Health key issue as GU enters tough stretch
LAST WEEK
Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once made a statement that all athletes understand.
“Fatigue,” Lombardi said, “makes cowards of us all.”
The coach could have added that injuries have the same effect, especially when they add to that fatigue he was describing.
Unfortunately, Gonzaga learned the truth of Lombardi’s words the hard way during the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament over the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Zags struggled to survive a 73-72 overtime war of attrition against Oregon in the semifinals, then basically got run into the ground during the second half of an 82-64 loss to underrated Michigan in the title game.
Quick note: References to rankings in this Zags Tracker will either be the CBS poll, which has proven reliable, or KenPom’s analytics-based ratings.
We’ll always note which one is being used, but don’t expect to see the truly silly (and Eastern-biased) Associated Press poll in any of these analyses.
So …
The defeat didn’t cost Gonzaga in the CBS rankings (they’re No. 8), and there are plenty of reasons not to panic about a single one-sided loss.
First of all …
Exactly how no one noticed Michigan ahead of the Battle 4 Atlantis is a mystery.
The Wolverines are now ranked No. 5 by CBS, and they look loaded, especially at the critical spots — point guard (Zavier Siimpson), and center (7-foot-1 Jon Teske), along with a sharpshooting 3-point artist (Isaiah Livers).
ALL THREE had huge games against the Zags, especially when Michigan bolted away from a 38-36 second-half lead to blow things open.
Here’s a bonus surprise for Michigan: The last two winners of the Battle 4 Atlantis — Villanova two years ago and Virginia last season — each went on to win the NCAA national championship.
We’re not going to award that title to Michigan just yet, but after their rout of North Carolina and victory over Gonzaga, we’ll surely add them to that elite group of teams who have a legitimate shot at the Final Four.
As for the Zags …
It’s difficult to play three consecutive days with just an eight-man rotation in any circumstances, but Gonzaga wound up with even less manpower than that.
Killian Tillie sat out the tournament opener against Southern Mississippi to rest his rehabbing knee.
It was a wise move, but ...
Anton Watson, the gifted freshman who has spelled Tillie and is especially important to the Zags defense, severely rolled his ankle less than a minute into the Southern Miss game.
Watson spent the rest of his time in the Bahamas wearing a boot on his injured foot.
THAT LEFT Gonzaga with a seven-man rotation (just six while Tillie was sitting), and in that same Southern Miss opener, starting guards Ryan Woolridge and Admon Gilder both suffered knee injuries.
It’s a wonder no Zags were attacked by jellyfish.
Woolridge and Gilder each gutted it out for the games against No. 13 Oregon and then Michigan, but Gilder especially was way less than full speed and he couldn’t contribute his usual minutes.
Sophomore Jay Ayayi absorbed a lot of that time, playing very well, but — like pretty much everyone else — he seemed to hit the fatigue wall as the tournament wore on.
Ditto for Woolridge, who did his best but, by the time the Zags were trying to keep up with Michigan down the stretch, his legs (like Gilder’s) were gone.
That was stunningly obvious with these two guards, because defense is their calling card — so when you see they can’t keep up …
When healthy, Woolridge and Gilder are a nightmare to play. But with both well below full speed, it meant big problems.
Simpson and the rest of the Wolverines blew by the exhausted Zags at will down the stretch of the title game.
Coach Mark Few was so desperate to protect his gimpy guards and help the bigs with Teske that he made the rare move of switching to a 2-3 zone defense.
The Zags aren’t particularly good at it — they’re almost strictly a man-to-man team — and Michigan exposed the zone as Livers tossed in five 3-pointers with Gonzaga just unable to close out shooters.
Michigan used all that free space well, hitting 12-of-23 from deep to keep the game from getting tight near the end.
THE ZAGS experienced both good and bad while trying to deal with the long and talented Teske in the paint.
On the optimistic side, Tillie seemed to be finding the game that has made Zag fans dream about how good this team can be.
The Frenchman used his ability to step back and shoot to negate Teske at times, then he’d change things up and zip to the hoop. Tillie was 9-of-14 from the floor and wound up with 20 points.
On the other hand, developing big man Filip Petrusev endured a painful lesson.
Teske basically took him to school (19 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks), and while continually getting position for countless put-backs, Teske handed Petrusev his first nightmare game of the season.
Petrusev was a dismal 4-of-16 from the floor, and when he’s not getting anything done inside, the Zags are definitely going to struggle.
Looking at the whole Battle 4 Atlantis experience with a longer lens, however, it’s probably wise to scrub away some of those struggles against Michigan.
