3/24/05
- Thread starter vinnie
- Start date
vinnie
I am inclined to take Portland St here also.
But this kind of worried me.
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Gonzaga will seek to win the West Coast Conference title outright Thursday when the Bulldogs play their WCC regular-season finale at Portland. The Bulldogs clinched no worse than a tie for their fifth straight WCC regular-season crown - and their ninth since 1994 - with a 75-73 win over San Francisco on Saturday. Adam Morrison's fade away 15-footer from the left wing with .6 seconds left provided the margin of victory. J.P. Batista had given Gonzaga a 73-72 lead with a pair of free throws with :49 left, but Johnny Dukes of the Dons tied the game when he made the second of two free throws with :28 remaining. The Bulldogs called timeout with :21 left to set up the game-winning play.
Adam Morrison's game-winning basket on Saturday gave him a career-high 28 points, breaking his previous best of 26 reached three times this season in back-to-back games against Illinois and Washington, and again against Pepperdine. He went 12-for-20 from the field against San Francisco, both numbers career highs.
Gonzaga University's men's basketball team is assured of being the No. 1 seed in the upcoming West Coast Conference Tournament, the Bulldogs winning any tiebreaker formula with Saint Mary's College. The Bulldogs are 11-2 in the WCC while SMC is 9-3 heading into the final week of WCC action. Gonzaga plays at the University of Portland on Thursday in an 8 p.m. game on ESPN2, a win giving the Bulldogs their fifth straight title outright. SMC plays at the University of San Diego and the University of San Francisco this Thursday and Saturday, respectively. Since Gonzaga and Saint Mary's split their season series, the tiebreaker would come down to how each team did against other teams in descending order of finish in the WCC standings. Since Santa Clara University would finish ahead of the University of San Francisco if Gonzaga and SMC tie, the Bulldogs win the tiebreaker based on their two wins over SCU while the Broncos beat SMC twice this season. The Gaels and USF end the regular season on Saturday. If Gonzaga loses to Portland on Thursday and SMC wins both games, it would mean SMC would beat USF which would assure the Broncos finishing higher than USF, giving the tiebreaker to Gonzaga. SCU holds a two-game lead over USF heading into this weekend, meaning SCU would have to lose twice and USF would have to win twice for those two to tie. But in that scenario it means USF would beat SMC which would give the outright WCC title to Gonzaga even if the Bulldogs lose at Portland because the Bulldogs would finish 11-3 while SMC could finish no better than 10-4.
With the No. 1 seed wrapped up, Gonzaga will play in the 6 p.m. semifinal of the West Coast Conference Tournament on March 6 at the Leavey Center on the Santa Clara campus. The game will be televised by ESPN2. The Bulldogs will play either the fourth, fifth or eighth-place team in the WCC in the semifinals. No. 5 meets No. 8 in Friday's first round with the winner meeting No. 4 on Saturday for the right to face Gonzaga on Sunday. The WCC Tournament title game will be Monday, March 7, at 9 p.m. on ESPN. At stake is the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Gonzaga (21-4) has recorded 20 victories for the eighth straight year and for the 12th time in the last 14 years. Gonzaga's first 20-win season in the NCAA Division I ranks was 1992 when the Bulldogs went 20-10 and advanced to their inaugural WCC Tournament championship game, losing to Pepperdine 73-70. Head coach Mark Few has never failed to produce a 20-win season and with 154 career victories is averaging 25.7 wins/season.
Gonzaga jumped one spot to 12th in the Associated Press Top 25 this week, and remained 16th for the second week in the USA TODAY/ESPN balloting.
Ronny Turiaf continues to move up the Gonzaga career charts. He is fifth on the all-time scoring list with 1,641 points, six shy of passing Jeff Brown for fifth. He has 795 career rebounds for fourth, and is looking to become the fourth player in Gonzaga history with 800 career rebounds. Cory Violette is currently third with 880 career boards. His 611 career free throws made are already a career record and his 162 career blocks rank second.
Gonzaga head coach Mark Few is the only NCAA Division I head coach with a minimum of five years head coaching experience who has a career winning percentage of 80.0 percent or better. Few is 154-36 in his sixth year on the Gonzaga bench for a winning percentage of .81052. North Carolina's Roy Williams is right behind Few at .79965 percent with a career record of 459-115.
