Tag: Mark Few

USC prepares for a big-stage moment against Gonzaga in Las Vegas

There’s no getting around it: This is an important moment for USC.

The USC Trojans breezed past Eastern Washington on Wednesday night. Now comes one of the big moments of this college basketball season: a date with the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Gonzaga is synonymous with college basketball excellence. The Zags haven’t won a national championship, but they have reached two national championship games and have been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament several times in recent years. They have established a very high standard USC would love to match. Gonzaga hasn’t done everything, but it has done almost everything in major college basketball. That alone makes this game important for USC.

Beyond the “status symbol” elements of this game, beating Gonzaga would give USC a high-quality win and significantly boost the Trojans’ resume. The Men of Troy need that after the losses to Irvine and Oklahoma.

This game is also important because Isaiah Collier needs the kind of moment which stamps himself not just as the leader of this team, but a leader who can be fully trusted and relied on. Collier, if he masters this game against Gonzaga, will grow in influence and confidence. USC really needs Collier to become the alpha male star who can take over games and carry the Trojans in important moments this season.

The Gonzaga game could be the man-making moment for Collier and the Trojans.

We have much more on this game in the coming days and then after the game ends on Saturday night.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

Mark Few believes fans need to enjoy Maui Invitational while they can

Gonzaga coach Mark Few believes multi-team events like the Maui Invitational may not last much longer with conference expansion.

The 2023 Maui Invitational features eight college basketball programs, five of which are currently ranked inside the Top 10 of the Coaches Poll – making it one of the strongest multi-team events (MTEs) in college hoops history.

Kansas (1) Purdue (2) Marquette (5) Tennessee (8) and Gonzaga (10) make up the five premier programs, while UCLA (24) cracked the top 25 as well, and Syracuse is certainly no pushover under new coach Adrian ‘Red’ Autry.

Gonzaga head coach Mark Few spoke glowingly of the talent in this tournament and encouraged fans to enjoy it while it lasts – because he thinks this won’t be the norm going forward.

“The way the landscape is changing, there’s no chance we’ll see this again,” Few said. “Everyone needs to enjoy this for what it is.”

The bloating of high major conferences, notably in the Big Ten and Big 12, will likely result in more conference games per season. With fewer non-conference games per year, teams may opt to instead participate in smaller four-team tournaments or skip the MTE’s altogether.

Getting a chance to see NCAA Tournament caliber matchups, like Gonzaga vs. Purdue and UCLA vs. Marquette, is part of what makes college basketball’s first month more exciting.

Losing those types of games would be a tough blow for a sport that already struggles to compete with the NFL, NBA, and college football in the early months of the season.

Each college basketball head coach that has a chance to win national championship for first time

One of these coaches will be cutting down the nets for the first time ever on April 3.

We’ve been treated to a historic NCAA Tournament thus far. Continue reading “Each college basketball head coach that has a chance to win national championship for first time”

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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Gonzaga’s game-winning 3 over UCLA is the same play that won Villanova the 2016 men’s tourney

Did this look familiar? It should.

The Kris Jenkins buzzer-beating shot that won Villanova a national championship in 2016 is among the greatest shots in men’s NCAA tournament history, right up there with Christian Laettner’s game-winner.

And it’s a perfectly-drawn up play, as long as the shooter nails the shot off the handoff.

That happened on Thursday night. Gonzaga’s Julian Strawther hit a three from the logo to take down UCLA and send the Bulldogs to the Elite Eight in the 2023 men’s tournament. And how did he do it? Well, it should look familiar: A dribble up the floor with Strawther trailing, and the pass back gives him room to shoot from way deep.

Don’t believe me? Just ask Gonzaga coach Mark Few what they call the play:

That would be Jay Wright, the championship-winning Villanova coach. Also, here are some side-by-sides:

Brilliant call, brilliant use of a play we know works.

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Gonzaga and Michigan State reportedly trying to revive basketball games on aircraft carriers

Yes, condensation and wind have been a problem in past, but this could be fun.

The return of Tom Cruise to the big screen as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick could be influencing a return to one of the more iconic college basketball locales in recent history. According to tweets from both Jon Rothstein and Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, Gonzaga and Michigan State could be looking at reviving the now defunct carrier games from over a decade ago.

