The announcers mentioned it time and time again, "The problem with being the number one, is that you get everyone's best shot." While Gonzaga is yet to be ranked number one, that didn't stop the Cougars from giving the Zags everything they had. The game started quickly with Gary bell scoring 10 and Kelly Olynyk netting 7, leading the Bulldogs to an early 23-14 lead. BYU would not go away however, as Brandon Davies and Tyler Haws kept the Cougars close all night. In fact despite never trailing the entire game, the most Gonzaga ever led by was 9 points.
The Zags were able to pull out the win tonight, even though according to the stats (except for the score obviously) they should have lost. Gonzaga was out rebounded 39-35, made less field goals, shot only 20% from arc, lost the offensive rebounding battle 13-7, shot a worse free throw percentage, and missed a total of 14 free throws (including a number of front ends of 1-and-1s).
The Zags should have lost due to strategy as well. BYU played 4 guards most of the night, and were constantly in foul trouble, but the Zags constantly settled for jumpers and shot only 6-30 from 3 point land. The cougars played a simple compact zone and Gonzaga didn't attack it like they needed to.
Player Ratings
Pangos- Overall 6. I know this is a surprisingly high number for a player who shot 2-13 and hoisted up 12 3's, but he was doing it for the right reasons. He was trying to get them to stretch the defense. Should have fed the post more and tried driving at bigs that were in foul trouble.
Bell- Overall 8. Bell was our only threat from the outside and played solid defense to keep the Cougars to under 40% from the field. He has a great motor and ability to play hard for a solid 33 minutes.
Olynyk- Overall 8. It continues to be difficult to find a lot to blame Kelly for. He played tough and made smart plays when he got the ball. It would be nice to see him put a little more effort into rebounding, but ultimately KO was our go-to-guy.
Harris- Overall 8. Harris had great position all game long. Establish position low on offense, and put himself in great rebounding position on offense. Had a couple plays on offense where he forced it when it wasn't there and other times where he needed to drive it straight at the BYU big men in foul trouble, but overall played a solid game.
Hart- Player of the Game Overall 9. Did he make a silly play at the end of the game, yes. Did he miss every shot he took, yes. Did he have a team high in turnovers, yes. Somehow even after all that, Hart is the guy who stuck out in my mind as the reason we won this game. Hart played tough, physical defense with intensity. He set the tone with his play and put the game away with an athletic rebound at the end of the game. Below is a quote from an opposing coach about Hart's play.
“They're super physical. They've always been that way, but this particular group is off the charts in that aspect. Everyone wants to talk about [Kelly] Olynyk, but the guy who establishes that is Mike Hart. He's probably one of the most underrated players in the country. He doesn't turn it over. He is relentless, competitive, crashes the offensive glass at every opportunity. You've gotta account for him. He impacts the game in a lot of different ways. I think he's what makes them a title contender."
PK- Overall 4. Played just 3 minutes, and they were all early on in the game. Was afraid to really bang around with his body and was being out-hustled by the Cougars, Few rewarded him with some time on the bench.
Dower- Overall 7. Didn't miss a shot during the game, 3-3 FGs and 2-2 FTs, but was not playing smart on defense. Picked up 3 quick fouls, something that we can deal with this year, but if he is going to be a key player he will have to shore that up in the future.
Dranginis- Overall 8. For the life of me I could not figure out why Dranginis was pulled and why he did not play more. His length was causing problems for BYU on defense, he hit the only 3 he took, drew a foul DRIVING into the zone from the wing, and he did all of this in just four minutes. Should have hit his FTs, but so should a lot of players.
Barham- Overall 5. Strong rebounder, but Gonzaga sorely missed his 3-point shooting ability. Could have used his outside shot to help stretch the zone and keep them accountable. Was 0-3 from 3 point range.
Stockton- Overall 6. Played surprisingly well on defense and baited BYU into multiple turnovers. Did not shoot the ball well and like Pangos, did not look to get inside the zone enough
Edi- Did not play enough to evaluate, which is unfortunate because he slashing ability might have helped against the zone.
