Day after Portland

Just finished watching a replay of Gonzaga’s 67-50 win over Portland. It certainly wasn’t the most artistic game of the year, but plenty of leftovers for our day-after post.

Read on.

First, the links. Here’s my S-R game story and one from the Oregonian (written by S-R’s Dave Trimmer).

—Gonzaga has won two straight after that confidence-shaking three-game losing streak. The Zags are clearly playing better, but still not at the level they were at when they left Orlando.

“We’re definitely on the way back,” guard Matt Bouldin said. “We’re not quite there yet, but everyone is seeing that we’re getting there and we’re going to get there.”

Added Micah Downs: “E very day we’re making strides to become that team we were after Orlando. I think we’re making steps toward getting that back. It’s important for us is if we want do better in conference — and later.”

—The biggest difference in Orlando Zags vs. present-day Zags is probably the drop-off in point guard Jeremy Pargo’s play. He had another rough outing against the Pilots. He scored 12 points, but no assists for the first time since early in his sophomore year (a span of 76 games, if my math is correct). His season low for assists this year was three (vs. Maryland). It was two last year (vs. Santa Clara in WCC tourney). Pargo didn’t have an assist against Texas-San Antonio on 11/19/06.

Pargo had two turnovers in the first half, one for traveling and another when he was stripped of the ball while driving into traffic. He had two quick turnovers in the second half, one a bad pass into traffic and the other when he forced a drive into the lane. Head coach Mark Few quickly summoned Demetri Goodson, who also had a couple of turnovers in the next four minutes.

Pargo’s struggles have led to additional time for Goodson and Matt Bouldin seeing more ball-handling duties. Gray, too. Bouldin had six assists, Gray and Goodson two each.

Pargo had a couple of would-be assists, one to Josh Heytvelt, who couldn’t convert while being  fouled inside, and another to Austin Daye, who missed a layup before hitting a putback.

—Daye’s aforementioned bucket was his only field goal of the game. He was, again, in early foul trouble (two in the first half). He rebounded the ball well, but was stung by a couple of errant outlet passes. He played just 19 minutes. He’s had five straight games shooting sub.-500 after going 5 of 6 games at 50 percent or higher.

—Steven Gray has had two strong games since moving into the starting lineup. He had 13 points, five steals, three rebounds, two assists and no turnovers in 37 minutes. Gray had 10 deflections as well. He scored 14 points against Tennessee and his scoring average has been steadily climbing since pouring in 23 on UConn.

“I was comfortable coming off the bench, but it’s what the coaches feel will help the team,” Gray said. “I just have to come out and play hard. If I play hard, things will take care of themselves.”

Downs said he’s more comfortable as a starter, but understands the reasons for the change.

“I’d prefer to start, I feel more comfortable that way, but it’s whatever is going to get the job done and get us wins and for us to go far into the tournament,” he said. “If it doesn’t work this way, I know they’ll make the right decisions. Maybe right now this is best for the team and maybe later I’ll be back in there, but who knows.”

Downs has been battling back spasms recently. He said his back was “all right” Saturday and that some days are better than others, a sentiment understood by anyone who has experienced back spasms.

—The environment at the MAC was more lively than the Portland State game, but there was still no need for ear plugs. With students still on break, there was just one section of Kennel Clubbers. The Bulldogs did a better job of creating their own energy by starting out with full-court pressure and taking a 13-point lead late in the first half.

“We got through a stage where our students weren’t here,” Few said. “It’s tough times in late December and early January up here with mountains and mountains of snow, coaches pushing and prodding to get the most of out them and there’s nobody around. It’s like a ghost town around here. We got through this phase and this game really concerned me.”

The students will be back for next week’s home games. The Zags seem relieved to have a more consistent schedule (two games a week) through the rest of the WCC season.

“We play Thursday and Saturday, it’s back to back games. That’s the fun part of basketball — the games,” Goodson said. “I’m ready.”

—As noted in an earlier post, Robert Sacre is waiting to see if his foot will heal on its own. He’s still in a walking boot and his return (if he does return) doesn’t appear to be imminent.

“We’ve gotten some other opinions,” Few said. “There’s no point to have surgery right now. There’s no reason to hurry up and put a screw in. Let’s see if it heals. What would be the point (of surgery now), so we could have him back in June? The conventional wisdom is to see how it heals. After talking to some other people, up to 6-8 NBA guys are playing with bent screws in their feet. We’ll watch it and see how it heals and if everybody agress it’s Ok, it’ll be Rob’s call, but time will tell.”

—Few’s search for that go-to, need-a-bucket-at-the-end-of-a-half-or-shot-clock player continues. Pargo, Daye and Bouldin have had the most attempts thus far, but Few appeared to draw up a play specifically for Gray at the end of the first half. Pargo had the ball on the right wing and fed Bouldin at the top of the circle. Heytvelt set a down screen for Gray, who was fairly well covered on the left wing. His long 3 was off target.

—GU was outrebounded for the fifth straight game. Portland had a 36-35 edge, including 13-9 on offensive rebounds. Gonzaga has been outboarded by Tennessee by 4, by Utah by 6, by Portland State by 9 and by UConn by 10.

QUOTEBOOK

Goodson on GU’s defense vs. Portland: “It all starts in practice. The coaches have been striving to getting back to picking up full court. That just kind of rolls over into the offensive end.”

Goodson on GU getting back on track: “We’re playing good right now, we’ve kind of got our swagger back. It’s fun to play with these guys when we’re all playing defense together.”

Few on implementing full-court pressure: “We tried to press a little bit. Portland handled it pretty good but at least it got the game going and it also got our guys going a little bit. Basically, it was our half-court defense that was able to get us some sort of separation, even when we weren’t making shots. Our half-court defense was still kind of holding them at bay.”

Few on the magnitude of the Tennessee win: “Any game on our schedule is big. To be able to go in and beat somebody on their floor, in front of 23,000 and they’re picked to win the SEC, our guys deserve a lot of credit for that, and add in the fact they had 37-game home winning streak, it was a great win. But so was this.

“We knew this was going to be a real battle. Maybe the prognosticators didn’t see that, but I knew this was going to be a really hard game (after) watching Portland on film.”

Bouldin on the uneven flow of the game: “That’s how all conference games are really. We’re going to see (opposing) teams’ best, and that’s definitely how it happened tonight.”

Gray on Gonzaga’s improvement the last two games: “We played a great offensive team (Portland) and held them to a low shooting percentage.I think it’s just consistency now. We have to keep that up and we’ll be right there.”