By Jeff Faraudo
#WCCHOOPS Columnist | ARCHIVES
Here’s what we learned about top-ranked Gonzaga in its season-opening game last week: The Bulldogs are pretty good.
Well, we knew that already, didn’t we?
Actually, even by their lofty standards, they looked great. As in, “Wow!”
In their 102-90 win over then-No. 6 Kansas at Ft. Myers, Florida, the Zags became the first team to score 100 points in a non-overtime game against the Jayhawks since Oklahoma beat them 100-78 on Feb. 27, 1990.
That was nearly 31 years — and 1,068 games — ago. Mark Few was a Gonzaga grad assistant that season, gasoline was $1.16 a gallon and the Dow Jones reached a high of 3,000 points.
After three different Gonzaga players — Drew Timme, Corey Kispert and Jalen Suggs — scored at least 20 points, Few acknowledged his club’s offensive firepower.
“We have guys that can score,” he said. “I don’t think anyone played out of their minds or anything. They were doing all the things they’ve been doing at practice.”
KU coach Bill Self, whose team never led after the first 30 seconds and trailed by as many as 18 points, was impressed.
“They’re really good,” he said. "Next to that Kentucky team – well, Kentucky’s two teams, in (2012) and whenever the other one was (2015) that made the undefeated run so long – I don’t know that we’ve played against a team where the pieces fit better or the talent matched the pieces.”
It was a very busy and eventful Week 1 in the West Coast Conference. Here’s more:
No. 600 for Few: The coach typically downplayed the accomplishment, but Few became the third-fastest Division I men’s coach to reach 600 victories. Now 601-124, Few won No. 600 in his 724th game.
Only Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp (704 games) and UNLV’s Jerry Tarkanian (720) got there faster.
“From the first one to this one, it’s never been about me. It’s been about the guys … and about the guys that I’ve been able to coach with,” Few said afterward. “For this one to be against such a legendary program and legendary Hall of Fame coach (Bill Self), that will be nice someday when I look back on it.”
No. 1 for Suggs: The highest-rated recruit ever signed by Gonzaga, Jalen Suggs was dynamite in his first college game. The freshman guard flushed an alley-oop pass from Joel Ayayi just 36 seconds into the game and went on to post 24 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in just 24 minutes.
John Blanchette, long-time columnist for the Spokane Spokesman-Review, suggested Suggs is so good he could be a one-and-done player. “One game and done,” he kidded.
Last week’s Big Thing: USF’s 62-60 win over No. 4 Virginia was the Dons’ first victory over a team in the top-5 of the AP poll since knocking off No. 2 Wichita State on Dec. 29, 1981. “They did an incredible job of executing our game plan for 40 minutes,” Dons coach Todd Golden said of his players. “Obviously, Virginia is a program we aspire to be like.”
This week’s Big Thing: Gonzaga continues its gauntlet of games against the nation’s elite when it takes on No. 2 Baylor on Saturday at Indianapolis. The game will tip off at 10 a.m. PT on CBS.
Ross Forms an Exclusive Club of One: Pepperdine senior guard Colbey Ross scored 33 points in a triple-overtime loss to UCLA, lifting him above Stacy Davis (2013-16) to the No. 1 spot on the Waves’ career scoring chart. Ross now has 1,809 points to go with 658 assists, making him the only player among 10 WCC schools to own the program’s career record in both categories.
Unafraid of No. 1: The 21st-ranked Gonzaga women were seeking their first victory over an AP No. 1 opponent in five tries. The Zags didn’t get it done, but battled top-ranked South Carolina from start to finish on Sunday.
The WCC preseason favorites trailed by just four points in the final minute before South Carolina prevailed 79-72.
"We don't talk about moral victories very often," coach Lisa Fortier said. ”We actually say, there are no moral victories, and we believe that. I like that we are tough, and I like that we are not afraid of any opponent.”
Welcome back: BYU’s Shaylee Gonzales and USF’s Ioanna Krimili would have been among the WCC’s best women’s players in 2019-20, but both were shelved by injuries. The announced their returns last week with impressive performances.
Gonzales, the 2019 WCC Newcomer of the Year, missed all of last season after tearing her ACL in the offseason. Against LSU at the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout, Gonzales scored 30 points on 11-for-14 shooting (6-for-7 on 3’s) in 40 minutes as the Cougars knocked off the Tigers 67-51. She was two points from equaling her career high of 32 points against Stanford in the 2019 NCAA tournament.
Krimili scored 32 points in her college debut last year and averaged 15.6 points over nine games before suffering a broken foot. She came back with 22 points in USF’s season-opening loss to UC Davis, suggesting she is a good as new.
Beating the buzzer: New Loyola Marymount coach Stan Johnson was a winner in his debut after freshman Jalin Anderson made a short baseline shot at horn to beat Southern Utah 85-83 on Wednesday. And Saint Mary’s senior Tommy Kuhse sank a game-winning jumper with 2 seconds left as the Gaels rallied from 16 points down to beat Northern Iowa 66-64 on Friday.
Amazing Stat of the Week: In his 100th career game — and 100th start — senior Colbey Ross played all 55 minutes of Pepperdine’s triple-overtime loss to UCLA
Costly Stat of the Week: Saint Mary’s, one of the nation’s elite perimeter-shooting teams in recent years, made just 1 of 18 attempts from the 3-point arc in its season-opening 73-56 loss to Memphis at Sioux Falls, S.D.