Category Archives: Basketball

Go Zags!

Viva Las ZAGas!

Posted by gruesomegreg on

Just got back from Las Vegas, and boy are my legs tired.  You don’t realize it till you get there, but stuff isn’t all that close together on the strip.  Sure, you could take a bus, but if it’s less than a 20-minute walk, you’ll probably get there faster on aching foot.

Then again, my soreness of legs could be from all that jumping up and down at the WCC tournament.  There’s no doubt in my mind that Gonzaga solidified its number one ranking with a dominating performance, beating Loyola by 18 and Saint Mary’s by 14 in a couple games that weren’t as close as the final score indicated.  That first half against LMU was awfully gut-wrenching, though.  It’s probably just as well the Orleans Arena was a dry county (something tells me this is BYU’s fault), or they mighta run outta booze by halftime…

Things seemed alright at the opening tip, mind you.

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Best thing about live college basketball?  While you’re watching commercials, we’re watching cheerleaders!

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After a lacklustre first half by both teams, the guards came out firing in the second, with Kevin Pangos and Anthony Ireland going mano-a-mano and trading some big early buckets.  Thing is, Pangos had plenty of support from his teammates, while the other LMU players combined for just 29 points.  Thus, it’s not hard to guess the winners in this post-game handshake…

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Orleans by night.  I took a wrong turn heading out of the arena, and ended up getting lost.  Note to self: Always exit through the casino…

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Though I had a decent vantage point for the semis (I stuck around to see St. Mary’s squeak past USD in OT–a harbinger of things to come), I upgraded for the final to a spot behind the basket, about a dozen rows up, giving me a much better view of the warmups.

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Note that Harris took the opening tip this time…

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(I’m pretty sure he made this shot, too–nice box-out by Hart!)

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I was also within shouting distance of the small but vocal Gaels cheering section.  Until their team was faced with an insurmountable deficit, that is. :P

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Yes, Gonzaga has male cheerleaders.  These guys could still kick your ass, though…  (Especially if you go to Saint Mary’s!)

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The Maries hit a buncha threes in garbage time, but all that did was delay the confetti.

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More post-game celebration…

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We’re number one!  We’re number one!

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OK, so I took that one off the video board behind me.  This is what it looked like from my seat:

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With the win, Gonzaga finishes 31-2, 18-0 in conference play as WCC regular-season and tournament champs.  Methinks that should be enough to retain their top ranking in both the AP and USA Today polls–and a top seed in the West Regional.  That said, I won’t be venturing out to see them in their first-round matchup…  I’m saving up for the Final Four. ;)

GO GONZAGA! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A!

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WE’RE NUMBER ONE! WE’RE NUMBER ONE!!! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A!

Posted by gruesomegreg on

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Don’t get me wrong, I knew this year’s Gonzaga basketball team was pretty special even before I bought my tickets for the last two rounds of the WCC tourney a couple weeks back.  (That’s right, I’m going to Vegas this weekend!)  But for the little school that could to be number one on both the AP and USA Today rankings heading into the conference tournament, well, I can’t say I saw that coming.  After all, no WCC school has topped the charts since San Francisco was considered a basketball powerhouse and Boston a bitchin’ band–waaaay back in 1977.  Just one little victory makes the Zags the first 30-win team in the nation, while a 31-2 finish would all but assure them the top seed in the West bracket.  Did I mention that Gonzaga went 16-0 in conference play this year?

As the Zags kept zagging up (yeah, it’s a saying, apparently) from 21 all the way to 1, all the other top teams in college basketball seemed to topple like dominoes this season.  Preseason favs Kentucky–third in both polls–crashed and burned right out of the rankings, while schools like Indiana, Duke, Louisville, Michigan, Miami and Kansas all suffered slip-ups that cost them points in the polls.  And when the Hoosiers, who’ve held the top spot for long stretches on two separate occasions, lost to unranked Minnesota last Tuesday, the stage was set.  A road win at BYU, and Gonzaga was in first place.  The fact that they followed it with a dominating performance against Portland, compared to Indiana’s close-by-comparison 13-point home win over Iowa simply sealed the deal: 51 out of 65 first-place votes from the AP, and all but two top spots in the coaches poll.

