Gonzaga Bulldogs - Cinderella Nomore

[GStone899]

I plan on updating this regularly with updates from my legacy with Gonzaga.

Season 1 with the Gonzaga Bulldogs

I just finished my first season and there were highs and lows in what obviously was a tough season trying to turn things around in Spokane. I had 2 terrific players, both SG's, in Quannas Ibok and Dale Drake. Due to lack of any depth on the team I was forced to play Ibok @ PG and Drake @ SF. I inherited 2 JUCO transfer PF's with Sergio Pleiness and Danjiel Poole. Also due to lack of depth I had to play 6'6" Poole @ Center and 6'5" Pleiness at PF. I released a number of players before the season, some walk-ons some scholarship players. I had to clean house and get some of these 2 star recruits with 50 ratings out of here.

The season started promising as we won big out of conference games against Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. We ended our non conference with a 10-4 record. I then started conference play and the struggles began. We slipped up against a few opponenets and just when it looked like we were going to pick it up again, Dale Drake went out for 3 weeks with a high-ankle sprain, Danjiel Poole went out with the same ankle sprain and then 2 games later Sergio Pleiness went down with a broken ankle which ended his season after 20 games.

Bench players played a key roll while the injuries that had mounted and we treaded water until Poole and Drake returned but we dropped our last 3 regular season games and got beat in the first round of the WCC tourny to Santa Clara. Pepperdine won the tourny. We finished the season with a 19-12 record.

I will follow up with offseason recruiting and a season preview.

 

[GStone899]

[image=http://www.gonzaga.edu/beinspired/experiencegu/wallpaper/athletics-blue_1920x1200.jpg]

Offseason Recruiting

We had 4 seniors graduate last year, 3 of them starters, so we need to recruit heavily these next couple seasons. We recruited 4 new players who will play this season:

Artie Goodson **** SG
Ronnie Gilbert **** PG
Juleous Van De Lar **** C
Percy Erwin *** PG (Redshirt)

Not a bad recruiting class for my first season in Spokane. I am trying to heavily recruit players from the west coast, especially Washington. Goodson and Erwin were both in-state recruits. Van De Lar is from Germany and no one recruited him! There were a few 4 Star players who did not get recruited last year.

 

[GStone899]

[image=http://www.oxfordsuitesspokane.com/images/apg_1259286304.jpg]

Season Tipoff

We have started off the season with a 4-4 record and have had some tough losses to Colorado State, Arizona and UCLA. We led the entire game against UCLA until the last minute. So there have been some tough losses so far but with the young lineup we have we are gaining experience. I have tough games against Nevada, Utah and Utah State coming up and am hoping to make a statement against those teams. After that we face an extremely tough test against Tennessee (Bruce Pearl is still coaching) and against Houston. Both games are on the road and both teams are ranked 90+.

 

[Skyflame21]

Looks good so far. Even though I'm not a fan of the Zags. Good Luck

 

[GStone899]

Thanks for following!

26 games into the season with only 4 conference games remaining. The best way to describe the season has been massive ups and downs. We managed to go on a 8 game winning streak, beating teams like Tennessee, Utah St, Utah and Houston. Just when things start to look good, things go south. We lost 3 straight conference games, 2 at home and recently were blown out by San Francisco at home. Our starting freshman Center, Julios Van De Lar, is out for a month with a high ankle sprain. This has caused us to lose our only real size inside. My post players are now 6'6" and 6'8".

Our record sits at 16-10 with 4 games to go. I am hoping to sweep these four games and make some noise in the WCC tourny. A 20 win season would be nice but a trip to the NCAA's would be better. Looks like we will have to win the conference tourny to do so.

 

[icuwoot]

Love reading these and seeing how everyone is doing. Might have to fire up 2k8 and start a new dynasty.

 

[Skyflame21]

I just fired mine up yesterday. Been working through the rosters for the 2011-2012 season.

 

[icuwoot]

2k share isn't online still is it? That'd probably be my only way I'd update them to current rosters. I can live with the 08 ones, they're pretty awesome.

 

[GStone899]

I think 2kshare is still online. They haven't made another CHoops yet so I can't see why it wouldn't be online???

 

[GStone899]

Update!!Update!!Update!!

Well the regular season is over and so is the conference tourny. I went 3-1 in my last 4 games to move up to 4th in the very competitive WCC. I won my 1st round conference tourny game and then dropped the next to Loyola Marymount. I ended the regular season with a 20-12 record and not good enough to make the NCAA's.

BUT, I did get invited to the NIT which was nice. Wasn't ready to stop playing with these guys yet. First game was on the road against Robert Morris. Should have been an easy game but I needed Overtime to beat them. Second NIT game was against Miami(FL) who I edged out by 1 point. So now its down to the Final 8 in the NIT and I play a very talented Michigan State team @ Michigan State. Should be a test but I think our team is up to it.

