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Message: [QUOTE="Kemba Time, post: 4593655, member: 2962"] I always look back at their non-conference games against more athletic top teams to see where Gonzaga might be exposed later in the tournament. Two games stand out this year: 1. Gonzaga beat Xavier in an almost dead-even Phil Knight matchup. X struggled on the glass and Strawther went off late, but these two teams are mirror images of each other in style of play and Xavier is definitely the comp to go to for our closest opponent (Hurley said as much this weekend too). 2. Texas completely dominated the Zags, and there is a lot UConn can take from what they did so well (and, yes, the game was at Texas which certainly didn’t hurt): + Frustrate Timme. Texas‘ long athletic bigs took Timme off his game and the Zags off theirs as a whole. His line looks OK, but he was limited to 10 shots and turned it over 5 times. We have the bigs to do this and can vary looks with someone like Dre coming over. I don’t know how tonight is going to go exactly, but I do know that Hurley is not going to let Timme simply go to work like he did against UCLA last game. + Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. The Zags don’t have a real head of the snake type guard and they are not used to seeing top-end ball pressure defense. Texas forced 20 turnovers and the Zags never looked comfortable running their stuff against those athletic guards. + Tyrese Hunter went off. Gonzaga elected to play under on a lot of Texas’ ball screens and action, and Hunter made them pay big time with 5 3s and 26 points. Seems like the Zags were trying not to get beat to the hoop by superior athletes and we have guys who can make them pay the same way. + Texas turned a bunch of those turnovers into points, taking advantage of having multiple guys who can get out and run. This is something that Gonzaga rarely sees in their conference and a night that Dre’s ability to run the break off of deflections or rebounds and the number of guys we have who can fill a lane or spot up in transition can give them a lot of trouble. + Similarly, Texas had 17 assists. Gonzaga had 10. Add the turnovers and 17 assists with 10 turnovers is going to beat 10 assists and 20 turnovers every single time. Just as Texas attacked with multiple guards, the varied action and number of weapons we have is something Gonzaga just does not see often. If the ball moves like it did against Arkansas, there is going to be an opportunity to make the Zags pay possession after possession. [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game/_/gameId/401483310[/URL] [/QUOTE]

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