After a week’s time to celebrate the holidays and hit the film room hard, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have to bounce back from one of the biggest ass kickings in recent history to face off against a very good Kentucky Wildcats squad.
Emotions in greater Gonzaga-land were running high after the Zags took down Alabama by 10 and then walloped Maryland by 39 in the first two games of the Players Era Tournament. Then, Michigan stepped to the plate in the “championship” game and utterly pasted Gonzaga by 40 points, 101-61. There is no other way to describe the game other than just getting the absolute and literal shit kicked out of you.
Kentucky, by the metrics, is having a good season, but the metrics hide the greater issue at hand: the Wildcats have lost all of their games against tough competition. The average KenPom ranking of Kentucky’s five wins is 281.4.
- Date: Friday, December 5
- Time: 4:00 p.m. PT
- TV: ESPN2
Meet the Kentucky Wildcats
Record: 5-3, KenPom #15
Mark Pope had some success in his first season with the Wildcats, making the Sweet 16, which is the furthest Kentucky has advanced in the NCAA Tournament since 2019. Quite a bit of that roster exhausted their eligibility, so Pope hit the recruiting trail to mix in a nice blend of young talent with some hopeful diamonds in the rough in the transfer portal.
It has worked, somewhat, so far. On paper, the Wildcats are a talented group. In practice, their best win is over Valparaiso at home. They still have Gonzaga, Indiana, and St. John’s left on the non-conference slate, but there is a legitimate chance that these Wildcats enter SEC play with just one Quad 1 win. That is hardly Lexington standards.
The Wildcats have five players averaging double digits, so they can definitely hurt opponents from a variety of angles. They shoot the ball well (from two), take control of the ball, and run a competent offense and an athletic defense. This is a good team that very well could be a better team down the road.
The four factors
| Gonzaga O | Gonzaga D | UK O | UK D | |
| eFG% | 55.8 (56) | 45.1 (35) | 56.8 (39) | 42.5 (13) |
| TO% | 14.1 (34) | 21.6 (34) | 14.6 (56) | 15.8 (266) |
| OR% | 37.9 (31) | 24.7 (31) | 34.9 (80) | 24.4 (26) |
| FTA/FGA | 28.3 (314) | 37.5 (209) | 28.4 (312) | 26.0 (25) |
What to watch out for
Put the Michigan game behind you and start the season anew.
Michigan is a very good team. Are they going to beat the Zags by 40 every time they play? Probably not. The issue with the loss last Wednesday is that you had a team playing most likely at its 100 percent level (or near it) and then a Gonzaga team that was shitting the bed regardless of the opponent.
Good teams have bad losses every year. Gonzaga came out looking like one of the top teams in the country and right now, they still are, just a bit of a shine has lost the luster. Last year’s NCAA champion Florida Gators scored a grand total of 44 points in a 20 point loss to Tennessee. The 2024 UConn Huskies that steamrolled their way through the season lost by 15 to Seton Hall. Each year, bad losses happen to good teams. Great teams learn from that loss and move forward. This is a prime opportunity for Gonzaga to show it is a great, not good, team.
Get Graham Ike back on track.
Ike has to be foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog following him getting fully owned by the Michigan Wolverines. Ike finished 0-for-9 from the field. He was tricked into taking four 3PA and was largely bullied off the post, something that he is not used to. He did score one point off a free throw from a flagrant foul–so technically he did avoid that unflattering distinction of having his first zero point game since his first game in college.
But for all intents and purposes, Ike scored zero points and had his worst game since his first game in college. The Zags have plenty of weapons but Ike is the emotional heart of this squad. He needs to get back on track if Gonzaga is going anywhere this season. Kentucky has some length in the post. Freshman Malachi Moreno stands at 7′ and sophomore Andrija Jelavic at 6’11. This is a great opportunity for Ike to bounce back against quality opposition.
Run the offense.
Kentucky’s defense is long, athletic, and difficult to score on. Opponents shoot just 27.9 from three (No. 27) and 43.1 from two (No. 15). However, the defense struggles mightily on one metric that should play into Gonzaga’s favor–the Wildcats defense allows an assist on 57.7% of all made field goals, No. 292 in the country.
If Gonzaga runs its offense, then it probably wins this game. If Gonzaga lets the Kentucky defense force it into a bunch of hero ball, well then we have a problem.