Gonzaga Bulldogs – Part II

[LIONS90045]

Gonzaga Bulldogs – Part II

Will lightning strike twice?

At first, I thought I might leave it right there but there is more to say.

WCC Standings (Feb 13) per Conference Records

Saint Mary’s 11-1
Gonzaga 10-2
Santa Clara 7-5
LMU 7-6
Pacific 6-6
BYU 6-7
USF 5-8
Portland 5-8
USD 4-9
Pepperdine 2-11

The Gaels have USD, BYU, Pacific and Gonzaga left.
The Zags have LMU, Pepperdine, USD, and Saint Mary’s.*
The Broncos have BYU, Portland, Pepperdine and USD.
LMU has Gonzaga, Pacific and Pepperdine.
Pacific has USF, LMU, Saint Mary’s and Portland.
BYU has Santa Clara, Saint Mary’s and USF.
I’ll stop there.

I’m sure the Zags want to finish on top of the WCC. If they sweep their remaining games and the Gaels lose only to the Zags, then the two will tie for #1 with 2 losses each. So this is an important game for the Zags.

Regarding LMU, if we lose only to the Zags, we’ll finish with 7 losses and we’ll need the Broncos to lose twice to share #3 in the standings (ignoring others for the moment), BYU has a chance to beat the Broncos; Portland, Pepperdine and USD have lesser chances to win but stranger things have happened. The Waves had a surprisingly strong game last week.
Pacific could climb ahead of LMU if they beat us and lose only to the Gaels.
BYU could finish with 8 losses and be in the mix also for the 3-4 slot.

I guess my main point is Thursday’s game in important to the Zags to fulfill their ambitions. They will be playing their hardest to win and the Lions will need the full support of the sell-out crowd to pull off another upset on National TV.

*The Zags have a non-WCC game on Mar 1 vs Chicago State (for what its worth).

Gametime: Thursday, Feb 16, 8 pm in Gersten.
Video: CBS Sports Network.

[ALioninWinter]

Chicago State? Coach Few b*tched and moaned about the weak WCC competition hurting the Zags. He got two games dropped from the league schedule so he could beef up Gonzaga’s schedule. So who does he schedule??

Chicago State with a NET ranking of 284 … well below any school in the WCC.

[sittingon50]

Zag fan here, Lion. The reason for this one was because of the time off between the final Saturday league game & when the Zag's normally start in Vegas after a double bye. GU would have a 9 day lay-off (semis on Monday). They can squeeze in Chicago St. because they are independent & have no conference tourney to participate in = flexible schedule. Unless my memory betrays me this is the 1st time GU has tried this approach.

Good Luck Thursday night. I'm personally hoping Cam has a BIG test the next day & stays home to study!! What a stud.

[shutupmeg]

Seems dumb. Pretty sure every other team in the WCC would be happy to just get rid of the whole 3 bye thing so the Zags can get more practice.

[pumpfake]

Thanks for the explanation sitting on 50. Makes sense to me. I like the tourney staggered byes for the regular season leaders who earned it during the regular season. It's not a Gonzaga thing shutupMeg, it's a reward for winning teams in an increasingly competitive WCC.

[LIONS90045]

Is it just me or does anyone else think the Zags defense will be focused on Cam?
Who is going to step up and help carry the team?
Sniper can score if he’s on and healthy.

[sittingon50]

Feb 15, 2023 15:05:03 GMT -5 LIONS90045 said:

Is it just me or does anyone else think the Zags defense will be focused on Cam?
Who is going to step up and help carry the team?
Sniper can score if he’s on and healthy.

They were focused on him last month,45. He dropped 27 on us up here. To be honest I don't think we have anyone on this years team that CAN guard him. Soph. Sallis is generally regarded as our best perimeter defender, but he just isn't physically able to fight thru most screens.

[LIONS90045]

Lions are 7.5 point underdogs.
Can we cover?

[cs17]

Let’s go boys! Lions Nation will be behind you tonight.

Students are already lining up to get their limited tickets.

At the very least I know we will be loud tonight.

I’ll probably hurt my foot stomping and getting a hoarse voice, per usual LMU game.

[lambdachi1988lion]

Anybody have any leads on how to stream the game if you don't have CBSN?

Go Lions!!

[slblions08]

Watching on TV. What amazing looking scene before the game.

Unfortunately, about as deflating a start as you can get for the program. They just got overwhelmed by the hype.

[lambdachi1988lion]

At this point, even though it's still early, I'm already getting my eye turned to the USF vs.Pacific game.

Really hoping the Dons can take down the Tigers and then we can get our revenge on Pacific and get close to locking up at least a 4th place spot.

[Mr. LMU '04]

Did any one prepare for this game? No creativeness. No adjustmentments.

[nbdlion22]

Program is full of hot air. All a facade

[thx4leavinjimlynam]

I wasn’t necessarily expecting a victory tonight, but I was just really hoping we would hang with them.

Need defense to kickstart the office. Down 49-20. Somehow if we can get it inside 20 at halftime maybe we can make it interesting in the second half. I’m not giving up on this team.

But if we don’t make a run we also need to be smart and play for Saturday. No reason to keep our starters in if we’re down big in the second half