So, is Gonzaga better than Indiana?  Well, it’s worth noting that the two teams have lost to the same two teams: Butler and Illinois, although the Hoosiers also tasted defeat at the hands of Minnesota and Wisconsin (Beer, cheese and lutefisk?).  And while the Zags never played any Big 10 schools aside from the Illini, they do have five Big 12 wins on their resume, including #22 Oklahoma State on the road.  Of course, there’s no way to settle this on the court this season unless they meet in the Final Four–which isn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility, mind you.  But I don’t wanna get my hopes up, or anything.  Last time I had the Zags as regional champs in my bracket, some Cameroonian named Mbah a Moute stole the ball… :(

As it goes without saying, top-ranked college teams often suffer from early exits to the NBA by star players.  Many people have pegged Indy’s Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller as top-10 picks, while the Zags will likely lose junior starting centre Kelly “Big O” Olynyk to the draft, along with graduating PF Elias Harris (nbadraft.net has Olynyk going to the Celtics at 16 and Harris to the Bulls at 51).  It’s doubtful that either team will be in this position again next year–but a slip out of the rankings for these perennial basketball powerhouses probably isn’t all that likely.

And while they might not have quite the long and storied history of IU (hey, we see your Isiah Thomas and raise you John Stockton!), Gonzaga is undoubtedly one of the best basketball schools on the West Coast.  They’ll still be fun to watch–even with the unwieldy Thursday tip times in Toronto–next year, but I’m glad I acted on my instinct and bought those tickets to see them in person this weekend.  Quality seats for the WCC final are now going for at least $180 a pop on StubHub…

COMMENT OF THE DAY: Dennis Rodman goes to eleven!?

Posted by gruesomegreg on

From: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-dennis-rodman-kim-jong-un-north-korea-20130304,0,756685.story

As one former diplomat put it, “There is nobody at the CIA who can tell you more personally about Kim Jong Un than Dennis Rodman, and that in itself is scary.”  Almost as scary as Dennis Rodman in a dress.  Alas, after his trip to North Korea, the international ambassador of rebounding went on TV urging Obama to engage Kim Jong Un in a little one-on-one.  Because Dennis Rodman knows how to change the world.  Just ask him… or don’t.

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Now, I think the first word in that trifecta is “asinine,” even though the “e” and the “k” keys couldn’t be much further apart.  But as for “asiten” and “asieleven,” well, it took me a minute to figure out that they weren’t gluten-free rice products. ;)

How do you make Baylor’s snot-yellow jerseys even uglier? Just add sleeves, baby!

Posted by gruesomegreg on

Those who tuned in to last year’s NCAA tournament may remember those hideously-coloured jerseys sported by the Baylor Bears, which practically screamed at the viewer to adjust the brightness on their TV set.  While conventional wisdom would have the Big 12 program toss those unis in the Adidas incinerator, they’ve instead built on the same neon-green theme and added another layer of ugliness, complete with sleeves.

Don’t get me wrong, when I played basketball as a kid, I usually wore a t-shirt underneath my jersey, because—believe it or not—I was actually too skinny to fill it out.  But there’s definitely a difference between having a t-shirt on beneath your uniform and having one grafted to it.  Here’s hoping the Sleevmore goes the way of the Cooperall hockey pant—the sooner the better!

COMMENT OF THE DAY: Attention Ottawa hoopsters—you can no longer dunk the ball from behind your head!

