A Grip on Sports: The loss to West Virginia on Wednesday subtracts from Gonzaga’s start to what still could add up to a special season
A GRIP ON SPORTS • You don’t have to be fluent in calculus to figure out the formula of Gonzaga’s 86-78 overtime defeat Wednesday, but darn if it doesn’t help. Mainly because when an undefeated third-ranked team loses a game it should have won, there has to be some way of quantifying what went wrong.
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• As West Virginia’s Javon Small’s free throw with 35 seconds left in overtime went through the net, giving the Mountaineers what turned out to be an insurmountable six-point lead, the variables involved in GU’s first 2024-25 defeat became clearer.
Grabbing a mechanical pencil, I began scribbling on a nearby napkin. Small’s 31 points had to be part of it. So too did WVU’s 42-36 edge on the glass against the larger Bulldogs. Gonzaga’s season-low eight fastbreak points? Yep. Throw that in. Don’t forget the Zags’ 40% shooting either, which dipped to 33% beyond the arc. It all added up.
But that’s just basic arithmetic. Any fifth-grader could do that. There had to be more to it, right? Some sort of Sheldon Cooper-like-equation with letters and parentheses and such? The kind of math that takes in every variable, defines the undefinable and tells us what really happened.
Sure. My scribbles started with MIA x 2, tried to account for an OCD of 2.5, divided the DOD by 1.7, added in MOA and, just for good measure, assumed an SPFF edge of 16.64. There was a time element, too, something like .01, that had to be accounted for in some manner. As did the SE of .03.
After burning out three calculators, the final result? West Virginia won, 86-78. Imagine that.
Like always, though, showing your work is an expectation. OK. I’ll try.
The root of the Zags’ defeat could be found in the performances of two key starters, Graham Ike and Michael Ajayi. Both just vanished (MIA). Between them, the starting bigs combined to play 32 minutes, score 12 points (on 3-of-11 shooting) and commit an undefinable number of mistakes in ball screen defense.
Because of their disappearances – they played a combined nine minutes after halftime – Ben Gregg and Braden Huff played well over their season averages (MOA). And it showed, especially on the defense end late.
Not giving them a rest was part of the out-of-character mistakes Mark Few and his staff made down the stretch (OCD), with Few blaming himself for not calling a time out as Ryan Nembhard and Nolan Hickman struggled to get the ball past half court in the waning seconds. But there were two odder decisions, one of which came just seconds before.
After Nembhard’s two free throws gave GU a 71-66 lead with 25 seconds left, Few replaced him with 6-foot-5 sophomore transfer Emmanuel Innocenti, who had not played a second up to that point. A defensive change, sure. But, predictably, Innocenti, Hickman and Gregg failed to communicate effectively as the Mountaineers ran a quick action to free Tucker DeVries for a long 3-pointer. The switches were just slow enough to allow DeVries time to cut the lead to two.
And that lead disappeared seconds later when Hickman lost the ball, DeVries earned the benefit of another debatable whistle (DOD) and made both free throws. A pre-turnover time out? It would have helped. But the decision to sub out Nembhard between free throws was worse. After DeVries tied the score, Few called his last time out before the ball was inbounded, and sent Nembhard back on the floor. Uh, that’s not allowed. None of the final 5 seconds had ticked off. It was a surprising error and cost Gonzaga its most reliable decision-maker in the final possession – which ended in a Khalif Battle turnover.
A five-point lead (SE) squandered in 25 seconds (TE).
In overtime, DeVries took over and Gonzaga faded away. In all, the coach’s son (SPFF) scored 16 points, added six rebounds, four assists and exhibited a masterful command of inside help defense.
Throw all that into IBM’s Watson and what do you get? Maybe not the true answer. West Virginia’s upset – Gonzaga was favored by 15.5 points – may not have been about numbers at all. Want-to is unquantifiable. So is effort, aggressiveness and energy. All played key roles. Anyone could see it.
Even those of us without math degrees.
