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Gonzaga Basketball

Gonzaga men focused on own issues, not opponent

By Jim Meehan jimm@spokesman.com(509) 459-5585

At the time, minutes after Gonzaga had pummeled Northern Arizona 91-52 on Thursday, head coach Mark Few didn’t know much about Mount St. Mary’s.

Few noted the Mountaineers are coached by Jamion Christian, formerly an assistant under Shaka Smart, so they would probably have an athletic, pressing team. Other than that, Few’s attention had been on NAU and probably more so on Gonzaga.

“We still have to focus on us getting right,” said Few, whose 10th-ranked Zags entertain Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday.

The Zags (1-0) had extended stretches of quality play at both ends of the court against NAU, despite 17 turnovers.

“We can’t be giving it away like that,” senior guard Kyle Dranginis said. “The good thing is that is something we can change.”

The Mountaineers (0-3), tabbed as favorites in the Northeast Conference coaches’ preseason poll ahead of defending champion Robert Morris, are off to a predictably rough start, dropping road games to Ohio State, No. 3 Maryland and Washington by a combined 79 points.

Senior forward Gregory Graves and junior guard BK Ashe, who had 18 points and seven rebounds against Maryland, were All-NEC last season. Junior Robinson, a 5-foot-5 sophomore guard, scored 16 points against Washington.

The Mountaineers rely on the 3-point shot. They made 9 of 37 3s against the Huskies. In their first two games, 3-pointers accounted for 46.4 percent of their points and 46.8 percent of their shots.

Gonzaga hit just 6 of 23 3-pointers Thursday. Redshirt freshman Bryan Alberts provided a spark by draining 3 of 4 treys and handing out three assists in 21 turnover-free minutes.

“Those guys are all good shooters,” Few said. “Like I’ve said with all our teams, it’s a little about context, too. If we just shot three 3s, we probably don’t need to shoot another 3 for a while unless all three went in.

“I think they’re just finding their way. We’ve been after Silas (Melson) and Josh (Perkins) about that: feet ready, hands ready, on the line and shoot it the same way every time.”