Posted by gruesomegreg on

From: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2013/02/27/ottawa-tomahawks-basketball-team-name-change.html

OK, so I can understand how naming a sports franchise the Indians, Braves or Redskins can be offensive to natives; I do.  But calling a team the Tomahawks?  Well, that’s not exactly a racial slur, is it?  I mean, I guess I see how you’d oppose it on the same ground that led the Washington Bullets to change their name, but as one CBC commenter points out, tomahawks have non-violent uses, too:

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Of course, that’s still beside the point.  The NBL’s Ottawa Tomahawks, who have since scrapped that moniker, were initially christened for a type of slam dunk…

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(But then again, white men can’t jump, right?)

Soooo, what’s there to do in Vegas besides drink, gamble and watch basketball?

Posted by gruesomegreg on

It’s official: I’m going to Vegas next month for the West Coast Conference basketball tournament.  This being the best basketball team Gonzaga’s fielded in a long time (if not all-time), I wanted to take the opportunity to see them in person before Elias Harris, Kelly Olynyk and Mike Hart all moved on with their lives.  Don’t get me wrong, if Olynyk gets picked by an Eastern Conference team, I’ll be attending at least two Raptors games next year (there’s little doubt in my mind he’ll forgo his senior season)–but I’d still like to see him give it one last college try.

Of course, the WCC tourney, held annually at the Orleans Arena (home of the Las Vegas Wranglers–yeehaw!), sells out well in advance, but I snagged seats on StubHub for the semis and the final for 100 and 125 apiece.  What’s nice about this tournament is the top two seeds get byes to the semis, so fans of Loyola, Portland and Pepperdine are probably putting their late-round tickets up for resale.  You’re not gonna get that for the Final Four!  And even when it comes to the WCC, don’t go looking for those prices anymore; you won’t find them.  Most remaining seats on the site are heavily marked up–but on the plus side, I did save a bundle on my hotel room!

That’s the great thing about Vegas; it’s rarely fully booked.  Even with some 9,500 West Coast Conference basketball fans in town for the weekend, they still have enough remaining rooms at the resorts that I’ll be spending just 28 dollars to rest my head after celebrating the start of a new Gonzaga conference title streak on Monday the 11th.  Mind you, that’s 100 bucks less than I’ll be spending to sleep in the same bed on Saturday.  While charging higher rates on weekends isn’t unheard of in the hotel business, it seems Saturday’s by far the biggest night in LV.  Even my Friday night room reservation is 55 dollars cheaper…

Alas, while I’ll be at the mid-sized O on Saturday and Monday evenings, my Sunday schedule is wide open at the moment.  Seeing as the WCC is a faith-based conference, there are no games scheduled for Sunday.  FWIW, I won’t be attending the prayer session at the Orleans Hotel, so that gives me some time to kill.  I kinda wanna see a show, either a magician or a hypnotist or maybe some dancing girls… but it seems these shindigs don’t start till 9:30 or 10 pm, even on a Sunday.  I’m starting to see why it’s the city that never sleeps!  On a side note, I’m somewhat saddened that I’m missing the Diceman by a matter of days.  His residency at the Hard Rock starts on the 14th.  Hickory Dickory Dock!

But even if I go to a Sunday night show, that still leaves me with some free time in the daytime.  What to do, what to do…  KISS mini golf?  Pawn Stars tour?  Shotgun wedding–complete with shotguns?  Nah, forget it.  Looks like the Pawn Stars tour is sold out on Sundays.  Might hafta go shooting instead…

Incidentally, it appears that the gun range is within, erm, firing distance of UNLV.  Can’t see what could possibly go wrong there, nope.

Anyways, I’ll have you know that the resort I’m staying at offers bottomless beers for 20 bucks at the bar right next to the casino.  So I’m bound to do some drinking–and maybe a bit of gambling, too.  Preferably not in that order, though.  Know your limit, play within it–right, John Daly?

