Slept on thoughts from Gonzaga’s loss to UCLA

Another big game and another enraging close loss. I guess that is what it means to be a Gonzaga fan in the 2024-25 season.

1. UCLA’s defense is as advertised. They have busy hands and disrupt every passing lane available. In the first half, the Bruins forced as many turnovers (11) as Gonzaga had field goals. The Zags cleaned it up in the second half, but the damage was done in the first.
2. With that point in mind, the Gonzaga bigs did an awful job of holding the ball in the post in the first half. UCLA collapsed every single time and forced turnovers, and yet, again and again we saw the likes of Michael Ajayi, Graham Ike, Braden Huff, and Ben Gregg linger with the ball and attempt to score. The result was generally a turnover. The four players combined for eight of Gonzaga’s 11 first half TOs.
3. Khalif Battle left the game with an unfortunate Flagrant 2 that was the right call. Battle was caught in the air and got his arms wrapped around the neck Eri Dailey Jr. It was clear immediately between both players that it was scary and a mistake, but that sort of reckless play needs to get called each time.
4. The shooting woes for the Gonzaga bigs continued with Ben Gregg, Michael Ajayi, and Braden Huff combining to go 0-for-6 from three-point. Gregg is now 6-for-31, Ajayi 4-for-26, and Huff 4-for-17 from long range, all much lower than expected. All six looks in this game were wide open shots aka good shots that they should be expected to hit every once in a while, not every once in a blue moon.
5. You can never actually blame a game on the refs but you can legitimately bitch and moan about it to make you feel better. With 33 seconds left in the game and Gonzaga leading 60-58, Sebastian Mack drove on Emmanuel Innocenti, got the bucket and the and-one. This would’ve been no big deal if not for the fact that the foul the refs called was Mack driving his elbow into Innocenti’s head. This would’ve also been no big deal if not for the fact that the refs called a Flagrant 1 on Michael Ajayi for incidental contact with an elbow to a chin AND went back to the monitor to look at a hard, but clean, foul from Graham Ike later in the game. With Mark Few chirping in their ears and even the announcing team mentioning it, nada, nothing, no monitor view. A pretty brutal missed/incorrect call at a pivotal moment late in the game.
6. Dusty Stromer earned the start over Nolan Hickman, played 30 minutes, and scored zero points. Ajayi played 20 minutes and scored zero points. Those two starters only attempted four shots. Braden Huff was ineffective in his nine minutes, scoring just two points. Considering the Zags were already playing a man down with Battle ejected from the game after his Flagrant 2, having three other players completely disappear is going to make it hard to muster enough offense to win. Obviously, Gonzaga did not win.
7. I know just recently I was touting that the analytics are good for the Zags so we don’t need to worry much. After the fourth loss in which the Zags just couldn’t finish a game correctly, there is a very real question about what is going on with this team in late-game execution that prevents wins? I’m not going to pin this one on Ryan Nembhard missing the free throw to tie it, because Nembhard’s otherwise stellar second half is the only reason the Zags were even in the game to begin with.
   
   The coaching staff and the players need to figure this out, however. Otherwise, this is a team looking at a first round exit in the NCAA Tournament.
8. One of the tough things about basketball is essentially when the good shots fall, the offense is good and when the good shots do not fall, the offense is suddenly broken. The Zags went 2-for-11 from three-point in the first half and UCLA’s defense really didn’t have much to do for that. Almost every three-point attempt minus one of Battle’s were completely open looks that just missed. That right there is the story of the season for Gonzaga. The team, for whatever reason, just cannot hit the shots during the game that they probably make 100 out of 100 in practice.
9. UCLA’s defense did one crucial thing that took away Gonzaga’s secret weapon–they didn’t give up free throws. The Zags shoot 80.6 percent as a team and they attempted a grand total of eight free throws. Ike, who is fifth in the country at fouls drawn per 40 minutes, shot and made onef ree throw. It was the second-lowest free-throw rate of the season for Gonzaga, (after Bucknell) and in a game this close essentially could’ve been the difference if they just got a few more and-ones.