PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – Three time zones away and 3,000 miles from home, a Gonzaga team that hadn’t faced much resistance in its first five games of the season finally came across some choppy water in Wednesday’s opener against West Virginia at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – Such high-profile early season games are teaching and learning experiences. Buff and polish the good, find and fix the flaws. Fine-tuning. Tinkering. Self-examination. The biggest lesson coach Mark Few can impart to his Gonzaga men’s basketball …
Three time zones away and 3,000 miles from home, a Gonzaga team that hadn’t faced much resistance in its first give games this season finally came across some choppy water in Wednesday’s opener against West Virginia at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – Job No. 1 for West Virginia in slowing down Gonzaga’s high-powered offense was, well, slowing down Gonzaga’s high-powered offense. In other words, controlling Gonzaga’s transition game, and that’s what the Mountaineers did in springing an 86-78 overtime victory Wednesday at Imperial Arena.
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – Three observations from Gonzaga’s 86-78 loss to West Virginia at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Huff in crunch time Gonzaga didn’t get its typical production from posts Graham Ike and Braden Huff for a big chunk of …
So the Gonzaga-Indiana matchup that oddsmakers and most college basketball followers thought would happen is happening – just not in the semifinals. The upsets kept coming as No. 3 Gonzaga lost to West Virginia 86-78 in overtime in Wednesday’s second game.
It’s old home week for former Gonzaga big man Oumar Ballo at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Ballo played one season at Gonzaga, blossomed into an All-Pac-12 player in three years at Arizona with former Zags’ assistant Tommy Lloyd and he’s currently four games into his last collegiate season at Indiana. As luck would have it, No. 14 Indiana lines up against Louisville on Wednesday with a date against No. 3 Gonzaga or West Virginia on Thursday. Arizona is a potential matchup for Gonzaga or Indiana on Friday.
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – By my unofficial count, this Zags roster has at least eight Liam Neesons. You’ve seen the movie meme where the lethal spy gets a call from the kidnappers of his daughter, and he warns them that …
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – West Virginia’s team plane didn’t land in the Bahamas until Monday evening, but senior guard Javon Small had already crossed paths with a handful of familiar faces strolling around the Atlantis resort by the time he joined Mountaineers coach Darian DeVries and teammate Tucker DeVries for a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – Darian DeVries has faint memories of his last encounter with Gonzaga. There were no palm trees, blue skies, sandy coastlines or sweeping ocean views, just frigid temperatures in Spokane and a cold front awaiting the Creighton …
Gonzaga, under coach Mark Few, has won three-game holiday tournaments twice in Maui and three times in Orlando. The Zags have claimed two-game tourney titles in New York City, Ft. Myers (Florida), Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. But they haven’t won a championship in an oversized ballroom in The Bahamas. The Zags have had two shots in the Battle 4 Atlantis, coming away with 2-1 records in 2015 (third place) and 2019 (second place) at Imperial Arena.
Gonzaga men play West Virginia in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament.
Gonzaga remained third in the AP college basketball poll, but that could change by next week depending on how the Zags perform over three games at the Battle 4 Atlantis. GU gained some ground on No. 2 UConn in the rankings – and that was before the Huskies suffered their first loss, 99-97, to unranked Memphis in a Maui Invitational opener.
When the Battle 4 Atlantis tips off on Wednesday in The Bahamas, there's a good chance the Gonzaga men's basketball team will run into some old friends. In the latest Zags Basketball Insiders Podcast, longtime Spokesman-Review reporter Jim Meehan and …
Claude Nembhard was on the phone recently with youngest son Ryan at the same time older son Andrew was chatting with mom Mary – a fairly regular occurrence for the family. “Andrew said he was just about to watch Ryan’s film,” the proud father said. “Ryan couldn’t have a better role model because Andrew has done this stuff at every level. When I watch them play, it’s like a mirror image.”
Gonzaga's commitment to the defensive side of the ball has yielded positive results through five games for the third-ranked team in the country. On Monday, the Zags received a commitment that could help ensure they don't slip too much, if …
Gonzaga and West Virginia have met five times since 2012, but the Bulldogs won’t be too familiar with the version of the Mountaineers they’ll see Wednesday in an opening-round game at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Some three decades ago, Quentin Hall was a young Bahamian guard who turned out to be a gem that would play a key role in establishing the foundation for the basketball phenomenon that Gonzaga would become. And the coach that recruited him – Mark Few – would become the winningest active coach in college basketball.
A few weeks ago, longtime ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla was courtside at the Toyota Center for a nonconference matchup between top-10 heavyweights Auburn and Houston – teams that currently sit No. 4 and 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Kansas 7-foot-2 center Hunter Dickinson, Auburn’s 6-10 Johni Broome and 7-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner – GU point guard Ryan Nembhard’s former teammate at Creighton – receive the most publicity nationally, but few teams have a pair of bigs like Ike and Huff.