(That said, I could probably use some extra spending money on the Strip.  Just sayin’…)

Is this the greatest Gonzaga group ever? I think it might be time to see for myself…

Posted by gruesomegreg on

I can remember the last time I advanced Gonzaga to the Final Four in my bracket, almost like it was yesterday.  The year was 2006, Adam Morrison was rocking the porn stache, and the 27-3 Zags were a three-seed in a region that featured Memphis and UCLA.  Led by Morrison, the nation’s leading scorer, the little school from Spokane dispatched Xavier and Indiana before meeting UCLA in the Sweet 16.  Oh man, do I remember where I was when I watched that game.  While I didn’t cry as hard as The Mustachioed One afterwards, let’s just say that whenever I’m flipping channels and I catch a glimpse of Luc Richard Mbah a Moute on an NBA court, I unleash a string of French-language vulgarities.

Do I really need to mention that UCLA went all the way to the NCAA final that year?  Well, I just did.  But in 2013, Gonzaga is looking like at least a three-seed again, while the Bruins are… well okay, they’re 19-7.  But that only earned them eight votes in last week’s AP poll.  As for GU, we’re number five!

Better make that number five with a bullet.  The Zags successfully swept a tough San Francisco road swing, beating arch-rival St. Mary’s by 17 on Thursday and finally getting the monkey off their backs as this senior class (which includes Elias Harris, Mike Hart and NBA-bound redshirt junior Kelly “Big O” Olynyk) earned its first win at USF just a couple hours ago.  Meanwhile, Michigan–who was already two spots behind Gonzaga in the USA Today Coaches Poll–lost by 23 points on Tuesday (to a talented MSU team, mind you).  You would think that as one of two two-loss teams in the country, the Zags should be in the top three.  And on that note, Duke is actually losing to Maryland as I type this.  Whoa.

But ultimately, I’m not all that concerned with the rankings, even though there’s been talk this week of Gonzaga being number one (especially if they could’ve hung on to beat Butler).  What matters, ultimately, is the NCAA tournament.  And considering that there’s only one other school ranked in the top 15 that’s situated west of Kansas (Arizona at number nine), it seems only logical that Gonzaga would be the top seed in the West Regional should they close out the season without losing.  Their conference schedule posts one remaining tough test–at BYU on the 28th–but it’s not inconceivable that the Zags go into the WCC tourney with no more than three losses on their ledger, much like that 2006 team.  Should they come out of Las Vegas with another conference championship, then they ought to be facing a 16-seed in the second round of March Madness.  (Keeping in mind that the play-in games are considered the “first round” nowadays…)

Of course, Gonzaga’s best tournament results came as an underdog.  The closest they’ve come to the Final Four was in 1999, when they lost to eventual champs UConn in the Elite Eight despite entering the tournament as a 10 seed.  The Zags followed that with back-to-back Sweet 16s in 2000 and ’01, when they were seeded 10th and 12th, respectively.  But they wouldn’t make it to the second weekend as a favourite until 2006… and we all know how that ended. :(

That being said, I had always told myself that I wouldn’t travel to see the Zags in the tourney unless they made it back to the Sweet 16.  I even stayed home in Toronto when they played the first two rounds in Buffalo in 2010–and it was just as well, since they got crushed by the ‘Cuse in the second.  But since a top seed in the West bracket should keep them close to Spokane, and a loooong way from Eastern Canada, well, I think I’d like to take in this year’s conference tourney–if I can get tickets.  I’ve seen screaming deals on hotels in Vegas (as low as 35 bucks a night for nice rooms) and I’m pretty sure there are cheap flights, too.  Thing is, the WCC tourney tends to sell out well in advance.  I guess a lotta folks from Spokane hit the casinos that weekend.  But I think it’s time to go see what I can find on StubHub.  Who knows, I might need to check back there for fourth-round NCAA tourney tickets in oh, about a month or so. ;)

GO GONZAGA!  G-O-N-Z-A-G-A!

