TV take: Much like the fish in Pike Place, Gonzaga’s loss to UConn on ESPN2 was another Seattle flop

If revenge is a dish best served cold, what was the temperature in Climate Pledge Arena on Friday night? A hundred degrees? More?

In the Zags’ second chance to avenge one of their six losses from last season, they failed miserably – as they did against Purdue. The UConn Huskies, who wiped out the Bulldogs by 28 points in an Elite Eight matchup in March, were about half as good in the made-for-TV nonconference battle.

There to bring the Huskies’ 76-63 victory to those who couldn’t get into Climate Pledge Arena were Dan Schulman and Jay Bilas on ESPN2.

What they saw …

• Bilas is nearly unmatched when it comes to breaking down games while they are unfolding, although he also usually gets right to the key elements before the tip . Usually.

He missed Friday night, mainly because UConn rarely did – at least before halftime. “The glass could decide the game,” the former Duke player said as we waited for a weird hold on the opening tip.

It certainly had little impact in the deciding first half, in which the Huskies built a 45-34 lead. No. 10 Gonzaga doubled UConn’s rebound total in the first 20 minutes, including an 8-1 edge on offensive rebounds. That led to an 8-2 edge in second-chance points.

Mainly because the Huskies shot 63% from the floor, including hitting 7 of 9 3-point attempts. In contrast, the Zags (8-3) only took three and made one.

Overall, GU won the rebound battle by six, had 10 more on the offensive end and still couldn’t keep up.

• “They have to get stops,” Seth Greenberg said on the halftime show, playing the role of Captain Obvious as he tried to answer the unanswerable question: How could Gonzaga get back in the game?

Bilas echoed Greenberg’s thoughts after an early second-half timeout, this time trying to answer the same question posed by Schulman. Trailing by 14, how could GU get back into the game?

“They need to defend a heck of a lot better,” Bilas answered, then did Greenberg one better. “They don’t just need one stop. They need to get multiple stops.”

Though, as Bilas pointed out, the Zags played with more defensive intensity after halftime, they neither got enough stops nor really got back into the game. After trailing by 18 at one point, they did cut the lead to 10 with 4 minutes left. Then UConn scored four quick points to put the game away.

• Bilas sounded a lot like the CBS crew from last March, as they watched the Huskies, en route to the school’s fifth national title since 1999, dissect the Zags in Las Vegas. It was a different cast of characters – for both – but the inside-and-out nature of fifth-ranked UConn’s offense seemed awfully familiar.

Donovan Clingan, at 7-foot-2 and 280 pounds, took care of the inside part, hitting 8 of 11 shots and finishing with a game-high 21 points. The rest of the Huskies (10-1) took care of the other part, with Cam Spencer leading the way by nailing 3 of 6 3-pointers as part of 15 points. The Zags, who hit just two 3-pointers, were outscored by 15 points from beyond the arc.

What we saw …

• There are times players don’t play many first-half minutes due to foul trouble. That wasn’t the case for Graham Ike in this one.

The big’s defense against Clingan just left too much to be desired. The UConn center seemed able to go wherever he wanted, pinning Ike way too often, especially early. As Bilas pointed out just before the second half began, Clingan hit four of the first five buckets for the Huskies.

The Huskies’ offensive execution led to much of that, though Ike’s lack of pushback seemed to bother Mark Few as well.

• Once again, only seven Zags played more than 10 minutes. That included the three backcourt players (Dusty Stromer, Nolan Hickman and Ryan Nembhard), who all played the first 31 minutes.

“It is not the deepest team,” Schulman said. “Especially in the backcourt,” Bilas added.

• We mentioned the late start, which just seemed off. After all, the FCS semifinal game between defending champ and top-seeded South Dakota State and Idaho-killer the University of Albany was on ESPN2 just prior to the Seattle Tip-Off, as the Zags’ game was called. The football game ended a few minutes before 7 p.m., mainly because the Jackrabbits rolled to a 59-0 victory.

And yet ESPN still delayed the start until 7:15.

Why? We’re not sure. The time was filled with Greenberg not just dissecting the ensuing matchup but Saturday’s top games as well. Wasn’t there enough time to do that throughout Friday? Or Saturday morning? Instead, folks in Storrs had to wait until 10:15 to watch their favorite team play. It was worth it.