Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau and Gonzaga Nation reporter Cole Forsman recap the Bulldogs' win over LMU, the next matchup against Pacific and their stance in the NCAA Tournament field.
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00:00 Gonzaga Nation, Dan Dick out here alongside our esteemed journalist Cole Forsman.
00:07 We're going to touch a little bit on the win against LMU, but in particular, these are game previews.
00:12 So we'll talk a little bit more about Pacific in general for the game on Saturday night.
00:19 The what is it? The 17th of February already. Crazy to believe.
00:24 So, Cole, glad to be back with you. I watched the game last night.
00:29 I'm sure you watched the game. You wrote a terrific story already about the game.
00:33 But what I saw was a aggressive attack to start the second half in regards to defensively.
00:41 Get at getting after guys trapping, picking roles, flying around a little bit more after a first half where I don't want to say they weren't good defensively.
00:49 But you could probably go there. I don't think they were as crisp with rotations.
00:53 And they allowed Johnson to get free a number of times and get hot in that first half.
00:57 What did you see? Yeah, I in the first half, it was a little bit of a shootout.
01:05 We talked about, you know, Gonzaga's attention to detail coming into this game, coming off a really big win at Kentucky.
01:13 I think defensively there were just a few lapses.
01:16 Logan or sorry, I almost called him Logan Johnson. Will Johnston really had a big first half coming off screens.
01:25 Gonzaga, I don't think guard him as well. Pickman got caught on a lot of double screens coming off inbound plays.
01:32 They got him open a lot. And then he kind of created on his own.
01:34 He had a couple he had a step back there at the end of the first half over Ryan Emhart.
01:40 So, yes, I don't think Gonzaga came out with quite the intensity or the focus that they had at Kentucky five days ago, six days ago now.
01:51 But sometimes good offense just beats good defense in the regular season.
01:57 But to your point, they did sort of lock up in the second half there.
02:01 They trapped a lot more ball screens from LMU. Will Johnston didn't really touch the rock a whole lot in the second half.
02:10 Gonzaga had another hard time. I think him and him, Hickman and Emhart lost communication on one play and Johnston open for three.
02:19 He had two back to back and that brought it within, I believe, one point.
02:24 It was seventy two, seventy one. And then from there, Gonzaga just went on a 19 to three run to close the game.
02:31 So. That right there, the defensive intensity, I think Anton Watson, he had two really big blocks down the stretch that sort of sparked.
02:42 Much like what we saw at Kentucky, just sort of this grittiness to really pull away from a team, not so much with talent,
02:48 but with effort and a 19 to three run really sealed the deal.
02:54 Another game that we see Gonzaga withstand a big punch from an opponent, in this case, Johnston had thirty three.
03:01 LMU was sort of rocking there. They only had six players, but it almost or six scholarship players.
03:07 It almost really didn't matter with Johnston. But we saw them withstand that punch from a team on the road and really just come together,
03:15 calm down, get back to their base offense, which was a lot of Grammy K down the stretch.
03:22 And, yeah, they sort of just put it away and crazy because before Kentucky, they weren't really known to close out games.
03:30 They had struggled in close contests. But I think now you're seeing a team that has this camaraderie to the point where they can come together
03:40 down the stretch of a really close game and know that they've been in the situation and sort of rely on the guys that they've seen be in the gym all year long.
03:51 And they're trusting one another. And I think that was really evident last night.
03:55 Yeah, I when I watched the second half again earlier this morning, I saw a lot of mid pick and rolls again with Nembhardt and or Hickman with E.K.
04:06 Get him rolling down a deep seal in the paint, very similar to what they did against Kentucky.
04:11 So I would imagine that's going to be a big staple of things moving forward with a few tweaks in regards to spacing,
04:17 depending on on the adjustments other teams make. But when you look at it, you know,
04:22 six scholarship players for Loyola Marymount because they had a number of injuries.
04:27 Johnston, we talked about, but, you know, this would have been a heck of a win for Loyola Marymount under those circumstances.
04:34 They put up a tremendous effort, a tremendous fight. They shot 53 percent from the field.
04:39 They shot a little bit better than that in the first where Gonzaga got stops during that critical run in the second.
04:44 But, you know, in regards to talking about Gonzaga, they didn't go very deep at all either last night.
04:49 You know, really, Stromer was probably the only bench guy to get extended minutes with 15 minutes.
04:55 He didn't score. Huff had eight minutes. He did score two points.
