PREVIEW: What Gonzaga MUST do to defeat Sean Miller and Texas! | Zags DESPERATE for 3PT shooting?

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Gonzaga may have limped into the round of 32,

but they have a clear path to the sweet 16

through Sean Miller's Texas Club.

You are locked on Zags.

Your daily podcast on the Gonzaga Bulldogs part

of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

What's up folks?

I'm Andy Patton, host here of the Lockdown Zags podcast,

part of the Lockdown Podcast Network,

your team every day.

We are going to talk about this upcoming matchup

between Gonzaga and Sean Miller's Texas Longhorn

and the Fox News.

We've got a preview of this game.

The keys to a victory.

What Gonzaga needs to do to make it back to the sweet 16

after failing to do so last year.

Also against a team from the state of Texas.

And then we're going to close up the show recapping

the women's basketball game on Friday afternoon.

They're lost Ole Miss and a little bit about their season

and the future for Coach Lisa 48 team.

Gonzaga's matchup against Texas.

Come in your way Saturday March 21st.

It's the the earlier tip at the Motor Center on Saturday.

So it'll be a 410 PM tip.

It's not to be broadcast on TBS for those watching at home.

It is a number three verse number 11 matchup.

It's Gonzaga draws their second straight double digit

seeded team.

They obviously played Kennesaw State on Thursday

in a rugged physical bizarrely officiated game

against that Owl's team came away

with the nine point victory.

None the none the wiser after that.

But now.

Taking on a Texas team that most didn't expect to be here.

Texas was a play in team that that frankly kind of had

a pretty borderline resume for even making the NCAA

tournament.

But not only did they prove that they belong.

They are a real threat to Gonzaga.

This team was going to play in game against number 11 NC State.

NC State team that a lot of people thought was going to end up

being a 10 seed and instead gets put on the 11 seed line.

Meanwhile Texas again a team that most had out of the field

with how they finished the season.

And yet they get in.

They then beat NC State 68 66 on a game winner from

Tramon Mark with 1.1 seconds to go.

That puts them into the field of 64 and the first round game

against the number 60 BYU Cougars in that game took place

just before Gonzaga's tip against Kennesaw State.

And Texas absolutely throttle BYU in this game.

If you just saw the box score,

you'll see an eight point win 79 71 and you might think,

OK, I was like, you know, maybe a back and forth game,

a close game, whatever.

Texas led this game for 39 minutes and seven seconds.

BYU led this game for 22 seconds and the other what 31 seconds

were a tie basically the very start of the game.

This was an obliteration again.

It was never like a they rarely were up by a huge amount

and even down the stretch.

I mean, it came down to free throws at the end between Texas

being horrendous from the free throw line in that game

was really the only reason BYU kind of hung around

as long as they did.

But this was an all out dominant performance from Texas.

Again, it admittedly not full strength BYU team.

This team has been missing Richie Saunders for the last three

or so weeks.

They are a pretty inconsistent team with the best player

in the country on the roster in a JD Bansa.

I know BYU is not as good as Gonzaga,

not as good as many of the other teams that Texas

would in theory face in the tournament.

But it's not worthy that they, you know,

they got an opportunity to play a team that's

maybe on the downswing and took care of business.

That's what you want to do,

especially as a lower seeded team that, you know,

had to fight their way to get it had to sweat it out on

selection Sunday because they didn't really have the resume.

This will be a matchup another matchup in the long series

between Mark few and Sean Miller.

These two coaches have been going at each other for a long time.

Miller started his career as a head coach at Xavier

is on the monitor took over at Arizona in 2009

and was there until 2021.

During that time Gonzaga played Arizona seven times

and one four of those matchups of four and three all time

between Mark few and Sean Miller while Miller was at Arizona.

And then he moved back to Xavier after he was unceremoniously dumped

by Arizona took a year off went back to his alma mater at Xavier

and Gonzaga and Xavier squared off in 2022.

In the PK 85 Gonzaga getting an 88 84 win there.

