Zags Basketball Insiders Podcast (episode 7): Talking bad matchups, 3-point issues and rotation tweaks
Dec. 18—From staff reports
The good news about Gonzaga's 76-63 loss to UConn on Friday?
The Zags still have some time to close the gap on college basketball's elite teams.
In the latest Zags Basketball Insiders Podcast, Spokesman-Review reporter Jim Meehan and TV analyst and former Gonzaga center Richard Fox discuss the game, compare how the Zags matched up with UConn with Purdue, and what lineup changes might help GU moving forward.
In addition, the two look ahead to Wednesday's game against Jackson State.
Catch the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
A few highlights:
On the NET rankings, where Gonzaga has slipped to 36th:
Meehan: "They are now 0-3 against Quad-1 teams and they're still looking for that marquee win, and they're not getting a lot of help from the people they've played against and beaten: USC's in the mid-80s, UCLA's 120 — both those guys lost here in the last couple days. Washington is in the 59-60 range, and Yale is up to 143."
Fox: "Yeah look, the opportunities are dwindling ... San Diego State on your home floor, which I would imagine would be a nice change of pace for this group just to be able to play in front of their fans against somebody who's worth talking about. And then obviously, the Kentucky game looms pretty large later in the year."
On the loss to UConn:
Meehan: "That's a bad matchup for Gonzaga. That's a bad matchup for most people. They don't have many holes. Purdue is a better matchup for Gonzaga in my opinion, just because maybe don't have as much patience as UConn has on the offensive end. I mean there'd be times the Zags were guarding them for 15, 18, 20 seconds, didn't look like anything was going anywhere and they'd slip a screen and get a layup, or make one dribble penetration, kick and an open 3."
Fox: "UConn's not searching for solutions. They understand who they are, every guy in the rotation understands his role and Hurley's not trying to figure it out. He knows what he has. And then on the flip side, watching Gonzaga and the staff trying to figure out what do we do here? We're trying to figure this out. We've got three backcourt players and four guys on the front line. How do we make this work? It was just evident that they're in a different class right now."