My lone Senior is Hal Toppert, 6'5" SG who plays the 2 & 3. He is averaging 14 points per game and is definitely our leader. He averages 15 min per game (10 min halves)

 

[GStone899]

[hl=tomato]Season WrapUp[/hl]

Well, we gave Michigan St a run but couldn't pull out the win in the NIT regional finals. We got down by 10 early and couldn't make up any ground all game, losing by 9.

Final Record: 23-13

My starting SF, Hal Toppert was my lone Senior. We will have to replace about 12 ppg next year.

Recruiting

Not a bad recruiting class coming in next year. I was recruiting some bigs for inside and wanted 1 SF. I like having an extra SF sometimes because if we have foul trouble/injury at the 2-5 spots, I can plug in a SF a short time patch.

Committed:

SF **** (JUCO)
PF ***
C ***
C ****

Not a bad cast comming in for next year. I return 4 starters from last year with my standouts being my SR PF and SO SG. Both were 4 star recruits and will carry a good chunk of the load.

Non-conference Schedule

We start off with a road test for the first 3 weeks of the season. Our first 5 games are on the road against west coast teams such as TCU, Idaho, Sacramento St, etc. We then have 3 games at home including a matchup with talented USC. We also battle @ #17 Northwestern.

 

[jfl897]

hey man just caught up, nice job! I wanna keep this going since this is such a quality game!

 

[GStone899]

hey man just caught up, nice job! I wanna keep this going since this is such a quality game!

Awesome! Thanks for the props and for following.

 

[GStone899]

[hl=limegreen]Season Intro[/hl]

14 games into this season and just started conference play. My record stands at 9-5 so far. We have been up and down again this year. We beat USC @ home which was great, lost a close game to Northwestern and then went to the Cable Car Classic. Should be easy right? barely knocked off Louisiana Monroe and then got beat by Loyola Maryland to end the tourny. Most of my games have been close, even against lesser opponents. Just played my first conference game @ Pepperdine (strongest team in the WCC and picked to win the conference). We were ranked the same (88) and it was a great game but when it came down to it, we fell a little short, losing by 5. Every time we needed a stop, they made a big shot. They made their last 6 field goals to end the game.

From a coaching aspect I see these as major problems so far:

- We do not have a consistent scorer or go-to-guy.

- Not a bad three point shooting team but we are failing to make 3's.

- Do not have a solid mid-range game.

- Defense needs to improve. Giving up too many easy shots, opponents shooting a high percentage.

Already made a line-up change a few games ago that seems to give us more spark. Moved my SF to the bench, replacing him with my undersized Senior PF who has an 80 3 pt ranking. Moved my SO Center from Germany to the bench and put my Freshman Center and top recruit into the starting line-up. We'll see how these moves shake out.

 

[GStone899]

[hl=silver]Season Update![/hl]

Well my lineup changes have paid off!! Since my last update we have played 6 games and won them all! We stand atop of the WCC standings with a 6-1 record. The new line-up definitely puts more shooters on the floor and adds range to our offense. When teams try to play zone against us we work the ball inside and then back out for an open shot by our PG, SG, SF.

On Defense we play Man-to-Man about 70% of the time and switch it up with a 1-3-1 Zone. I have found this defense works pretty well and forces turnovers by people trying to throw over the zone.

Our SR PF is filling up the stat sheet every night. The last 3 games he is averaging 14 pts, 6 reb, 3 ast, 3 steals, 2 blks. Not bad. He is becoming the team's go-to-guy.

I have signed 1 **** SG in season and are after a couple of SF's. I will be losing a PG and 2 PF's to graduation at the end of this season so I need to reload.

Looks like Gonzaga has found its groove in the tough WCC. It seems like every team in the WCC has at least 1 **** player and San Francisco has a ***** recruit. I think the abundance of recruits in California let this happen. The state is loaded every year.

 

[GStone899]

Finished up my 2030 season with Gonzaga. We ended up finishing 2nd in the WCC to Pepperdine. We lost 3 conference games and 2 of them to Pepperdine. We ended up losing our last regular season game and then getting beat in the 1st round of the WCC tournament. Both were close loses but loses nonetheless.

Gonzaga was a "bubble" team going into March and we made the NCAA Tournament as an 11 seed. I was just happy to get in and see what we could do. 1st round game was against #6 Illinois. I would be lying if I said this was a tough game. The Zags crushed Illinois by 21. Our shot went in and we were hitting on all cylinders. The next game was against Mississippi State, the #3 seed. This game was closer but we still won by 9. It was on to the Sweet 16!!! We got the #2 seed Virginia and after clawing back in to cut the lead to 1, the Cavaliers rattled off 10 straight points to end the game. The dream died in the Sweet 16 but it was an accomplishment getting there.

South Alabama made the Final Four along with Fordham, Arizona State & Cincinnati with Cincy winning the title over Fordham.

 

[NorthCarolinaNative]

Wow. Great run in the Tourney, man. Next year lets get to the Elite 8? Keep it up, Coach.

