What's most impressive though, is he did all this as a true floor general, meaning his scoring efficiency didn't come at the cost of thoughtful shot selection (think Matt Carlino and his wild stat lines in the WCC and the Big East), or assists. He is the 5th all-time Zag assists leader. You read correctly, the Zags record holder for threes is also the Zags 5th all-time leader in assists. With such an accomplishment by such a great Zag, it deserves some sort of recognition, so I'm adding the term "ZagSplashed" to the Zagaholic dictionary, which was born with the ZagSlam honor.
So with his 289th dagger, ZAGSPLASHED: Portland.
Sabonis' Anger Management
Domantas Sabonis came out just as hard as in past games, but seemed to channel his anger toward getting into the lane on offense and jamming the lane on defense. As Jack Nicholson put it, he unflustered his game. I have to admit, the referees were tragically bad at letting contact go in the post. Portland's size didn't equate to defensive skill so their bigs didn't know anything else but contact. The Zags bigs all got hacked on offense repeatedly, and there were countless loose-ball fouls (commonly called "over the backs") anytime our bigs got boards. But through all that, Sabonis kept playing hard, even earning an and-1.
Sabonis, channeling his anger.
Two positives, first that Sabonis is still hot-headed, but only with the ball in his hand or crashing the boards, and two, we can expect much better referees come tournament time.
Wiltjer's Defense
Kyle Wiltjer continued to play inspired offense posting 11, 3, 2, 1, but his defense continues to lag. He has the hight and IQ to be damaging in the post on both sides of the ball, but simply hasn't put any meat on his frame (something rather Kelly Olynyk did on his redshirt season). He had no blocks and 3 rebounds in 22 minutes. His lack of Sabonis-esque physicality is a true opportunity cost, especially because his offensive footwork already has him in the top 25 of the Wooden Award Watch.
ZAGSLAPPED: Root Sports
Root Sports inspired yet a third addition to the Zagaholic dictionary. If you were one of the thousands who made of point of tuning in to watch Kevin Pangos set the all time school record for three pointers in an otherwise foregone conclusion of a game, you were instead forced to watch the end of a Clemson at Wake Forrest game in an empty arena. As if that wasn't bad enough, Root Sports showed no urgency switching over to the live game, opting to show numerous angles of the same underwhelming replay before finally relenting (I watched live updates on my phone selfishly hoping Pangos wouldn't take the three, then it come up on my screen while Root Sports was busy not showing the game).
It was too late. Pangos had already ZagSplashed Portland with the record setter. The only way you could have seen it live is if you had one of 6,200 seats at the Kennel (or if you were watching on the WCC's online stream). So Root Sports has earned the first ZagSlapped honors by failing one of it's strongest demographics out of an historic moment.
3 comments:
Let's hope that the "Zagslapped" thing doesn't happen too often!
I get really cheesed when I am not at a home game or away game & have to watch on tv, and the Zag game is preempted by another game that runs over, or worse, goes into OT.
However, I remember some years ago the games were not all televised & we had to listen on the radio.
Gonzaga's Kris Kassel, currently Associate Athletic Director/External Operations, was instrumental during his run as GM w/ IMG Sports Marketing in getting all the Gonzaga games televised as well as starting the Mark few Show, among other things.
Just bringing this up because things are so much better than they used to be.
GO Zags!
Wiltjer is an enigma to me. He seems to play in slow motion. I first I thought maybe he was smooth, but I don't think that's it. Yet he is very effective on offense, both shooting and passing (still looks like slow motion when he drives). On defense, I think he's OK on the perimeter but maybe a little weak in the paint.
I also get the feeling that there may be a animal wanting to get out. After his slow motion behind the back move for layup a couple of games ago, he showed some of the emotion that I'd like to see in his play.
I've noticed what you are seeing as well. He def. looks a bit slow.
Kelly Olynyk looked the same way, yet still very effective.
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