Jump to content

AKZAG

Members
  • Posts

    12
  • Joined

  • Last visited

AKZAG's Achievements

Recruit

Recruit (1/7)

  1. Our starting lineup should be: Raivio PMAC (Pierre-Marie Altidor-Cespedes) Morrison Mallon Batista If healthy, Knight would start at the two in place of PMAC. He is definitely a wing, but has only played 2 and 4 minutes in the last two games - his only action this season as he recovers from knee surgery. Mallon started last year with Turiaf before Batista emerged. Although he has not been as aggressive as the staff would like, his likely replacement in the starting lineup, Heytvelt, is out with a broken ankle. Pendergraft is our all hustle right guy, and at 6'5", an undersized 4, where he has played all year. Pendo probably deserves a start, but I don't see it happening. Pargo will be a good one, but has not shot well this year. (He was on MTV's StreetBall, for Chicago vs. NYC). But gives us great penetration as aggressiveness.
  2. At least you are drawing in some warm bodies to fill the seats. That's awesome that it will be so well attended. Best of luck tomorrow Billikens! Hope it will be a great show.
  3. Adam did recently cut his hair - at least back to a Prince Valiant cut. But the pseudo-'stache is sticking around for a while. Looks like you are lining up a good crowd for the game. I hope they all fall in love with your program and back it to the hilt - although I have to root for a Zag victory first.
  4. Last night was another one of those games for the Zags. They kinda ho-hummed it, got behind early and finally surged ahead in the last five minutes. Few called the effort "Pathetic" after the game. I'd love to say that alone would be a wake-up call, but we just had four grind-it-out games in a row - all wins, but far from easy. We would prefer an up-tempo game to maximize our "offensive efficiency," but should expect that the Billikens would like to slow it down (?). At this point, it really is a question of which Zag team shows up. They tend to play to the competition, which can be maddening as a fan, but we just aren't a team that blows people away. More and more, I am convinced that the way to beat us is to cut off the head - Raivio. Get him in foul trouble and then pressure our young guards. Versus EWU we had only 6 turnovers (they had 6 in the first say seven minutes against Virginia), so we are starting to protect the ball better. I really think I like this team better when they play away from home. They just seem more focused on the road. Guess we'll see Thursday. Good luck y'all.
  5. GU's Take ... http://mb19.scout.com/fzaghoopsfrm1.showMe...cID=20507.topic Roth is our AD. It has been a topic of discussion for a few years. The Zags play Eastern Washington tonight and then focus on the Billikens. See you soon.
  6. Hi Billikens! I know our game is a few weeks away yet, but thought I'd drop in early and give you a quick rundown of how we are looking for the rematch this year. Overall, we have to be happy with where we are at with our two losses being by 2 to UConn in Maui, and by 4 to UW in Seattle. Turiaf is gone, and we do miss the extra depth and athleticism under the basket. But the rest of the significant minutes from last year return. Our three additions; Mammery Diallo - juco transfer that at this point has had trouble with the transition. Has more DNPs than points at this time. Jeremy Pargo - true freshman guard from Chicago. Built well, has bought into the system quickly and contributed key minutes. Likes to drive the lane. Has predictably had too many turnovers, but Coach Few is okay with them, as they are aggressive mistakes. Larry Gurganious - true freshman, slasher/wing from the SF Bay area. He'll end up being a good one, but has been nursing a wrist injury that hurts both his shooting and ball handling. Injuries (Walking wounded); LG - see above Josh Heytvelt - RS Frosh big that would have been a huge help inside. Out until Feb. (?) with a broken ankle suffered in UConn game. Errol Knight - senior starting guard that just can't catch a break. Had his knee scoped at the start of the season. Has not practiced yet this year, and is now dealing with an infection from the surgery. Was to be our defensive glue. Still a week or two away, so you might see him. Plays above the rim on both ends of the court. Derek Raivio - this one really hurt as he is our starting point guard and our third option on offense. He has missed the past game and a half after getting a deep bruise on his hip and back in the UW game. Questionable for Okahoma State on 12/10, should be back but might still be gimpy in Saint Louis. Emotionally getting over the death of a close friend a few weeks back. Otherwise; JP Batista - you might remember him from last year, and all he has done is improve. Immovable big with limited hops. One of the strongest low-post players around, with ironically the softest touch. Nothing too fancy, just gets the job done with finesse. He loves to trail on the break and hit the 3 from the top of the key. Around 20+ pt.s / 8 reb. night in and out. Sean Mallon - our other starting forward has had a quiet start this year. We hope that his first double digit output last night against WSU is a sign of his regained confidence. Also an able 3 point shooter. David Pendergraft - total hustle, is team first, second, and third. He is "only" 6'5" and has been asked to play out of position at the four, which he does bangingly, if not at a risk of fouling out against taller opponents. Pierre-Marie Altidor-Cespedes - sophomore guard from Quebec. Has a tendency to be too unselfish. Needs to drive more, shoot more. Otherwise, he just doesn't make a lot of mistakes. Smart player. Nathan Doudney - senior transfer guard from Texas Tech. Came in with a reputation as a long-range bomber. Tore his ACL & MCL early last year. Still sporting a brace as much mentally as physically. Minimal minutes ... I think he has shot three times so far. Adam Morrison - I won't bore with info on Ammo. Suffice it to say, he is shooting over 50% from the field, so it isn't as though he is just throwing up prayers. Concerns; Our defense is still suspect, especially giving up threes. Depth, especially our bigs, has been a negative surprise. We really miss using a regular rotation and got in a lot of foul trouble at Washington. Only 4 Zags scored Thursday. We'd love to see it spread out more. Again, not Morrison's fault. Some of the others are just passing up opportunities in deference. We cannot become dependent on him. For the first say five games of the season, Morrison + Raivio + Batista = 90 % of our scoring. It is asking a lot to shut down all three on the same night, but one bad performance would leave the door open. That's it for now. Enjoyed watching your performance at Chapel Hill. There seems to be new life in your team, and I'm looking forward to a great game.
