Tag Archives: win

Gonzaga Bulldogs: End of a Historic Season and Era, Looking Forward

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Coming off the heels of the Gonzaga women losing a heart-breaker, the Gonzaga men experienced a whole different kind of pain in their loss to Duke. While the score line didn’t reflect the tightest of games, GU hung with and at times outplayed the Blue Devils. It was even for much of the game with Duke pulling away late.

The loss not only brings an end to a historic season, but to an era.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few on a positive of a record-setting 35-3 season: “We basically made it to a Final Five, the way this thing lined up.”

— Brent Zwerneman (@BrentZwerneman) March 30, 2015

Mark Few and the Zags will lose three senior starters in Kevin Pangos, Gary Bell Jr. and Byron Wesley. Pangos and Bell Jr. were four year starters at the school and it will seem odd next year to see a Gonzaga game without the floppy haired point guard and his backcourt mate Bell Jr., a lockdown defender and three-point marksman.

The duo started many games ahead of NBA guard David Stockton while also playing with a frontline that sent three players (Elias Harris, Robert Sacre and Kelly Olynyk) to the NBA. This year’s three-headed monster of a frontcourt (Kyle Wiltjer, Przemek Karnowski and Domantas Sabonis) will all likely play in the association once they leave Spokane. It safe to say that the duo have played with numerous talented players, but they’ve also continued the tradition of great guard play at Gonzaga.

Few: “We were just so blessed to go to practice with these dudes, to travel, to do film sessions and obviously to march out on the floor.” — Jim Meehan (@SRJimm) March 30, 2015

The duo’s exceedingly high level of play and leadership will be missed, but the Zags have planned for this inevitability.
Josh Perkins is an extremely gifted passer and will only be a redshirt freshman next season after suffering a broken jaw early in the year. He’s only played a handful of games in a Gonzaga shirt, but he seems poised to continue carrying the torch at GU, or “Guard University” as one of the next great Zag guards.

Do-it-all guard Kyle Dranginis has earned a starting spot after years playing behind Bell Jr. and Pangos, so expect him to start along with Perkins. From there the team has options. Wiltjer could be shoehorned into the small forward spot so Sabonis can start, but Few may prefer the same rotation he used this past season. So it’s likely that Sabonis stays on the bench to start games even though he has received “starter minutes”.

Wiltjer: “I got another year of eligibility so that’s my plan right now (to return).”

— Jim Meehan (@SRJimm) March 30, 2015

With Sabonis on the bench and Dranginis and Perkins in the lineup along with Wiltjer and Karnowski, the team will have options for the fifth starter spot vacated by Byron Wesley. An addition could come via a transfer or the international market, but right now the likely frontrunners are Eric McClellan and Silas Melson.

McClellan previously averaged 14.3 points per game at Vanderbilt, but wasn’t able to log consistent playing time this year thanks to Bell Jr., Pangos and Dranginis. He could thrive in extended minutes in a three-guard lineup with Perkins and Dranginis in a somewhat similar fashion to what GU used to run with Bell Jr., Pangos and Stockton.

Melson was initially going to redshirt thanks to the presence of Perkins, but once his fellow freshman went down with the broken jaw, Melson stepped in and provided quality minutes when called upon. He reached double-digit point totals in wins over Texas Southern, San Francisco, Pepperdine and Pacific. Like McClellan, he could thrive in extended minutes. Regardless of if Melson starts next season, he will likely play a much larger role than he played this season. At the very least, he’ll be one of the Zags go-to players off the bench.

Outside of the losses of their starting seniors, Gonzaga will bring most everyone back. Additionally, center Ryan Edwards and guard Bryan Alberts will be eligible after completing their redshirt seasons. If we’ve learned anything from Gonzaga redshirting players (see Wiltjer and Olynyk) it is that the coaching staff in Spokane knows how to get the most out of their players. Expect the two newly eligible players to contribute.

A starting five of Perkins, Dranginis, McClellan/Melson, Wiltjer and Karnowski is likely good enough to be considered favorites in a WCC where runner-up BYU will lose three of their top five scorers to graduation, including their best player in Tyler Haws. Third-place finisher Saint Mary’s will lose five of their top six scorers and minute-loggers to graduation. Like BYU, Saint Mary’s loses their best player and leading scorer in Brad Waldow.

Thanks to a front-line that will be amongst the nation’s best and a promising point guard, Gonzaga is a good bet to start next season as a top-15 team, with the potential to move up higher depending on what teams above them lose players to early entry in the NBA draft.

The Zags will once again be back in the NCAA tournament in 2016 with their sights set on making that elusive Final Four appearance that eluded this year’s team.

