Tonight’s performance by Gonzaga was impressive on many fronts, but it started with a great game plan by the coaching staff. Gonzaga’s coaches showed why they are one of the best staffs in the nation by coming out with great schemes on both ends of the floor.

Coach Grier did a great job for the second game in a row coming up with multiple ways to slow down a high scoring guard with a future in the NBA, in tonight’s game Rice’s Morris Almond. Gonzaga changed looks constantly at the defensive end, not only between man and zone, but also putting fresh bodies on Almond throughout the night to wear him down. Pargo, Bouldin and PMAC all deserve credit for guarding Almond well, but the team did a great job defensively of taking charges on Almond when he drove to the basket. By taking three charges against Almond, Gonzaga was able to get him in foul trouble, but it also visibly frustrated him and made him think twice about penetrating to the basket against the Zag’s strong helping defense.

On the offensive end of the floor the coaching staff took what they saw on film and called plays to exploit the aggressive defense of the Owls. Rice’s big men show very hard on screens and chase the ball handler out away from the basket, thus allowing the Gonzaga’s big man who set the screen to roam free toward the basket. The Zag’s staff opened the game with two consecutive plays involving ball screens which resulted in easy shots for the team when Rice showed aggressively, including Heyvelt’s alley-oop on the game’s first play. Gonzaga continued to utilize ball screens well throughout the night to take advantage of the Owl’s aggressiveness and as a way to get Heyvelt the ball down low where he scored so effectively.

Finally the coaching staff did nice job preparing the Zags to play with a great deal of energy and emotion in their first game away from the Kennel. In years past the team has struggled at points in the Spokane Arena because it lacks the high energy crowd and familiarity of true home games; however, tonight there was no such drop-off as the Zags started fast and never let up on the Owls, feeding on the energy they created themselves through their effort on the glass and defense.

Leadership came not only from the coaching staff tonight, but also from Sean Mallon. The senior scored the ball well in the first half and battled on the glass and defensively, while being the vocal leader on the defensive end. It was great to see Sean play so well, but even better to see him lead the team both vocally and by example tonight.

It was great to see Kuso brings his athleticism and energy to the game, while scoring and rebounding the ball well, and I think Zags fans got a great chance to see what a game changer Will Foster will be in the future. In limited time Will collected a rebound and two blocks, while altering two other shots by Rice. For a kid his size Foster runs the court well, has a good skill set, and good timing on blocking shots. With time to adjust to the speed of play, which is necessary for all freshmen, and some added muscle, Foster could become a dominant force in the middle for the Bulldogs in the coming years.

Just like the Eastern game on Friday, Gonzaga won this game with their defense which shut down the opponents’ best player and created turnovers, great energy, a balanced offensive attack that moved the ball well to get the open shot, and a superb rebounding effort, the Zags out rebounded Rice by nearly 20. These four components are keys to any great team and if the Zags can continue to display these four characteristics night and night out this team has a chance to be very good.

The Zags don’t have much time to rest or prepare for what should be a much tougher game tomorrow against Baylor from the Big 12 Conference. Baylor won a double overtime game tonight against Colorado State, so they should be a bit more tired than the Zags, but Gonzaga must be ready to contain the dribble penetration of Baylor’s very quick and skilled four guards and continue to rebound the ball well against Baylor’s athletic and tall front line featuring two seven footers.