Round Robin Q & A with Zag Players

We had a round robin of Q&As with some Gonzaga players today...here is what they had to say:

First, Gary Bell was asked about his history playing in Key Arena and if he was a Sonic’s fan. He said ”I was definitely a Sonic’s fan and went to a couple games as a kid.” He also mentioned that he “played there four games in the battle in Seattle” and was “pretty familiar with the floor and was "glad to be playing there.” Bell also mentioned that "losing to BYU gave us a chip on our shoulder and helped us step our game up. It showed us we can lose and it got us going."

Asked if he had any trepidation about playing a 15 seed where people might get on the back of the underdog, Bell said "No, we won’t have any fear. We’ll just go out and play our game." and that "when we’re playing our best we’re hard to beat. We’ll go out there and give it our all, 100%."

Kyle Wiltjer was asked what he'd been doing since the WCC Tourney, what had he been focused on? His response was that “We've just been focused on getting better everyday, competing against each other, and we’re excited to know who we’re going to be playing so we can prepare for someone else now. Asked if they were playing their best basketball he replied "No, we’re leaving that for the tournament."

When asked how was it handling the emotion from beating BYU. Was it an especially emotional victory? He replied “it was just an average one for us. We just wanted to use that win to get better and learn from it moving forward and realize how hard we played."

Kevin Pangos was asked if anything was particularly striking in regards to the selection show today and being in the south region, to which his reply was "nothing really stuck us as a surprise but it was nice to see that we were in Seattle where our fans can travel and it’s nice and close." Also, "its an Arena that we've played at before, we’re happy with the bracket and that we’re a 2 seed. Now all we have to do is play really well."

Asked if he had any feelings about potentially playing EWU he said "no, not really, it might have seemed a little weird since they are so close but no, we’re just happy to be in Seattle. "we didn't care who we played."

Asked if they had any thoughts on BYU making the tourney, they all laughed, then Pangos said "not really, it's good for our conference. But we're focused on ourselves. Pangos said they don't really talk much about the "streak" of consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tourney, because they live in the moment. But it shows the consistency we have in the program, but, it's the past and we want to focus on our journey this year."

More Q@A's with Coach Few later.... update: here is that link!--   Mark Few

GO Zags!!~