04:58 Krinovich, you know, did get five minutes, which I like to see because I think you got to get another ball handler a little bit more comfortable,
05:06 just in case in a pinch there's foul trouble or something in a big game down the stretch of the season or in the NCAA tournament.
05:13 But five guys in double figures, all five starters. E.K., you mentioned, was tremendous. Twenty three points. Hickman, 22.
05:19 So he was great this year against LMU. Twenty four at home, 22 on the road. Greg was great flying around with 15.
05:26 Anton had a double double 13 and 11, I believe it was. And then we had another double double in Nembhard.
05:32 So, you know, 11 assists to go with 16 points. So a tremendously balanced attack.
05:38 And when they do that, they're hard to prepare for. They're hard to scout.
05:42 I thought they played with great pace in particular the second half.
05:46 But all in all, it's take care of business at hand. And the business last night was was get a road win at LMU.
05:52 Now the business is at hand is Pacific at home. That's not an easy one.
05:57 And the reason being is Pacific ranked around 350 in the net.
06:04 You know, same thing with Ken Palm. So when you just look at it, you know, winless in conference, really one of the, you know,
06:12 hate to put it this way, but one of the worst teams in Division One.
06:15 You know, it's easy as a as a athlete to not. Put your sole focus on it.
06:22 But one of the great things that coach Few's always done is get his guys to focus on the task at hand.
06:26 And this team has showed that they're beginning to learn that they're beginning to do that.
06:30 And so I would expect a good approach to this game on Saturday at home for that reason, but also because they didn't play well in Stockton.
06:38 Gonzaga's never really played well in Stockton. There's a weird vibe, a weird energy in that arena.
06:45 It's a big game to that community. And so you've seen a number of tight games down there over the years.
06:52 But when you look at Pacific, you know, without going too into detail, they don't have a single player that averages double figures.
06:59 They've got 13 guys that average seven minutes or more. They got 11 guys that average double figure minutes.
07:06 And so it's a weird prep game in regards to they don't have a ton of size.
07:11 They're going to play a lot of five out. They're going to shoot a lot of threes, even though they've only got one player that shoots it at a high clip.
07:17 And that's Judson Martindale at over 40 percent. But they all have freedom to shoot a lot of threes.
07:22 They all have freedom to put the ball on the deck and attack dribble penetration.
07:25 So for me, this game is a scouting report game on an individual player basis as opposed to a team conceptual basis.
07:35 Yeah, some of the team concepts do come into play as far as plugging gaps, picking role coverages and things.
07:41 But really, because they play so many guys, you have to know strengths and weaknesses for each player.
07:48 You know, looking back at that first game and forward to this game, what are some of your thoughts, Cole?
07:55 Yeah, without going, like you said, too into detail to Pacific, I think I'm going to boil it down to.
08:03 I don't know if your teacher or professor ever told you this, but sometimes things can be so easy in a test or an assignment that you make it hard in your own head.
08:11 And I think that's like the only pitfall for Gonzaga at this point against Pacific team that their last win against the Division one opponent was on November 26th.
08:22 An overtime win against Mississippi Valley State at home.
08:26 Mississippi Valley State has not won a game this season.
08:29 And Pacific, I think, but it is it is an individual scouting report then, because as much as you want to look at the whole team and say, well, they're at the bottom of a lot of statistical categories in the league.
08:43 I think they still have some talent. That first matchup in Stockton was a little bit difficult for Gonzaga, in part because the Tigers kind of did a nice job of sort of spacing Gonzaga out.
08:56 They have they have a few. Just sort of overall athletic wings that can kind of make it harder for Gonzaga.
09:05 I think about. Judson Martindale, Donovan Williams, those two, especially Williams, can kind of put the ball on the deck.
09:15 He's a little bit bigger. He's what, six, six, five guard.
09:21 Bo Odom, another good playmaker. So I think they have talent.
09:27 It's sort of a roster, though, that doesn't play a whole lot together.
09:32 And I think that's that's been evident over these last, I don't know, a few months or so with coming into the season.
09:38 But as for Gonzaga, like you said, you know, every game at this point really matters, especially now.
09:46 I don't know if the players or even the coaches look at this, but before last night heading into that game against LMU, Joe Lannarty put Gonzaga back in the last four in in his latest bracketology.
09:59 I did see that. Yes. Richmond had lost at home to UMass, so they completely fell out of the bubble entirely.