COMMENT OF THE DAY: Even in the absence of hockey, it seems cynical Toronto sports fans still have something to look forward to…

Posted by gruesomegreg on

From: http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=411823

And in other (more relevant) Toronto sports news, the Jays have reportedly agreed to a contract extension with Mets knuckleballer—and reigning NL Cy Young winner—R.A. Dickey, which would complete a trade sending top catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud, recently acquired catcher John Buck and a couple more prospects to the Metropolitans.  This latest in a flurry of off-season moves has many fans preparing to party like it’s 1992-’93, but despite the good news, some cynics still remain on Toronto’s sports scene…

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(I can only hope, for the city’s sake, that the Leafs win the Cup before 2967—if there’s anything left of the NHL by then!)

If recent history is any indication, we could be in for a breakout Canadian performance in Pullman tonight…

Posted by gruesomegreg on

When it comes to men’s basketball, Gonzaga and Washington State aren’t exactly bitter rivals.  Sure, they share the same state–in fact, WSU’s Riverpoint campus is just across the Spokane River from GU–though they play in different conferences, and don’t always meet on the court.  But when they do, sometimes magic happens.  One doesn’t have to look any farther than last year, in fact, when a star was born late one November night.

Playing in just his second NCAA collegiate game (third if you count preseason), Kevin Pangos lit up the McCarthey Athletic Center for a team-record nine three-pointers en route to an 89-81 win.  It was a nationally-televised coming-out party for the freshman point guard who calls Newmarket, Ontario home, setting the tone for a 27-7 season in which he’d average 13.6 points and 3.4 assists per game in being named the WCC Newcomer of the Year, All-WCC first team, WCC All-Freshman team and to the WCC All-Tournament team.  Now a sophomore, Pangos leads the way for an 8-0 Gonzaga team currently ranked 10th in the country some 80 miles south to Pullman to face a State squad that’s undefeated (5-0) at home and only scores 64 points per game while holding opponents under 58.  It would appear that another shootout isn’t in the cards, anyways.

That said, I think we could be in for another breakout performance tonight, from another Canadian kid, no less.  Kelly Olynyk, a seven-foot centre from Kamloops, BC, had a rather unspectacular college career coming into this year.  Averaging about 15 minutes and five points per game over his freshman and sophomore seasons, he was a healthy redshirt last year while North Vancouver’s own Rob Sacre patrolled the paint.  But sitting the season out clearly gave Olynyk time to work on his game; though he sat out Gonzaga’s first three contests this year, he’s more than doubled his scoring average to 12.2 ppg since his return to the lineup, while grabbing seven boards a game and shooting an impressive 62.5 per cent from the floor.  In going from waterboy to starting big-man, this late bloomer is about to put Canadian basketball back on the map–he already put up 8.2 points per game with the national team at the 2010 world championships.

And although this game is only on ESPNU, a premium cable network, I think Olynyk could make his mark on the NCAA tonight.  Coming off his best game of the season, a 15-point, eight-rebound effort in just 18 minutes against Pacific, the seven-footer impressed with some deft moves in the paint and a soft touch around the rim.  He’ll need to elevate his game again as he goes up against Wazzu’s best player, Brock Motum, a 6’10″ Australian who’s averaged nearly 19 ppg this season, leading the team by a long shot.  A tough test for the first-year starter, but I think he’s up for it.  After all, the kid played quarterback in high school–says so right here…

Now, I have a confession to make.  As great as Pangos’ 33-point performance was last year, I didn’t actually see any of it.  The game tipped off after midnight on the East Coast on a Monday night, and I was already in bed.  This time it’s only a bit earlier, with an 11 pm tip, but I’ll stay up to watch the first half, at least.  Hey, if Olynyk’s got 20 points by halftime, I might hafta stay awake for the whole thing.  I wouldn’t wanna miss Canadian basketball history in the making, twice!

GO GONZAGA! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A!