The first game played on an aircraft carrier took place November 11, 2011 on the USS Vinson in San Diego as part of ESPN’s Carrier Classic. North Carolina defeated Michigan State in that game as President Barack Obama looked on. Four more games were scheduled the following year in the same fashion, but only two were played to completion thanks to condensation on the court caused by drops in the outside temperature.

Now, Gonzaga’s Mark Few and MSU’s Tom Izzo want to bring them back.

Condensation won’t be the only environmental concern to consider, either. The 2012 game between Syracuse and San Diego State featured a pesky wind that impacted shooting.

Either way, as someone that was a naval aviator and has seen Maverick more times than you can count on one hand, I say DO IT.

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How Arkansas brilliantly capitalized on poor NCAA officiating to knock Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga out

Did you hear that whistle? Nothing happened. But the refs just called yet another foul on Chet Holmgren.

Did you hear that whistle? Nothing happened. But the refs just called yet another foul on Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren.

Possession after possession, and for three of the five fouls he was called for, it felt all this center did to earn each foul was exist while tall on a basketball court. But that didn’t seem to matter to the referees that officiated Gonzaga’s loss against Arkansas.

You didn’t have to have any invested interest in Gonzaga to come to this conclusion. It was just infuriating watching how quick the whistles came against Holmgren, especially considering how much the game was impacted by all of the controversial calls.

Holmgren is an otherworldly prospect who is the projected top pick in my latest NBA mock draft. But in his likely last moments of college basketball, he fouled out with plenty of time left on the clock. It was devastating.

College referees are wildly inconsistent and not always the best, although that’s a part of the game we have come to expect.

(As an aside, the NCAA needs to allow for six fouls instead of a player fouling out at five. Fans want to see the best players on the court, not the refs blowing whistles.)

But make no mistake. With all of that in mind, Arkansas, led by head coach Eric Musselman, knew how to make the most of the officiating. He had the perfect strategy to knock off the Bulldogs.

After the game, Arkansas big man Jaylin Williams said that the idea was for the Razorbacks to get Holmgren in foul trouble so that he would have to go to the sidelines.

The Razorbacks were the perfect team to execute such a plan, too. This past season, they drew 19.7 personal fouls per game. That ranked as the highest mark among all teams in any of the Power Five conferences.

Meanwhile, they also forced opponents to commit 2.9 offensive fouls per game. That, too, was the most among those teams. Williams is especially masterful at drawing charges.

When that is highlighted on the scouting report, opponents might become less likely to score near the basket so that they can avoid the potential charge call.

The plan worked like a charm, and it sent Gonzaga into a spiraled frenzy.

On the season, Gonzaga averaged 44.0 points per game in the paint while shooting 63.9% in that zone. Both of those figures ranked as the best in all of college basketball. However, against Arkansas, that fell to 34 points and they made just 50% of their field goal attempts in the paint.

More important, though, was the chess move to make sure Holmgren wasn’t around to kill them. Gonzaga, led by head coach Mark Few, wasn’t forced to pull Holmgren once he got in foul trouble. But he fell for the bait, and during those minutes, the team suffered.

Against the Razorbacks, Holmgren was the only player on the Bulldogs with a positive point differential when he was on the floor.

He was clearly the engine that powered their defensive unit. Gonzaga allowed 39 points in the 23 minutes he played (67.8 points per 40 minutes) and 35 points in the 17 minutes that he did not (82.3 pts per 40), per Pivot Analysis.

Arkansas was able to increase the minutes Holmgren was unavailable by repeatedly drawing contact so that he would have to sit with foul trouble, and the refs were buying every second of it.

It wasn’t Gonzaga’s shot selection, which was actually pretty good, that cost them this tournament game.

It was the well-executed game plan from Musselman, which capitalized on the fact that refs aren’t always going to make the correct call. Considering that players are only allowed five fouls in college, as opposed to six in the NBA, it was a brilliant idea.

All stats are pulled from CBB Analytics unless it is noted otherwise.