10:08 And that put Gonzaga right in that last four in. Also of note, USC beat Utah last night.
10:16 Utah is reeling. I think they've lost like what is it now? Five of the last six or so.
10:24 And. So that game is important because USC is now creeping toward that top 100 in the net, which if they get there, that game against Gonzaga that was played in Vegas would qualify.
10:37 Vegas would qualify as a Q2 game for the Zags. Right now it's standing at quad three.
10:43 Also, Utah is on the bubble in that last four in, according to Lannarty. Again, they've been sort of struggling in Pac-12 play.
10:51 So. I don't know how long they're going to hold that up. Also in that last four in, Nevada just lost the other night at home to New Mexico.
11:01 Ole Miss, I'm sorry, Ole Miss is also in this group. They've lost three in a row.
11:07 So Gonzaga does need to take care of business regardless because they control their own destiny now.
11:13 The Zags control their own destiny being in this last four in. I know other bracketologists probably have them out, but Lannarty is one of the more accurate ones.
11:20 And I'm going to lean on him here. While also they're getting help from other teams.
11:26 And I know you talked to assistant coach Steven Gentry the other day, and he kind of made the similar point that we simply put need to take care of business.
11:35 But, you know, we're going to welcome help from around the country. And so Gonzaga kind of is getting that right now.
11:41 And yeah, it all just it takes another mentally tough, you know, be mentally tough, mentally focused coming into a specific game.
11:50 And they should take care of business. No, you got some great points there. I mean, USC, that's a big win, even because, I mean, they were flirting with the seller of the Pac-12.
11:59 So they you're right. They're sitting at one oh five in the net. If they can creep up and win a couple of games down the stretch and become a top hundred, that's a big one.
12:07 UCLA, as bad as they were a month ago, they are pretty darn good right now because they beat Colorado, you know, last night.
12:16 So they're sitting at one oh six in the net. So that could creep up and become a better win as well, because that was a neutral site game in Hawaii.
12:25 So those could slide into that quad two category. When you look at some of the other teams that are going to impact it, you know, Washington, unfortunately, is going in the wrong direction because they continue to struggle at six and eight in the Pac-12.
12:40 But oddly enough, they're not bad in the net. They're at 67. That's a loss, not a win.
12:46 You want them to stay at least in the top 75 of net because that would help as a quad two loss, as opposed to if it slides, becomes a quad three.
12:57 But Yale, surprisingly, is hanging in there in the net. They're sitting at 55 in the net. They're undefeated in the Ivy League.
13:04 I think the only team that's really going to challenge them would be Princeton, who also is pretty good.
13:10 They were in the NCAA tournament a season ago, actually made a run to the Sweet 16.
13:14 You know, Princeton is sitting at actually, excuse me, I was wrong.
13:19 Princeton is at 55 in the net. Yale is at 84.
13:22 So that's an interesting one we've got to keep an eye on, because if by chance Yale can win and move up to top 75, that'll impact things in a positive way, manner as well.
13:34 But this is a fun time of year. You can almost get oversaturated with looking at the numbers and the predictions and the analysis.
13:43 And Lennarty has a good take on a lot of things. Jerry Palm with CBS Sports, Mike DeCoursey with Fox are probably the three best in regards to their accuracy.
13:56 But, you know, at the end of the day, we can talk about net numbers and quad ones and twos and all this.
14:02 Gonzaga keeps winning. They don't have to worry about what it is, because, you know, if you're sitting at 23 in the net, you're getting into the NCAA tournament.
14:12 If you win at St. Mary's in the last road game of the regular season and you make it to the conference tournament finals, I think you're in.
14:20 I know I keep changing my my my thoughts on this, but the way I keep looking at it, if you win on the road in that manner, after winning at San Francisco, I would imagine after winning at home against Santa Clara, you've got some good bumps.
14:36 Nothing is going to take you from 23 in the net, drop you to the low 30s other than a loss to Pacific or a loss to LMU, which could have happened last night or a loss at Portland next week.
14:49 So all things considered, yes, you got to handle business in front of you.
14:53 But the doom and gloom, I don't think from a lot of fans is warranted right now because the numbers show that they're a much better ballclub than people's kind of perception of them right now.
15:05 Yeah, no, the doom and gloom, I think, is out of the picture for right now.
15:12 I think at worst, you're getting a little nervous on selection Sunday if they don't obviously win the conference tournament, which would secure them the auto bid.
