Measured against the 23-point blowout loss to Arizona in last year’s NCAA tournament, Gonzaga has clearly gained ground on the Wildcats but not enough to move the outcome into the win column.

GU needed a play or two in the closing minutes to claim what would have been one of the most impressive wins in college basketball thus far. Instead the Zags left with unfinished business as their offense failed to deliver in crunch time.

Arizona’s did, and the Cats snagged a 66-63 overtime win. My game story here, more gamers here, here and here. Commentary pieces here, here, here and here. Photos here.

Read on for my day-after post.

--Byron Wesley sat in a chair in a cramped locker room, still in uniform with a towel draped over his head. Some teammates had showered, packed their suitcase and left the dressing room. Kevin Pangos, seated at the adjacent locker, and Gary Bell Jr., two lockers down, fielded questions from reporters.

Wesley remained motionless until I asked if he was ready to talk. He lifted his head and responded to six questions, a 3-minute, 43-second interview under the toughest of circumstances. Wesley had missed three free throws – the last one on purpose – with 3.3 seconds left and Gonzaga trailing by 3 in overtime.

His first quote can be found in the link above in my game story. Four other times he used similar phrases, that he didn’t step up for his team, even when the question was on a separate topic.

“Arizona is really talented,” said Wesley, with red-rimmed eyes. “I think that was a good test early for our team. Now we have a little more fuel to our fire. When we go to practice, when play these next-level games, we’ll make sure to have it in our memory bank. If we want to let up and not go as hard as can we need to remember this game and remember this feeling. We weren’t able to make plays down the stretch, and I wasn't able to pull through when they needed me.”

He said teammates and coaches have been “extremely supportive, from the minute the game was over.” That’s illustrated pretty in a photo that can be found in the above links after Wesley’s first miss. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is smiling, T.J. McConnell appears to be yelling in Wesley’s direction and Kevin Pangos is patting Wesley on the back.

--The Wildcats didn’t give Kevin Pangos much room to operate, whether he encountered McConnell or Hollis-Jefferson. The injury to Josh Perkins limits Pangos’ ability to play shooting guard and the senior guard found it hard to create open space from the point-guard position.

He finished 3 of 10 from the field. He was 1 of 3 from 3 – the make heavily contested by Hollis-Jefferson in overtime.

“He’s a feisty dude,” Pangos said of McConnell. “He didn’t give me anything easy, made me work for everything.”

And Hollis-Jefferson?

“He’s athletic and long arms, nothing was easy. Our team did a good job moving the ball, they didn’t give me any easy catches.”

Said coach Mark Few: “That was quite a little battle between him and McConnell. Those are two tough guys. If they were in the X-fighting or whatever they call that stuff in the cage, they’d be world champs, both of them.”

Said Arizona coach Sean Miller: “Rondae is one of the nation’s great defenders.”

--I need to trust my eyes and first impressions more. In a wild scene at the end of regulation with the score tied, Gary Bell Jr. drove and missed badly. On the rebound, it appeared Domas Sabonis got leveled in pursuit of the rebound. I turned to a reporter next to me and we both agreed that it looked like a foul.

Last night, I saw a replay and it turns out that’s what happened. Hollis-Jefferson went over Sabonis’ back at roughly the same time a Wildcats guard was backing into Sabonis, trying to block him out. No call by the refs, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the play shows up on an official’s training video as the definition of over-the-back.

--It was an interesting night for Kyle Wiltjer. He overcame some early struggles and led GU with 15 points. He didn’t, however, start the second half. Few opted to insert Sabonis, who committed two early fouls and played just four minutes in the first half.

“I was proud of Wiltjer,” Few said. “I thought he got off to a slow start, then settled down and he was a real factor for us. He was fine, we just had to get Domas some minutes. We didn’t want to wait for that second cycle (of playing time), we wanted to go with him right away.”

Wiltjer air-balled his first shot attempt, a 3, and missed badly on his next attempt. He missed an open 3 before connecting from long distance with 9:15 left in the half.  Wiltjer finished 6 of 16, 1 of 6 from 3.

--Przemek Karnowski was an effective option against 7-foot Kaleb Tarczewski, much like he was in the NCAA tournament loss. Karnowski had 10 points and 11 rebounds. He was credited with one assist, but would have had a couple more if teammates had knocked down open shots after his kick-out passes.

“I feel much more comfortable against guys 6-11, 7 feet, rather than 6-6, 6-7 and athletic,” he said. “Kaleb is a huge human being. I can say that, I’m huge.”

Karnowski made 5 of 7 shots, including a 12-footer from the wing.

STATS OF NOTE

--Wiltjer is 10 of 31 on 3-pointers (32.3%).

--Four Zags were in double figures – Wiltjer (15), Bell (12) and Karnowski and Wesley each with 10. The Wildcats also had four players in double figures (Johnson, Ashley, Tarczewski and McConnell).

--Pangos had four turnovers in 43 minutes. He had five turnovers in 209 minutes entering the contest.

--GU’s bench, scoreless in the first half, finished with 8 points (Sabonis 6, Dranginis 2).

--Wesley scored all 10 of his points in the first half.

QUOTEBOOK

Few, on trying various options in crunch time: “That’s kind of what we do and who we are. All those guys get opportunities with ball screens or pindowns. We’re confident with all of them. On those last few plays, we probably (need) trust to make one more pass, and see if somebody can make a wide open shot instead of trying to make tough ones.”

McConnell on crowd: “When I saw the (Wesley) air-ball, to be honest, I was in shock. Credit to our fans. We have the best fans in the country, and they just proved why, at the free throw at the end.”

Few: “It was an epic battle from an effort standpoint and toughness standpoint.”

Miller: “We played Gonzaga because they’re one of the great programs in college basketball. To  be candid, I didn’t anticipate them having even as good a team as they do, but adding Wesley and Sabonis as late as they did gives them that next-level type of team.”

Miller on being outrebounded 39-31: “For a significant portion of the game we really did a good job keeping them off the glass, but they are so big and physical and how they run their offense has you constantly helping and as you help it frees up their guys to go get rebounds.”

Pangos: “You saw almost everything in that game, some things we did well and some we didn’t do as well as we wanted but that’s the stuff you can take with you the rest of the year.”

 

 

---

---