So Gonzaga all time five and three against Sean Miller.

The one time these teams of these coaches have played each other

in the NCAA tournament was when Arizona was a one seed.

Gonzaga was an eight seed.

This was in 2014 and it went very bad for Gonzaga.

They got the 84 61 in that game.

Aaron Gordon was on that Arizona roster and just it was not a good

matchup for that Gonzaga team at that time.

So Gonzaga's five and three all time against Sean Miller.

They're also born one all time against Texas.

Their last time playing was also in 2022.

That was Chris Beard led Texas team.

That was the only time Texas has won.

Gonzaga was four no previously against the Longhorns.

They had done a home and home series Gonzaga beat Texas in Spokane.

That was like Chet Homes third or fourth game.

I think of his career and then the return game was at the Moody Center

in Texas the following year and Gonzaga lost that game.

Never played each other in the NCAA tournament.

So let's be the first time these two programs have matched up in the big dance.

So I'll get a little bit more into this Texas team.

2014 overall nine and nine in conference play in the SEC.

Texas went nine and four in the noncon.

But it was really they beat up on a bunch of bad teams.

And when they played good teams, they did poorly.

They went five.

They went one and four in their five games against teams that are

currently ranked inside the top two hundred and seventy five at Ken Palm.

So five of their thirteen nonconference games were against teams

that are in the top two hundred and seventy five at Ken Palm.

Their other games were all against teams basically outside the top three hundred.

And Texas only one of those games.

Ironically, it was against NC State who they played in the regular season

before getting matched up with them again in the first in the play in games

of the NCAA tournament.

Now again, the losses are not bad here.

They lost to Duke.

They lost to Yukon.

They lost to Virginia.

That's a one two and a three seed respectively.

They did lose to Arizona State, which is not a great loss.

A team obviously that Gonzaga did beat this season as well.

But Arizona State ended up being adequate to this.

You're not great, but it's certainly not like a huge stain on Texas's resume or anything like that.

So while they're nonconference portion of the season,

they were effectively good against bad teams and not very good against good teams.

That's actually pretty much what happened in conference play as well as you kind of might expect

from a team that finished nine nine in conference play.

They were better than the bad teams, not as good as the good teams.

And again, it more or less played out that way.

They did have a few nice with they beat Alabama.

They beat Vanderbilt.

They beat Georgia, Missouri and A&M.

One win over each of those teams.

Those were their wins over teams that made the NCAA tournament.

But really, the only really quality wins that I would take out of that would be Bama and Vanderbilt.

Georgia is the seventh seed in the tournament.

They're a decent team.

Mizzou and A&M are fine, but those aren't super marquee wins for Texas either.

They lost at home to Mississippi State.

They lost at Auburn.

They also lost at home to Oklahoma.

They're three losses in the SEC against teams that did not make the tournament.

And this is a team that looked like an absolute lock to go dancing at one point.

They were 17 to 9, 8 and 5 in the SEC.

And there was just it was like, are they going to be at 8 seed, 7 seed, 9 seed?

Like, but they were in.

Then they lost four of their last five games in the regular season.

Suddenly they were on the bubble and going into the SEC tournament

where they were at 10 seed, the conversation was all right.

You beat Ole Miss, who's the 15 seed, one of the worst teams in the conference.

And then you get Georgia in the next round as because Georgia gets a buy.

And if you beat Georgia, then you're in the field.

All you got to do is beat Ole Miss in Georgia and you make the field.

Texas lost to Ole Miss.

And at that point, most Braketologists had them on the other side of the bubble.

It was not a consensus, but it was generally thought

that this team would not make the field.

Again, they snuck in as a play and we've talked about what happened after that.

So this team is hungry.

This team is ready to prove themselves.

They're not satisfied with just getting this win over BYU on Thursday.

Kenpon has this team, 34th in the country right now.

Adjusted offensive efficiency is up to 16th.

It was 18th on Thursday, so it has already moved up a couple of spots.