15:21 But, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but I still believe there is a path for Gonzaga to still finish first in the WCC.
15:28 It's going to in the regular season, I think it's going to take a look. It's going to take help, of course. But when you look at Gonzaga, if they win, obviously, so for the scenario for them to finish first, they just got to win out.
15:38 Right. Yeah. San Francisco, who has two losses in league play, has a game at St. Mary's on Tuesday, February 20th.
15:48 St. Mary's beat down USF in their own building, I think last month, but if somehow San Francisco can go into Moraga, get a win at St. Mary's, that would give the Gales their first loss in league play, and then Gonzaga and San Francisco would still have two losses.
16:06 Gonzaga is then going to go down to San Francisco at the Chase Center, technically, on February 29th. If Gonzaga can win that game, they'd have two losses in league play, San Francisco would have three, and if St. Mary's can still win out until that final game of the regular season, they would have one loss.
16:27 So then that puts Gonzaga two losses, St. Mary's at one loss, heading into that regular season finale in Moraga between the Zags and Gales. And that's going to be a tough one for the Zags, they don't play well down there in Moraga, it's going to be popping, I'm sure, but if Gonzaga can then upset, in this case it'd be an upset, St. Mary's in their own building, they both have two losses.
16:52 Now, I believe the WCC tiebreaker, and this is where I'm not 100% sure, I believe the tiebreaker goes, it goes head to head record against each other, which would be one and one, the Zags and Gales, and then after that it goes down to which team had the better record against that third place team.
17:12 I believe that's how it would work. Gonzaga in this hypothetical would be 2-0 against San Francisco, and then St. Mary's would be one and one, and I believe that tiebreaker would then give the Zags a leg up. I don't know, I believe that's how it works, if it's not, then it's probably based on net ranking after that, which I think St. Mary's would probably have an edge over Gonzaga.
17:36 But the whole point being is that Gonzaga is still in the driver's seat for themselves, regardless one seat or two seat in the WCC tournament, you're going to get the first round by, and only have to win two games, which we've talked about that ad nauseam, even Adam Morrison.
17:54 The whole point is win two games in Vegas, and you're in. And you blow all the other numbers, you blow all the quads, we talk of quads out of the picture. So that's sort of the scenario I was playing around with, just to get to the point that, you know, this is not, it is not doom and gloom, they are not, you know, completely out of the picture until that last week in March, pretty much.
18:17 Yeah, no, you had some good points in regards to tiebreakers. And it's changed over the years again. So I'm not sure exactly which direction it falls. Is it point differential in those games? Is it the third place? Is it the net? So I'm not sure. You know, let's definitely check on that. But yeah, the game of the year in the WCC is February 20th, San Francisco at St. Mary's.
18:45 You know, I actually called that first matchup in San Francisco where St. Mary's 177 to 60. They shot the heck out of it from the three point line. They limited Jonathan Mobo for San Francisco.
18:59 So San Francisco's been playing well. And, you know, they're on the cusp of being talked about as a not next four out or sorry, not first four out, but they're like maybe the seventh, eighth team that would be left out based on their net, especially if they were to win at St. Mary's because their net's solid.
19:23 And the low 60s right now, if they were able to get that win, I would imagine they'd creep up to the low 50s, which is where you start talking about, hey, where do your wins lie?
19:34 Where are your bad losses at? How are you playing at this point in the season? So that's really the game of the year in the WCC.
19:42 If San Francisco wins now, the game of the year obviously switches to Gonzaga at St. Mary's, the finale of the regular season. If St. Mary's holds true, doesn't matter.
19:54 You know, Gonzaga would still it would still be a big game, but it wouldn't be the game of the year, you know, in regards to St. Mary's and what their needs would be at the time, because, you know, both teams would want to hoist the regular season title and not just the tournament title.
20:11 So good stuff there, Cole. I completely agree that that San Francisco St. Mary's game is really unique.
20:18 And that's something that it's not on the regular cadence of the schedule in the WCC where it's Thursday, Saturday.
20:24 It's actually a Tuesday game next week, ESPN 2. I think that's one of the great things that with Stu Jackson coming in from the Big East,
20:33 he understands the dynamics of TV scheduling and being flexible for your TV partners to find different windows for the national broadcast, whether it's ESPN,
20:45 whether it's CBS Sports Network, to be able to provide more opportunities for your league to be seen,
20:51 especially down the stretch of league play, because you can talk all you want about these numbers,
20:58 you know, for, you know, net rankings, quad wins, ones and two losses, wins, etc.
