Another close game and another bed full of poop. Such is the life of the Gonzaga Bulldogs this season who fell in yet another incredibly-winnable game at Oregon State, 97-89 in OT.
Here are some more thoughts from the loss:
- At this point, we shouldn’t really be disappointed that a close game results in a Gonzaga loss. If college basketball games were 35 minutes long, the Zags might be undefeated. They aren’t, of course, so what we witnessed tonight was the same thing we have witnessed in all of the losses this season. Gonzaga completely failed to execute at any semblance of a high level on offense and the defense just couldn’t get a single stop. Combine that all with hair-brained miscues, and we have the makings for yet another game that all you can rest on is “the analytics say we are good.”
- The Beavers hit some absolutely big boy shots, which didn’t help Gonzaga’s case as they tried to close it out. Still, 29 seconds of good defense resulting in a two- or a three-pointer still means you got scored on, and OSU did that repeatedly down the stretch. The Beavers rattled off a 7-0 run from 4:00 minutes left to 38 seconds to go from down three to up four. Even with the Graham Ike three to tie the game eventually, OSU had momentum to close out the game.
- Late-game execution is now the major problem facing this team, and nothing exemplified it more than Ben Gregg’s inexcusably lazy inbound pass that was intercepted Josiah Lake. The odds of Gonzaga winning the game when down four with 38 seconds left aren’t high and they sink even further when suddenly that is six seconds. At this point, if the game is close, there is no real reason to expect Gonzaga can win the game until they prove otherwise.
- Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, shame on me for forgetting the second time. Fool me four times, I think I need to start reevaluating my priorities. Fool me five times, alright, I’m tired of being fooled. I’m legitimately not upset with the loss. This is a good, not great, Gonzaga team.
- In general, if you tell me five Zags are scoring in double-digits I’ll tell you that is a handy win. Unfortunately, all five of those Zags were the starters. The bench chipped in a grand total of nine points.
- Annoyingly so, we still saw plenty of instances that demonstrate the potential of this team. When the Beavers looked like they were taking control in the first half, Gonzaga responded with a run to close out the half (aided by Khalif Battle’s buzzer beating three) and to start the second half. Starting the second half has been Gonzaga’s other major thorn this season, and they at least didn’t fall victim to that, if we are forced to look for something positive.
- It is interesting how this team is almost as infuriating as last year’s team. Last year, the squad figured it out and it all clicked until running into a Purdue team that everyone knew was going to the title game. This year, however, it is harder to diagnose just exactly what is going on. Losing Anton Watson was always going to hurt, but it shouldn’t be hurting this much, especially with the additions of Battle and Michael Ajayi.
And yet, it is. I’m not going to be losing sleep over this squad. I’ll still tune in and I will still root for them, obviously, but I refuse to be surprised when shit hits the fan again.