Jim Meehan

Fast forward, beginning with Gonzaga dropping a season-high 13 3-pointers on nearly 42% shooting in a 69-55 win over the Red Raiders, and the Zags have been dialed in from long distance. In that seven-game span, the Zags (15-2, 4-0 WCC) have produced five of their top six 3-point percentages of the season. They had a string of three straight games with at least 110 points and two more in the 90s.

More on Timme’s second-half turnaround, Chet Holmgren’s best effort of the season and the Dons’ inspired play in our Gonzaga-San Francisco takeaways.

The West Coast Conference announced a couple of changes to the Gonzaga men’s basketball schedule, both involving road games. The top-ranked Zags will visit San Diego at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 3. The Gonzaga-Pepperdine game in Malibu scheduled for Feb. 3 has been moved back to Feb. 17.

What the top-ranked Zags did do was climb out of their first double-digit deficit at home this season, overcome a rough first half from All-American Drew Timme and fend off a spirited challenge from San Francisco in front of 6,000 Thursday at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Chet Holmgren had perhaps the best game of his freshman season with 22 points and nine rebounds, and Timme bounced back with a strong closing half to lead Gonzaga to a hard-fought 78-62 victory.

If not for a bumpy final few minutes in Saturday’s 71-69 loss to BYU, Thursday’s Gonzaga-San Francisco game at the McCarthey Athletic Center would be for solo first place in the conference. Nevertheless, the Dons pose unique challenges to Gonzaga (14-2, 3-0) with their experience, play-making guards and interior presence.

Jamaree Bouyea is making the most of his fifth season at USF with career-highs in points (17.9), rebounds (4.9), 3-point accuracy (40.6%) and free-throw percentage (77.1). His assists (3.8) and steals (1.6) match last season as career bests.

Drew Timme’s stats a year ago put him in position to be considered the 2022 preseason national player of the year favorite. With virtually identical stats roughly midway through this season, Timme is somewhere in the middle of the top 10, depending on the media poll or odds.

Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren collected WCC freshman of the week honors for the fifth time this season. The 7-foot forward from Minneapolis averaged 11.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.5 blocks and 1.0 steals as the Zags crushed BYU 110-84 and Santa Clara 115-83.

There wasn’t a lot of mystery for WCC player of the week, or national player of the week honors for that matter. Gonzaga’s Drew Timme made it an obvious choice for the conference after averaging 31 points and hitting 27 of 32 field-goal attempts in routs over BYU (110-84) and Santa Clara (115-83). Timme earned national player of the week honors from ESPN, NCAA.com’s Andy Katz.

Gonzaga is back where it started the season in the AP college basketball poll. The Zags moved up to No. 1 in the rankings released Monday, a spot they held for three weeks, counting the preseason poll, at the outset of the season.

Gonzaga is no longer facing a lengthy gap before its next basketball game. The Zags will face San Francisco at 8 p.m. Thursday in the McCarthey Athletic Center, Gonzaga announced Sunday. CBS Sports Network will televise the contest. The Jan. 6 matchup between the two teams was postponed due to COVID-19 issues in GU’s program.

WCC after dark or WCC before dinner. Home court or road game. Ample preparation time or quick turnaround. It doesn’t seem to matter to Gonzaga scoring machine Drew Timme.

Drew Timme

Senior point guard Andrew Nembhard helped orchestrate the Zags’ 110-point night and his assertiveness has been one of the keys to the team’s five-game winning streak. More on Nembhard, coach Mark Few’s hopes of continuing to schedule the Cougars when they exit the WCC for the Big 12 thoughts and the coach’s “proud papa” moment when son Joe scored his first point as a Zag in our three takeaways.

Second-ranked Gonzaga was in a 40-minute groove Thursday, from Andrew Nembhard’s step-back jumpers to Drew Timme’s silky post moves, and the Cougars had zero answers at the defensive end. The Zags had too much firepower for the Cougars, who showed plenty of their own but couldn’t keep up as Gonzaga rolled to a 110-84 victory in front of packed house of 6,000 at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Jared McCain, a standout guard in the 2023 class, has scheduled a recruiting visit to Gonzaga next month. McCain told Zagsblog he’ll be in Spokane on Feb. 12-14.

This won’t be Alex Barcello’s first rodeo against Gonzaga. The super senior has played five contests versus the Zags while wearing BYU’s uniform the last three seasons. Barcello, who played two years at Arizona before transferring, also came off the bench for a 5-minute stint in the Wildcats’ 91-74 loss to the Zags at the Maui Invitational in 2018.

Gonzaga junior forward Drew Timme offered a spot-on assessment of his 2½ seasons of involvement in the rivalry against BYU. “They don’t back down, it’s a big rivalry game and the fun thing is we get their best shot, they get our best shot,” said Timme, who has averaged 12.2 points and owns a 4-1 record in five contests against the Cougars. “I still have that bad taste in mouth from (a loss) freshman year, so no love lost between us.

Top-ranked Baylor suffered a 65-62 home loss to No. 19 Texas Tech on Tuesday, opening up the possibility second-ranked Gonzaga could return to the top spot.

Gonzaga-BYU is always a circle-the-date game on the West Coast Conference basketball schedule whether they clash in Spokane or Provo, Utah. Or Las Vegas, at the conference tournament.

Rui Hachimura had a feeling Sunday would be the day he returned to NBA game action. The former Gonzaga standout missed the Washington Wizards’ first 39 games for personal reasons. He spent the last few months gradually incorporating basketball back into his everyday life.

Coach Mark Few provided an update on Kaden Parry and Dominick Harris after Gonzaga’s rout over Pepperdine on Saturday, noting Perry will require some down time before he sees game action and Harris is making progress, but there’s no timetable for his return.

After waiting a long time to play its WCC opener, Gonzaga wasted little time Saturday roughing up the visiting Pepperdine Waves. It was another example of Gonzaga managing to remain sharp, just as it did last season, after COVID-19 protocols erased three straight conference games and caused interruptions to the Zags’ practice schedule since thumping North Alabama on Dec. 28.

Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme led Gonzaga to a win in its West Coast Conference opener.