21:06 But the people on the selection committee that are looking at those net rankings and the quad one and quad two resumes,
21:12 they're watching a crazy amount of games at this point of year.
21:15 And so the more games that you can have front and center where it's easy to find national TV games as opposed to regional are only going to help put eyes on the good teams
21:27 for the people that are on that selection committee.
21:29 So I think that's an important thing. And it's a great thing that that game's on a Tuesday as opposed to a Thursday or Saturday,
21:35 getting kind of lost in the mix of the rest of the league's schedule.
21:40 Yeah, it's going to be a big one for sure. I'm glad it is on ESPN.
21:45 WCC, they have the partnership with ESPN Plus, but when they're on ESPN, it just it feels much more important.
21:51 And I think people around the country have to recognize that as well.
21:55 I know Gonzaga last night was on CBS and then right after they had St. Mary's on CBS.
22:01 So good to see the WCC being shown more in the limelight.
22:06 And, yeah, San Francisco does not have a resume that's, to be honest, more far off from Gonzaga's.
22:12 They just don't have a quad one win. They're 0 and 5. But they only have one loss in the other three quadrants.
22:19 So they are much farther down in the net. I understand that.
22:22 Sometimes I don't know what to make of the net. There's a lot of interesting caveats.
22:28 But again, yeah, to your point, Gonzaga is going to have the last two games, you know, front and center, especially the San Francisco game.
22:38 I don't know what channel that one's on, but that's going to be Chase Center.
22:42 There's probably going to be a lot more Gonzaga fans there than San Francisco fans, just being honest.
22:47 And then that last one against St. Mary's is going to be really big.
22:52 And especially if Gonzaga can get back in the top 25.
22:56 I know I think three of I think three of the like 20 through 25 teams have lost in this last week or so.
23:04 So not that the AP poll is going to determine who gets in the tournament or not.
23:10 That's been a revolving door, the AP poll. So but if they can get back in the top 25, then, you know, that's that's just going to.
23:16 That's that's just going to sort of elevate that's the status of that game even more so.
23:23 Yeah, I mean, the AP poll is kind of the gold standard as far as the typical fan saying you're a good team or not.
23:33 I mean, Gonzaga had the longest ranked streak, I think, ended at about one hundred and forty five weeks, if I'm not right.
23:40 So about seven straight years being ranked in the top 25, which is impressive.
23:45 So, you know, that that is a another interesting note to kind of keep an eye on.
23:50 And it doesn't really sway the the the selection committee in any way, because if you're ranked in the top 25, more than likely you're a lock for the for the tournament.
24:00 But it is one of those fun things to keep an eye on, that's for sure.
24:05 Yeah, Dan. I think going forward now, it's just they got to survive Gonzaga, that is just get through this specific game, get through this Portland game next week on the road, and then they'll have.
24:22 Who is there after Santa Clara, I believe, at home, so.
24:26 Yeah, the league did them no favors. I mean, if you look at the final three games at Santa Clara or sorry, at home versus Santa Clara, who's the only who beat them, you know, at their on their home court, the Levy Center and then San Francisco and St.
24:41 Mary's. I think if you looked at, you know, these rosters before the season started, even in the summer, you would say those are the top four teams in the league.
24:49 And so for Gonzaga to get the other three to finish the season, I think the league kind of knew what they were doing and wanting to add some drama to the last week of the season.
24:59 Well, yeah, I mean, that's, I like that as a fan. I know football, the NFL tries to do that a lot, even in college football, they try to do it.
25:08 And college basketball where, you know, these teams, I mean, like I just I rattled off rattle off a whole scenario that Gonzaga could potentially finish first in the league and the league.
25:17 I know wants that they don't want, you know, St. Mary's to have to go and play the sixth place team while Gonzaga is playing the eighth place team and you know then everybody at home is trying to figure out the scenarios in their head.
25:30 At this point, it's just it's simple. It's prime time. It's going to be ESPN. It's win and it's for first place.
25:38 So that'll be a big one to watch as well as San Francisco, how they finish down the stretch.
25:46 Bubble watch will be important through conference play. Like I mentioned, the other three teams that are in the final or in the last four in for Linardi.
25:55 Then you also have OISE State is in that last four by.
26:00 And if you know if people in eastern Washington are not paying attention to Gonzaga, they're probably paying attention to Wazoo.