This is one of the best and most efficient offenses in the country

that's not surprising for a Sean Miller lead team.

What's also not surprising is they're 85th in adjusted defensive efficiency.

That is not this team's strength.

Fortunately for Texas, unfortunately for Gonzaga.

Their offense is not their strength right now.

So it'll be a bit of a strength on strength in the other side

and then a bit of a weakness on weakness on the other side as well.

Tempo wise, 212th do not play at a particularly fast pace.

And then in terms of Kenpon, the betting line right now at Fandals

at five and a half point line, Kenpon is right in that same realm

as this projected 79, 74 win in favor of Gonzaga.

But what do the Zags need to do to get there?

What needs to happen on the court Saturday afternoon

to ensure that Gonzaga's back in the sweet 16 to restart their streak

that ended last year against Houston?

We're going to talk about our keys to victory coming up here in just a second.

But first folks, this is Mazda's moving the game forward.

For those who show there's more of the score than what's on the screen.

How about Davis Vogel?

First NCAA tournament game, a freshman who wasn't in the rotation

a few months ago.

He goes out and has a phenomenal game against Kennesaw State

hitting big shots down the stretch against this very tough physical team.

A couple of allos just to again continues to be such an unbelievably

impressive and mature kid who is developing rapidly right before our eyes.

And it really reminds us what it takes to raise the bar to program

like Gonzaga.

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It's dialing in every detail given it that extra fire, the grit

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All right, we'll continue our conversation here getting ready for Saturday's

afternoon tilt between Mark few and the Gonzaga Bulldog Sean Miller and the Texas

long horns sneaking into the NCAA tournament now looking to get all the way

to the sweet 16 again, Sean Miller has done this before.

So it'll be a fun fun battle on Saturday.

We talked about the progression of this Texas team,

how they got where they are.

And now we're going to talk about what Gonzaga needs to do to end their season to

get a little validation after losing to a team from the state of Texas last

year and losing their streak of making the sweet 16.

Key number one for Gonzaga.

And it's going to be a little concerning for people who think that this is

or who know that this is not a strength of Gonzaga's.

But they need to hit the outside shots in this game.

And again, I will say it is as plainly as possible.

Gonzaga's a bad three point shooting team.

They are not average.

They are not streaky.

They are not inconsistent.

They are not, oh, we have a few good.

They are a bad three point shooting team.

There's really not any other way to look at it.

The bonus for Gonzaga is that for the most part,

they don't rely on their three point shooting.

This is true of Arizona and Tommy Lloyd.

Obviously they are a better team than Gonzaga this year.

But Arizona is a team that I think they are like,

they may be last or very close to last in the country and how often they shoot

threes. Gonzaga is near the bottom.

But they sometimes get a little too trigger happy with the three.

We've seen that.

We've criticized that on the podcast before.

But here's the deal.

This is a game.

Texas is not good at defending the perimeter.

They allow opponents to shoot 35.4% from three on the season.

That ranks 269th in college basketball.

Again, a flat out bad three point defensive team for Texas going up

against a Gonzaga team that's shooting 33.5% from three.

The Zags cannot get overly reliant.

I assume because it is the case in every game Gonzaga has played

since early January when Brad and Huff went out that Texas is going

to pack the paint and make life difficult for a Grammy K.

They are going to dare Gonzaga to beat them from the perimeter.

Whether it's fronting Graham, whether it's doubling as soon as he touches the ball,

whether it's forcing him to catch the ball outside of the paint,

whatever it is, some combination of all of those things,

they are going to limit Gonzaga's ability to get EK the ball

in positions to score down low.

Typically, the way that you counter that is by hitting outside shots

and forcing the defense to come out on you,

which opens up more room down low,

which gives EK more room to operate.

Gonzaga has not been able to do that.

And teams have continued to realize, oh, this is the strategy.

It is a huge part of the reason why Gonzaga has not played,

has not had many dominant blowout victories since Huff went down

with his injury.

