Gonzaga's conference is joke

[anon_b29nm7v7dwp6r]

Yeah, not sure why so many Hawk fans like to hate on Gonzaga. They owned us early in the year, they would most likely beat us again. They’re #1 for a reason. And not to mention as recent as a few years ago we squared off in the actual tourney with them and they ate our lunch.

 

[HFFL64]

I don't see a problem with penalizing a coach and players that chose to not play a tough schedule/conference. Early season games favor teams with experience like the Zags every year since their weak schedule allows lots of minutes for the bench every year. Where as most of the top teams are trying to figure out how to mix in new 5*'s with the old. Beating Kansas in week 1 I don't think is as tough as beating in week 15.

 

[sbhawk64]

Few gets praised for playing such a tough non-conference schedule but that amounted to 5 ranked teams all year and not one of them in conference play. Yes their game with Baylor got cancelled or they would have had 6. Compare this to the big ten where a team may play two top 10 teams back to back followed by a top 20 opponent.

Gonzaga played Dixie State followed by Northwestern State x 2 before heading into the buzz saw that is the WCC with Pepperdine, Pacific, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Clara, Loyola-Marymount, Portland, St. Mary's, and BYU. Nebraska would be the second best team in this conference hands down. Winning by 20+ is the norm for Gonzaga and that is after taking the foot off the gas for the last 8-10 minutes.

Gonzaga is a good team and Few seems like a decent guy who isn't a cheating scum bag. With that being said, they should not be able to retain a # 1 spot when they play nobody after December. It's basically a lock they will never be displaced simply because they play in a Horizon League conference. If they drop a game in November-December it won't hurt them long-term because they are guaranteed a 3-month winning streak to jump others who play legit competition.

They will probably win the national championship just to spite me like the deep run they made a couple years ago when I predicted they would not get past the 2nd round. It will not change my POV that their conference is a joke and they should not be rewarded with a # 1 ranking for playing a 5 game schedule. Hell their starters probably graduate in 2 years since they get so much homework done in the second halves of games.

Gonzaga probably doesnt wint the Big this year. probably abov or below Illinois. I personally think Illinois takes them making them third. Despite the loss to Illinois, I still think Michigan is the best team. Who else could match their record if they played their schedule?

 

[Ihawkhoops]

Yeah, not sure why so many Hawk fans like to hate on Gonzaga. They owned us early in the year, they would most likely beat us again. They’re #1 for a reason. And not to mention as recent as a few years ago we squared off in the actual tourney with them and they ate our lunch.

I don't hate Gonzaga. I just think it's a joke when you play 5-6 games per year against legit opponents and then play in a conference that Indian Hills or Kirkwood would be competitive in. Few is a good coach. Gonzaga is a great team. But there is a major advantage for them come tourney time when their starters have been able to sit out 1/3 of the season because they are up 25+ in every game.

 

[shanksit44]

Few gets praised for playing such a tough non-conference schedule but that amounted to 5 ranked teams all year and not one of them in conference play. Yes their game with Baylor got cancelled or they would have had 6. Compare this to the big ten where a team may play two top 10 teams back to back followed by a top 20 opponent.

Gonzaga played Dixie State followed by Northwestern State x 2 before heading into the buzz saw that is the WCC with Pepperdine, Pacific, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Clara, Loyola-Marymount, Portland, St. Mary's, and BYU. Nebraska would be the second best team in this conference hands down. Winning by 20+ is the norm for Gonzaga and that is after taking the foot off the gas for the last 8-10 minutes.

Gonzaga is a good team and Few seems like a decent guy who isn't a cheating scum bag. With that being said, they should not be able to retain a # 1 spot when they play nobody after December. It's basically a lock they will never be displaced simply because they play in a Horizon League conference. If they drop a game in November-December it won't hurt them long-term because they are guaranteed a 3-month winning streak to jump others who play legit competition.

They will probably win the national championship just to spite me like the deep run they made a couple years ago when I predicted they would not get past the 2nd round. It will not change my POV that their conference is a joke and they should not be rewarded with a # 1 ranking for playing a 5 game schedule. Hell their starters probably graduate in 2 years since they get so much homework done in the second halves of games.

And yet they've barely broken a sweat dump truckin the opposition so far in the tournament. I guess this weekend will tell if there is another team that can deal with them. Other than Baylor........... doesn't look very promising.

 

[slipHawk]

I saw that loss to the zags in person - I learned to give up my scorn for them Few is an amazing coach. And he always seems to find a couple 7ft Eastern European bruisers. And quick guards.

Can’t argue on conf quality, but they are very very good.

