Has Gonzaga's Schedule Finally Caught up to Them?

Year in, year out Gonzaga plays the toughest non-conference schedule in America. With the lack of quality  wins available in conference, the Zags have been forced to build their resume in November and December.  In most years, this strategy has worked wonders, and Gonzaga has been a lock for the NCAA tournament for the last decade.

Gonzaga has been on the wrong end of the stick
in some blowout games this season

This year is different for the Zags. They have struggled out of the gate, including a rare loss at home to San Diego St. They were blown out by in-state rival Washington St., and lost a couple close games with Illinois and Notre Dame.  The only quality win for the Zags came against a decent Marquette team in a 66-63 win.

Currently the Zags sit at 4-5, and are in danger of making the WCC a one bid league regardless of what happens in the WCC tournament. Gonzaga has two easy wins left on their non-conference schedule with Lafayette and Lewis Clark State. Then Gonzaga has home games against Oklahoma St. and Xavier while traveling to Wake Forrest. They also play No. 9 Baylor on a neutral site. The Zags probably need to go 4-1 in these important games and get to conference play sitting at 10-6.

The committee does reward a team who schedules difficultly, so Gonzaga will benifet there. But if you can't win any of those games, it doesn't really matter. We saw that with Davidson a couple years back when Steph Curry and the Wildcats fell in the SoCon conference tournament.

What's going wrong in Spokane? I think the Bulldogs are missing Matt Bouldin and his leadership more than they thought. Stephen Gray is a great player, but I don't see the same kind of leader that Bouldin was. In addition, the Zags are missing a quality slasher. Bouldin could get to the basket with his strength. Gray is more of a jump shooter, who has put up a ton of three's already (and shooting them at a pretty good rate).

Harris needs to get healthy for Gonzaga

The biggest problem? Elias Harris is clearly not healthy. Harris has only been playing around 20 minutes per game due to an achilles injury suffered earlier this year. He's averaging four less points and three less rebounds per game than he did last year. Until Harris becomes healthy, the Zags are going to struggle.  Sacre is a nice center, but no where near ready to dominate the inside game against top tier programs.

The Zags need to get things turned around for the sake of the WCC. Everyone in the conference benefits when the Zags are flying high. The WCC is down this year, and could use a run by the Zags in the tournament to keep their credibility as being a top mid-major conference.