Rock bottom is always hard to pick it out at the moment, because there is the chance that things can slide a little bit lower. On what should have been a joyous occassion at home, last night, with the honoring of Domantas Sabonis’ jersey, the Gonzaga Bulldogs might have hit it this season, losing 103-98 to the Santa Clara Broncos.
Full disclosure: I didn’t watch the game. As I have gotten older, tuning in to each and every single game takes less of a priority in my life, especially in a season such as this. Call me fair weather, that is what it is.
However, tracking the game on my phone on my first weekend away from my kid while about to attend my first concert since September with a friend, I still got texts from friends and the disgust could still make its way to my emotional state.
Is this rock bottom? Maybe not. But it sure as hell seems like it might be. Last night was the first time a WCC opponent has scored over 100 points against the Zags in the Mark Few era, and the first time it has been done since 1995.
Last night, the Zags let an opponent log an eFG% of 60+ for the third-straight game. This has never happened in the Mark Few era. Two of those games at home and one on the road. It was clear from following the game online that, like Oregon State, Santa Clara hit a lot of big boy shots. But a team needs more than big boy shots to hit that mark.
The Gonzaga defense is absolutely non-existent at this point. After settling in around the 95.5 range (No. 20) on KenPom, the Zags’ D has dropped down to 100.1 (No. 60) in the time span of four days. At this point in the season, a drop that accelerated is hard to create. Gonzaga has found a way.
Gonzaga hasn’t had consecutive conference losses since 2014. Luckily, this losing streak should sit only at two, because the next game up is on the road at Portland. If Gonzaga finds a way to drop that, then the wheels have fallen off, the body of the car has dropped out, and the team is just skidding forward on their seats like some Looney Tunes cartoon.
It is really unclear what the fix is going forward. Excluding a double-OT loss to Florida in the PK80, the Zags haven’t scored at least 99 points and lost the game since 1990 against LMU, and those Lions averaged 122.4 points per game.
If you can’t win on the home floor against a good but still middle-ass WCC team on a night that should be a celebration of a Gonzaga legend, I don’t know where this team’s head is at. They dealt with an illness during their time in California. Unless that illness is noro and is still circulating around the clubhouse, that excuse is off.
Rather, this is a team with a somewhat set offensive identity that unfortunately has a tendency to go completely dark in crunch time. This is a team with absolutely no defensive identity or awareness of how to take control or impose its will in a game.
From the grand level view, the Zags don’t really have any bad losses. That is the good thing. They have some good wins, but they don’t have a single marquee win on their resume. Their NCAA Tournament hopes probably aren’t in as much risk as they were last year at this point, but they are definitely trending the wrong direction.
Winning at Saint Mary’s on February 1 seems more of a necessity than a wish at this point. At this moment in time, I don’t see that happening whatsoever. I’m not even sure Gonzaga is the second-best team in the WCC at the moment.
Thank goodness we have a week off now, because at this moment, I don’t really want to watch this basketball team. Too much is going on to let them frustrate me, and for the most part, that is largely the only thing this team has been able to accomplish this season.