Know Your Enemy: Gonzaga

Gonzaga will be Uconn’s first test of the season on a December 1st meeting. The Zags had a tough time last year with the Heytvelt and Davis suspensions due to the famous mushroom incident. This team is an offensive juggernaut, ranking 19th in the NCAA last season at 78.5 a game. What they have in offensive prowess, they lack in defensive tenacity ranking in a paltry 204th in the country at 70.1 a game.

Led by Josh Heytvelt, 15.5 points and 7.7 rebounds a game. The job to stopping this power forward rests on Adrien and the role players to keep him from enforcing his will upon the boards. They must keep him under control.

Thabeet won’t be the only big man on the court. Gonzaga recruited Robert Sacre, a 7-footer, who should pose a threat down low. This will be Thabeet’s first real challenge of the year and should give us a good look at how Thabeet’s progression has come along.

The guards have their hands full keeping Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin under control. With the departure of Derek Raivio and his 18 points, 3.1 boards, 2.6 assists and 1.5 steals, leaves a big hole to fill and these two talented players should step up.

The X-factor should be on junior college transfer Ira Brown, a 25 year old player, who played five years of minor league baseball, so he is a gifted athlete. He has average size but his strength and versatility should create mismatches.

This is as well rounded a team that Uconn will face this year, other than Georgetown, Indiana and Louisville. They have depth with role players, such as Micah Downs, a forward with 8.1 points a game and 3.7 boards and Abdullahi Kuso, a hard worker and battler underneath. They have talented freshmen in Austin Daye, a possible big time scorer and afore mentioned Robert Sacre.

This match-up will be strength against strength, Uconn’s defense versus the Zag’s offense. If their two strength’s negate each other, then the key to winning falls on the weaknesses of Uconn’s offense versus the Zag’s defense.

Dyson, Price and Robinson must have big time games and show improvement in their offensive outputs from last year. If Uconn scores 70 points, they should get the win, which they did only once in the last 11 games. Adrien will give you his double-double and Thabeet will anchor the inside and whatever he gives offensively will be a bonus.

This isn’t a David versus Goliath match-up and one wouldn’t be hallucinating if Uconn pulls off the upset. They need to play a great team defense and create easy buckets with offensive rebounds and the fast break. If they get that done, then they’ll get that first notch on their postseason resume.