I'm definitely a bit late here, but hadn't checked in since our weekend out in Salt Lake. From a quick glance everyone seems a bit weirdly antagonistic, so how about a few happy notes (sorry this is probably going to end up being long)...
1) The NU fan following out in Salt Lake was incredible. There was purple everywhere throughout the weekend. On Thursday we probably outnumbered Gonzaga fans 1.5 to 1, and Vandy >10 to 1. All the other friends were very nice though (including Vandy), and eager to talk about basketball. In particular had multiple good conversations with many Gonzaga folks and a couple St Mary's folks. It's a great overall experience. Plus, on Saturday, our numbers increased by about another 30% I think from people that couldn't get out of work for the first round. I know our group went from 10 to 16, and spoke with others who made it for the second round.
2) Great job by the NAA or NU Marketing or whoever in organizing the pep rallies. Those were excellent events, and the venue with the huge open skylight ceilings and open air feel was perfect for the great SLC weather.
3) Speaking of which, lots of weird drinking rules in SLC, but overall a pretty solid town. The downtown area is at once tightly packed, yet still spread out bc the space between buildings and length of each block is so large. Interesting feel. Found good food and good places to drink though. Gracie's in particular was awesome, postgame Thurs and pregame Sat. Also snuck off to the mountains to do some spring skiing on Fri which was nice.
4) Vanderbilt- we completely dominated most of that game, but MFD getting en fuego coupled with a bit of hesitancy on our part and questionable reffing made it a game. Scottie helped us get off to the lead in the first half, but BMac stepped up big time down the stretch. Huge credit to him for securing the win.
4a.) Also, random side note I found it comical watching Kornet try to post up Pardon - he had 4 (or more?) inches on him yet whenever he tried to post him up he couldn't move Dererk an inch and I think was 0 for 4 on post up possessions. It's interesting to see that, even though DP had trouble at times with the dominant post up guys in the B1G, he's still a very good low post defender compared to the country at large.
Now for Gonzaga - man what a game.
- First, NWG and Zach Collins are very very good players. I think both should get a shot as role players in the NBA. Adding on this, I think Gonzaga is the most balanced all-around team in the country right now. They have plenty of scoring options and depth both outside (NWG, Melson, Perkins, etc) and inside (Collins, Karnowski, J Williams, and even 33 hurt us some). They can go 10 deep if they need to. While UNC, Kentucky, UCLA, Arizona, Duke certainly have more top-end talent than the Zags, I'm not sure any of them play as a team as well as they do. Kansas and Nova play well as a team on both ends of the floor, but both are more guard / backcourt heavy and don't have the depth inside, which came back to hurt them against Oregon and Wisconsin. Oregon may have had an argument for this, but the loss of Boucher makes them vulnerable inside (will be interesting next vs UNC).
- Second, clearly the refs hurt our chances in that game. I think they were consistently against us, and there were a few glaring calls - most obviously the 2 obvious goaltends which cost us 5 points. I dunno, it sucks, but what's done is done, it isn't going to change now. When it comes down to it I think the refs do tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the favored team, whether consciously or unconsciously (the Zona / SMU game after ours was just as bad), and that's something that you have to overcome sometimes in order to win on a stage like this. Ultimately you just can't spot a team that good 20 points, because you need everything to go your way even if you are playing great basketball.
- Which brings me to my next point - in the 1H we were clearly not prepared for their defensive intensity, and were not crisp enough on too many passes. DP struggled when an extra defender came at him. Not to mention we couldn't get anything to fall. BUT.... that second half of basketball was unlike anything I've ever seen an NU team play. It wasn't just one player, it was up and down the roster. BMac creating shots. Vic raining 3s. Tap hitting two 3s to get the run kickstarted, including a bomb from way deep. Sanjay scrambling around everywhere on defense and being crafty. Scottie getting out into the fastbreak. Dererk was even standing up Karnowski in the post more often than not, and vacuuming up rebounds. Pushing the ball up the court at every opportunity, and creating good shots with our chances. We scored 53 POINTS in the second half. What??
When Vic threw down that putback slam, the elation in the NU crowd was off the charts. While in the end we didn't get over the hump this time, I know that I was awfully proud of the effort put forth by our Cats. We fought hard, and we gave them the toughest game they've had so far. The fan support was also incredible in that game on Saturday. The Gonzaga fans almost seemed shell shocked as to what had happened, even after their win. Wildcat purple was out in force, and the crowd was LOUD to the point where we took over a neutral site game as the lower seed.
I don't see how this is anything other than a great springboard into next year. We return an awful lot of talent, and get Rap and Falzon back from injury. The future is bright. The ceiling is the roof! Thanks to Chris and all the members of this year's team for an incredible run that I know I will never forget.
GO CATS!