UPDATE 12/6: Good thing I didn’t go to bed at halftime.  After a scoreless first half, Olynyk erupted for 22 points in the second, scoring several big buckets in crunchtime.  Pangos’ shot wasn’t falling all night, but he was clutch when it counted, hitting a running bank shot with 2.2 left as Gonzaga pulled out a 71-69 win.  This team’s gonna be fun to watch this year, methinks…

Now, this is the time of year where I’ll start to miss hockey…

Posted by gruesomegreg on

Normally, the NHL has an 82-game schedule, but the action doesn’t really heat up until the playoffs–not unless your team is in a tight race for the postseason.  The first couple months are pretty much a throwaway, I’ll-watch-hockey-if-nothing-else-is-on type of deal, maybe aside from a couple games against the Canucks and the Battle of Alberta.  (Plus my annual Flames-Leafs contest, which often occurs before Christmas.)  But of course, this year we haven’t had any NHL hockey at all; instead of 82 games, we’ll be lucky if we get a 48-game season…

And while I’ve barely kept abreast of all the millionaires and billionaires bickering, this is the time of year where I might actually miss hockey.  The baseball season is long gone, they’ve just handed out the Grey Cup, and we’ve only got another month of NFL action before the playoffs (and its much smaller slate of games) kick off.  On top of that, there tends to be very few concerts between the debut of December and the middle of March, most touring bands unwilling to brave the Canadian winter–and who can blame them?  (Fittingly enough, I’ve noticed a slight influx of Scandinavian bands on these shores around this time these past few years.  I guess our winters are warmer than theirs!)  While I’d be quite content to stay in and watch Hockey Night in Canada this weekend as the first substantive seasonal snowfall hits the city, the CBC has even abandoned the idea of showing retro games in favour of a Disney movie.  What’s Up with that?

I will say this though, in the national network’s defense: They’ve got an interesting documentary on Luka Magnotta tonight at 9 that I’ll probably tune in for.  Hey, it beats watching the Raptors, right?

Don’t get me wrong, the Toronto Raptors are one of the two teams in this city I have no trouble cheering for–or at least I wouldn’t have, were they not so painful to watch.  Even without the Leafs to offer a more popular alternative for the corporate crowd to entertain clients at the ACC, the Raps continue to be crap.  If their 3-13 record is any indication, that preseason Toronto media hype bestowed upon this team, along with the city’s misplaced hopes and dreams of making the playoffs–in absence of the Blue-and-White–will be gone out the window by the All-Star break.  Here’s hoping they don’t use next year’s top pick on the next Andrea “Primo Pasta & Soft” Bargnani…  That Valančiūnas kid, on the other hand, seems not so shabby.

Mind you, if there’s one Canadian basketball team worth watching this time of year, it’s Gonzaga University.  Though they’re at least 100 miles south of the border, Gonzaga has replaced one Canadian 7-footer in their starting lineup with another, and seems poised for an exciting season.  Redshirt junior Kelly Olynyk currently sits second on the 7-0 Zags in scoring as his game has grown by leaps and bounds after sitting out last year.  That said, he’s only about a point ahead of the GTA’s own Kevin Pangos, a super soph PG who could be the next Steve Nash.  They’ve finally got his jersey for sale in the Gonzaga Team Shop–of course, now that I’ve purchased his Number Four, I see the team has finally added names on the backs of its jerseys this season.  Oh well, Zags fans don’t need a name to know who their next great point guard is–and neither do I!

Alas, after winning the Old Spice Classic tournament last weekend, Gonzaga finds itself ranked 12th in both the AP and USA Today polls.  They’ve also got a handful of nationally-televised games (in the States, that is) coming up between now and the new year against the likes of Washington State, Illinois, Kansas State, Baylor and Oklahoma State before they start conference play, with weekly contests on Thursdays and Saturdays.  From the looks of things, I likely won’t be running back and forth from my TV to my laptop when they face their WCC foes this season–not if there isn’t any hockey, anyways.