Jim Meehan

onzaga currently has a love-hate relationship with the 3-point line. The eighth-ranked Zags were on target early with their two best 3-point shooting percentages (41.9 vs. Baylor and 45.5 vs. UMass Lowell) in the season’s first three games. The last month has been rough. In the Zags’ last six games, they’ve made just 29.8%

This segment of Gonzaga’s schedule is typical and atypical at the same time. It always is in December as the program juggles dead week last week, which preceded finals week this week and the fast-approaching Christmas holiday break. The goal is trying to mix and match practice times to prepare for some of the biggest tests on the Zags’ non-conference schedule: Kentucky last Saturday, UConn this Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City and UCLA on Dec. 28 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

Gonzaga’s one-point overtime loss to Kentucky on Saturday resulted in a one spot drop for both the Bulldogs and Wildcats in the latest AP college basketball poll.

SEATTLE – One by one during Saturday’s post-game media session, Gonzaga coach Mark Few, point guard Ryan Nembhard and post Graham Ike detailed the second half and overtime issues offensively with a common refrain.

Gonzaga got it half right. And that wasn’t nearly enough.

Gonzaga players and coaches were interested spectators monitoring Kentucky’s road loss to Clemson on television earlier this week with the Wildcats next on the Zags’ schedule. The Wildcats reminded senior guard Nolan Hickman of another team in blue jerseys that the Zags used to face in the West Coast Conference. Makes sense since Kentucky’s head coach Mark Pope spent the previous five years at BYU.

The Wildcats’ Otega Owey, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound transfer from Oklahoma, is probably tops on Gonzaga’s scouting report for Saturday’s Battle in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena.

Kentucky coach Mark Pope hasn’t had much success against Mark Few and Gonzaga, but that hasn’t changed the coaches’ friendship on or off the court. Pope is 1-9 as a head coach against the Few-coached Zags.