Previewing the Near Future of the Mariners/Astros Rivalry

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In a rivalry, both teams need to win for it to be considered a rivalry. The Astros won on Tuesday night… Check that box. So it’s a rivalry, now I’m able to write about it.

The Mariners are a good team who should be a dark-horse contender for a wildcard spot. The Astros are a bad team who should be a contender for the number-one overall pick.

The Astros are a transitional team, littered with former top prospects who have yet to make the jump to being established big leaguers but still show potential. Plus there are some veterans on short-term deals looking to reestablish their major league careers.

The Astros stink. There are no two ways around it.

Seattle is much too good for Houston. The Mariners aren’t going to become world-beaters; they aren’t going to be one of the Yankees teams of old. They’re going to be the Mariners. One of the upsides to that is that they will play the newest member of the AL, the aforementioned Houston Astros.

The Astros are really bad…(Wait didn’t I just write this? That’s how bad Houston is folks; they cause brief short-term memory loss. Take that to the bank!)

The Mariners are much more talented than Houston (Doing it again, sorry. Slaps forehead. I guess Houston is that horrible?)

What I’m really trying to say is that if Houston and Seattle play 20 times, it wouldn’t shock anyone, even Emerald City haters (yes, apparently some people hate the lovely city of Seattle, oh the horror) to see the M’s win 15-17 times out of 20 against the ‘Stros.

The term “rivalry” is being brought into play not just for the sake of making this piece hold water, but also because it will be a rivalry.

Houston is where Seattle was as recently as a few years ago. (Fun fact, both teams have Erik Bedard! Look out, if the Angels flame out and have a fire sale in the next three years, Erik Bedard will be there.) The Astros have their one solid piece to build around (Jose Altuve), and they’re trying to figure it all out. The Astros will definitely be better over the long term. They may serve to bolster the win column for Seattle nowadays, but in a few years with some shrewd moves, Houston will be back to relevancy.

(Another fun fact I forgot to mention, Ronny Cedeno was/is on the really-bad-now-good-later Mariners of a few years yonder and the current Astros. He might be on the ashes of an Angels’ team after that fire sale with Bedard.)

I guess the most comparable situation here in recent memory is that of the Blue Jays of the late 2000’s and the Orioles of that time period. One team is a good team stuck in a tough division, and the other team, while stuck in the same tough division, is horrendous.

Seattle will win most of its games with Houston, but give it some patience (a few years) and the Astros will be providing you with bang for your buck at the old Safeco Field.

What We Learned From the Seahawks’ 24-14 Win Over the Washington Redskins

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  • Win-Win-Win. The Seahawks won for the first time on the road in the playoffs since 1983. That’s 13 years before I was born. Not to try and make people feel old, but it’s all just very surprising that the team hasn’t won on the road since then. The Seahawks also obviously won the game, so that accounts for a third of the win-win-win. Got that out of the way. The third win is that not only is it the Seahawks’ first win on the road in the playoffs since 1983 (think about that for a minute, Seattle didn’t win on the road at all in the 90’s or 2000’s. That’s two decades without a road playoff win,) but it was also the Seahawks’ first road win in the NFC ever. (They were in the AFC in the 80’s.) That’s a pretty absurd stat for a team that made the playoffs four years in a row from ’04-’07 and five years total in the 2000’s.
  • Turn Away If You Are Horrified By Gruesome Incidents. (This paragraph was almost one. Seriously, it was.)
  • The Kick(er) is Good? Steven Hauschka was placed on injured reserve due to a left calf injury. Cue Ryan Longwell sprinting out of the tunnel to Rock the Casbah. (You’re right, that musical reference doesn’t make any sense.)
  • With the Pushing and the Shoving and the Whole Thing. Redskins offensive tackle Trent Williams pushed/punched Seahawks’ cornerback Richard Sherman in the face after the game. I know that it’s an emotional game in the playoffs, win or go home and all that stuff, but seriously? What compelled Williams to do that? I just have one question for him, are you seriously that mad…bro?
  • Marshawn Lynch Really Likes Making Big Plays in the Playoffs. Anybody remember Marshawn Lynch make the Saints’ defense look like a bunch of crash test dummies trying to tackle? Well, Beast Mode was at it again on Sunday, scooping up a rare Russell Wilson fumble and taking it 21 yards on a play that could have easily resulted in the Redskins recovering. Did I mention the Seahawks were down 14-0 at the time?
  • I am Very, Very, Very Sorry Washington Redskins. Here’s a number, the last time three times the Redskins have made the playoffs they have played the Seahawks. Not surprisingly, the ‘Skins have lost all three games. It also doesn’t help when the team’s respective quarterbacks were an older Mark Brunell, an injured RGIII and Todd Collins.

So, that’s what I learned on Sunday. What exactly did you guys learn about the game? Tell me in the comments section below if I missed anything important.