Gonzaga faces tall order in Hawkeyes

SEATTLE – No chance Gonzaga overlooks Iowa today in an NCAA tournament round-of-32 game. For one of the rare times this season, the Zags won’t see eye-to-eye with their opponent. The seventh-seeded Hawkeyes boast a starting unit of 7-foot-1 Adam Woodbury, 6-9 Jarrod Uthoff, 6-9 Aaron White, 6-6 Peter Jok and 6-2 point guard Mike Gesell. Gabriel Olaseni, a 6-10 senior, is the Big Ten’s Sixth Man of the Year. Second-seeded Gonzaga (33-2) counters with 7-1 Przemek Karnowski, 6-10 Kyle Wiltjer and 6-10 Domantas Sabonis, but only two are on the court together. Wing Byron Wesley, at 6-4, and 6-2 Gary Bell Jr., the WCC Defensive Player of the Year, will be giving away 4-5 inches if the teams stay with their normal starting lineups. “Not this year, maybe next year we’ll think about it,” GU assistant Tommy Lloyd said when asked about playing the three bigs at the same time. “We’ll stick with the lineups that got us here and within that we’ll adjust accordingly.” The Gonzaga-Iowa winner will meet No. 11 UCLA in the Sweet 16. The Bruins lost to the visiting Zags in mid-December. Perhaps the only Gonzaga opponent comparable to Iowa was Arizona, which features a frontcourt of Kaleb Tarczewski, Brandon Ashley and Stanley Johnson. Then the Zags had to deal with athletic wing Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who didn’t start but logged 37 minutes in the Wildcats’ overtime win. Georgia, UCLA, Memphis and St. John’s created some matchup problems but primarily with taller, athletic guards/wings. St. Joseph’s opted to start four forwards and the Zags led 48-10 at the half. “It’s going to be a lot different than our usual matchups, but I think our bigs are ready,” Sabonis said. “I think it will be fun and interesting.” Iowa (22-11) bullied Davidson 83-52 on Friday, the Hawkeyes’ first NCAA win since 2001. Davidson, averaging 79.9 points per game, was held to a season low. Gonzaga shoots 52.4 percent and averages 79.3 points. White, a versatile forward averaging nearly 22 points in the last eight games, has made 615 career free throws, the most by a Big Ten player in 50 years. GU’s frontcourt trio averages 37.3 points and 19 rebounds. “It’s a little bit of a different game plan than (Davidson), but we’re still trying to impose our will on the glass and get out and run and do the things we always do,” Woodbury said. Uthoff, who will probably be defended by Wesley initially, averages 12.2 points. He’s made a team-high 54 3-pointers. Olaseni is third in scoring at 8.2 despite playing just 18.6 minutes. “We’re going to try a couple different things on them,” Olaseni said. “They’re right up there. We played a lot of great big guys, Wisconsin with (Frank) Kaminsky, (Sam) Dekker and (Nigel) Hayes, North Carolina, Purdue with two 7-footers. Hopefully, we can use those experiences to help us.” Karnowski reiterated that he prefers going against players that are “6-11 instead of 6-6.” Uthoff and White present problems because they are capable of scoring in multiple ways. “They really make you make decisions,” said Lloyd, who is responsible for the Iowa scouting report. “How do you want to guard them in the post, when they pick-and-roll, when they’re isolated?” Iowa is probably asking the same questions. “We love this matchup,” Wiltjer said. “It’s going to be a great test for us.”