Feb. 9—Gonzaga returns home to face Washington State on Tuesday before visiting Santa Clara on Saturday in a clash of the top two teams in the West Coast Conference standings.
Both games were topics on the latest Zags Insiders Podcast with Richard Fox, former Gonzaga center and current analyst on GU games televised on KHQ and SWX, and yours truly.
We also discussed Gonzaga's defensive struggles in an 87-80 loss at Portland last Wednesday.
Here are a few excerpts, edited for space considerations. The entire podcast is available at spokesman.com/podcasts/zags-basketball-insiders/, spreaker.com/podcast/zags-basketball-insiders—4817558 or youtube.com/watch?v=nCeAfW36Ckw.
Foxwell steers Pilots' upset
Fox: What's remarkable is Portland shoots just under 52%, they jump up to almost 70 in the second half. So you have a halftime to make adjustments if you're Gonzaga and they presumably made several. Didn't matter.
It was kind of an out-of-body experience for the Pilots on the offensive end in particular. They got some really timely contributions.
We've talked about it before: These smaller kind of shifty, jitterbug type of guards can be a problem. You like to think Gonzaga's length not just on the ball, but certainly in help-side can make life difficult for those types of guards. It felt like (Joel) Foxwell got anywhere he wanted to. He's comfortable attacking defenses from a variety of places on the floor.
Meehan: Jalen Warley apparently (suffered a) thigh bruise in the first few minutes. He was a step slow compared to what we're used to. A few times early, he hedged to stop or slow (Foxwell's) momentum, stuck an arm out instead of taking a step or two, and that did not work.
It might have been Tyon Grant-Foster and Warley in coverage when (Portland) set the screen and both of them were chasing Foxwell down the lane. He split a double team. Graham Ike hedged pretty hard a lot, but he got back late one time and (Foxwell) threw it to the 7-1 kid (Jermaine Ballisager Webb) for a layup.
Foxwell drives right (on Emmanuel Innocenti), hits a tough banker from about 10 feet. He pump-faked, TGF went flying by and the kid hits a really awkward shot, almost a runner from the elbow. Warley was not himself at either end of the floor and you could tell that had an impact on the entire defense.
First-place showdown
Meehan: The Broncos have just been flat rolling. I've already said how I like Christian Hammond's game, how mature it is, how patient. He's a 50-40-80 guy — 50% on field goals, 40% on 3s, 80% at the line. Very efficient.
Allen Graves went for 30 points, 13 boards, four assists against the Cougs (in a 96-92 win Saturday). That's the freshman forward who shows flashes of the Saint Mary's kid Joshua Jefferson that (transferred to) Iowa State. Very smooth, very poised for a young kid. He had 18 and 9 against the Zags (in an 89-77 loss last month).
They have a bunch of size, a bunch of guards. They've won eight in a row and not many of them have been close. To me, (Elijah) Mahi is the X-factor. He didn't play well up here, but he's 6-7, not an easy matchup, pretty physical.
Fox: They are a better offensive team than Gonzaga is, in my opinion. They're more dynamic, more skill on perimeter, they can really shoot it. One of the best offensive teams Gonzaga is going to play all year.
Santa Clara is going to shoot a lot better at home than it did up here. It's going to be a real challenge because they take a lot of (3s). I suspect (the Leavey Center) is going to be full.
Portland was just a few days ago, so I have real scar tissue from that game. You don't have to pitch a perfect game to beat any of these teams in the league, but you've got to pitch a good one.
I know Graham is going to play well. My question is what do you get from Grant-Foster? What do your freshmen do? Do you get any kind of shooting from the others? If the answers are not yes, this could be a really difficult game for GU.