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WSU: Saturday’s matchup with Wyoming is not only the final football game of the regular season, it is, as always, Senior Day. The Cougars have 17 folks to say goodbye to, including Kyle Thornton. The linebacker rose through the ranks, going from a little-used walk-on to a key part of the defense the last two season. Greg Woods takes some time today to sum it all up. … The Cougars played well without Cedric Coward again. For about 30 minutes. But after that SMU took over and rolled to a 77-60 victory. Greg covered the Acrisure Holiday Invitational championship game in California from Pullman last night. … Elsewhere in the (new and old) Pac-12, the Mountain West and the nation, John Canzano updates us on the conference’s media and expansion strategy. … Jon Wilner has his men’s Best of the West basketball rankings in the Mercury News. Despite Wednesday’s loss, he leaves Gonzaga at the top. … He also predicts Kyle Whittingham will call it quits at Utah after Saturday’s game. … Hey, Cougar fans, would you rather see your team bowl in Las Vegas or San Diego? … The weekend draws closer, so there are picks concerning the nation’s games. … If money means anything, the answer to this question is no. But the Times’ Mike Vorel wonders if Kalen DeBoer leaving Washington was a mistake for the coach. … The Huskies are in Eugene this week, trying to hand Dan Lanning a fourth consecutive loss in the rivalry series. Oregon’s coach has yet to celebrate a win over UW. Win Saturday and the top-ranked Ducks head to the Big Ten title game undefeated. … Oregon State plays tomorrow morning at Boise State, which is a challenge and an opportunity for the Beavers. … Arizona and Arizona State may be in a new conference. But the Territorial Cup is the same old rivalry. … So is the one between UCLA and USC, as last weekend showed. Now the Trojans have another. … In the Mountain West, the Boise State coaching staff has a lot to be thankful for. … The long-tenured quarterback coach at Hawaii is retiring. … We were wrong yesterday. The San Jose State volleyball controversy was not over. Boise State gave up any chance of playing in the NCAA tournament by announcing Wednesday it would forfeit Friday’s Mountain West Conference semifinal to the Spartans. SJSU moves into the final, where it will play the winner of Colorado State and San Diego State. At least there is little chance of a forfeit. … In basketball news, Washington’s men have a new starter. That freshman Zoom Diallo is it comes as no surprise. … Oregon topped San Diego State to raise its record to 7-0. … The Oregon State women snapped their four-game losing streak.
Gonzaga: We covered all the ground we wanted to cover above. And Theo Lawson covered the action in his game story and the recap with highlights he put together along with the folks in the office. … Jim Meehan pointed out a key to West Virginia’s success as well as the three main stars in his buzzer beater. … Tyler Tjomsland turned his camera lenses to the action and put together this photo report. … Finally, Dave Boling wrote about accountability, the most important lesson the Zags should learn from the game. … There was coverage of the game elsewhere too.
EWU and Idaho: A bunch of Vandals and Eagles are finalists for national awards. That news and more is contained within the S-R’s latest local briefs column. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, no matter what, one Montana player will fight to the end. He has proved that already. … Northern Arizona is headed on the road for its FCS first-round playoff game. … Montana State dominated the major conference football awards, from coach of the year to freshman. … Even last-place Northern Colorado earned some honors. … In basketball news, Sacramento State rallied past Air Force. … The Montana men won a tournament.
Chiefs: Spokane is, according to Dave Nichols, playing some of its best hockey of the season. The Chiefs ran their winning streak to four at the Arena last night, topping Kamloops 6-2. … But there was some bad news for the organization. Spokane hoped to host the 2026 Memorial Cup. It won’t. The Canadian Hockey League awarded it to Kelowna.
Seahawks: Today’s schedule is packed with, what? Turkeys? Appetizing matchups? A desert that features ice? All of it. … Geno Smith returns to play the Jets. … Coby Bryant won awards this week. And may be fined. … The receiving corps is banged up. … The defensive line is getting healthier, though.
Kraken: A home defeat? Yep. Seattle dropped a 5-2 decision to Anaheim.
Sounders: We passed along this story from the Times yesterday. It tells us Seattle will be without a key player the rest of their playoff run. Instead, the Sounders will have a first-time playoff starter on the pitch.
Storm: The league’s investigation of how Seattle treated a player is still going on.
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• Have a happy Thanksgiving. Don’t eat too much. Or argue with Uncle Pete and Aunt Martha. Until later …