I really think we have a great situation tonight in Spokane to catch a vastly superior team that will not only be extremely focused to win, but win BIG and by a MARGIN.  First though, let's examine the Gonzaga basketball season so far to help uncover the mindset and make-up of this Bulldogs team.

After an impressive non-conference season that featured wins over Wisconsin (N), Cincinnati (N) and Illinois (A) and close losses to Wake Forest (H) and Michigan State (A), the Zags embarked upon play in the West Coast Conference.  They began the conference season rather impressively, winning and covering their first three games at Portland (-2) 81-78 (wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicated), at St. Mary's (+4.5) 89-82 (led by as many as fifteen before the Gaels rallied late) and at San Diego (-8) 68-50.  So at this point the entire team must have been brimming with confidence considering their quick start.  They were also rising up the national rankings.  However, that's when complacency appeared to set in for this talented, albeit young squad.  In their fourth conference game, they stumbled and bumbled around at home against Pepperdine as 23-point favorites winning 91-84.  They followed that up with yet another lethargic home performance vs. Loyola Marymount (game was tied at half-time) before pulling away to eventually triumph 85-69, but any chance of covering the large 20.5-point spread was foiled by the slow start.  But those two weak home efforts ended up being the calm before the storm.  The over-confident Bulldogs waltzed into Santa Clara last Thursday laying 13 big points against an over-matched Broncos squad.  Well predictably the Zags came out flat against an inferior opponent as they proceeded to sleepwalk through the entire first half.  After being down by five at recess, the Zags allowed the feisty home team to increase their lead to as many as fourteen in the second half.  They finally awoke from their deep slumber to quickly erase that large deficit and took the lead for good with just under four minutes left to ultimately prevail 71-64.  This game only reinforced to the players that they could "play in spurts" and "turn it up" whenever they felt like it and still win.  It's almost like negative reinforcement.  You know why play hard for the whole game against a bad team when giving just the minimum amount of effort is still good enough?  Well eventually that's going to catch up to a team and burn them.  And that's exactly what happened last Saturday against San Fransisco, another team the Zags could name their score against if they wanted to.  The Dons played very hard, were fueled by some hot outside shooting, and the Bulldogs let them hang around long enough to force OT.  The momentum of the home crowd spurred San Fransisco on in the extra period as they eventually pulled off the huge upset, winning 81-77.  Give all the credit in the world to the Dons for playing and competing as well as they did, but Gonzaga shouldn't be losing to a team like that considering the talent they have.  It had to be an extremely humbling loss for Gonzaga as it also snapped their 27-game conference winning streak.  Afterwords, a dejected Bulldogs team spoke about their recent uninspired play with Junior Guard Stephen Gray admitting: "We've been putting ourselves in that situation it seems like just about every game..........We're not playing with the energy that we need and it finally caught up to us. Hopefully it will be a wake-up call."  Head coach Mark Few didn't hold back either stating: "We've been playing with fire a little bit".

So after everything that's unfolded in the past few weeks, I think this team is finally ready to start playing hard and up to their vast potential.  They finally got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and I don't think they want it to happen again.  Nobody is pushing the panic button, but the players all realize it's time to step their game up and stop playing around.  Mark Few agrees saying: "We've just got to get back to playing the best we can at what we do best, and we've kind of gotten away from that a little bit."  

This really is a talented team, it's probably the most athletic team they've ever had.  Portland is a nice squad, they're well-coached and play hard, but that is all.  If Gonzaga is motivated on home-court, like they will be tonight, this game is really no contest.  They say heart beats talent unless talent has heart.  Well tonight Gonzaga will have BOTH instead of relying on just natural ability.  I fully expect a double digit victory and the Bulldogs combination of hustle, toughness, talent and athleticism to be far too much for the Pilots to handle in a forty-minute destruction.   

Gonzaga -8