 

[CEIABall]

I don't hate Gonzaga. I just think it's a joke when you play 5-6 games per year against legit opponents and then play in a conference that Indian Hills or Kirkwood would be competitive in. Few is a good coach. Gonzaga is a great team. But there is a major advantage for them come tourney time when their starters have been able to sit out 1/3 of the season because they are up 25+ in every game.

Lol oh so now playing in a weaker conference is an advantage because they're doing well, but any of the years where they were bounced earlier than expected it was "because they don't play anybody".. they have a great team and are an ELITE program in college basketball right now and have been for the last 8 years or so. They have played on the biggest stages in the tournament and in the regular season and have gone toe to toe and beat premier teams. I don't understand why so many out there want to discount exactly what Gonzaga is. This is no fluke and it didn't happen by luck or unfair advantages.

 

[CEIABall]

I don't see a problem with penalizing a coach and players that chose to not play a tough schedule/conference. Early season games favor teams with experience like the Zags every year since their weak schedule allows lots of minutes for the bench every year. Where as most of the top teams are trying to figure out how to mix in new 5*'s with the old. Beating Kansas in week 1 I don't think is as tough as beating in week 15.

What about beating the team that beat Kansas by 34 by 19 in week 20? Where does that fall on your delusional scale of impressive feats?

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

Few gets praised for playing such a tough non-conference schedule but that amounted to 5 ranked teams all year and not one of them in conference play. Yes their game with Baylor got cancelled or they would have had 6. Compare this to the big ten where a team may play two top 10 teams back to back followed by a top 20 opponent.

Gonzaga played Dixie State followed by Northwestern State x 2 before heading into the buzz saw that is the WCC with Pepperdine, Pacific, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Clara, Loyola-Marymount, Portland, St. Mary's, and BYU. Nebraska would be the second best team in this conference hands down. Winning by 20+ is the norm for Gonzaga and that is after taking the foot off the gas for the last 8-10 minutes.

Gonzaga is a good team and Few seems like a decent guy who isn't a cheating scum bag. With that being said, they should not be able to retain a # 1 spot when they play nobody after December. It's basically a lock they will never be displaced simply because they play in a Horizon League conference. If they drop a game in November-December it won't hurt them long-term because they are guaranteed a 3-month winning streak to jump others who play legit competition.

They will probably win the national championship just to spite me like the deep run they made a couple years ago when I predicted they would not get past the 2nd round. It will not change my POV that their conference is a joke and they should not be rewarded with a # 1 ranking for playing a 5 game schedule. Hell their starters probably graduate in 2 years since they get so much homework done in the second halves of games.

Turns out that having a bunch of NBA caliber players on your team makes conference strength pretty meaningless.

 

[Ihawkhoops]

Turns out that having a bunch of NBA caliber players on your team makes conference strength pretty meaningless.

Agree. Pretty sure Gonzaga would win any conference this year.

 

[IllQChawk]

Their basketball conference may be a joke, but Gonzaga basketball is not! As long as Few is able to bring in 5 star studs, Gonzaga basketball will continue to be a national title contender.

 

[leiserom]

There was some talk earlier after a Houston game got called off because of opponent COVID issue that they and Houston might play. But they did not want to come to Houston and wanted to play in SLC instead. Sampson would not agree to that as it would have meant 3 road games in a row. Instead Houston played a NAIA opponent and did not play his starters. If they had met it would have required trips to East Carolina, SLC and Tampa in an 8 day period. I dont blame Sampson one bit. Like he said these are not pro players. So Gonzaga is not blameless

 

[leiserom]

There really aren't a lot of viable options for Gonzaga. The PAC may not want Gonzaga because it's a small private school that (probably) isn't highly research-focused (the PAC-12 is very research-oriented, not unlike the B1G) and that despite the success, has a small fanbase and won't bring much to the PAC-12 footprint (and I'm sure a lot of Gonzaga fans are already football fans of the Washington and Oregon schools anyway).

Gonzaga may want to take a look at the Big East to be honest. It's primarily consisted of small Catholic schools, but it's no longer limited to schools in the Eastern time zone, as schools like Creighton and Marquette are firmly established in the Central time zone. It might want a travel partner of some sort though to ease some of the travel costs, but there aren't a lot of schools out there that fit the mold (BYU might make the most sense due to having $$ and a sizable fan base).

It's sort of apples-and-oranges, but Gonzaga takes a lot of flack for not playing in a great conference but Alabama gets a pass despite playing in an almost-equally weak conference. Gonzaga's scalps are way more impressive than Alabama's, and Alabama has whiffed (and badly, I might add) more often than not against premier opponents (which were relatively few and far between).

For mens BB might be feasible. But for the rest of their sports probably not. Cross country trips for baseball teams and volleyball teams would be expensive. They had a good womens team that got upset in the first round