The Zags dispatched Southern Miss as expected, and then won a game against a very good Oregon team on sheer willpower — a struggle that easily could have gone the other way.
IN FACT, the second half of the Oregon game probably offered a hint about what might happen against Michigan.
The Zags began with a burst against the Ducks, hitting shots and defending tenaciously.
They raced off to a 24-7 lead and looked just like the elite team they hope to be.
But then as their bodies began to feel those injuries and they started to get weary, trouble arrived.
With their legs giving way, the Zags shot just 29 percent after halftime against the Ducks — but survived because Oregon couldn’t shoot, either (31 percent).
The game was eventually decided, perhaps appropriately, when Gonzaga frosh Drew Timme made just one of two free throws in the final minute.
That single freebie turned out to be the winner when Oregon’s Shakur Juiston missed a pair as the game wound down.
Perhaps already fearing what might be coming in the title game with fatigue clearly an issue, Few nevertheless noted that he was proud of his team for hanging on to beat Oregon.
“These guys just found enough to make one extra play, even after we lost the lead, (70-66 in OT),” Few said.
“They showed a lot of poise and composure.”
As Vince Lombardi could have predicted, however, all the poise and composure in the world weren’t going to be enough for the wounded and weary Zags in the final.
THIS WEEK
What’s coming up now may depend a lot on how the Zags physically recover from their trip to the Bahamian battle zone.
Watson’s situation didn’t look good at all, and with some truly difficult tests on the near horizon, Gonzaga at least will need Woolridge and Gilder to be in good shape.
Their defense absolutely depends on it, and so does their offensive rhythm.
It appears that Tillie, who showed he can take charge of the offense as he has in previous years, is ready to be the NBA prospect we’ve all hoped we’d see again.
Normally, not having Watson — or seeing his minutes and athleticism seriously limited — wouldn’t be such a problem.
But Few so far has gone with just an eight-man rotation, and having it effectively sliced to seven is really begging for trouble.
Even though it’s not the normal Gonzaga way of doing things, Few may need to give some meaningful minutes to Lithuanian freshman Martynas Arlauskas.
Ayayi already is playing in the 25-minute range, although he’s earned it with solid, physical play.
He’s an excellent spot-up shooter and terrific rebounding guard.
However …
We’ve mentioned this before, but the Zags eventually are going to blow an important game somewhere down the road if they continue to struggle at the free-throw line.
At the moment, they’re hitting just 65.9 percent from the stripe. To put that kettle of failures in perspective, it leaves Gonzaga 267th in the country from the stripe among Division I teams.
And here’s the real point of our lesson: The Zags made 16 of 20 free throws against Oregon, their best performance of the season — and won by a single point.
They’ll need to shoot that way again if they hope to beat good teams.
End of story.
AT LEAST the schedule this week sets up well for a team trying to get healthy.
The Zags host Texas Southern on Wednesday night in what should be a stress-free outing, and then begin a three-game gauntlet against talented squads with a visit to No. 20 Washington on Sunday.
The Huskies (6-1) are absolutely loaded with individual talent — freshmen Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels were ranked as the No. 1 and No. 3 recruits nationally by ESPN.
UW also boasts high-flying forward Nahziah Carter and savvy point guard Quade Green, a transfer from Kentucky.
However …
Coach Mike Hopkins so far hasn’t found anyone to help his four stars.
In a season-opening win over a tough Baylor team, and again in a loss to Tennessee, none of the big four played less than 33 minutes.
That’s close to the danger zone.
WASHINGTON obviously has the “thrill pieces” to make this an exciting year, and the Huskies probably will be able to beat anyone on a given night.
Hopkins, though, has to solve the puzzle of making this an actual cohesive unit if UW is going to be a consistent national player — not to mention defending last year’s Pac-12 championship against teams like Arizona, Colorado and Oregon.
The Sunday visit to Montlake begins Gonzaga’s most intriguing stretch of the season.
After Washington, the Zags head to No. 17 Arizona — and a close-up view of the Wildcats’ highly-regarded freshman class — and then they head back for the most hyped game in the history of the McCarthy Athletic Center.
North Carolina (currently No. 6) visits The Kennel on Dec. 18 on the back end of a home-and-home series.
There are a lot of results and highlights that prove Gonzaga is now one of the country’s high-profile teams — but being able to lure teams like Carolina to Spokane makes it official.
Now we need to see whether the Zags can get healthy, and how they’ll handle this stretch of quality opponents.
Email: scameron@cdapress.com
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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Steve also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday.