Tag: Gonzaga basketball

Twitter reaction to USC and Gonzaga basketball arranging to play each other

This is the latest sign that #USC hoops, often overshadowed by UCLA, is now the program everyone in L.A. wants to see.

USC versus Gonzaga. It will happen on December 2 of this year. It happened in March of 2021 with a Final Four berth on the line.

We wrote about that Elite Eight game two years ago:

“The USC Trojans had a great NCAA Tournament. An Elite Eight is a terrific result — the Men of Troy got that far in the brackets for just the second time since 1954. What was the big problem with USC in this tournament? The Gonzaga Bulldogs were the problem. They swatted away the Trojans, one stop short of the Final Four on Tuesday night.”

That game in Indianapolis had little to do with USC’s flaws. There was only one team in the 2021 college basketball season which had a good chance of beating Gonzaga. That was Baylor. The Bears proved they were better than the Zags when they defeated GU in the national championship game. Gonzaga fell one game short of becoming an unbeaten college basketball national champion.

Now USC and Gonzaga will meet again, the latest high-profile game USC has scheduled for the coming season. Bronny James will make USC a television magnet. Showcase games like this will proliferate.

See what social media had to say about this big college hoops announcement:

USC basketball to play Gonzaga in Las Vegas

The game is a rematch of the 2021 Elite Eight, in which the Zags denied #USC its first Men’s Final Four berth since 1954.

The Bronny James effect is real. Yes, USC is a top-15-level team heading into November primarily because of No. 1 recruit Isaiah Collier. The combination of Collier, Boogie Ellis, Vince Iwuchukwu, and Bronny James as a quartet, with lots of great role players providing depth and balance, is why USC has a chance to be special. Bronny isn’t the number one reason the Trojans can contend for the Pac-12 title and the Final Four.

However: Bronny James is the main reason these big nonconference games are being scheduled. He is the reason USC — which has generally not scheduled a lot of aspirational nonconference games in the Andy Enfield era — is loading up its nonconference schedule for the 2023-2024 season.

USC had already scheduled Kansas State for its season opener on November 6. Now comes the news that the Trojans will play a nonconference game against Gonzaga. Holy smokes!

This is what it feels like to enter the top tier of major college basketball, at least in terms of television coverage and media visibility. The Trojans now have to enter the top tier in terms of achievements — they haven’t gotten there yet — but this date with Gonzaga underscores the point that TV networks will want to put USC on the air as much as possible with Bronny in the fold. USC will almost certainly add more high-end nonconference games before it’s all said and done.

There are other details about this Gonzaga matchup you need to know about. We’ll provide those details below:

Friend of Badger guard enters portal from Gonzaga

Hunter Sallis, a former five-star recruit and 6-foot-5 guard entered the transfer portal Friday after two seasons with Gonzaga.

Hunter Sallis, a former five-star recruit and a 6-foot-5 guard, entered the transfer portal Friday after two seasons with Gonzaga. Sallis is from Omaha, Nebraska, and has a relationship with Badgers’ point guard Chucky Hepburn.

Coming out of Millard North High School, Sallis was the 21st-ranked prospect in the nation for the class of 2021. He never really clicked with Mark Few and the Zags in his two seasons with the program, averaging 4.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists during the 2022-2023 campaign.

Although he’ll be hitting the open market and anyone can secure his commitment, Greg Gard and the Badgers remain a long shot to acquire him regardless of his friendship with Hepburn.

Fans can dream.

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One thing seems clear: San Diego State is becoming another Gonzaga

While we sort out whether the #Aztecs will join the #Pac12 (which seems likely), it’s clear they have transcended mid-major status.

There is no official announcement or formal ceremony for any of this, but it’s true that at some point in time, a college sports program transcends its status and its larger place in the ecosystem. At some point in time, Gonzaga ceased to be a mid-major program despite competing in the West Coast Conference, a mid-major league. Gonzaga’s results, quality and visibility gave the school a profile and resource base which exceeded the rest of the competition. The WCC might not be a dominant conference, but Gonzaga stood apart. That same reality applies to San Diego State after the Aztecs reached their first Final Four on Sunday.