It's the reason that their offense has dropped from something like 9th to 30th

in adjusted offensive efficiency since Huff went down.

Obviously, the absence of Huff specifically is the main reason,

but it's the fact that Gonzaga cannot does not have an obvious way to counter

when teams smother Graham EK,

because before he could either dump the ball to be Huff,

or they could do short rolls with Braden Huff,

which he was really good at.

Jalen Warley is pretty good at those.

Graham is not so good at those,

so they just are struggling to find a consistent offense that works

when teams can shut down Graham,

hitting outside shots in this game would really,

really help in that way.

Key number two for Gonzaga,

take care of the basketball.

And while key number one was something Gonzaga typically doesn't do well,

key number two is the opposite.

Gonzaga is really good at ball security this year.

Their turnover numbers are phenomenal.

Again, in a season where there have been a lot of things that people have,

criticized about this team justifiably,

the three point shooting, the free throw shooting,

starting slow various things,

whatever, they're not a turnover prone team by any stretch of the imagination.

I mean, they turn the ball over 13.7% of the time according to Ken POM.

That is 17th in College of Basketball.

Very top 20 team in terms of ball security this season,

which is pretty remarkable when you have a freshman point guard

and your backup point guard is somebody who's new to the system.

Now, Texas meanwhile also does not force turnovers.

Teams against Texas turn the ball over 13.2% of the time.

That's 350th in College basketball put another way.

Gonzaga is 17th in the country in terms of avoiding turnovers.

Texas is 15th in the country in terms of how few turnovers they generate.

So this is a big positive for Gonzaga in this game.

So the reason it's one of the keys is do not let the fact that Texas

doesn't force a lot of turnovers doesn't get a lot of steals.

Impact you in any way do not make stupid mistakes with the basketball.

This is the game Gonzaga could realistically have less than five turnovers.

I'm not predicting that they will necessarily,

but I will predict if they have more than seven in this game,

probably multiple of them were self-imposed,

whether it was a traveling violation unnecessarily moving screen,

a attempting to get too crafty or too greedy with the pass

and throwing it out of bounds or throwing the right to a Texas player.

The kind of unforced heirs that have and again,

no game will ever exist where there's not zero unforced heirs like it happens.

It's a part of basketball.

I'm not saying the goal should be zero.

I'm saying the goal should be do not beat yourself.

Do not make it make life easier for Texas's defense.

Get shots.

This is going to be a possession based game Texas play slow.

They're great on the offensive glass.

They're going to have the ball a lot in this game.

And if you turn it over, especially in unforced ways,

they're going to have the ball 60%, 65% of the time in this game.

And that is going to be massively problematic for Gonzaga.

Key number three, Gonzaga has to find a way to make life difficult

for Matas Volcutitis sophomore center for this team.

Seven foot 250 pound Lithuanian.

He began his college career at FAU playing for former Gonzaga director of basketball operations.

John Jackas one year at FAU was phenomenal for them transfer to Texas

and has broken out as a phenomenal nominal player in the SEC.

15.7 points per game this year, seven rebounds.

He leads the SEC with a 61.8% field goal percentage.

He's top five in the conference and scoring top or top five in rebounds,

top ten in scoring, a prolifically talented.

Rue back to the basket big man.

He did not take a three pointer this year.

He does not shoot free throws well.

This is not a stretch five.

Again, I was kind of pulling some data on how Gonzaga has done against

other bigs this season.

And I was like, well, they didn't do well against Nate Biddle.

He had 28 that didn't do well against Tyler Biddle.

He had 24, but in both those games, those guys shot as many or more

threes as they did to so the matchup doesn't really equate.

They also had bright enough for those matchups, which does factor in in this

situation as well.

So like you're talking about like in a day,

Mara who Gonzaga also didn't do very well against.

He went six of nine for 13 points or like a Massama de Op at Arizona State,

Malachai, Marano at Kentucky.

And those games, those guys didn't play very well.

