For the first 20 minutes of basketball, it was all smiles in Gonzaga’s opener against Purdue in the Maui Invitational. Unfortunately, the Zags went ice-cold in the second half and the Boilermakers left with a win, 73-63.
In any other year, that would be awful news–day destroying news. However, this year, Gonzaga has a lot of new faces. Purdue is an easily tossed around National Championship pick (a bet I would not take, but more on that later). Gonzaga was the underdog going into this matchup. The fact that they even kept it close, and essentially died by their own undoing, gives a lot of hope for the rest of the season.
You don’t go 0-13 from three in the second half and win the game
Honestly, I don’t even need to type much text following the header. Any team that goes 0-for-13 from three in a half, especially the second half, is probably going to lose. That is just basketball. Purdue outscored Gonzaga 43-28 in the second half, hitting 1.162 points per possession.
The Zags, meanwhile, went a paltry 0.757 PPP, largely because the three-point shot literally evaporated. The Zags were a perfectly fine 12-for-21 inside the arc. The turnovers were too many at nine, but the energy on the offensive glass was there, as was the commitment to running the ball. None of that matters when you can’t make a single outside shot.
Beyond that single stat, however, is also something that should not happen again: Graham Ike took the second most three-point attempts out of the night. Granted, he made a couple in the beginning, but the result of a pick and roll or ball screen will end up with Ike alone at the top quite often. Forwards are going to give him that space. A couple of times a night, sure. Please don’t have it be six times again.
The Zags’ team defense showed it is better than last year’s
Gonzaga took a five-point lead into halftime, largely based off the effort of its defense. Things looked a little grim to start, with Zach Edey getting a couple of easy looks in his first two possessions. That changed as the Zags did a better job of denying him looks close to the hoop.
Gonzaga also took that five-point lead by refusing to double-team Edey and forcing the rest of Purdue to beat them. Purdue couldn’t. Edey had 15 points at halftime, as much as the rest of his team combined, and seven of those came from the line. He went 4-for-11 in the first half.
Gonzaga held Purdue, one of the nation’s top offenses, to 0.938 points per possession in the first half. Of course, all of that flipped in the second half. But this is just the third game of the season. Right now, we are looking for the potential of this squad–and we got a good look at it yesterday afternoon.
The Zags stayed in it despite some hefty foul trouble
The foul discrepancy was pretty egregious after 20 minutes. Dusty Stromer, Graham Ike, Anton Watson, Ben Gregg, and Jun Seok Yeo all had two fouls. Purdue had a total of three. The fact that not a single one of those players fouled out is amazing. Watson, especially, was balling out in the waning minutes despite the four-foul shadow hanging over his head like a morning after too many long island iced teas.
This was Purdue’s game to lose and realistically they easily could have
- Team 1: No. 1 seed in 2023 NCAA Tournament, returns 83.8 percent of minutes and 86.6 percent of scoring, including reigning player of the year
- Team 2: No. 3 seed in 2023 NCAA Tournament, returns 34.5 percent of minutes and 28.3 percent of scoring, loses planned contributor to season-ending knee injury before season starts
Purdue is one of the top teams in the country for a good reason. Gonzaga isn’t easily tossed around in Final Four consideration for good reasons as well. The fact that the Zags kept this a game for as long as they did is a definitive plus, especially since this is just the third game, and one of those was against a NAIA opponent.
Additionally, due to Edey’s height, teams are always going to be pushed a bit outside. However, reminiscent of some of the more enraging Gonzaga losses of history, it wasn’t like the Zags were taking wild threes or bad shots. They just missed every single open look. Sometimes, rims just close. That is basketball.
If Gonzaga goes 3-of-13 from three, still not a good mark, instead of 0-for-13, this is a whole different game. Hell, 2-of-13 is wildly different as well. There won’t be too many games that Gonzaga shoots 6-of-32 against an opponent. If I were a Purdue fan, I’d be hanging it on the “win is a win” mentality, because for a squad that returns everything, you should be playing like the better team for much more than 20 minutes this early in the season. E.g. Gonzaga vs. Purdue last year–and we all remember how quickly Gonzaga’s championship caliber talk dried up last season.