  7. I hope the best for your program, and not from a selfish RPI position. You seem to be going through a tough period right now. All I can offer is to hang in there and support your team. You ran into a pissed off Zag team last Saturday. The emphasis of previous opponents has been to contain Turiaf. Your team held him to perhaps a career low. That is a credit to your team and coaching staff. Unfortunately, we are pretty loaded and apparently it has been stressed to Ronny that he must learn to pass out of the double and triple teams. He did a little better in the time that he was not hampered by fouls. You do have some young talent and it should be fun to watch them grow over the years. There have been some murmurs suggesting that a Catholic / Jesuit mini-tournament be organized for some time in the future OOC. I hope to see it come to fruition. Until that point, best of luck for the remainder of the schedule and we'll see you next year. Also, thank you for your hospitality over the last week. Akzag
  8. I might butcher his name, but it is Larry Gurganious. He and his parents made an on campus visit a few months ago, and everything just clicked. One of the very interesting things about our recruits, is they often play a few pick-up games with the existing players, and get shown around by the players. The coaches then ask for approval to offer from the team. I.e. - if they click with the team they are in, if they rub someone the wrong way, the team can veto them (or at least have a very strong vote of dissent).
  9. Wow! There's a lot to answer there. I'll give you my best take on things. First, 3 of the 4 Div. I schools in Washington made it to the dance last year. UW, Gonzaga, AND Eastern Washington, which was the Big Sky champion. From that angle, the schools are doing well. WSU made a great hire in Bennett, but he hasn't really had his recruits come in yet. His emphasis is on defense and to their credit, the players have bought into it (the Ok. St. game aside, it is working - last year, Stanford needed a last minute bucket in Pullman to win and stay undefeated, just days before having it snapped in Seattle). He needs some scorers now, and if he can stick around for four or five years, they'll be contenders as well. The talent coming out of Washington, and specifically Seattle, might be the best the state has produced in a long time. I can think of probably six to eight players in the past two years whose "interest" list read something like (in alpha...) : Arizona, Gonzaga, Kansas, North Carolina, Washington. It isn't quite up to Texas standards, but it seems to be a hotbed of talent at the moment. Gonzaga won the recruiting war for the incoming class of 04-05. But our past successes had made us a more attractive name (for now). Of our four newcomers, we got PMac out of Montreal outlasting Pitt among other eastern schools. Batista, from Brazil, is a Juco transfer that Self wanted in Kansas, before settling on Pettway from the same JC league. David Pendergraft was going to redshirt until an early injury to Knight (who transferred from UW in between the Bender and Romar transition). And Josh Heytfelt, still growing and approaching 7', could be our best ever big man, is redshirting. Both Josh and David are Washington products. Josh was the focus of the infractions that UW got penalized for - he had already committed to become a Zag. That being said, with their run last season, UW has a legitimate top ten recruiting class for next year's frosh, much from the state. We both went after many of the same kids. But we are happy with what we have coming in; another juco transfer big from a school in Texas, and then two slasher-types studs, one from San Francisco, and Jeremy Pargo, yes, his brother is on the Bulls, from Chicago. So we are still excited, but UW won this one. Kansas did get one, as did North Carolina, as well. But at least our programs are at the point where we have been able to recruit outside of the region, and are actually on the same list as some of the big boys. Sorry, if this more info than you wanted, but one more bit on Romar. As is to be expected when anybody takes over a BCS program, immediate results are expected. Among those expectations is to beat that little upstart Jesuit school across the state (GU has won the last seven meetings and is something in the neighborhood of on a 57-1 run against our regional rivals ; UW, WSU, EWU, UP, PSU, UI). It hasn't happened yet. But the UW program has obviously made a turn for the better. Some might point to Romar, others point out that once Nate Robinson quit football to concentrate on hoops, then the program made the dramatic change. Whatever. The fact is that the results of the team that Nate plays on, has allowed UW to reenter into the mix, and the future looks very bright for the Huskies.
  10. Rich - unfortunately, this is our rebuilding year (as well?). We really only (only?!) lose Turiaf after this year. It is tough to win at our place. Off the top of my head, I think we were 150-10 in the old Kennel during the past 12 years. But the new building is living up to expectations. It will be a much more experienced Zag team when we visit you next year - but a road game is a road game. Does anybody know if the '05 game will be on your campus (as I would expect)? Still, I respect your program. Saturday's game is considered in some circles of our fans as a trap game. I would expect your best game, and hopefully that can get your season moving in a more positive direction. If anyone is interested, our main board is gonzaga.theinsiders.com .
  11. Just wanted to stop by and wish you good luck for this weekend's game. Our new arena is still pretty cozy and seats just under 6000, but can still get pretty loud. Our student section is right on top of the court. So far, we are 6-1, with the loss being just crushed by Illinois. Only the way they then dismantled Wake Forest made us feel better - they are simply, that good. Our team is pretty young this year. We lost 5 seniors, and have only two on our roster with only Turiaf seeing significant minutes. Otherwise, we have been starting one freshman (Pierre-Marie Altidor-Cespedes - PMac), and three sophomores (Mallon, Morrison, Raivio). WSU really slowed down the tempo from where we like it. I would expect the same from your team, especially as your coach is an old Bennett assistant. GU tends to lack (from a fan's perspective) an aggressive perimeter defense. We give up a lot of points - but average close to 80. We are big down low - five players 6'8" +, and normally win the rebound battle. Looking forward to a good game ....
×
×
  • Create New...