Mara notwithstanding de Op, I think had like 11 points on four of nine shooting.

Marano had just five points.

He didn't play very well for Kentucky.

So that's a decent sign that Gonzaga has defended these kind of like big,

like low post back to the basket centers fairly well this year.

Although, again, they haven't had to play many of those guys without

brain huff.

So not that he's a particularly good defender.

He's just a big body that they're not going to have in this game.

Volky Titus is also a great offensive rebounder averages 2.7 per game.

12.5% rate of offensive rebounds, which is the 104th best in the country.

Again, 67.5% from the free throw line.

He was 3 of 11 against BYU.

While he was the reason Texas won that game, 23.16 rebounds.

He was also almost the reason they blew it at the end of the game

because he kept getting foul.

He kept missing free throws and BYU kept having late life.

They just couldn't quite get it done.

So Volky Titus going to be a big problem for Gonzaga defensively.

And he's a good, he's not a great defensive player,

but he's one of the biggest, strongest dudes that Graham E.K.

will have faced all season long.

Key number four for Gonzaga.

You need another big game from Tyongrant Foster.

For a lot of the same reasons,

you needed a big game for Tyon against Kenasau State.

This team has length.

This team is physical.

They also foul a lot.

Opponents get to the line about 23.5 times per game against Texas.

That is one of the highest rates or highest totals in college basketball.

And again, for Kenasau State, part of the reason that happened

is that they play such a fast pace

that their opponent gets more possessions.

So therefore, of course, they're going to get to the free throw line more.

Texas does not play a fast pace.

They're 212.

Their average time of possession is much longer.

So for them to put teams on the line that many times

is mostly just a sign that they foul a lot.

It could also be a sign that SEC officials call a lot of fouls.

Like there's a lot of like that specific data point is not

something we should get sweeping conclusions from.

But I will say this.

Whether this game is called tight or not,

Tyon will matter.

If this is a game similar to the first 36 or 37 minutes against Kenasau State

when the ref generally were swallowing their whistles

and allowed this to be a physical game down low,

then you need Tyon because he's one of the only wings on this team

who's proven he can finish through contact.

He's not elite at it necessarily,

but he is better than Mario St. Superior.

He's better than Adam Miller.

He's better.

Jalen Worley is probably close to him,

but he's better than Innocente.

Like he is the only player on this roster

who is better at finishing through contact

than Ty and Grant Foster is Grand EK.

So if this is a game where they are not calling a lot of fouls,

Tyon will need to play well because they need somebody

who's going to be able to score at the rim in this game.

If they are calling a lot of fouls, great.

Get them in foul trouble.

If Tyon can get fouls early on Dalyne's lane, that is tremendous.

He's the best player on the floor in this game.

Second best player on the floor when Grand's playing.

But he is an elite six foot seven two way wing

who's just tremendous in all aspects of basketball.

If you put him on the bench, if you put Tramon Mark on the bench,

I don't care if Tyon goes one of six from the free throw line.

I care a little bit.

If Tyon goes one of six from the line,

but if he's putting their best players on the bench

because he's drawing fouls,

that is a much more important than actually making the free throws.

He's also going to be big defensively.

You're going to have to line up against one of Swain or Mark,

or probably both of them.

My guess is Worley will guard Dalyne Swain,

and that Tyon will guard Tramon Mark,

with the hope that that will allow Tyon to play a little bit more off,

like a little bit more help defense,

whereas if Worley is trying to play help defense,

Swain is just going to, he's a good shooter.

He's going to get his open looks.

So those two guys in particular are going to be crucially important

while I think, you know, Chente is going to have his hands full dealing

with Jordan Pope, the Oregon State Transfer,

who's been a huge piece for Texas in the back court.

It's going to be a really important game from Tyon here.

He number five, Prick and Zaga, come out swinging.

For the love of God, why don't we get a good start to a game?

Right?

I mean, how long has it been?

Portland, the second time, not the first time, obviously.