Gonzaga senior Ronny Turiaf is a John R. Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy Mid-Season Top 30 selection. It marks the sixth time in the last seven years the Bulldogs have had a Mid-Season Top 30 candidate, including Turiaf last season. The Top 10 Wooden All-America Team will be announced on March 29, and the Top Five All-Americans will gather April 9 in Los Angeles where one will receive the Wooden Award Trophy as the most outstanding collegiate basketball player of the year. Dan Dickau was Gonzaga's only Top 5 All-American in 2002, while Casey Calvary was Gonzaga's inaugural Top 10 All-American in 2001. Blake Stepp was a Top 10 selection last season for the Bulldogs. Turiaf was also a finalist for the Naismith Trophy last season. The Naismith is presented by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. Four finalists will be announced in March, with the trophy presentation in April.
Ronny Turiaf and Adam Morrison have each been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) District 14 first team, the Bulldogs joining Stanford with two first-team selections. Chris Hernandez and Dan Grunfeld of the Cardinal, and Nate Robinson of Washington round out the first team. Dan Kickert, Saint Mary's; Tre Simmons, Washington; David Lucas, Oregon State; John Cox, San Francisco, and Christian Maraker, Pacific, were named to the second team. Turiaf and Hernandez are first-team repeaters from a year ago.
Junior J.P. Batista has grabbed 78 rebounds over the last 10 games for an average of 7.8 rpg over that span. That's nearly 2.0 rpg more than his season average of 5.9 rpg. Included in that total are two double-digit games, including a career high 15 against Santa Clara.
BACK-TO-BACK LOSSES: Gonzaga has not lost back-to-back games since the 2002-03 season when the Bulldogs lost Dec. 28, 2002, against Stanford 81-71 in the Pete Newell Challenge in Oakland, Calif., and Dec. 31, 2002, at home to Saint Joseph's 79-78 in overtime. Gonzaga has played 74 games since that Saint Joseph's loss without losing back-to-back games.
BULLDOGS WHEN RANKED: Gonzaga is 82-15 when ranked, including 19-4 this season. The Bulldogs are 36-0 at home when ranked, 31-6 away and 15-9 on a neutral court.
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I am inclined to take Portland St here also.
But this kind of worried me.
........................................................................................
Gonzaga will seek to win the West Coast Conference title outright Thursday when the Bulldogs play their WCC regular-season finale at Portland. The Bulldogs clinched no worse than a tie for their fifth straight WCC regular-season crown - and their ninth since 1994 - with a 75-73 win over San Francisco on Saturday. Adam Morrison's fade away 15-footer from the left wing with .6 seconds left provided the margin of victory. J.P. Batista had given Gonzaga a 73-72 lead with a pair of free throws with :49 left, but Johnny Dukes of the Dons tied the game when he made the second of two free throws with :28 remaining. The Bulldogs called timeout with :21 left to set up the game-winning play.
Adam Morrison's game-winning basket on Saturday gave him a career-high 28 points, breaking his previous best of 26 reached three times this season in back-to-back games against Illinois and Washington, and again against Pepperdine. He went 12-for-20 from the field against San Francisco, both numbers career highs.
Gonzaga University's men's basketball team is assured of being the No. 1 seed in the upcoming West Coast Conference Tournament, the Bulldogs winning any tiebreaker formula with Saint Mary's College. The Bulldogs are 11-2 in the WCC while SMC is 9-3 heading into the final week of WCC action. Gonzaga plays at the University of Portland on Thursday in an 8 p.m. game on ESPN2, a win giving the Bulldogs their fifth straight title outright. SMC plays at the University of San Diego and the University of San Francisco this Thursday and Saturday, respectively. Since Gonzaga and Saint Mary's split their season series, the tiebreaker would come down to how each team did against other teams in descending order of finish in the WCC standings. Since Santa Clara University would finish ahead of the University of San Francisco if Gonzaga and SMC tie, the Bulldogs win the tiebreaker based on their two wins over SCU while the Broncos beat SMC twice this season. The Gaels and USF end the regular season on Saturday. If Gonzaga loses to Portland on Thursday and SMC wins both games, it would mean SMC would beat USF which would assure the Broncos finishing higher than USF, giving the tiebreaker to Gonzaga. SCU holds a two-game lead over USF heading into this weekend, meaning SCU would have to lose twice and USF would have to win twice for those two to tie. But in that scenario it means USF would beat SMC which would give the outright WCC title to Gonzaga even if the Bulldogs lose at Portland because the Bulldogs would finish 11-3 while SMC could finish no better than 10-4.
