Time is a funny thing. Although I’m not enough of a physicist to truly grasp Albert Einstein’s theories on why time is an illusion, in general, it seems that we use it as an arbitrary method to make sense of the world around us. Hence, a New Year’s Resolution, rather than just trying to improve your life on Monday, April 18, at 2:00 pm.
For college basketball, the turning of the new year does often represent the shift from the non-conference slate to the conference slate. Depending on how you view Gonzaga basketball, the state of affairs is either: This is the worst it has ever been to things can only go up from here.
This guy? A perpetual optimist. So rather than talk about grumble grumble how much I hate here are the things I’m looking forward to over the next few months for the rest of the 2023-24 season.
An undefeated run through conference play
Gotcha! This is a Gonzaga basketball blog and wouldn’t you know it but there are two Gonzaga basketball teams! While a large chunk of the fanbase has been busy preparing their doom bunkers for the men’s team, the women’s team, currently ranked No. 18 in the latest AP Poll, is putting together an incredibly strong season.
Without knowing if the Zags have ever rolled WCC play undefeated before (I don’t think they have), they have not done so since Lisa Fortier came on board.
If you haven’t been paying attention, now is the time to do so. Yvonne Ejim is arguably putting together one of the best seasons by a Zag not named Courtney Vandersloot. The offense is the seventh-best in the country and it is a heck of a lot of fun to watch, with the entire starting five averaging double-digit points.
This is a team that had a couple of “let down” losses against ranked Washington State and Louisville squads, but absolutely steamrolled a No. 3 Stanford, 96-78, at home. With a Bree Salenbien appearance finally emerging, the Zags are fully healthy for the first time in two years. All of their games can pretty much be watched on ESPN+. Do it. You have no excuse not to.
Anton Watson kicking the &#(* out of the WCC
I was fine with Logan Johnson getting WCC Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 because his ass was on the way out of college, but Anton Watson as a mere “Honorable Mention” was an absurd basketball take from the individuals supposedly responsible for paying attention to our little conference.
Even though the Zags lost to San Diego State, as Watson was busy stuffing the stat box with various things, I tweeted this.
Thinking about it after the fact, I still stand by it. If I coached high school ball, I would just show film reels of Anton Watson and do nothing else. It has taken time–all development does. But we are seeing the pinnacle of all the work Watson has put in.
He is the most offensively fluid player on the squad. Defensively he is a treat. While much of the offense seems to get stuck in the mud repeatedly, watching Watson move off the ball echoes past Zags who excelled in that manner, such as Joel Ayayi. Watson is just a smart basketball player, and with that, he is a delight to watch for all the little ways he alters a game.
A fanbase that learns how to reset expectations without jumping off a cliff of negativity
Personally, I don’t think Gonzaga is one of the top 25 teams in basketball. But I don’t vote, so who cares. As arbitrary as the AP Poll is, the fact that Gonzaga has been ranked every week now for that many years is beyond impressive. I think there are a lot of people who watch Gonzaga basketball that really can’t appreciate that fact right now.
Has this year been a disappointment so far? Sure, it has. But there seems to be a sense from a significant chunk of the fanbase who can only view Gonzaga’s rise as going up and up and up.
Downs happen though. Does it mean all is lost? I’m not pegging Gonzaga as a Final Four contender this year, but they don’t need to be a Final Four contender every year for me to enjoy the season and look forward to the next.
The new year is a perfect time to reset those expectations. How are you going to view the games and be able to tune in because you enjoy watching ball, not for hate-watching purposes because you loathe Ryan Nembhard?
If anything, because of the lack of quality wins, special shout out to the crumbling of Yale, UCLA, and USC, the WCC takes on a level of importance we haven’t seen since the last time Gonzaga was unranked–the 2015-16 season.
Did any of us go through the 2015-16 season and think you know what, as much of a bummer as this year was I feel it in my bones that Gonzaga is going to go on a run with multiple Final Fours in the coming years? I’d wager not.
I’m not saying I think a championship run is on the horizon. But that also doesn’t mean I think the program is suddenly flinging itself off a cliff of relevancy because they aren’t a guaranteed Sweet 16 and beyond threat come March for one year.
That mindset, and this is what I think is unfortunate about the significant portion of the fanbase that has adopted the doom and gloom mindset starting last season, is that it overshadows just how amazing and unique Gonzaga’s rise to the national level has been.
If you can’t appreciate the good because you are so fixated on the bad, then I truly wonder what is your point for tuning in?