26:08 The Cougars are in line to make tournament for the first time, I think, since 08 and eastern Washington Eagles.
26:16 Their first in the big sky, I believe they're still undefeated in league play slated to get a 14 seed if if all holds true there.
26:24 So could have all three teams in eastern Washington make the NCAA tournament.
26:31 That has not happened before. So that would be pretty cool for this region.
26:36 Not to mention the fact that Spokane hosts the first two rounds, the NCAA tournament in Spokane Arena.
26:41 You know, I think that was a lot of people's early hope. Those tickets sold out, I think, in less than 12 hours with a lot of people hoping and thinking that Gonzaga would be playing Spokane Arena.
26:53 That's a foregone conclusion. They won't be playing there.
26:56 They'll be shipped out of region because I believe. Don't quote me on this, but I believe if you're a top four seed, they try to keep you as close to possible to your home campus.
27:07 And if you're a if you're a number one seed, absolutely.
27:11 You're going to be as close as possible. If you're the true overall number one seed, I believe you get to choose your location that you go to.
27:21 But, you know, I'm not 100 percent certain, but I've heard that being commented on before.
27:27 Interesting. I mean, the number one overall seed in minorities is Purdue and they're slated to be in Indianapolis, which, you know, they're staying in state.
27:35 So, but yeah, I think I think it has to be top three, which obviously Gonzaga is not going to get to at this point.
27:43 Spokane and Linares Bracketology, it's the four and five seeds.
27:49 And so it's that 512 and 413 matchup. They get two of those.
27:53 So it's still great basketball that's going to be played here, especially if, you know, one of the regions for Spokane has San Diego State playing.
28:02 So they get to go back to back to Spokane. They've even I think they've played in Spokane Arena before a few years ago in the NCAA tournament.
28:10 So that'll be an interesting one, as well as Creighton. Creighton's been here in Spokane before, so they'll be coming back.
28:16 But right now, I think Linares, of course, still has St. Mary's, yeah, and that eight seed line.
28:25 So they're projected to get the automatic qualifier. No other WCC school outside of Gonzaga, of course.
28:32 But. You look at the Mountain West, they got six teams in this field, a six big a six bid Mountain West would be absolutely crazy.
28:42 That's just as many as the Big Ten. That's more than the Big East, ACC and Pac-12.
28:47 Well, when you look at the Mountain West, though, you know, they had five teams in 2013, but the Mountain West scheduled up during the non-conference and they did what they needed to do.
29:00 They won games. The WCC, when they scheduled up with their particular games, unfortunately, across the board as a league, they weren't able to get the job done and get those wins.
29:10 And I'm never I'm not saying WCC would ever have six teams. I'm not.
29:15 But I'm just saying the Mountain West scheduled up and they did what they needed to do.
29:19 And it's putting them in position where now, you know, those top six teams beat each other up, you know, down the stretch of this this regular season title chase.
29:30 It's not going to hurt them that much. Whereas you look at the WCC, if you lose to the fourth place team, that hurts.
29:36 If you lose to the seventh place team, sorry, your season's done. There's no more considerations for you as an at large team.
29:44 So that's why it's so important how you schedule in the non-conference and then how you perform as well.
29:51 Yeah. Oh, six big WCC, if that was to be the case, I don't think we're even having Big 12 discussions like that would just be crazy for WCC.
30:01 But yeah, your point. I mean, the league is trying to schedule up and I think, you know, Gonzaga is as big of a basketball brand as it is to this point.
30:10 They still understand the fact that power or I'm sorry, big six leagues, those teams just they don't want to come to to the little the kennel as great as a college atmosphere as it is.
30:24 I don't I don't understand why there is a notion that small gyms are just bad to play in as far as the regular season goes.
30:31 You know, we talk about like the Maui gym for the Maui Invitational being this amazing atmosphere.
30:38 And it is it feels a lot like a high school atmosphere. The fans are right on the court and people love that.
30:45 But then when it comes to Gonzaga in the kennel, it's like, oh, you only play in front of six thousand people.
30:52 You don't have to come into your gym. I mean, that's what Calipari said a couple of summers ago when the home and home with Kentucky was scheduled.
30:59 So I don't really know what the double standard is there. If teams are scared to come into the kennel.
31:05 OK, like that's that's fine. Gonzaga won seventy five in a row there.
31:09 I understand not wanting to play there, but. I hope, you know, St. Mary's as much as you know, we don't want them to play well, but it helps the league.
