Resembling ‘NBA schedule,’ demanding week for Gonzaga concludes with road game against unpredictable LMU
LOS ANGELES – There aren’t many basketball teams around the country that will encounter a stretch of games as physically demanding or mentally exhausting as the one Gonzaga’s faced this week.
It featured four games in four arenas over eight days, multiple charter flights to and from Spokane, more than a dozen bus rides and three hotel stays.
Well, not many college teams, that is.
“Like coach (Mark Few) said, it’s kind of an NBA schedule, but we’ll be ready for it,” GU sophomore Dusty Stromer said.
The busy stretch is NBA-like in a number of ways, starting with the fact that it began in an NBA arena, the Los Angeles Clippers’ new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
The cadence is similar, with a “neutral-site” game against UCLA last Saturday, a true road game at Pepperdine on Monday, a home game against Portland on Thursday and another road game at LMU on Saturday.
Then there’s the fact it coincides with Gonzaga’s holiday break, when Few’s players can hone in on their game and essentially adopt an NBA schedule, without the academic obligations or social distractions they’re accustomed to during the semester.
Gonzaga (11-4, 2-0 West Coast Conference) will settle back into a more traditional routine soon, but not before the Bulldogs travel to play Loyola Marymount (9-6, 1-2) at 6 p.m. Saturday at Gersten Pavilion in Los Angeles.
“It’s kind of a quick turnaround,” Few said Thursday after his team’s 81-50 win over Portland at the Arena. “We’ve been on this travel, game, travel, game stuff, so didn’t have a lot of time to prepare.”
The Zags have an even shorter window to study up on their next opponent, taking a familiar flight to Los Angeles – on another Friday, no less – to face an LMU team that’s been as unpredictable as anyone in the WCC through its first three conference games.
LMU won its past five nonconference games, and seven of its past eight, before stumbling in two double-digit road losses to open WCC play – 70-55 to San Francisco at War Memorial Gym and 73-59 to shorthanded Washington State at the Arena. The Lions then turned around to thump another WCC newcomer, Oregon State, beating the Beavers 82-61 on Thursday after introducing 7-foot-1 center Rick Issanza to the starting lineup.
Few still hadn’t watched the Lions by the time he met with reporters Thursday, but he noted Stan Johnson’s team had added Pepperdine transfer Jevon Porter – a 13.2 points-per-game scorer this year – and brought back guard Will Johnston, who had a big game against GU last year when he made seven 3s on his way to a career-high 33-points.
“I know they have Porter from Pepperdine. Johnston hurt us last year,” the Gonzaga coach said. “Always physical, always play super, super hard. So expecting a tough – another one, kind of a tough, physical type of game.”
LMU made a coaching staff addition that probably grabbed more headlines than any player-related move when Johnson hired Lorenzo Romar as an assistant shortly after Pepperdine elected not to bring its head coach back.
Romar will be focused on helping his new employer design a plan to beat the Zags on Saturday, but the 66-year-old will likely find time to seek out GU’s Michael Ajayi, who didn’t have a Division I offer until the former Pepperdine coach identified him out of Pierce College and signed the Kent, Washington, native to the Waves’ 2023 recruiting class.
Ajayi, the WCC’s leading scorer last season at 17.2 ppg, was relegated to a spot on GU’s bench Thursday amid recent offensive struggles, but the forward should still play around 20 minutes Saturday. Ajayi said he’s been looking forward to the reunion with Romar and Porter, his former Pepperdine teammate, after seeing a handful of familiar faces during a return to Malibu, California, earlier this week.
“It’s going to be a good game, a couple laughs in between, but it’s going to be great seeing them,” Ajayi said.
LMU had some roster turnover in the offseason, losing former Gonzaga guard Dominick Harris to UCLA among other players, but the Lions return two starters in Johnston (11.9 ppg) and forward Alex Merkviladze (10.9 ppg).
Johston is second in the WCC and 14th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.46, trailing Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard, who ranks eighth nationally at 3.91.
Despite five returning players in LMU’s rotation, transfers account for three of the team’s top five scorers, with Caleb Stone-Carrawell – a 6-7 forward who had previous stops at Charlotte, Austin Peay and Utah Valley – leading the pack at 13.4 ppg. Pepperdine’s Porter averages 13.2 and San Jose State’s Myron Amey Jr. adds 7.9 off the bench.