Gonzaga Bulldogs: Four things the Zags have to improve before Game 1
That NCAA Championship loss to Baylor seemed like only yesterday…another Finals loss. A year later, the Gonzaga Bulldogs again stand at the start of the NCAA Tournament. What must Coach Few do to get his team all the way this year?
The Gonzaga Bulldogs have won another WCC Championship. It’s time for the NCAA Tournament. This season the Gonzaga Bulldogs are 26-3. They lost to Duke and Alabama early and ended the regular season with a heartbreaker to St. Mary’s. The St. Mary’s Gaels loss broke my heart because it didn’t have to happen.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs are the number one team in the country! They could never have gotten to be the number one team in the country without being the best. But as many college basketball teams have shown us in the past, you can be the best and slip. The Bulldogs are on the precipice of another run for the NCAA trophy.
These are four things Coach Mark Few could work on with our Bulldogs to ensure that this tournament ends in victory!
Inside Scoring
Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme must be able to score at the rim. Holmgren’s dunks are some of the most feared in the NCAA. The Slim Reaper is so tall he doesn’t have to jump to dunk. It’s amazing. St. Mary’s Gaels successfully stopped this during the last game of the season.
Although it was still a problem during the WCC Finals game, Holmgren and Timme definitely have to overcome this. If the Zags big men can’t score…I don’t want to think about it. Gonzaga’s big men have to control the rim.
Ball Handling
It’s enough to drive any Gonzaga Bulldogs fans nuts. The team gets sloppy with the ball at times. They averaged 11.8 turnovers per game this season. It’s up to Few and his floor general, Andrew Nembhard, to get the Zags to play under control.
Foul Shots
As a team, the Gonzaga Bulldogs shoot .730 from the free-throw line, 131st best in the country. While that’s right around the middle of college basketball, the NCAA Tournament has top 64 teams. Average won’t cut it in March Madness.
They have two other problems at the charity stripe. First, two of the three players who take the most free throws, Timme and Julian Strawther, aren’t among the Zags’ top four foul shooters. Additionally, they go through bouts of inconsistency. Gonzaga had an 11 game stretch earlier in the season where they only shot 66.4 percent from the line.
Focus
The most important thing of all is also the most difficult. There are six games left in the season (through the tournament finals), the Gonzaga Bulldogs have to take the court in each of those games with single-minded determination and focus on winning a championship.
Four players in Few’s eight-man rotations were on last year’s team. The coach and returning players should have that defeat burned into their souls. They have to keep the other four in line and focused.
What do you think the Gonzaga Bulldogs need to improve for the NCAA Tournament? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.