Gonzaga Sweet Sixteen: Stats to Know from Zags First Two Wins

Gonzaga Sweet Sixteen: Stats to Know from Zags First Two Wins

20—20, the number of rebounds by freshman Domantas Sabonis over the first two games. The burgeoning star also poured in 27 points over the weekend, including 18 in the round of 32 trashing of Iowa.

34—24, the number of points scored by Kevin Pangos in the opening two games, including a whopping eight three pointers with four coming in teach game. Pangos handed out eight assists and only turned the ball over twice.

23—23, points scored by Kyle Wiltjer in the opening round win over North Dakota State. Wiltjer outdid himself in the next round, posting 24 points in the win over Iowa. The former Kentucky Wildcat dropped 57 points on a mere 24 shots. Overall he’s 18-for-24. Talk about efficiency.

2—2, maybe the most important stat of all, Gonzaga recorded two wins over the first two games of the tournament, advancing to their first Sweet Sixteen since 2009.

62.5—62.5, the percentage GU shot from distance in the 87-68 thumping of Iowa.

Picking the Field: NCAA Tournament Predictions – And Yes, I Have Gonzaga Winning it All

Last year I wrote a terribly long essay on my NCAA “Picks to Clicks.” (In hindsight, that title is grammatically screwed up. Alas what a year of writing can do for you’re grammer skills.)

This year I won’t bore you with the reasons why Notre Dame will beat Iowa State (Notre Dame wins the game by the way) or why Louisville will beat Western Kentucky (see Sheen, Charlie: Um… Duhhh.) But I will share most of my latter tournament predictions and such. Which will all end with Gonzaga cutting down the nets in Atlanta.

These are my non-chalk picks in the first round, or the round after 60 teams get a “bye”- Continue reading