Gonzaga’s defense and hustle dominates USC

The Gonzaga Bulldogs faced off against the talented guards and company of the USC Trojans in Vegas on Saturday night. Ultimately, the final score of 89-76 doesn’t really do justice to how much this was Gonzaga’s night, and specifically, how much of that effort belonged to a Gonzaga style of old–hustle plays and heart.

Coming into the game, the question for Gonzaga was how they would handle the talented guards of USC. To be clear, Boogie Ellis and Isaiah Collier got their buckets. The two guards combined for 42 of USC’s 76 points. However, no one else really got anything going, and much of that owes to the effort from the Zags on two very specific fronts.

The Zags denied USC trips to the free throw line

USC’s offense is oriented around bombing threes and taking free throws. The threes were not falling for USC, they shot just 6-for-22. The free throws weren’t either (just 8-for-17), but the key point here is that USC’s free throw rate was just 25.8 and the 17 attempted free throws was the second-lowest mark on the season.

It is visibly clear that Gonzaga’s defense is much better than it was last season. Drew Timme was never the best defender, but because he was so important to the offense, he also had to constantly pump his brakes on defensive effort. With the plethora of bigs available at Mark Few’s disposal, that is no longer the case. The guys can play more aggressive defense and not worry as much if they have to sit with foul trouble.

Joshua Morgan, Vincent Iwuchucwku, and Harrison Hornery were all rendered largely irrelevant. A basketball team rarely wins when it has to rely so heavily on two players. Gonzaga tried to bottle up Ellis and Collier as much as possible, but the key was to make sure that none of the other players made an impact. The defense was more than successful.

Offensive rebounding fills in the gap when the offense stalls

Quietly, the Zags are a top-20 offensive rebounding team in the nation and they are doing that without any sort of overwhelming height advantage in the post. Rather, Gonzaga just absolutely hustles their way to rebounds.

The Zags generated 12 points off their offensive rebounds, and this effort on the glass helps pay massive dividends for a team still struggling to find its offensive identity on a consistent basis. This might be the Ben Gregg game for the season because of the threes, but it was specifically his effort on the offensive glass that provided Gonzaga with cheap and easy points.

The Zags haven’t had an OR% this high in over a decade and that 2013 squad settled a percentage place lower than where Gonzaga is right now. All possessions matter, obviously, but when you can consistently count on your team to generate 10-15 more attempts each game, that is how the Zags can always stay in it.

Offensive rebounds + defense = don’t matter as much when the offense stalls

It isn’t exactly a scientific formula right there, but if Gonzaga is able to play hard-nosed defense for much of the game and grab extra boards whenever possible, we don’t have to worry as much when the offense goes a bit flat.

That wasn’t really the case last year. A not-as-good defensive team that didn’t rebound too hard meant that every single offensive possession mattered more. A stop was never what anyone was looking for, just more points on the offensive end.

With this Gonzaga squad, however, knowing that the defense is not going to collapse and that sometimes they can just grind out ugly points on the offensive side, those stretches of sloppy ball full of turnovers don’t matter as much.

That was on display last night against USC. The Zags’ offense went through multiple short stretches of rough play, but USC was never able to truly capitalize and bring the game close enough to be stressful.

This combination is a recipe for success as the season progresses and makes Gonzaga an especially dangerous opponent. Finesse doesn’t matter if you are scrapping up points on the board. All that counts is that total.