SDSU, located in sunny and agreeable San Diego, was already an attractive place to attend college, but now this Final Four is likely to boost admissions and improve the various aspects of a university which go beyond sports themselves. Gonzaga experienced this boost once the basketball program attained a certain degree of sustained success.

San Diego State invested a lot of money into improving facilities, including the building of an on-campus football stadium to replace its previous and longstanding arrangement as a tenant for the old (now demolished) Jack Murphy/Qualcomm Stadium which used to be the home for the NFL Chargers and MLB Padres.

San Diego State, one would think, will be able to enter the NIL space as a legitimate competitor. One of the other teams in the 2023 Final Four, Miami, used NIL to form a part of its breakthrough roster this season.

The Mountain West didn’t win a single game in last year’s NCAA Tournament, and the other three teams in this year’s tournament didn’t win a game. San Diego State transcended all that.

SDSU is not yet a Pac-12 member, but it already seems clear the Aztecs have transcended mid-major status even while they remain in the Mountain West.

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Gonzaga gets knocked out of March Madness — now the Big 12 watch begins

Is Gonzaga entering its last season as a member of the West Coast Conference? Is the Big 12 about to bring GU into the fold?

Gonzaga’s 2023 NCAA Tournament run ended on Saturday in a blowout loss to Connecticut. Now that the Zags’ season is over, get ready for a fresh round of speculation surrounding the school’s future, and more particularly, a possible move to the Big 12 Conference.

While the Pac-12 considers adding San Diego State and maybe also SMU, the Big 12 and its commissioner, Brett Yormark, have had conversations with Gonzaga administrators. This isn’t necessarily the Big 12’s number one point of focus, but it’s certainly one of several agenda items the conference is continuing to evaluate as it imagines its future.

It’s a good time for some updates on GU’s situation relative to the Big 12, along with a few reminders about the Big 12’s changing landscape and plans, and to see where Gonzaga might fit within them:

College basketball analyst Andy Katz ranks the Elite Eight teams

Andy Katz has high confidence in Texas.

For the first time ever, the NCAA Tournament does not feature a No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight. Continue reading “College basketball analyst Andy Katz ranks the Elite Eight teams”

Updated national championship odds entering the Elite Eight

Texas and UCONN are national title favorites.

Just eight teams remain in the hunt for a national title heading into Saturday. For the first time in the history of the NCAA Tournament, zero No. 1 seeds have advanced past the Sweet 16.

Top-seeded Alabama fell to San Diego State 71-64 in the upset of the weekend. The Aztecs held Alabama star Brandon Miller to just nine points in the win.

Fellow No. 1 seed Houston lost to Miami just a couple hours later as the final one seed domino to fall. Miami’s outside shooting was too much for Houston’s normally stingy defense to handle.

Texas is now the highest ranked team remaining in the tournament after dismantling Xavier. The Longhorns join Kansas State in representing the Big 12 in the Elite Eight.

Other intriguing storylines included Creighton ending Princeton’s cinderella story, Gonzaga hitting a late t
hree-pointer to beat UCLA and FAU upsetting Tennessee.

Here is a complete look at the updated national title odds entering the Elite Eight according to BetMGM.

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Drew Timme reveals the NSFW nickname Gonzaga’s Mark Few gave him as a freshman

The First-Team All-American has certainly come a long way.

Drew Timme is one of college basketball’s best characters, and the star Gonzaga big man delivered another gem following the Bulldogs’ win over UCLA in the Sweet 16 of the 2023 men’s NCAA tournament.

While discussing coach Mark Few’s nicknames for players, Timme — a senior and consensus First Team All-American — revealed the not-so-flattering moniker Few picked out for him while he was a freshman in Spokane, Washington.

“My nickname was dumbass for a while my freshman year,” he bluntly said, according to USA TODAY Sports national columnist Dan Wolken. “Pretty fitting.”

Well, at least we may now know the source of Timme’s penchant for foul language.