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Three takeaways from Oklahoma’s 87-71 loss to No. 1 Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA Tournament

Three takeaways from Oklahoma’s 87-71 loss at the hands of No. 1 Gonzaga on Monday afternoon in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The No. 8 seed Oklahoma Sooners had their NCAA Tournament run end of Monday afternoon at the hands of No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga 87-71.

Without second-leading scorer De’Vion Harmon, it was well known that the Sooners were going to need to provide their best performance of the year just to have a shot at upsetting the undefeated Bulldogs. They gave it a good effort, hanging tough all game long, but weren’t quite able to topple the title favorites.

Austin Reaves was sensational as always, scoring 27 big points and being largely the reason why Oklahoma was able to keep the game close throughout. Alondes Williams also provided very important minutes off the bench, scoring 15 of his own.

The loss puts the Sooners at 16-11 to close the season and eliminate them in the second round of the NCAA Tournament just as they did two years ago. Here are three takeaways from the season-ending loss:

Effort, effort, and more effort

One thing you can’t say about this Oklahoma team is they didn’t leave it all out on the floor. What an unbelievable display of effort this game was by the Sooners.

From the opening tip, every player was supremely active and locked in to giving it everything they had. Part of that may have helped the game wind up at a pace that was not friendly to Oklahoma, but it was still impressive to watch nonetheless.

Lon Kruger deserves a lot of credit for getting the most out of his guys in this game and getting them to lay it all out on the floor. Even when Gonzaga took a 19-point lead in the second half, they battled to work it back down to single digits. They just refused to give up.

It was impossible to not be so impressed by the emotion and will to win displayed by the Sooners on this day, the Bulldogs were just too good.

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Oklahoma’s season ends at the hands of No. 1 Gonzaga 87-71

Oklahoma basketball’s season comes to an end in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, falling to No. 1 Gonzaga 87-71.

The 2020-21 Oklahoma Sooners basketball season has come to an end as the No. 8 seed Sooners fell at the hands of the No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga Bulldogs on Monday afternoon 87-71 in Indianapolis.

Lon Kruger’s team came out guns blazing with high energy and mostly kept that up all game long, but to beat the title favorites you have to be essentially perfect and Oklahoma wasn’t quite able to sustain quite the level of play needed to spring the upset. Gonzaga was simply too good in this game.

“Gonzaga is good,” Kruger said postgame. “They’re really good. They cut hard, move the ball well. Mark (Few) does a terrific job. A lot of guys that play unselfishly and play the game the right way, and I thought we got a little better feel for the pace of things in the second half and cut into it a little bit, couldn’t quite get back to make them too nervous.”

A seemingly pivotal stretch in the game came toward the end of the first half. With just over five minutes to play until the break, Elijah Harkless put home a layup to trim the Bulldogs lead down to 33-30. From there, Gonzaga would close the half on a 13-4 run to take a 12-point lead into the locker room. The Sooners were trying to climb their way back from there on out.

“First few minutes was back and forth, I thought both teams scored pretty easily at that time,” Kruger said. “The last five minutes of the first half, they widened it to 12, and again, they’re good. They just keep the pressure on you, they keep coming at you, and if you turn it over carelessly or if you take a shot that leads into transition for them, they make you pay for it. That happened a couple times, and again, we ended up fighting from behind the last 20 minutes.”

Oklahoma was led once again by senior Austin Reaves who was superb yet again scoring 27 points on 11 of 17 shooting, albeit in a losing effort. He did everything he could to will his team to stay close, but the Bulldogs were unrelenting and proved to be too much.

“I mean, he left it all out there,” Kruger said of Reaves. “That’s what you want for each of your guys, and certainly he did that. He battled and did fight foul trouble a little bit, and yeah, just what a great year. What a great year he had. He certainly left it all out there today.”

The second-leading scorer was a somewhat unlikely source in fellow senior Alondes Williams, who put up 15 key points off the bench to help keep the Sooners hanging around. In a game without second-leading scorer De’Vion Harmon due to COVID-19 protocols and where third-leading scorer Brady Manek scored just three points, he was vital to giving the team a shot.

“Yeah, Alondes was great,” Kruger said. “He’s quick off the dribble, he’s powerful at the rim. Yeah, did a good job. Did a really good job, got in the paint for us, finished some big plays. Yeah, he played well.”