But even before that, I mean, goodness.

20 point win over San Francisco, it wasn't a pretty start.

20 point win over Oregon State, it wasn't a pretty start.

I mean, it's probably been since January.

Pacific, not a good start.

Like truly, I don't remember the last time,

Gonzaga outside of that Portland game at home,

the Gonzaga got off to a strong start in a game.

It is one of the most frustrating things we have seen this season.

I cannot imagine that on less than 48 hours of prep time,

Sean Miller, a coach that Gonzaga has faced many times in his career,

is going to have something so revolutionary and so unusual

and unexpected defensively for Graham EK,

that Gonzaga is going to go out there and just be so flabbergasted

by what they're doing that they can't get into their offense.

If that happens, either A. Sean Miller is the greatest tactician

in college basketball, which he is not,

or B, the coaching staff is frankly not doing their job.

I don't think it's going to be that either,

but we have seen time and time again, Gonzaga seems to be

out of sorts, confused, frustrated,

unable to initiate their offense when the game begins

and then 10, 12, 15 minutes, sometimes 25 minutes into the game,

we start to see them turn it around and figure it out and make adjustments.

I'm tired of the team having to make adjustments.

Punch them in the mouth when this game begins.

Remember what happened last year against Georgia?

The last time Gonzaga played an SEC team in the NCAA tournament

and they were up like 27 to 4 or whatever it was in the first few minutes of that game.

Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Wouldn't we love to have that back after having not seen this team dominate

really in any facet of the first half of a basketball game since January?

Would be really nice to see this team come out swinging,

get some momentum early in this game,

and put Texas on their heels in the first five minutes.

Speaking of getting punched in the mouth,

that is unfortunately what happened to the Gonzaga women's basketball team on Friday afternoon.

They never were able to recover after Ole Miss jumped out to a 17 to 4 lead,

ending the team season in the first round.

We're going to talk about the game and the insanely bright future for Coach 48 squad,

all that coming up here in just a second.

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All right, folks, segment three.

Still any patents, still locked on Zags podcast.

And we are closing out the show talking about the conclusion

of the 25-26 season for Coach Lisa 48

in the Gonzaga Women's Basketball program.

They were crushed on Friday afternoon in Minnesota

against an SEC team, the rebels of Ole Miss 81-66.

And you might be thinking, well, that doesn't sound crushed.

I mean, it's not great, but it's also a misleading score.

This was not a close game.

Gonzaga went down 17 to four in the first few minutes

of this game, and they just never recovered.

At the end of the first quarter, they were down 20 to nine.

And then the second quarter was even worse.

They were down 39 to 23.

17 point deficit at half time of this game.

And then the third quarter, they got massacred.

They were down 31 heading into the fourth quarter.

68 to 37 after getting out scored by 15

in the third quarter of this game.

So they heading to the final frame down 30.

They go on a 17-nothing run to cut this into a much,

much closer margin of defeat.

But it was when the game was already long decided.

It unfortunately just didn't matter when Gonzaga finally

put their offense together and was able to screen together

some stops, screen together some points,

and start to look more like the team.

We've seen them be at times in this regular season.

It was just too little too late for Gonzaga as they end up getting beat

here by the number five seed Ole Miss Rebels.

Again, against a 12-seated Gonzaga team that got the automatic bid

after winning the WCC tournament last week.

The big reason that this happened the way that it did

is Lauren Whitaker, the WCC freshman of the year,

the WCC player of the year, a potential national freshman

of the year, or a candidate to be national freshman of the year,

was completely shut down.

Ole Miss had the effective strategy.

They had the athletes.

They had the ability to make life miserable for Whitaker

and miserable it was.

Eight points for Lauren in this game.

She shot 0-4 from three, 0-3 from the free throw line,

and four of 17 on two pointers.

That means four of 21 overall in this game

and again, 0-3 from the free throw line.

Just could not take advantage, could not get good looks.

When she did get good looks, she wasn't able to put them down.