11 comments:
This game reminded me of playing Syracuse in the NCAA tournament. We went into half still in the game, because we had been executing our game plan of feeding the bigs against their Zone.
Then the second half we just settled for jump shot after jump shot and ended up losing by like 20. It was disgusting.
I am happy we won. I think it sends a strong message that despite our worst shooting night of the year and getting out-rebounded and our poor free throw numbers that we still rose above and pulled out the win. That takes poise. When a game is going that badly, it is hard not to play emotionally and take the L. We rose above...I'll take it.
My one knock against Hart and it is something I have noticed several times this year, he doesn't pay much attention to the shot clock. He needs to keep an eye out for that!
I am tired of hearing about how we didn't play well last night. That is totally false. We played great. With excellent heart and focus. We got good shots offensively. No, they didn't go down, but the most efficient shots in basketball are layups, followed by free throws, followed by open threes. We had that ALL NIGHT. We were so efficient early that BYU simply gave up the three point shot in the hopes that we would miss... and unfortunately we did. But they were good three point shooters with good looks, for the most part. Pangos shot 12 3's and probably 8 of them were VERY good looks. He's not gonna miss that often. Same with Barham.
Mark Few described that game as well as you can: it was a rock fight. In one of the toughest places to play in the country, against a team that wanted nothing but to knock of #1 in waiting. We couldn't hit a 3. We couldn't hit a FT. There were times we couldn't get a call. And we still won.
That's a quality win.
The Syracuse comparison is a really good one Brianna, and I'm going to extend it a bit. What was so frustrating about that game, as you said, was that we were trading blows with an elite team by pounding them inside and sticking to our game plan. We fell apart when we starting taking open or barely contested threes and leaving our post players out of the offense. What happened last night was similar, though you could see adjustment were made to work the ball through the paint near the end of the game.
I think Call_me_Coach nailed it on the head. I was at the game (not sober for the first 10 minutes) and I kept telling whoever would listen that if Pangos and Bell (and, to a lesser extent, Stockton, Barham or Dranginis) are gonna get WIDE OPEN looks at three point shots, they absolutely have to take them. Those guys are excellent shooters, and all of them (saving Bell and Draino, who could have shot/played more) had an off night at the same time. That is unlikely. A wide open three for Pangos is a high efficiency shot and a shot I'd be happy with every time even if he's having a bad game. He's a shooter and sometimes you have to shoot your way out of a slump. The adjustments that were really key for the win involved moving KO around the top of the key and feeding the ball into Harris on the baseline. It stretched the zone a bit and led to better shots, but I really can't fault any of our perimeter guys for taking wide open threes deep into the shot clock. We'll need those adjustments again in the tournament.
Last night was a tough game. We led all night but couldn't put it away even when we had the opportunity to blow the game up (KO's intentional foul shots with a 3 pointer right after was a great moment for us to extend the lead). Then again, it's hard to put someone away early on the road, with the crowd rallying.
kg- you can just call me coach if you want. Wink!
Coach,
A quality win, Yes. But did we play well? No.
I have no problem with KP taking those shots when they are open, none at all, like you said, he is going to make those more often then not. I do have a problem with us settling for those shots when we have the other team in foul trouble.
The other issue is we have one of the best front courts in the nation and could not figure out how to get it down low on numerous sets. We needed more focus on getting those guys a touch and then working from the inside out.
We did exactly what you said, we settled for the shots that BYU were giving. I don't like that. I want us to control the game plan, i want us to be aggressive and stick to what we wanted to do on offense.
On defense we played great, until the ball was in the air, we needed to do a better job getting a body on someone and rebounding the ball. There is no reason they should be out-rebounding us, especially with our size advantage.
Easiest shots are lay-ups (dunks), free throws and then open threes. We didnt fight to get those lay-ups (dunks) enough, we shot terribly from the charity stripe, and we settled for option 3.
I think this was a great win that showed great toughness on the part of the zags, and i think few was spot on describing it as a rock fight (love that visual), but we did not play a good game. Or at least not at the level we can and should be playing.
