Pre-game Report: Pepperdine

Coming into the start of WCC play, not many had the Pepperdine road game circled on their calendars. However, after a 4-1 start, including a commanding win at BYU, Pepperdine has emerged as a team not to be overlooked and legitimate threat in the West Coast conference. The Waves stifled BYU's high octane offence only one week ago to steal a win against a heavily favoured opponent, and will look to repeat that performance tomorrow night versus the Zags.

It all starts on the defensive end for the Waves, who rank 1st overall nationally in opponent three point percentage and 48th in opponents points per game. A scrappy, well coached defensive squad, Pepperdine does an excellent job taking away easy looks. Luckily, despite their overall defensive strength, Pepperdine has a clear weakness inside. They lack the size to match up with Karnowski, Wiltjer, and Sabonis so look for Gonzaga to pound it down low early and often. As the game goes on, we should hopefully see some looks opening up for our shooters that the Waves typically do an outstanding job in taking away.

Junior power forward, Stacy Davis, is a bonafide stud and an All-WCC talent for Pepperdine. An extremely versatile player, capable of playing inside and out, Davis presents a real match up problem for Gonzaga's front court. His quickness will make it difficult for Wiltjer to stay with him so, depending on line-ups, don't be surprised to see Wesley get a turn guarding him. He's without a doubt Pepperdine's go to guy and, make no mistake, is capable of hurting the Zags badly in this one. Keeping him around his average is crucial in avoiding the upset.

While keeping Davis in check in priority number one, there is plenty of other talent on the squad with the ability to cause some damage. 6'7 forward, Jett Raines, is second on the team in scoring and makes up for his lack of height with superior quickness and athletic ability. Raines can do some damage from outside and has a face up game that is hard to contain, but hopefully the Zags size and length down low can help make things more difficult than he's used to. What Pepperdine's front court lacks in depth, it makes up for with its back court depth.  Pepperdine sports a solid 4 man back court rotation that's full of young talent. Jeremy Major, Shawn Olden, Atif Russell, and Amadi Udenyi all average between 10 and 6 points a piece, with any one of them capable of going off on any given night. The main emphasis of their guards is on the defensive end though, as Pangos, Bell, and Wesley will surely be hounded all game long. The ability of our guards to handle the constant pressure (Good thing we have 3 seniors starting!) will be a huge factor in dictating the outcome of this contest.

An unexpected but welcome additional challenge to the WCC schedule, Pepperdine should be a fun and closely contested battle. Road games with defensively oriented teams who present odd match up problems on the offensive end are usually a recipe for disaster. However, as bad as Davis can give it to our frontcourt, we should return it twofold. And as good a defensive group as Pepperdine is, they haven't faced a back court as experienced as Gonzaga's before. This game will be won on the inside for Gonzaga. Karnowski is the X-factor in this one, and should have a monster game.

Prediction: Gonzaga 73  Pepperdine 62