She had 13 rebounds in this game, so she did do well on the glass.

She had two assists, but six turnovers.

Just best player just wasn't, didn't bring it.

Didn't have it in this game against Ole Miss.

And it was going to always be a really, really big uphill battle

to beat this Ole Miss team in this very athletic group,

for Gonzaga, but Whitaker was going to need to have

like a near 2020 type game.

30 and 15, something like that.

Was the recipe for Gonzaga to win this game.

And with her struggling, they just never really had much of a chance.

Shout out to Jaden Hale, freshman off the bench,

who's been playing behind Whitaker this year,

first NCAA tournament game for both of them.

But for Hale, on a night where Whitaker couldn't get anything going,

Hale was very solid in this game.

She had 11 points in eight rebounds, perfect 4-4 from the field,

3-5 from the free throw line, hadn't assist in no turnovers.

phenomenal to see a true freshman in her first NCAA tournament game,

nearly recorded double-double while going perfect from the field,

while not turning the basketball over.

That is a tremendous stretch of basketball from Jaden Hale in this game.

The Zags did well on the boards.

Again, two players over 10 rebounds in this game.

They had 45 total rebounds, including 17 on the offensive glass.

Part of that was just the number of shots they missed around the rim.

They did also go 9-20 from 3, which is 45%.

And that was, in big part, due to a phenomenal game from Ali Turner,

the sophomore superstar who's twice spent all WCC first team

was WCC freshman of the year last year.

She was great, 27 points for her in this game,

7-12 overall, 5-9 from 3, perfect 8-8 from the free throw line.

She had 4 assists, but she did have 7 turnovers as, once again,

turnovers were a massive issue for Gonzaga, 21 total in this game,

for Coach 48's team, 7 by all of them by the starters, by the way.

Not a single bench player had a turnover in this game.

Turner had 7, Whitaker had 6, Enesh Bencourt had 3,

Taylor Smith had 2, Ziacuso had 1.

There's too many turnovers.

Way too many turnovers, bad passes, silly mistakes,

just getting outafflated by Ole Miss.

They're blocking shots, stealing the ball.

We're able to use their physicality and their size to kind of overwhelm

this Gonzaga team throughout the game.

It was a tough end to what was kind of a roller coaster of a season

for Gonzaga in this one.

They struggled early on, but we weren't really surprised by that.

This is a team that, again, Whitaker is a freshman.

She's a red shirt freshman, but she was the longest tenured player on this roster.

As a red shirt freshman, because not only was she here last year

rehabbing from her knee injury, she was here a semester early.

So from not last year's team, two years ago, she's the only player

who is on this, who was on that roster two years ago,

who's still on this roster.

And again, she's a red shirt freshman.

So at the beginning of the year, when this team was struggling

and losing to the non-conference games they shouldn't have been losing,

it was kind of understandable.

Like they have some veterans, Inesh Battencourt's,

they'll loan senior who played this year.

They have some juniors like McKinley-Dallan and Taylor Smith and Ziacuso,

but all of them were transfers who joined the program this year.

So it took a lot of time for this team to mesh and gel and find their rhythm

and for Coach 48 to find the right pieces in the starting lineup

and coming in on the rotation.

And as it started to come together, this team really started rolling.

They lost in Corvallis to Oregon State,

but then they turned around and beat them by 30 on their home floor,

beat them again in the WCC tournament.

Beat Portland this year, which is a team they've struggled with in the past.

Like we saw this team really start to come together

and this young group that is still one of the,

I mean, one of the youngest teams, Coach 48 has had one of the youngest teams

of basketball coming together to play really good ball down the stretch.

Tough to see it end this way.

Tough to see Neesh Battencourt's career end this way.

A player who transferred to Gonzaga from Yukon.

And Coach 48 was very emotional talking about her after the WCC tournament

and basically saying, I'm so glad that he said,

so many people criticized her decision to transfer away from Yukon

and to leave a program where she could have gone to the final four

and gone to the national championship.

