2018-19 #WCChoops Schedule | Week Three Player of the Week  | Zags No. 1            
By John Crumpacker
#WCChoops Columnist

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Gonzaga’s toppling of No. 1 Duke in the Maui Invitational is that the Zags might be even better in a month or so when one of their best players returns from a foot injury just in time for the start of the conference season.

That groan you hear is coming from the other nine coaches around the West Coast Conference.

Gonzaga’s stirring win over Duke vaulted the Zags from No. 3 nationally to No. 1 in Monday’s AP Top 25 rankings. (Curiously, Gonzaga was no better than 5 in the initial NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings that replaces the venerable (?) RPI.)

In Gonzaga’s 89-87 victory over the Blue Devils in what felt like a Final Four in November, 6-foot-10 forward Killian Tillie was a spectator on the bench, his injured foot in a walking boot. He’ll eventually exchange that boot for a basketball sneaker and rejoin his teammates.

“Hopefully, we can get healthy with Killian and that will change us and help us even more,’’ coach Mark Few told the Spokane Spokesman Review. “Certainly, we’ve been able to grow without him but he’s an integral part of what we do.’’

This was Gonzaga’s first win over Duke on a neutral court after three defeats and propelled the 6-0 Zags to the top of the rankings. Few celebrated the rousing victory in Maui by doing a backflip into the ocean off Black Rock, a prominent heap of lava near the team hotel.

Again, from the Spokesman Review, point guard Josh Perkins, who captained a steady ship throughout tournament wins over Illinois, Arizona and Duke, said, “We came here for a reason. Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) was a Hall of Fame coach; we got a Hall of Fame coach on our side, too.’’

This heavyweight battle was not decided until the final minute, when tournament MVP Rui Hachimura and San Jose State transfer Brandon Clarke each blocked two shots in the final minute, with Clarke’s rejection of R.J. Barrett at the end preserving the win for the Zags.

Hachimura led Gonzaga with 20 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks. Zach Norvell Jr. had 18 points and valuable transfer Clarke 17. Freshman forward Filip Petrusev contributed an important 11 points in 12 minutes. Hachimura, Clarke and wing Corey Kispert all played the last minutes of the game with four fouls and managed not to foul out.

“What I’m most proud of is that we ended up winning the game on the defensive end with those two stops, and that’s something we can really build on,’’ Few told the Spokesman Review.

Of equal importance was the fact Gonzaga outscored Duke 54-29 in the second half and held a 75-60 lead that withstood a furious rally by the Blue Devils. College basketball doesn’t get any bigger than this, at least not until the calendar flips into a new year.

This game begged the question, might these powerhouses meet again in March, or perhaps in early April when the stakes are the highest?

What We Learned

1. Gonzaga is not the only WCC team off to a great start to the season. Loyola Marymount is 7-0, the best start in program history in coach Mike Dunlap’s fifth year at his alma mater. The Lions also checked in at No. 10 in the initial NET rankings. San Francisco, with a NET ranking of 25, is not far behind at 6-0 in coach Kyle Smith’s third year on the Hilltop. And San Diego, with a NET of 65, is 5-1 in Sam Scholl’s first year at his alma mater. All three programs are building sweat equity for the conference season that begins in about five weeks.
2. In contrast, Saint Mary’s is on an unexpected three-game losing streak after dropping games to Utah State and Mississippi State in the MGM Resorts Main Event tournament in Las Vegas and at home to Harvard. The Gaels’ imperative to upgrade their non-conference schedule is coming at a cost. Saint Mary’s will try to reverse the skid in a Wednesday night home game vs. UC Irvine at McKeon Pavilion.
3. The WCC is the antithesis of the one-and-done trend at many big-time schools. As such, it is nice to see players improve over the course of their three and four years at schools around the conference. It’s especially nice to see big men improve from one season to the next. A pair of towering post players are illustrative of that. At USF, 7-0 junior Jimbo Lull is contributing 10.5 points and 5.3 rebounds in just 16 ½ minutes of average court time. At LMU, 7-3 junior Mattias Markusson (see below) is averaging 11.4 points and 8.9 rebounds and has 9 total blocks.

The Week Ahead
It’s a busy schedule for WCC teams as they click off non-conference games from Monday through Sunday. The best of the week has LMU traveling across town to play UCLA on Sunday at Pauley Pavilion. Let’s see what these Lions are made of. On Saturday, Saint Mary’s hosts Bay Area non-rival Cal in a game the Gaels need to get back on track. Also on Saturday, battle-tested Gonzaga, puts its No. 1 ranking on the line at Creighton in a noon game televised on FOX. San Diego, meanwhile, will play at Ole Miss on Wednesday in a game televised by the SEC Network.

Stat Line of the Week
As mentioned above, LMU’s Markusson is a bigger contributor for the Lions than he’s been in his first two years in L.A. In LMU’s 71-63 home victory over the Rattlers of Florida A&M, the big man had 12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks and 1 steal. In awarding the SLOTW, we value versatility across the box score. Runner-up goes to USD’s Isaiah Pineiro, who had 26 points on 8-of-12 shooting (10 of 12 from the free throw line), 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and 1 steal in the Toreros’ 76-58 win over Jackson State.

Tweet of the Week
This heartfelt missive from Pepperdine coach Lorenzo Romar:

My wife and I would like to thank those that have reached out about our home. We were initially told after we evacuated that our “community was burning”.  When we were finally able to get back to our house we were relieved that “by the grace of God” our home had not been harmed.

— Lorenzo Romar (@CoachRomar) November 20, 2018

Quote of the Week
“We play offense pretty good when we’re moving it. We have a pretty good pace about us.’’

That’s Gonzaga’s Few, assessing his team’s victory over then-No. 1 Duke in the championship game of the Maui Invitational.

Follow the three dots …
While we’re hardly an international hoops expert, we can’t recall a Division I basketball tournament ever held in Northern Ireland before. Nevertheless, that is where USF will be on Friday and Saturday, in Belfast, for the Belfast Classic. The Dons play Stephen F. Austin on Friday morning at 5 a.m. Pacific time (rise and shine) and either Buffalo or Milwaukee on Saturday. … Portland guard Franklin Porter, son of coach Terry Porter, had a career game vs. Cal Poly in the Portland Classic with 24 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals as the Pilots won 72-67. Portland has won four of its last five. … USF forward Matt McCarthy had a productive game in the Dons’ 61-57 win vs. Harvard with 12 points, 14 rebounds and 4 steals. … Interesting point by ESPN’s Jay Bilas at the Maui Invitational: If Japan gets a spot in the basketball tournament at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Gonzaga’s Hachimura might be on the roster.