NCAA basketball

The Idaho men’s basketball team struggled on the defensive end and fell 82-67 to Southern Utah in a nonconference game in San Diego on Saturday.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Nic McClain scored 26 points, but the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team couldn’t overcome poor shooting in a 79-68 nonconference loss to Cal Baptist on Saturday.

Some three decades ago, Quentin Hall was a young Bahamian guard who turned out to be a gem that would play a key role in establishing the foundation for the basketball phenomenon that Gonzaga would become. And the coach that recruited him – Mark Few – would become the winningest active coach in college basketball.

A few weeks ago, longtime ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla was courtside at the Toyota Center for a nonconference matchup between top-10 heavyweights Auburn and Houston – teams that currently sit No. 4 and 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Eastern Washington guard Nic McClain heads to the basket as Washington State forward LeJuan Watts defends during the first half of Thursday’s nonconference game at the Arena.

For as much as there was a reunion on the Arena court on Thursday night, there was almost as much of one off it.

Gonzaga owned the final 2 minutes and 43 seconds Thursday.

PULLMAN – Washington State may have found the perfect opportunity for its safeties and nickels to erase some of their forgettable recent outings.

Kansas 7-foot-2 center Hunter Dickinson, Auburn’s 6-10 Johni Broome and 7-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner – GU point guard Ryan Nembhard’s former teammate at Creighton – receive the most publicity nationally, but few teams have a pair of bigs like Ike and Huff.

Here are three observations from No. 3 Gonzaga’s 84-41 win over Long Beach State Wednesday night at McCarthey Athletic Center.

Chris Acker made the most of the 48 hours between Gonzaga’s game against San Diego State on Monday evening and Wednesday’s matchup between his Long Beach State team and the Bulldogs at McCarthey Athletic Center.

The third-ranked Zags rolled to an 84-41 victory in its final tune-up before next week’s Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.

Stellar point guard play from Ryan Nembhard. Posts Graham Ike and Braden Huff combining for roughly their season average point total. The bench coming up big again.And the defense putting together another quality effort. Those have been Gonzaga’s trademarks early on this season and all were on display Wednesday against visiting Long Beach State.

During the last couple of men’s basketball seasons, it was common for David Riley to talk about how competitive Eastern Washington’s practices were, and how the reserves played every bit as well as the starters.

MOSCOW, Idaho – It took Julius “Juice” Mims getting undercut on one of his signature jams off a lob to ignite Idaho’s balky offense.

SAN DIEGO – Gonzaga scored a number of small wins on the stat sheet to emerge with a larger victory on Monday night, beating San Diego State 80-67 at Viejas Arena.

Neither the West Coast Conference coaches nor media knew the rocky start the Gonzaga women’s basketball team would face when the Zags were picked to defend their regular-season championship.

It's quite possible Long Beach State first-year head coach Chris Acker connected with his former boss, San Diego State’s Brian Dutcher, for some info on Gonzaga after the Zags’ latest win.

This won’t be Devin Askew’s first visit to Gonzaga’s McCarthey Athletic Center.