Gu played hard got lucky and won another grinder, with that said, 30 shots from deep or 30 of 53 shots taken for about 57% of your total shots....that is just stupid. GBJ attacked the zone, none of the other guards did, they just heaved threes. Terrible. GU shot almost 70% inside the arc but only took 23 shots there. Stupid. They got to the line 34 times only to miss 14 of them. Terrible.
If that was Cuse, who btw plays 2-3 zone just like that but with WAY less open looks at the 3...GU loses by 20.
You are kidding yourself if you think GU was anything but fortunate to play the way they did and get out of there with a win.
but... I will take it.
*note to KP: stop shooting threes in Provo...you are like 1 for 300...
all that said...I will take it. they won ugly...on to senior night!
Crash-
Yes and no. In a vacuum, yeah, it's great to "dictate" and "be agressive" and "control the game plan." But in an actual game, any given team is only in control of about 40% of what's going on. 40% to one team, 40% to the other, 10% to the refs and 10% to the fans.
BYU was using its 40% to say: "NO EFFING WAY DO YOU GET THE BALL INSIDE. WE ARE GOING TO DEFEND THE PAINT WITH 5 GUYS AND OLYNYK WITH 3."
Gonzaga can't control that. Forcing the ball inside against an ultra compact zone would've only resulted in turnovers, and the only way to get them out of it is to punish it by making shots. For the most part, those 3's were not contested. And they weren't early shot clock 3's either. They were the result of probing, usually for 15-20 seconds, and then a good look came and we took it.
30 threes! YOu realize that if we only hit a reasonable percentage (33.3%?) that we win the game by 17.
I think in a situation like this, it's too easy to say "we played good" or "we played bad" based on whether or not shots went in. If we went 10-30 from three last night and won 82-65, this forum would be ecstatic. No, we didn't shoot well. But yes, we DID play well.
(Rebounding notwithstanding)
I love the rebounding notwithstanding comment you ended with.
It wouldnt have had to be an all out drive to the hoop every time, but dribble penetration is another way to breakdown a zone, something we did rarely, but when we did it worked.
Im talking one or two dribbles and make the defense adjust, and if its not there kick it out for an open 3. That is where the 3 pointers will be more effective. It's an easier shot and more in rhythm because your body is already facing the basket.
as for the if we only made 33% comment...im not going down that rabbit hole, as that leads to a Illinois team of "are they great or are they terrible"
We did not play great. Some of our worse numbers all season against a very physical pumped up team playing on Senior Night.
Their game plan was to plug the center which they did effectively. The only way to break that open as mentioned above is some dribble penetration and hitting three's. we didn't do either with any effectiveness. But we did win and I don't think we would have with many past teams.
Would we have won against Michigan or Duke playing this way? I'm not going to go there because there are plenty of opinions about that on more message boards than I want to mention. However, Michigan, Duke and Indiana did not win their games when faced with similar circumstances. In second thought, I do want to go there and the answer is a guarded Yes. I do think we wiould have won that game against other so called elite teams.
I'm glad we won, I think it was a great late season test for the team, and I'm glad we got all of those misses out of our system
Gonzaga led the whole way. Yes, we were missing a LOT of threes but Provo is one difficult place to win in, they have a winning % of .793 in the Marriott Center over it's 40 years. Including,a record of 179-19 in the 13 years. To beat that team on senior night was going to take some doing. Nobody wins there, let alone on senior night!
Senior Brock Zylstra said "It was crazy in there. I couldn't hear myself think. It was just so loud.
BYU's Coach Rose said "They're comparable to the North Carolina team we played in Vegas a few years ago, that ended up winning a National Championship. They're deep, they have great point guard play, they have great post play, they didn't shoot the ball extremely well tonight that kind of kept us in the game, but they found another way to win."
BYU's senior Brandon Davies said " at times in the game you could not hear a thing.
Maybe all the screaming from the 21,000 plus fans had something to do with Pangos missing so many shots?
I have been thinking about this win all day and even though I wish it had not been so close, we won, and to do so in that kind of an atmosphere is a major feat indeed.
So now we're 28-2 and pushing for a one seed! I have been smilin all day long!!~
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