Rick
(PS have been following the Mark Smith developments to some extent, and hoping Chris can ride this wave to pull a rabbit out of a hat there....)
1) The NU fan following out in Salt Lake was incredible. There was purple everywhere throughout the weekend. On Thursday we probably outnumbered Gonzaga fans 1.5 to 1, and Vandy >10 to 1. All the other friends were very nice though (including Vandy), and eager to talk about basketball. In particular had multiple good conversations with many Gonzaga folks and a couple St Mary's folks. It's a great overall experience. Plus, on Saturday, our numbers increased by about another 30% I think from people that couldn't get out of work for the first round. I know our group went from 10 to 16, and spoke with others who made it for the second round.
2) Great job by the NAA or NU Marketing or whoever in organizing the pep rallies. Those were excellent events, and the venue with the huge open skylight ceilings and open air feel was perfect for the great SLC weather.
3) Speaking of which, lots of weird drinking rules in SLC, but overall a pretty solid town. The downtown area is at once tightly packed, yet still spread out bc the space between buildings and length of each block is so large. Interesting feel. Found good food and good places to drink though. Gracie's in particular was awesome, postgame Thurs and pregame Sat. Also snuck off to the mountains to do some spring skiing on Fri which was nice.
4) Vanderbilt- we completely dominated most of that game, but MFD getting en fuego coupled with a bit of hesitancy on our part and questionable reffing made it a game. Scottie helped us get off to the lead in the first half, but BMac stepped up big time down the stretch. Huge credit to him for securing the win.
4a.) Also, random side note I found it comical watching Kornet try to post up Pardon - he had 4 (or more?) inches on him yet whenever he tried to post him up he couldn't move Dererk an inch and I think was 0 for 4 on post up possessions. It's interesting to see that, even though DP had trouble at times with the dominant post up guys in the B1G, he's still a very good low post defender compared to the country at large.
Now for Gonzaga - man what a game.
- First, NWG and Zach Collins are very very good players. I think both should get a shot as role players in the NBA. Adding on this, I think Gonzaga is the most balanced all-around team in the country right now. They have plenty of scoring options and depth both outside (NWG, Melson, Perkins, etc) and inside (Collins, Karnowski, J Williams, and even 33 hurt us some). They can go 10 deep if they need to. While UNC, Kentucky, UCLA, Arizona, Duke certainly have more top-end talent than the Zags, I'm not sure any of them play as a team as well as they do. Kansas and Nova play well as a team on both ends of the floor, but both are more guard / backcourt heavy and don't have the depth inside, which came back to hurt them against Oregon and Wisconsin. Oregon may have had an argument for this, but the loss of Boucher makes them vulnerable inside (will be interesting next vs UNC).
- Second, clearly the refs hurt our chances in that game. I think they were consistently against us, and there were a few glaring calls - most obviously the 2 obvious goaltends which cost us 5 points. I dunno, it sucks, but what's done is done, it isn't going to change now. When it comes down to it I think the refs do tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the favored team, whether consciously or unconsciously (the Zona / SMU game after ours was just as bad), and that's something that you have to overcome sometimes in order to win on a stage like this. Ultimately you just can't spot a team that good 20 points, because you need everything to go your way even if you are playing great basketball.
- Which brings me to my next point - in the 1H we were clearly not prepared for their defensive intensity, and were not crisp enough on too many passes. DP struggled when an extra defender came at him. Not to mention we couldn't get anything to fall. BUT.... that second half of basketball was unlike anything I've ever seen an NU team play. It wasn't just one player, it was up and down the roster. BMac creating shots. Vic raining 3s. Tap hitting two 3s to get the run kickstarted, including a bomb from way deep. Sanjay scrambling around everywhere on defense and being crafty. Scottie getting out into the fastbreak. Dererk was even standing up Karnowski in the post more often than not, and vacuuming up rebounds. Pushing the ball up the court at every opportunity, and creating good shots with our chances. We scored 53 POINTS in the second half. What??
When Vic threw down that putback slam, the elation in the NU crowd was off the charts. While in the end we didn't get over the hump this time, I know that I was awfully proud of the effort put forth by our Cats. We fought hard, and we gave them the toughest game they've had so far. The fan support was also incredible in that game on Saturday. The Gonzaga fans almost seemed shell shocked as to what had happened, even after their win. Wildcat purple was out in force, and the crowd was LOUD to the point where we took over a neutral site game as the lower seed.
I don't see how this is anything other than a great springboard into next year. We return an awful lot of talent, and get Rap and Falzon back from injury. The future is bright. The ceiling is the roof! Thanks to Chris and all the members of this year's team for an incredible run that I know I will never forget.
GO CATS!
Rick
(PS have been following the Mark Smith developments to some extent, and hoping Chris can ride this wave to pull a rabbit out of a hat there....)