And she said, I'm just so glad we got her back to the tournament.

We've been devastated if she had transferred here

and we never got her to the tournament.

And they missed the tournament last year. They got her there this year.

It sucks that she only got to play one game.

But at least she got her final game of her college basketball career

was in the NCAA tournament.

That is a good storyline for a Neesh Battencourt.

But the big news for Gonzaga is that that's the only player there for sure

leaving losing after this year.

That will probably be transfers.

It is still the transfer portal era.

It's done a pretty good job of very rarely losing impact players

to the transfer portal.

I get questions a lot.

Mail bad questions submitted about, you know,

are they going to be able to keep this team together?

And like a lot of people kind of apply men's basketball logic

to the women's basketball team and they see like,

oh, a 12 seated Gonzaga team that just snuck into the tournament

that has a bunch of young players.

Like that's the kind of program on the men's side

that tends to lose players in the transfer portal.

It's not the same in women's basketball.

To be clear, I'm not saying that that means nobody will leave

and that it's all kumbaya and everybody's happy and they're going to stick around.

But it is more likely to be that

than it is to be a situation like again,

a mid major school on the men's side,

like an Akron or whatever who is a 12 seat who lost in the first round

or high pointers, you know, high point one.

But like somebody like that,

where they tend to lose five, six, seven, eight players sometimes

because those players are chasing bigger paydays.

Women's basketball, there is big money at the top of this sport.

But for the most part, you know, transferring from Gonzaga

to a small power conference program is not going to net you a ton more money

necessarily.

And these players are getting paid a fine amount.

Gonzaga is moving into the packed well where their amount of spending money

is potentially going to go up significantly.

And while most of that income will be allocated to the men's team,

they don't have to share it with football.

The second most important program on Gonzaga's campus

from an NIL perspective is the women's basketball program.

I think they're going to be fine.

I think they're going to be able to keep this core together again.

I can't speak to team dynamics and players who are maybe homesick

or frustrated or just want a new change of senior.

I mean, there's so many different reasons a player might leave

that's even independent of NIL.

But I don't feel that concerned about this group.

And if they keep the majority of this team together,

they could be dangerous going into a slightly stronger conference

in the packed well.

Alley Turner will be a junior next year.

Lauren Whitaker is going to be a red shirt sophomore next year.

She's only going to continue to get better.

Turner got better this year.

She's going to continue to improve.

Then you have your freshman who are going to be sophomores.

Obviously, Jayden Hale, we talked about her as well as Paige Loafing

and Julia Wilson.

You have Terran Gardner coming into her junior year.

You have a trio of senior leaders who will be back.

Zia Kusso, Taylor Smith, McKinley Dallin, Sierra Litchty,

four of them who are juniors this year, seniors next year.

They're all going to, if they're, if at least two,

three of them come back, you'll have senior leadership on your team

who's been in the system for a full year.

That is a massive thing that this team only have one of this year

in Nesh Baton Court.

I feel very optimistic, very optimistic about the future of Gonzaga

Women's Basketball.

We will continue to keep updated when we do get transfer portal

updates if we are losing players, if we are gaining players.

Obviously, on both the men's and women's side,

but we might start to see some announcements soon-ish

on the women's side if they are going to happen.

So that'll be something we keep an eye on as well.

But I feel pretty optimistic that this team, if they keep it together,

at least, is going to be real good getting into the packed well.

Folks, that's going to wrap it up for me today.

Here on the Lockdown Zags podcast.

A little bonus episode for you here on a Friday afternoon.

The preview before Gonzaga's game on Saturday against Texas.

We will have a show after that game as well.

I'm going to be in the house at the Motor Center,

so I won't be able to get that show right out after the game.

But we'll have it an hour or so later depending on how long the pressers go.

We'll go live at that point as well.

So look out for that one in your feeds.

Thanks again, folks.

Have a fantastic rest of your day and weekend.

And of course, as always, Gonzaga.

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