.
28:00 So you better hope they win another few games.
28:03 Exactly.
28:04 And Gonzaga, you know, 0-4, yes, in the quad one, but outside of the quad one, they're
28:09 15 and one.
28:11 So they do take care of business more often than not.
28:15 And we've seen a lot of other teams across the country.
28:17 The problem is, is that you look at the resume, San Francisco has a similar one there, 0-5
28:23 in quad one.
28:24 And I believe they have just one less win in quad two, three and four.
28:30 And then they have just also that one quad two, three or four loss.
28:34 So yeah, they lost their quad two game.
28:39 But yeah, you don't want to go into the WCC.
28:44 I didn't play, so I don't know the kind of pressure.
28:46 But like, I'm certain as a player, when you walk in and you have this streak, you have
28:51 this legacy to carry on.
28:53 Like, I wouldn't be wanting to walk into the tournament, the WCC tournament that is going,
28:59 this is make or break for us.
29:01 I don't know if you ever had that experience as a GU or just in any level of basketball
29:06 where it's like you kind of make this to just survive in advance almost.
29:12 Have you ever had?
29:13 Yeah, my junior year, which would have been '01.
29:15 Yeah, we had to win the tournament to make the NCAA tournament.
29:20 And we obviously won, we advanced to the Sweet 16.
29:23 And then, you know, we had a cushion in '02, my senior year.
29:28 So we were 29-3 going into the NCAA tournament.
29:32 We would have gotten that large bid no matter what.
29:36 So you know, every few years there's a challenge to a team in this program.
29:44 And every time it's happened, that team has stepped up.
29:47 And I don't imagine that this team won't have guys that feel the pressure, but that's a
29:53 good thing.
29:54 That's athletics.
29:55 You want that pressure.
29:56 So you embrace it.
29:59 And I don't see any reason why Gonzaga is going to fall to the pressure.
30:03 I feel they're going to the rise of the occasion.
30:06 I agree.
30:07 I think this is just a staff that understands that.
30:10 I think the players do as well.
30:11 I mean, they've mentioned that few.
30:14 He's driven us to win the WCC.
30:16 Like every, you go back over the last years, it's still just been that no matter if they
30:21 look like the number one team in the country, it's like the WCC is the most important thing.
30:25 So that mindset will certainly bode well.
30:29 And yeah, it'll still be an interesting one in Vegas.
30:32 And it brings back the net rankings and the quads, that there's more opportunities you
30:37 would think in the WCC tournament against San Francisco or St. Mary's on a neutral floor
30:44 to get more quad one, two caliber of wins on the resume.
30:48 Yeah.
30:49 And it's, again, it's one of those things where in athletics, you want to be able to
30:54 control your own destiny and Gonzaga does control their own destiny.
30:58 And again, you want players on your roster that embrace challenges.
31:05 And this program has been built on players that embrace challenges, whether they're overlooked
31:09 in the recruiting process or they needed a transfer for a fresh start somewhere.
31:15 And so again, I feel Gonzaga's best basketball this season is right around the corner.
31:20 And I do know this, Coach Few has done an amazing job over the years of understanding
31:28 what buttons to push with what teams and what players and get the job done.
31:33 Yeah, I agree.
31:35 It's kind of, yeah, it just comes down to one game at a time.
31:40 Absolutely.
31:41 Well, Cole, it's good to chat for an in-depth look at where the Gonzaga is at, both after
31:47 the LMU game and leading into the St. Mary's.
31:49 So I'm sure we'll do this again.
31:52 Probably my guess would be either that right before the last week of the regular season
31:56 or right before WCC.
31:57 So keep up the great work on our website with all the great articles.
32:02 And we'll have to do this again, like I said, on the show again soon.
32:06 For sure, Dan, appreciate the opportunity.
32:07 I know you got a busy schedule, but again, always, always appreciate listening to you
32:13 kind of break down GU hoops.
32:15 So it's been awesome.
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