Gonzaga rewind: Defense, Anton Watson’s epic effort and tournament takeaways

HONOLULU – Gonzaga’s high-powered offenses received most of the kudos as the Zags cemented their status as a national power.

The defense often resided in the background while making incremental improvement. In the case of the 2017 team, the defense and offense shared the limelight when the Zags reached the national championship game.

The 2023-24 season is only five games old and one was against an overmatched NAIA opponent, but early returns show the defense has done more than its share of the work for the Zags, who are 4-1 overall after a 2-1 showing at the Maui Invitational.

We take a closer look at the defense, Anton Watson’s magical night against UCLA and tournament takeaways in our latest Gonzaga rewind.

High marks for the ‘D’

Save for one half at the Maui Invitational, Gonzaga’s defense performed at a high level.

UCLA managed just 34 points in the first half, 17 courtesy of the free-throw line, and 31 in the closing half. The Bruins made 35% from the field.

Syracuse was limited to 25 first-half points and 57 for the game. The Orange made 35.9% of their shots.

The Zags led Purdue 35-30 at half. The Boilermakers heated up in the final 20 minutes with 43 points on 54.5% shooting for a 73-63 victory.

The defense “has been really good,” Few said following Wednesday’s win over UCLA. “Its definitely ahead of our offense right now, but hopefully we can get back home and work on some stuff again.”

Few and the coaching staff continue to juggle rotations and roles, a process that began at the outset of fall practices and intensified when Steele Venters went down with a season-ending torn ACL a few days before the season opener against Yale.

“We didn’t have Graham (Ike) early and now we have Graham. We had Steele and now we don’t have Steele, so we’re still figuring stuff out,” Few said. “But to come in here and compete, that’s the most important thing. I’m proud of how we competed.”

Gonzaga shut down Yale 76-61 in the season opener. The Ivy League Bulldogs returned most of their key players from a squad that averaged nearly 76 points per game last season.

The Zags lack the rim protection Chet Holmgren provided a few seasons ago, but their four-man frontcourt was effective for the most part squaring off against several tall, talented bigs in three tournament games.

Reigning national player of the year Zach Edey has a strong second half and finished with 25 points on 8-of-16 shooting, essentially a day at the office for the 7-foot-4 center. Still, he appeared frustrated at times in the opening half, putting up several contested, off-balance attempts while making just 4 of 11 from the field.

Syracuse’s 7-4 Naheem McLeod, who makes more of an impact at the defensive end, had seven points in 20 minutes.

UCLA post Adem Bona, projected as a lottery pick by some, 7-3 Aday Mara and 6-10 Kenneth Nwuba were in foul trouble, much like Syracuse’s bigs, and combined for just 14 points in 39-plus minutes.

Gonzaga yielded some numbers to talented guards – Purdue’s Braden Smith and Lance Jones combined for 26 points, Syracuse’s Judah Mintz had 22 points and UCLA’s Sebastian Mack scored 16 – but Jones (42.8%) and Mack (40%) shot well below 50%.

Watson’s big finish

Watson was a standout pitcher as a youngster before he decided to concentrate on hoops. The fifth-year senior nearly fired a perfect game against UCLA, hitting 14 of 15 shots en route to a career-best 32 points.

He got tagged for a couple of runs in the first few innings – the basketball equivalent being his 0-of-5 shooting and scoreless first half against Purdue – but Watson pretty much hit everything else out of the park in the last five halves of the tournament.

He was 4 of 5 from the field and scored eight points in the second half against the Boilermakers. Against Syracuse, he put up 12 points on 54.5% shooting and equaled his career high with 13 rebounds.

He scored in every way possible against the Bruins – assertive post moves, soaring dunks, smooth 3-pointers and soft-touch jump hooks and bank shots.

“We didn’t tell anybody not to guard him,” said UCLA coach Mick Cronin, who had mentioned earlier in his post-game remarks that Bona inadvertently left Watson open a few times. “Give the kid credit, he hit some tough ones. He hit a couple really tough jump hooks. If you can make a jump hook from outside the paint on the baseline, that’s almost like a 10-footer, man.”

Few called it a “great performance” and emphasized the fact that GU “needed every one” of Watson’s 32 points.

Maui Invitational takeaways

Gonzaga didn’t achieve what it set out to do in Honolulu. The goal was hoisting the trophy to join the 2018 and 2009 squads as Maui champion.

After falling to No. 2 Purdue in the opener, the Zags did the next best thing: winning their last two games to take fifth place. They pulled away from Syracuse and held off UCLA, which was close to cracking the top 25 and nearly upset No. 4 Marquette in the first round.

So give the Zags passing marks while keeping in mind that Purdue defeated Gonzaga, No. 7 Tennessee and Marquette to claim the title. The Boilermakers figure to take over the top spot in the next Associated Press poll with No. 1 Kansas falling to Marquette and finishing third in the tournament.

“Yeah, we lost to a good team in Purdue,” Watson said. “We still have a lot of work to do. I don’t think we’re satisfied … but we have to take the positives and build off that. Come (out) 2-1 in this tournament with all these teams, you shouldn’t hang your head about that.

“Every single game we played hard and there’s a lot of things to build off of.”