31:18 And I hope that the gales at some point reach a point where they're able to schedule, you know, even if it's bigger Mountain West teams.
31:26 I know they played San Diego State. That was in Vegas. So they can start.
31:30 This is the same areas is finally kind of turned a corner where they're scheduling represents how good they are and other programs recognize that.
31:38 You mentioned the San Diego State neutral site, New Mexico and Utah in the Pac-12 played at in Moraga this year,
31:46 which when you look at it, it's crazy to think because, yeah, it is a smaller gym.
31:50 And it's one of those things you mentioned, you know, neutral site gym might be small versus big neutral site gym versus playing on a smaller campus arena for a power five conference program.
32:03 You know, all these different coaches have their own philosophies.
32:07 But at the end of the day, they're they're trying to manipulate, you know, the schedules to where they think they're going to have the opportunities to pad their quad one and quad two wins down the stretch.
32:20 And that's a big reason for these power conferences growing even more is, hey, we're going to have you know, if we're a good league, we're going to have 22 league games and 15 of these 16 of these are going to be quad one, quad two opportunities.
32:33 We're going to stack these and we're going to kind of keep out, you know, some of these other lower level leagues from being able to get these quad one, quad two resume wins to be at large bids.
32:45 You know, like it or don't like it. That's a lot of what the, you know, the thought process is behind these leagues expanding and how the programs themselves structure their their schedules.
32:56 So big, big topics hard to cover, you know, with too much credibility without saying exactly what certain coaches think with their with their scheduling.
33:11 But I know there's a lot of that that goes on out there.
33:14 Yeah, I understand it, you know, the power conferences wanting to, you know, kind of keep their schedule influence, I guess, if you will, but with the conference expansion, it's making it weird because, like we've seen the Big 10 and now the ACC, they're not letting all of their teams into their conference tournament when the season's over.
33:38 I think the ACC pushed it down from all the teams to just 15 of 18. And that's after Cal Stanford and SMU joined the league next year.
33:50 They're going to put it down to 15. I think the Big 10 is doing something similar.
33:56 I get like the lower level teams like, yeah, you're not expecting a run up run from them, but I don't know. I feel like that takes away a lot of the uniqueness of March in college basketball where it's anyone shot to win the tournament and get into win their conference tournament and get into the NCAA tournament.
34:20 Especially with, you know, you hear the rumors of like big six leagues sort of forming together forming alliances and creating their own little midseason tournament, or even just their, their postseason tournament with teams comprised or yeah with teams that didn't make the NCAA tournament.
34:42 And they're just going to throw them based on net ranking into their own little round robin probably and, you know, that crushes things like the NIT. So, really interesting how the power in college athletics is even just becoming wider and wider between the haves and the haves nots.
35:00 And you see that even on the court like top 10 teams are struggling on the road.
35:26 We're seeing a lot more, you know, these top 10 teams losing to unranked opponents which is sort of rare and that's why I think you've seen Gonzaga get go a lot and transfer portal and bring in a lot of guys that's how they rebuilt the roster this offseason.
35:44 They're not a big recruiting class as of right now for 2024 and they didn't have a big one for 2023 and there's some concerns about that but I think you know you've seen Mark few time and time again understand the landscape of college basketball better than most people.
36:00 And that's why he's been in the game for so long when you've seen these retired coach, these legendary coaches retire.
36:08 So, and that's just a point of basketball college basketball is being dominated by experienced players.
36:15 We're seeing that in the mid majors a lot because they're these power conference teams are losing the experience to these smaller mid majors where they have bigger opportunity so it creates that gap, or, I'm sorry, it's, it shrinks that gap, but at the same time you see these power conferences still clinging to to power in any way they can.
36:34 I think the biggest thing for head coaches and programs to do now in regards to, you know, recruiting and even scheduling is just flexibility, the ability to to do things differently next year, compared to how you did it, two or three years ago because it's an ever changing
36:52 environment. And you got to be flexible and you got to be able to adjust quickly and on the fly and the best programs and the best coaches and most forward coaches will do continue to do that and be successful but good stuff today Cole, looking forward to, you know, this, this, the Gonzaga approach against Pacific on Saturday.
37:14 And then it all builds up to the final two weeks of the regular season where we kind of touched on all of it how important it is because there still is an outside chance at a league title so for Gonzaga Nation.
37:26 He's Cole Forsman I'm Dan Dickow we will see you guys again next week.