Gonzaga has become modern college basketball's blueblood blueprint
Gonzaga has become modern college basketball's blueblood blueprint
The machine in Spokane is as strong as ever.
Thanks for starting your week off with a cup of Basketball Joe. If you haven’t already, consider subscribing to get the newsletter in your inbox every Monday. Unlike an actual Cup Of Joe, it’s free! Now, let’s get to the basketball.
In its simplest form, college basketball is about brands. Players cycle in and out over the years, but it’s the larger than life coaching personas, historic programs, and iconic venues that remain constant. It’s the Dukes, the Kentuckys, the North Carolinas that preside over the college basketball landscape as the predominant bluebloods of the sport. Like many American corporations, these programs are simply too big to fail for an extended period of time. They will always manage to rise back to the top one way or another.
Many of the traditional bluebloods represent an old guard that has more or less been a mainstay at the top of the sport for multiple decades. It is rare to see a program built up from scratch that can consistently compete with the nation’s best year in and year out while establishing itself as a brand in the process.
Gonzaga has done just that.
There isn’t a program in college basketball that has experienced the meteoric rise that Gonzaga has, going from plucky Cinderella to perennial national title contenders over the course of the 21st Century. Dan Monson walked so Mark Few could run, only Few decided to get on a rocket and take off to new heights instead.
If there was one hyperbolic takeaway from the opening week of college basketball, it’s that this year’s iteration of the Bulldogs might be Few’s best and that there might be a bigger gap between the nation’s No. 1 team and the rest of the pack than originally anticipated. A Thanksgiving Day win over No. 6 Kansas showed the flexibility and explosiveness that Few has at his disposal, and they followed it up with an easy dismantling of Auburn that showed that they don’t need to be firing on all cylinders to cruise to 20+ point wins.
It’s a culmination of the development and growth of the program that has become one of the flag-bearers of sustainability in college basketball. Over the course of the last decade—especially the last five years—Gonzaga has established the blueprint for what a modern college basketball blueblood looks like.
The Bulldogs have become a ruthlessly efficient machine that has finished with KenPom’s most efficient offense each of the last two seasons, and top five in overall efficiency in three of the last four. Gonzaga’s ball-screen and high-low offense consistently produce a good look on almost every possession, and every player on the floor is a threat to score. They’ve begun to play a more up-tempo style over the last five years, realizing that one of the prevailing thoughts of modern basketball is to give your team as many chances as possible to prove that it’s more talented than your opponent. Ben Goren points this out in his preview of Northwestern.
It’s a testament to a roster construction philosophy that identifies and develops talent from every source in college basketball. Few programs (no pun intended) can replicate Gonzaga’s combination of talent that features internally developed upperclassmen (Corey Kispert), impact transfers (Andrew Nembhard), international talent (Joel Ayayi, Oumar Ballo), and blue-chip recruits (Jalen Suggs, Drew Timme). It’s an embarrassment of riches that’s becoming the norm.
NBA talent is coming out of Spokane with an increased frequency, and the Bulldogs are starting to compete with other elite programs for elite talent from the high school ranks. Highlighted by Suggs, who was the No. 11 recruit in the country according to 247 Sports, this year’s recruiting class ranked 13th in the country and featured three top 100 players. It was the second straight year ranked inside the top 20 of 247’s class rankings, something Gonzaga had only done once (2016) since 2010. And next year’s group isn’t expected to be any different, with two 4-star recruits already en tow and the possibility of adding Fanbo Zeng, who is considered to be one of the most promising Chinese prospects of all-time, possibly reclassifying to 2021.
The only thing that’s left to truly join the elite of the elite is to cut down the nets in March. Among KenPom’s top 10 programs, Gonzaga is the only one without a national championship.
Now, the NCAA Tournament can be a bit of a crapshoot, but as shown in last week’s edition of Basketball Joe, Gonzaga has actually outperformed seed expectations since 2010. With each passing year that the Bulldogs are in the mix, it seems like it’s only a matter of when, not if, they’re crowned national champs.
When that happens, it’ll be because Gonzaga has adapted to the ever-changing college basketball landscape as well as any program in the nation. And as the game continues to adapt, Gonzaga will continue to be the gold standard.
A new class of college basketball blueblood is coming, and Gonzaga is here to help usher in a new era.
Espresso Shots
The end of regulation in Virginia Tech’s overtime win over No. 3 Villanova was not without controversy. Justin Moore drew a “charge” on the inbound play, leading to two free throws that would send the game to OT.
