Gonzaga ‘open to anything’ after posting historically bad numbers during rough defensive stretch in WCC

Nearly a full page of Gonzaga’s media guide is devoted to games where the Bulldogs have reached one of college basketball’s elusive milestones.

The Zags have scored in triple digits 108 times since 1955, dwarfing the number of games (34) where they’ve surrendered at least 100 points.

Not surprisingly, the ratio of games where Gonzaga’s made 50% of its shots from the field, as opposed to games where the Bulldogs have given up 50%, is fairly similar. There’s no official total in the media guide for either, but it’s much easier to hand-count games where the Zags have allowed 50% from the field – a testament to the offensive/defensive balance Mark Few’s teams have shown while piling up victories and NCAA Tournament appearances over the decades.

After Gonzaga lost 103-99 to Santa Clara on Saturday while giving up 53% shooting in another listless defensive performance, it was worth indulging in that exercise to explore just how far the Bulldogs have regressed.

Game-by-game statistics only go back as far as Few’s first season, but since the coach took over in 1999-2000, Gonzaga had only allowed 50% shooting in 73 games heading into the 2024-25 campaign, an average of 2.9 times per season.

With that in mind, the recent three-game stretch becomes even more jarring.

After Saturday’s loss, the Bulldogs have now allowed three consecutive WCC opponents to hit at least 50% of their shots, surrendering 53.3% in an 88-75 win over Washington State, 58.5% in a 97-89 overtime loss at Oregon State and 53.7% against Santa Clara.

Few’s teams had never allowed three opponents to hit 53% of their shots in the same season. At least not until this latest stretch, when three straight opponents managed to pull off that feat in a span of eight days.

Oregon State’s field goal percentage on Thursday also signified the highest mark allowed by a GU team to a WCC opponent under Few, and the highest by any opponent since Portland State made 61.2% of its shots in 2005.

More evidence to prove why this defensive stretch has been one of the most rugged of Few’s tenure, at least from a statistical perspective? Santa Clara’s field goal clip of 53.7% on Saturday was the third-highest mark given up by one of the coach’s teams to a WCC opponent.

“Moving forward, we’ll see,” Few said on Saturday. “I’m open to anything now.”

Gonzaga tried virtually everything on Saturday against Santa Clara and came up empty until the Bulldogs finally shifted to a pressing defense with an unorthodox lineup in the closing minutes. It flustered the Broncos into six late-game turnovers, and kept fans hooked until the final buzzer, but wasn’t enough to keep Gonzaga from absorbing its sixth loss, and first home loss, of the year.

The full-court press isn’t a sustainable long-term solution – the closing unit didn’t include bigs Graham Ike (17.3 ppg) or Braden Huff (11.3), two of the team’s top four scorers – and Few acknowledged Gonzaga’s defensive issues are much broader than scheme and strategy, although those are among the items he’ll address moving forward.

“It’s almost everything,” Few said. “It’s effort, it’s toughness, it’s executing the plan, whether the coverage in certain ball screens or post doubles or whatever we’re doing. So, yeah.”

A large share of Gonzaga’s problems on Saturday came down to bungled defensive rotations on the perimeter, which allowed Santa Clara to get open for 18 3-pointers – the most by an opposing team in McCarthey Athletic Center history.

Broncos guard Tyeree Bryan made contested and uncontested shots, finishing with 35 points and seven 3s. It made him the 12th opposing player to score or a match a season high against Gonzaga this season (with at least 15 points), and the seventh to set a career high against Few’s team.

“We know we’ve got to be better, we’re Gonzaga, we don’t lose two in a row in conference or in general,” Huff said. “We know we’ve got to be better defensively, we’ve got to be more physical down low. We’ve got to know our assignments, really buy into the scouting report. Just take pride in it. For Santa Clara to come in here and score 103 in regulation, that just doesn’t happen.”

“That’s unheard of,” guard Nolan Hickman said.

Gonzaga’s second straight WCC loss meant the Bulldogs yielded 200 points over a two-game span – something that hadn’t happened during Few’s time at the school, or in the eight seasons prior to the coach arriving.

Few’s teams have allowed seven 100-point games in 26 seasons, only four in regulation and hadn’t allowed a WCC team to reach the century mark until Saturday. The last WCC opponent to reach 100 against Gonzaga was San Francisco, which hit 106 in an overtime game in 1995. The last WCC team to do it in regulation? Hank Gathers-led LMU, with 121 points in 1990.

The next one? Gonzaga’s current group of players, as well as its decorated coach, are vowing to do anything and everything to make sure they don’t find out.

“We’ve got to be embarrassed by this and learn from it,” Huff said.