Defensively, Oklahoma held Gonzaga to 49 percent shooting from the field, which is actually low for the Bulldogs, but still allowed 87 points and for the gamed to be played at a pace that wasn’t in the Sooners favor. The bottom line of this game was quite simple: Gonzaga was just better.

Perhaps having Harmon available could have made a difference in the final result, that is certainly reasonable to argue given what he could have provided offensively, but without him it was going to take a supreme effort to pull off this upset. Kruger’s group gave it their best shot, but it wasn’t quite enough on this day.

The game was very intense and physical throughout, even seeing some chippy moments at times. The most notable of those coming in the final moments after a hard foul by Harkless on Bulldogs’ star Jalen Suggs earned him a flagrant one.

“I mean, we play in the Big 12,” Austin Reaves said on the intensity of the game. “The physicality was about the same. We’re used to that kind of physical play. The foul down the stretch, I mean, probably looked worse than what it was. I felt like he (Harkless) was actually trying to go for the ball. He’s one of my best friends on the team. He’s not a dirty player. He isn’t out there trying to hurt anybody, just to clear that up. But the refs call what the refs call. Can’t change that. But he’s not out there trying to hurt anybody, just to clear that up.”

While Oklahoma certainly gave incredible effort and should be proud of the way they played against the nation’s best, it won’t provide much solace in the short term. The pain of another season ending in the second round of the NCAA Tournament will undoubtedly linger, especially given the heights the team had reached at points throughout the regular season.

“It’s hard to see right now, but a couple days from now, we’ll — I don’t even know if it’ll be a couple days,” Reaves said. “We’ll still probably be mad. But down the road you’ll look back and you’ll be like, damn, we really did some special things. It’s all about the relationships that you get to create with a lot of different guys. But right now you’ve got a bitter taste in your mouth, but one of these days we’ll look back and be like, we had a good year.”

The Sooners close their year at 16-11 and will now head to an offseason with a lot of question marks regarding the makeup of the team going forward. All seniors are allowed to return to the team next year thanks to a special COVID-19 waiver provided by the NCAA, but it is unclear if any will take advantage of that at this point.

Only Kur Kuath has announced his decision to leave school as it stands today, with Austin Reaves’, Brady Manek’s and Alondes Williams’ status for next year still being yet to be declared publicly.

When, where, how to watch Oklahoma basketball take on Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament

Everything you need to know before Oklahoma takes on Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday afternoon.

Fresh off of a 72-68 defeat of the No. 9 seed Missouri Tigers, the No. 8 seed Oklahoma Sooners (16-10, 9-8) are ready to return to action in Indianapolis on Monday afternoon in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against the No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga Bulldogs (27-0, 15-0).

The Sooners did what they needed to do to find a way to win in the first round against the Tigers, pulling out the victory against a tough opponent despite missing their second-leading scorer in sophomore De’Vion Harmon due to a positive COVID-19 test. He will be out once again for this game.

While Oklahoma will certainly be glad to have picked up a March Madness win, they are far from satisfied going into the matchup with the highly-regarded national title favorites. In a tournament that has featured gobs of upsets, the Sooners are primed and ready to try and join the party with one that would be as good as any.

The Bulldogs are undefeated and have been widely looked at as at least a top-2 team all year long and and near-unanimously as the No. 1 team for the past couple of months. They are an incredible group under head coach Mark Few with few holes, led by All-American forward Corey Kispert and future-NBA lottery pick Jalen Suggs. Also certainly not to be overlooked is forward Drew Timme, who is a sensational player as well.

Simply put, Gonzaga has been No. 1 all season long for a reason. They are extremely good and an opponent has to essentially play perfectly to beat them. It isn’t breaking any news to say the Sooners have to offer their best performance of the season to be able to win this game.

For this second round game in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, here is everything you need to know:

WHEN:   1:40 p.m. CT

WHERE:   Indianapolis, Indiana (Hinkle Fieldhouse)

HOW TO WATCH:   CBS (Carter Blackburn, Debbie Antonelli & Lauren Shehadi)

HOW TO LISTEN:   Sooner Sports Radio Network – KRXO 107.7 FM The Franchise in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Tune In Radio App (Toby Rowland & Kevin Henry)

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