Results tagged “joshheytvelt”

Tomorrow morning the No. 7 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs face the No. 10 seed Davidson Wildcats, game time is 9:25am on CBS. Gonzaga has an impressive resume of non-conference opponents, losing games to Wazzu, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Memphis (all by 10 points or less), and winning against Western Kentucky, Georgia, Saint Joseph's and UConn. What do these eight teams all have in common? They're all in the NCAA Tournament.

Washington State 70, Oral Roberts 54: Oral Roberts was the trendy upset pick--nearly 25% of ESPN users expected Wazzu to Coug it (by comparison, less than 5% had #3-seed Oregon losing)--but our faith in Wazzu didn't waver. Though it was close at halftime, we predicted that Wazzu would play their typical strangling defense to open the second half, and they proved us right, holding O-Rob to one field goal in the first six minutes of period two. The Cougs won going away. Wazzu continued their terrific offensive efficiency, committing only six (!) turnovers. Only Bobby Knight's Texas Tech Red Raiders committed as few on the tourney's first day, which should give you some insight into how good a coach Tony Bennett is.

1. Savvy and Scrappy Guard Play: neither the Zags or the Hoosiers rely on getting big points from big guys inside, so whichever team can get hot from three point range and defend the three the best will have an immediate advantage. The Zags experience gives them the edge.

Special Gonzaga correspondent Sean O'Connor reports that the Zags will make the tournament.