Zags Insiders Podcast: What went wrong vs. Michigan, Kentucky preview

Dec. 2—Like so many folks that visit Las Vegas, there was plenty of good and bad for Gonzaga at the Players Era Festival.

GU landed on both ends of the spectrum with a solid win over then-No. 8 Alabama, a rout over Maryland and a beatdown applied by Michigan.

Yours truly and former Zags center Richard Fox, an analyst on Gonzaga games televised on KHQ and SWX, sorted through the team's highs and lows in Las Vegas and broke down Friday's showdown against No. 18 Kentucky in Nashville in the latest Zags Insiders Podcast.

Here are a few of our thoughts from Monday's podcast, edited for space considerations. For the entire podcast, go to spokesman.com/podcasts/zags-basketball-insiders or youtu.be/QRrDlr2jTDk.

Michigan misery

Fox: Michigan has incredible size up front, they play 7-foot-3, 6-10, 6-9, it makes Gonzaga's frontline look quaint at 6-7, 6-9, 6-10. (Aday) Mara, Gonzaga knows him from UCLA, he looks like a completely different player. Dusty May knows what he's doing. Gonzaga could never get going and got deflated when their shots weren't falling and it really affected them defensively.

I wanted to list the good, the bad and the ugly. The good: Michigan played as well as they'll play probably all season. Gonzaga played as poorly as they'll probably play all year, maybe for the next five years.

The bad: It's about as disorganized defensively as I've seen Gonzaga in a long time. It's alarming especially because of how we are looking at this team as being special defensively. You expect that end of the floor to be shored up every night. Also the bad — (GU) settled too often early in the clock. Make Michigan guard you, get into your stuff.

The ugly: It's the first time in a long time I've watched Gonzaga play and felt that their competitive spirit was just destroyed. It was rough to watch.

Meehan: Last time I remember them just getting manhandled was UConn (82-54) in that (2023) NCAA Tournament game, but that was the national champions. They beat every team by double-digits in the tournament.

Mark (Few) mentioned it right out of the gate (in the press conference) they got absolutely crushed and there was no response. They tried different defenses, it didn't work. Their competitive spirit was broken there and they never found it again.

Breakdowns on defense, absolutely no paint presence other than Braden (Huff) hitting the shot-put shots. Graham Ike just had a terrible night. That kid (Morez Johnson Jr.) he was going up against was bigger than Graham and you don't run into that very often. Mara had this center field (coverage) going where he could come over and swat shots and that's always in your mind. That's like (Zach) Edey when you're playing Purdue, you know there's an aircraft carrier waiting for you. Just a bad night all the way around and pretty surprising given their form going in.

Sizing up Kentucky

Meehan: Kentucky played rival Louisville and they were down big in that game, came back and made it a very tight game at the end but they lost. They played Michigan State about a week ago and lost by 17. It never felt like they were in that game for most of it.

The big question surrounds their health. Jayden Quaintance, a transfer from Arizona State that the Zags played last year, is recovering from an ACL. He recently returned to playing 3 on 3. Pitt transfer guard Jaland Lowe, 17 (points) a game last year, he's been sidelined for a few games with a shoulder (injury). Another transfer from Alabama Mo Dioubate, solid scorer, rebounder, ankle injury. They're probably getting him back.

I'm anxious to see a couple things. How Graham comes back? I'm pretty sure (Michigan) was only game he's ever had without a field goal, going back to Wyoming. And 8, 9 days between games. They will have a lot of time to lick their wounds, get after it in the gym and really work on themselves and Kentucky. That's a long time to stew over a 40-point loss.

Fox: Kentucky plays a fun style. (Mark) Pope is a very good coach. They don't turn it over, 10 or 11 a game. They just haven't found that consistency. This is an old team. They've got guys that have been in college a lot like Gonzaga, like Michigan.

Gonzaga is going to have an advantage inside with the strength and size Ike and Huff present and then you throw in Tyon Grant-Foster. This will feel a little different than Michigan as far as what you have to go up against inside. I would expect Gonzaga will try to get that established pretty early.

Look, you're going on the road effectively. If you can't make shots from the 3-point line, Kentucky is going to be able to play with you. What I'm trying to say is you literally don't know, you have no idea what Gonzaga is going to do from the 3-point line. That's such a variable that any analysis of any Gonzaga game in my mind just boils down to that one factor. If they have an advantage inside and can make a few shots from 3, they're probably going to win fairly easily. Regardless of the advantage inside, if they cannot buy a 3, anybody they play that has any kind of talent can make it a game.