- This was a frightening game. Ryan Nembhard tweaked his wrist. Nolan Hickman messed his shoulder. Dusty Stromer went to the locker room to have his knee looked at. Stromer returned, Hickman and Nembhard sat (not because of injury but because of score). Hopefully, all three are fine. It also proves how fickle this idea of a championship run can be. Either of those three missing time is a big hit to the squad.
- Because Nembhard only played 24 minutes, we got to see two things happen: 1) Khalif Battle is the main backup point guard, even when Hickman is on the court; and 2) 15 minutes of Emmanuel Innocenti. He held his own for the most part, finishing with four assists and no turnovers.
- I joked that Braden Huff would be the leading scorer after tonight but it looks like instant offense man Khalif Battle will take home that win. Battle was sensational on the offense end, finishing with 21 off 7-of-10 shooting (a perfect four-for-four from beyond the arc). He topped it all off with an absurd windmill dunk.
- After the Arizona State offense sort of took it to the Gonzaga defense, the Zags were much more on point against this veteran UMass-Lowell squad. Gonzaga held the River Hawks to just 0.684 points per possession.
- On the flip side, the final score suggests exactly how close this game ever felt. Gonzaga was a bonkers 10-for-22 from long range (Jun Seok Yeo’s taco shot was one for the ages), they had 21 assists on 41 made field goals. All of that efficency equaled out to 1.378 points per possession. If the Zags are hitting that number, I’m not sure any team in the country can beat them.
- We saw some nice minutes from the bench mob. This game got so out of hand so quickly, most of the starters outside of Battle didn’t see too many minutes. In addition to Innocenti, we received a nice long view of Jun Seok Yeo. Yeo finished with eight points, had a couple of really nice and strong takes to the hoop, and looked much improved off of last season. I’m not saying that Mark Few is going to be operating a 10-man rotation anytime soon, but it was nice to see minutes for the two, especially Innocenti. The more options we have to spell Nembhard for a minute or two, the better.
- Because I am an angry old alumni with a newborn baby, I really enjoyed being able to watch this game on ESPN+. Tuned in at the start, hit the pause button for roughly a hour as the kiddo went to bed, then sat back down and picked right up where I left off. It was nice while it lasted. If you live in the Seattle area (like I do), the games are now on Fox 13+ aka Joe TV aka KCJO. Fire up the old antenna if you are a cord cutter.
Slept on thoughts from Gonzaga’s win over UMass-Lowell