With the No. 1 seed wrapped up, Gonzaga will play in the 6 p.m. semifinal of the West Coast Conference Tournament on March 6 at the Leavey Center on the Santa Clara campus. The game will be televised by ESPN2. The Bulldogs will play either the fourth, fifth or eighth-place team in the WCC in the semifinals. No. 5 meets No. 8 in Friday's first round with the winner meeting No. 4 on Saturday for the right to face Gonzaga on Sunday. The WCC Tournament title game will be Monday, March 7, at 9 p.m. on ESPN. At stake is the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Gonzaga (21-4) has recorded 20 victories for the eighth straight year and for the 12th time in the last 14 years. Gonzaga's first 20-win season in the NCAA Division I ranks was 1992 when the Bulldogs went 20-10 and advanced to their inaugural WCC Tournament championship game, losing to Pepperdine 73-70. Head coach Mark Few has never failed to produce a 20-win season and with 154 career victories is averaging 25.7 wins/season.
Gonzaga jumped one spot to 12th in the Associated Press Top 25 this week, and remained 16th for the second week in the USA TODAY/ESPN balloting.
Ronny Turiaf continues to move up the Gonzaga career charts. He is fifth on the all-time scoring list with 1,641 points, six shy of passing Jeff Brown for fifth. He has 795 career rebounds for fourth, and is looking to become the fourth player in Gonzaga history with 800 career rebounds. Cory Violette is currently third with 880 career boards. His 611 career free throws made are already a career record and his 162 career blocks rank second.
Gonzaga head coach Mark Few is the only NCAA Division I head coach with a minimum of five years head coaching experience who has a career winning percentage of 80.0 percent or better. Few is 154-36 in his sixth year on the Gonzaga bench for a winning percentage of .81052. North Carolina's Roy Williams is right behind Few at .79965 percent with a career record of 459-115.
Gonzaga senior Ronny Turiaf is a John R. Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy Mid-Season Top 30 selection. It marks the sixth time in the last seven years the Bulldogs have had a Mid-Season Top 30 candidate, including Turiaf last season. The Top 10 Wooden All-America Team will be announced on March 29, and the Top Five All-Americans will gather April 9 in Los Angeles where one will receive the Wooden Award Trophy as the most outstanding collegiate basketball player of the year. Dan Dickau was Gonzaga's only Top 5 All-American in 2002, while Casey Calvary was Gonzaga's inaugural Top 10 All-American in 2001. Blake Stepp was a Top 10 selection last season for the Bulldogs. Turiaf was also a finalist for the Naismith Trophy last season. The Naismith is presented by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. Four finalists will be announced in March, with the trophy presentation in April.
Ronny Turiaf and Adam Morrison have each been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) District 14 first team, the Bulldogs joining Stanford with two first-team selections. Chris Hernandez and Dan Grunfeld of the Cardinal, and Nate Robinson of Washington round out the first team. Dan Kickert, Saint Mary's; Tre Simmons, Washington; David Lucas, Oregon State; John Cox, San Francisco, and Christian Maraker, Pacific, were named to the second team. Turiaf and Hernandez are first-team repeaters from a year ago.
Junior J.P. Batista has grabbed 78 rebounds over the last 10 games for an average of 7.8 rpg over that span. That's nearly 2.0 rpg more than his season average of 5.9 rpg. Included in that total are two double-digit games, including a career high 15 against Santa Clara.
BACK-TO-BACK LOSSES: Gonzaga has not lost back-to-back games since the 2002-03 season when the Bulldogs lost Dec. 28, 2002, against Stanford 81-71 in the Pete Newell Challenge in Oakland, Calif., and Dec. 31, 2002, at home to Saint Joseph's 79-78 in overtime. Gonzaga has played 74 games since that Saint Joseph's loss without losing back-to-back games.
BULLDOGS WHEN RANKED: Gonzaga is 82-15 when ranked, including 19-4 this season. The Bulldogs are 36-0 at home when ranked, 31-6 away and 15-9 on a neutral court.
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