Day after Davidson
Good late morning after a late-night flight home from Seattle. Back with the day after Davidson post, following GU's the-future-looks-bright 103-91 win at the Battle in Seattle. Like the announced attendance of 13,176 (down from recent years), there were fewer media members present at the Battle, but we'll tell you what they had to say about the game, too.
Same drill as always -- links up here, more details below.
LINKS: S-R gamer, John Blanchette's column, photos (No. 3 -- shown above -- pretty much summarizes this game), Seattle Times gamer and column, Tacoma News Tribune column, A.P. gamer, and the Seattlepi.com.
UPDATE: Here's a link to Davidson's web site for an article (you can also access Bob McKillop's post-game interview there); and an article in DavidsonNews.net.
Read on.
We’ll start out, well, at the beginning. It was clear from the start what Gonzaga was going to do without Matt Bouldin in the lineup: go inside to Rob Sacre and Elias Harris (The Bruise Brothers?). It was clear, too, what Davidson was going to do – foul the bigs and force them to earn points at the line rather than surrender easy baskets.
And that’s how it played out. The duo scored GU’s first 10 points – it would have been 13 if they’d made all their free throws. Sacre and Harris would combine for 50 points, 13 of 15 FG shooting and 22 of 32 FT shooting. The Wildcats were called for 34 fouls. Two players fouled out and four more finished with four fouls.
“We needed him to score this year,” head coach Mark Few said of his off-season instructions to Sacre. “He needed to develop his low-post game. Prior to this he’s always been kind of an angle guy. He never really had a lot of go-to moves in the post. He’s done a phenomenal job, he’s going over his left shoulder, right shoulder. He’s developed just a tremendous touch in there and that’s not easy to do.”
--Gonzaga got a pretty good look at the future with Bouldin unable to play - not just at next year’s team, but the one two years down the road. At one point, GU had two sophomores (first-year Zag Bol Kong and Demetri Goodson) and three freshmen (Kelly Olynyk, Manny Arop and Harris) on the floor.
Bouldin has been GU’s best and most consistent player the last two-plus seasons, but the Zags functioned well without him, at least offensively. Grant Gibbs stepped into the starting lineup and came up with two points, three assists and eight rebounds.
“It didn’t really change anything,” Gibbs said of his starting assignment. “I try to prepare for every game like I’m going to get a lot of time. I’ve been talking to Matt and I kind of had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to go.”
Gibbs said Bouldin didn’t offer any advice, but “he kind of gave me a smile when coach said I was starting.”
--Goodson got another talking-to from Few, who has stressed at a couple of different junctures this season that he wants his sophomore point guard to push the ball at every opportunity Goodson delivered Saturday with 22 points. He had attempted 24 free throws in GU’s first nine games. He was 10 of 13 at the line vs. Davidson.
“He got back to playing the way he needs to play,” Few said.
Like many of the Zags, who came in shooting 67.5 percent from the stripe as a team, Goodson had better results Saturday.
“That has to do with the coaches and practice,” he said. “Coach (Jerry) Krause does a great job of getting us to the free-throw line and making sure we get our shots up every day.”
The only sore spot on the stat line for Goodson was his six turnovers. Two came late, including an ill-advised drive into two defenders where he drew a charging foul with 1:35 left and Gonzaga protecting a 13-point lead. He got an earful from Few for that one.
--Kong provided instant offense again. The sophomore forward had five points in GU’s 17-0 first-half spurt. In the second half he added four more, including turning down a 3 for a drive that resulted in a five-foot bank shot. He had nine points in 15 minutes. In 73 minutes this season, he has 44 points. He’s made 9 of 15 3s.
--Olynyk didn’t have much success putting the ball in the hoop (0 for 3) and he had a misstep or two defensively (nearly everyone did), but he did lead the team with four assists. He had back-to-back assists in Gonzaga second-half surge that created an 11-point lead.
--I spoke briefly with Bouldin before the game. He said he was still feeling the effects from butting heads with Augustana’s Troy Rorer on Wednesday. He said there was some risk if he were to take another blow to his head so soon after the original hit. Therefore, the decision was made to sit out Saturday.
--Steven Gray was below-the-radar effective with 16 points (three 3-pointers), 3 of 3 FTs, two boards and one block. He helped handle point guard duties and he finished with no turnovers in 30 minutes. He had 12 turnovers in Gonzaga’s previous three games.
QUOTEBOOK
Goodson on GU’s offense/defense: “We were clicking on all cylinders offensively. Defensively we gave up, what, 88, 91. Coach wasn’t too happy with that, but this was our first win in
Gray on Goodson’s speed: “When you have Meech pushing the ball like that and getting to the basket, it opens up so many things for the wings and the bigs.”
Few on playing without Bouldin: “If we would have known earlier we could have (adjusted more). I wanted the team to know (at the pre-game meal) that he wasn’t playing so they could start preparing right there, mentally. I told everybody it was an opportunity, for pretty much everybody. Even if he wasn’t at your position, it opened up a lot of scoring and play-making and I think Rob and Elias took it to heart, and I really think Meech did.”
Few on Davidson’s long-range marksmanship: “They’re so dangerous because if you let your guard down for one instant they just make you pay. Our scout team did a decent job of mimicking it but it just wasn’t at the pace Davidson plays. I thought (Brendan) McKillop was phenomenal and their bigs were crafty. They keep their cuts all the way to the rim and we’d kind of lose sight of them.”
Few on GU’s schedule: “We’ve played nothing but big game, big game, big game. We were just talking as a staff. We haven’t had too many possessions we could take off.”
Harris on the difference in the second half: “Defense, just defense. The first half, (they) had too many open shots. The second half we put more pressure on the ball, that was key.”