This type of play isn’t new, and VCU actually used it to beat George Washington back in 2017. Virginia Tech would go on to win 81-73 despite the questionable call. Ball don’t lie?
Gambling is a fickle, fickle vice.
Bryant head coach Jared Grosso was not a fan of Jim Boeheim’s comments stating that Syracuse should not have gone through with their Friday matchup.
Boeheim at halftime: "Not practicing in 14 days, you just can't play this game. They should've just canceled the game... We're not conditioned. They've got fast guys and they're pushing right by us... This is a tough game for us if we're practicing every day. We're not ready."
Bryant coach Jared Grasso was asked about this postgame: 'Am I supposed to give an honest reaction? Let me give an honest reaction -- we gave them five opportunities to cancel the game. They wanted to play it. We asked to move the date five times. We felt the same way.' (1/x)Boeheim at halftime: "Not practicing in 14 days, you just can't play this game. They should've just canceled the game... We're not conditioned. They've got fast guys and they're pushing right by us... This is a tough game for us if we're practicing every day. We're not ready."
Matt Park @MattPark1Boeheim would go on to state after the game that he’s concerned about the impact of inconsistent protocols on the sport.
Boeheim re-emphasized his complaint from Bryant game. He’s concerned that a team could go weeks without a positive and continually practice/compete and bump up on a game against a team one/two/three days out of quarantine and that is a concerning circumstance for players’ bodies.Sure seems like it would be handy for a centralized governing body to implement a standard protocol for this type of situation across the sport. Oh well!
Speaking of inconsistent protocols…
So Eastern Washington is playing tonight (with 7 players) after a player had a positive COVID test, but has postponed its next three games, including its first two Big Sky games. Alrighty.In more EWU/COVID-19 related news... Monday's home opener against Montana Tech has been cancelled. Next weekend's Big Sky openers at Northern Arizona have been postponed to Dec. 18 and 19. #BigSkyMBB
Ryan W. Collingwood @sr_collingwoodThe Pac-12’s use of daily rapid tests likely led to EWU being able to play their game Saturday, but the Big Sky games were canceled because of a different set of testing protocols. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on for how to treat positive tests. The sport as a whole is going to suffer if everyone is operating under different circumstances across the country. Thanks, NCAA!
College Basketball Twitter’s newest cult hero is Loyola Marymount forward Keli Leaupepe, a 6’6” Australian who rocks a mullet.
Well, introduce yourself to your new favorite college basketball player: Loyola Marymount’s Keli LeaupepeWhat a delight.
The opening week of college basketball featured only three Brutalities (buy game losses, as deemed by Jon Rothstein). Bookmark the Brutality Leaderboard, which is something I’ve been tracking for the last couple of seasons. The biggest upset of the season so far was St. Francis PA’s win over Pitt on the first day of the season.
Forget preventing the spread of COVID. Players need to wear masks so this doesn’t happen.
Andy Wittry’s newsletter “Out of Bounds” highlighted the increased NCAA emphasis on sportsmanship that led to an increase in technical fouls on the first day of the season.
Purdue’s 7’4” freshman Zach Edey is your dunk leader after one week with eight so far. One can only assume that Matt Painter is growing seven-footers in a secret lab somewhere below Mackey Arena.
This tweet from Notre Dame head coach prompted a thought:
This is not a drill! @NDmbb looking for an opponent Dec. 4/5. And we will travel... (safely of course) Reach out and let’s hoop.A centralized scheduling database would do wonders for non-conference scheduling, particularly in a season like this in which scheduling essentially occurs like getting a match on Bumble. There are scheduling “message boards” out there if you know where to look where you can see who’s requesting what, but a hub of data and information in a single database could lead to some exciting matchups and make every director of basketball operation’s job easier. This sounds like a job for D1 Docket or Kevin Pauga.
Here, enjoy some buzzer-beaters and game-winners!
South Alabama guard Mike Flowers lost his father, Henry, two days ago. That came only four years after the death of his mother. Tonight, Flowers hit the winning shot at home with one second remaining against Florida Atlantic. The best story of college basketball's opening day.Mike Flowers @__TAKEFLIGHT has Ice in his vains 🥶. https://t.co/PnqitCYVz3
Mike Kosich @CoachKosich
San Francisco’s upset of No. 4 Virginia was arguably the biggest upset of the season so far, and it led to this great locker room moment. WHO SAYS THE NBA IS THE PETTIEST LEAGUE?!
See you next Monday. Enjoy the hoops.
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