Few jumped in to clarify that Timme is no longer known as “dumbass,” and has now earned a new (and potentially even funnier) nickname: The Union Rep.

Moving up in the world, indeed.

With the win over the Bruins, Gonzaga will face UConn in the Elite Eight, which Few’s Bulldogs have now reached in five of the last eight NCAA tournaments.

Gonzaga has reached the championship game twice in program history — in 2017 and 2021 — but lost both times. Few will hope things will be different this time in his last run with Timme, who he went on to call “one of the all-time greats of the modern era.”

He sure has come a long way.

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Drew Timme said TCU’s trash talk ‘didn’t sound so smart’ for such a ‘highly educated’ school

THAT SMIRK, THOUGH.

Gonzaga senior big man Drew Timme is originally from Texas and was one of the highest-rated recruits in the state back in 2019.

He had a big matchup against a team from his home state, the TCU Horned Frogs, during the Round of 32 on Sunday. During this game, Timme was matched up against several players that he played against in high school or who he trains with during the offseason.

Timme led Gonzaga past TCU and clinched a berth in the Sweet Sixteen at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. But before he did, he heard some trash talk from some TCU fans.

Here is what Timme said when reflecting on what he heard:

“I saw some nice things on the internet before maybe taking some shots at us, me, and our program. Throw lighter fluid in the fire if you wish. I thought TCU was a highly-educated school and they didn’t sound so smart with their comments pregame.”

These were strong comments from Timme, who stayed poised during the post-game press conference. He had the perfect insult sandwich, using a compliment about TCU’s academic prestige before ripping those who were insulting him.

But that wasn’t the best part of the exchange! Once he was done with these comments, the big man revealed the cheekiest grin imaginable.

This is the kind of stuff that we love to see during March Madness.

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What the heck happened to the men’s college basketball blue bloods?

UNC, Duke and Kentucky are down bad.

Men’s college hoops is a burning house right now, and I’m just Childish Gambino returning with leftover pizza from a Super Bowl party.

What in the world happened?

Last time I checked (not literally), North Carolina was the preseason No. 1 team in the AP rankings. Kentucky was No. 4 and Duke was No. 7. The so-called blue bloods of the sport were still expected to be good. Even Villanova was ranked 16th.

So, I did what any self-respecting writer of sports betting content would do and attached myself to some of those giants. Among my conference championship picks were UNC, Kentucky and Kansas, each boasting top-10 national title odds at the time. Duke did as well.

Today, only No. 5 Kansas even has top-20 title odds, let alone a top-25 AP ranking. UNC, my pick to win it all, lost Monday for the fourth time in its last five games to fall to 8-7 in the ACC (16-10 overall).

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College basketball has been flipped on its head. So much so that No. 23 NC State is the best team in North Carolina. Football powerhouse Alabama is the No. 1 team in the country for the first time in 20 years. Even Gonzaga, the preseason No. 2 team, matched its highest loss total since 2016-17 — with five games left in the regular season.

None of UNC, Duke (17-8, 8-6 ACC), Kentucky (16-9, 7-5 SEC) or Villanova (12-13, 6-8 Big East) even received a vote in the latest rankings, and nothing about it is a fluke. Villanova is objectively bad, and the other three don’t appear to be very good either. None have a KenPom rating better than 35.

We knew the retirements of coaching legends Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Jay Wright would usher in a new era of college basketball. I’m just not sure we knew it meant a potential changing of the guard. But is that actually what’s happening?

Maybe not. The “old” guard can certainly bounce back — even as early as this year. ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi currently has Duke as a 9-seed in the NCAA tournament, North Carolina among the last four in and Kentucky in his first four out. Any of those teams would be considered dangerous in March just off sheer talent alone. They still recruit well.

But what’s happening to them this season is worth monitoring because it opens the door for other teams to make some noise. The schools with the top three betting odds to win this year’s title, according to DraftKings, are all programs that have never won it before: Houston (+700), Purdue (+900) and Alabama (+900).

The Jayhawks could also swoop in and go back-to-back, but there’s a decent enough chance we’ll have an unfamiliar champion by season’s end.

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