Zags Insiders Podcast: Crushing Kentucky, Davis Fogle discussion and UCLA preview

Gonzaga goes from one blue blood (a 94-59 beatdown of Kentucky last Friday in Nashville) to another (UCLA this Saturday in Seattle) with an appetizer in between (a 51-point win Sunday over North Florida).

Crushing Kentucky, previewing UCLA and a lengthy conversation on freshman wing Davis Fogle was just some of the ground Richard Fox, analyst on GU games televised on KHQ and SWX, and yours truly covered Monday in the latest Zags Basketball Insiders Podcast.

Here are some of the highlights (edited for space considerations). Catch the entire podcast at spokesman.com/podcasts/zags-basketball-insiders or youtu.be/QRrDlr2jTDk.

GU tames Wildcats

Fox: I’m not sure how good Kentucky is. They’re not whole right now (due to injuries).

It was just complete domination, just at a different level, different class. Early in the season you’re seeing the top eight to 12 (teams), whatever you want to put on the back end of that. There’s a clean delineation of who really has a chance to win national championship and get to the Final Four. Gonzaga is in that group and Kentucky is not, despite all the money they have.

They’re a flawed roster. They just don’t have the firepower. They don’t have anybody inside that’s going to bother Graham (Ike) or (Braden) Huff. If you play that game 10 times, Gonzaga wins no less than eight.

Meehan: The Zags’ defense was back on point. The rotations were better, there weren’t people wide open, the drivers – (Otega) Owey can really drive to the rim, (Denzel) Aberdeen is pretty good driving – the Zags did a very good job on those two.

Kentucky had guys shooting 3s that aren’t necessarily the guys the Wildcats wanted shooting 3s. I wrote this, and I’m not sure I’ve ever written this about anybody’s offense, Kentucky was inept in the first half. Just directionless, you couldn’t tell what they were trying to do, couldn’t see the plan and you just don’t see that with a Mark Pope-coached team.

Fogle takes flight

Meehan: One of the best things about these games where you feel the Zags are going to win by a million is seeing Davis Fogle. He goes in (vs. North Florida) and plays with his hair on fire and he’s going to the rim at every opportunity. His mindset and aggressiveness, that could rub off on other guys (and) I would think it would be beneficial if they picked up on that with the way he plays.

I get a kick out of watching him when he comes into the game. His day is coming. You can see it in his game. There’s just a backlog at that spot. You combine the ‘2s’ and ‘3s’ and you have six guys (Adam) Miller, (Emmanuel) Innocenti and the four 6-7 wings.

I hope he has patience in him because I can’t wait to see what happens with him. I think he can be a prolific scorer.

Fox: He is clearly interesting, clearly has the look of a guy that could be really good. He’s not afraid. He’s uber aggressive on both ends.

(Greg) Heister has said this a couple times (during GU telecasts), he reminds you a little bit of like Adam Morrison’s mentality. Adam was very intense, uber competitive. Davis has a little bit of that in him, maybe a lot of it, where he’s very singularly focused on ‘this is what I want to do.’ But like a lot of young guys, ‘If I only drive in fifth gear at some point I’m going to do some damage to my engine.’ Part of his maturation is going to be playing at different speeds, picking his spots at both ends of the floor.

I’m very interested to see where he’s at in 12 months. If he can be patient and not get discouraged about not playing as much as I’m sure he’d like to be playing, he’s going to have a real opportunity here to be a very impactful player.

UCLA up next

Fox: This doesn’t happen very often, I think Gonzaga rolls.

(Mick) Cronin, he’s not everybody’s cup of tea, certainly not my favorite cup of tea, but he gets his guys ready to play very hard. Solid defensive team, ranked 23rd in scoring defense and part of that is they want to play slow, certainly not as fast as GU. I just think it’s a bad matchup for UCLA. (Tyler) Bilodeau struggled last year even though UCLA won that game. But what they are is they’re older, certainly with a lot of guys with a lot of experience.

I don’t know what’s going on with (New Mexico transfer Donovan) Dent. He’s 1 of 13 on 3s on the year. The last two years at New Mexico he shot almost 40% from 3. He was one of the top five transfers. They’re playing better and found some solid footing (in recent wins over Washington and Oregon).

Meehan: Interesting game, it always is with Bruins.

I watched (Dent) play a ton at New Mexico. He is a terrific point guard, can score it, can get in the lane and finish pretty well. He has not had the smoothest of starts with UCLA, but he’s a very effective scorer and assist man. His game hasn’t quite settled in yet.

The Zags were in position to win that game (last year against UCLA) and got beat at the end – in that string of games where they played good competition, played it close and couldn’t pull out those tight games. A lot of motivation (Saturday) for the (Zags) that went through it last year.

That No. 1 seed in the West, just me throwing it out there, Arizona-Gonzaga, Gonzaga-Arizona. If they stay on this course they’re on, it’s going to be one seed, two seed. What order, we’ll see?