In the first WCC road trip of the year the Bulldogs got a taste of what it takes to win at league opponents’ home floors two times in three days, when every team has circled the date as their biggest game of the year. On Saturday Gonzaga did a great job meeting the challenge in winning at Santa Clara, but Monday night they did not bring the same intensity and were outworked by an experienced, big, and deep St. Mary’s club. There are not any nights the Zags get the luxury to take off in WCC play, as all other teams in the league can do at some point in the season, because every night the Bulldogs have a huge target on their back. The Zags competed fairly well Monday, by no means taking the night off, but St. Mary’s was just slightly more assertive and aggressive. It is almost impossible to win a road game if the visiting team is not the aggressor and takes the game at the home team. St. Mary’s won the key statistics of assertiveness, beating the Zags on the glass-including numerous huge offensive rebounds late in the game and getting to the free-throw line an unbelievable 46 times. Another concerning stat for the game was Gonzaga on had only 3 steals, which usually means the Zags were not as active on defense as they need to be, especially in the passing lanes and pressuring dribblers on the perimeter. Overall the Zags defense on Monday was not on par with what is needed to win on the road, as Gonzaga allowed St. Mary’s to get the ball inside with ease and also gave up open outside shots to the Gael’s shooters, while allowing St. Mary’s to put up 80 points. Most nights Gonzaga would not have trouble scoring over 80 points, but Monday night the Zags struggled shooting the ball, especially from 3, and needed their defense to carry them, but the defense was not there to get the Bulldogs the victory.

Jeremy Pargo led the Zags in scoring with a career high 22 points and continued to rebound the ball extremely well from the point guard spot, with seven. Pargo was best scoring the ball in the second half when the team needed it the most and provided the vast majority of the Bulldog’s dribble penetration on the night. While he turned the ball over too much early in the first half and struggled to shoot a bit, especially from the outside, his attacking, confident and aggressive play is crucial to the team and he provides level of toughness this team needs, especially when they face adversity. When the Zags struggle to get shots early in the shot clock it is almost always Pargo who attacks the basket to high percentage shots late in the clock, and as he improves his shooting and decision making Jeremy could become a huge weapon for the Zags late in the season. Heytvelt continued to return to his form from early in the year, finishing with 20 points and 9 boards, most of them in a huge first half. For the second game in a row Josh dominated one half of the game, but was not a major contributor in the other half. It is just a matter of time before he starts to dominate an entire game with his skilled play and athleticism, and once he plays consistently well the Bulldogs should pull away from the rest of the league competition. After Jeremy and Josh the Zags simply did not get the balanced performances they need to succeed on the road, as they did on Saturday, but with the offensive firepower this team possesses it is not a pressing concern at this time. The biggest offensive positive for the weekend was that the Zags did a much better job of taking care of the ball, only committing about 20 turnovers in the two games, whereas they had been averaging nearly 20 a game in the previous few games.

The Bulldogs main weakness continues to be their offensive execution of half-court sets. Aside from the first two plays of the second half, the Bulldogs are not crisp in their sets and are not moving the ball around with the pass. This lack of execution and too much dribbling is leading to lots of one-on-one play late in the shot clock, and often results in low percentage shots and makes the Zags easier to defend because the defense can anchor into position since Gonzaga is not making it adjust with pass. The good news is the Zags have the natural talent to make shots and score points without great team offense, but the bad news is that every team needs to create baskets out of half court sets to win big games, and right now the Gonzaga offense is lacking the ball movement and execution necessary to get these high quality shots in crucial situations. Once the offensive execution improves, and at points this year it has been okay, this team could become the most potent offensive team the program has had.

While this loss pulls the Zags into the middle of the WCC race there is no reason to believe the Bulldogs are not the best team in the league and will not win another league title. More often than not an early road loss will focus the team more and help them to realize what is needed to win in the WCC, and lead to a nice winning streak where Gonzaga re-establishes their dominance and pulls away from the pack. There maybe a few more missteps in league play, but the Zags should end the