 

[GStone899]

We are off and running on the new season! 15 games in and we have completed our non conference schedule with only 2 loses. Our 89 rated Bulldogs lost @ Cal State Northridge and @ TCU. TCU was a close game and CS Northridge was a disaster. But we sit at 13-2 and ranked #17 in the country! This is my first time being ranked as coach of Gonzaga. We beat some tough teams so far including Washington, @ San Diego St (#17 at the time) and @ Arizona State (#2 at the time).

We aren't the only ranked team in the WCC though. Pepperdine is currently sitting with a 11-2 record and #11 in the country. They have a 92 overall rating.

We are the top 2 teams and should battle it out for the conference crown this year. The conference is strong all around with San Francisco and San Diego in the mid 80's ranking wise.

Conference play is up next and we get Pepperdine @ home in the 2nd conference game.

We have 2 centers leading the way. Julius Van De Lar and Phillip Hunt play Pf and C, respectively. They each average around 10 point per game and are tough to stop in the low post. Each one has had a 24 pt game so far this season. My 4 Star Junior SG has really been disappointing though. He is rated 85 but has no mid range game at all and is only an okay 3 pt shooter. He is our best freethrow shooter with a 95 rating.

 

[LAAngels1211]

Very nice!!!

 

[GStone899]

Mini Update

6 games into the conference schedule and the Gonzaga Bulldogs are a perfect 6-0. 3 of our first 5 conference games were on the road including a battle @ Pepperdine (#14). It was a close game and we actually trailed at the half but came out with force in the 2nd half and held the lead the rest of the game. We are now ranked #6 in the country. This is one of the quicker turnarounds I have had when comparing them to my previous coaching jobs at UC Riverside and Towson.

We sit with an overall record of 19-2. We don't have one real dominant scorer as it really has been a team effort. Our starting 5 is very balanced with any given player scoring double figures in any game. It is hard to imagine going undefeated in conference as we have had some close games so far but we will see.

 

[GStone899]

4 games to go in conference season my record stands at 23-2. I am ranked #2 in the nation!!! Only behind North Carolina who has not lost a game yet. Next game is against Pepperdine (for the 2nd time) and they are ranked #10. Good year for the WCC.

 

[instant_offense]

very nice man, following.

 

[GStone899]

It has been a great year so far for the Gonzaga Bulldogs! The regular season is complete and we earned a #1 Seed in the NCAA Tournament (ranked as high as #2 in the polls and finished at #5). We finished the season with a record of 28-4, won the WCC regular season and tournament titles. A very balanced effort across the board from all of our players.

Our 1st NCAA tournament game is agains #16 University of Missouri -Kansas City. Our second round game will either be against #8 Temple or #9 Minnesota.

 

[GStone899]

A great season that ended in the Elite 8. Yes, we made a great run but that run fell 3 wins short. We ran into a very hot shooting Louisville team that shot 67% from the field. With all that said, we still only lost by 6 points. I really felt this team could go all the way this year but it wasn't meant to be. 32 wins on the season is a nice consolation prize though.

We only had 1 senior from last year so we return 4 of 5 starters from last year. Our starting line-up this season consists of 4 SR's and 1 JR. Our team unity is also at an 84. Our project lottery pick center also returned for his senior season so that was very nice.

Now the bad. The season is off to a rocky start. We are 5-3 but have lost 3 of our last 4. We lost @ UCLA, @ Utah and @ Kansas State. All 3 games were lost by a combined 9 points. We are looking to get a rhythm going forward but our lack of pure shooters has really hurt us. We have 2 big guys in the post but when they get doubled we have no one on the perimeter who can consistently knock down a jump shot.

 

[GStone899]

The season is still rocky as the Gonzaga Bulldogs sit with a record of 10-7. We are 2 games into conference play and sit at 1-1 in conference. This is a shocking development as we are starting 4 seniors and 1 junior and we have 4 returning starters from last years Elite 8 trip. We have talented players but the record isn't showing it so far. Our last game was against Loyola Maramount and we were down by 9 points at half time after only shooting 28% in the first half. The second half we scored the first 10 points and ended up winning by 16. This team has firepower and I hope they show it soon. The main goal is to peak in March but we need a good record so we aren't forced to win the WCC tournament to get in the dance.

 

[GStone899]

2 games to go in the regular season and we sit with a 9-3 conference record and in a three-way tie for first place in the WCC with San Fransisco and Pepperdine. We have managed to right the ship and seem to be finding our groove as a team. The last game was Senior Day against Portland and we beat them handily. My final 2 games are @ San Fransisco (Overall - 90 rating) and @ Pepperdine (overall 88 rating) so we are looking at a great finish. We have crept back into the Top 25 at #21, thanks mostly to my tough non-conference schedule.

 

[GStone899]

A wild ride!!!

Well a lot has gone on since my last update. We were beat in the first round of the conference tourny by Loyola Marymount in Double OT. Little did I know that would be the teams last loss (for now). We were a #6 seed going into the tourney, beating Kentucky in the 1st round, Indiana in the 2nd, So. Illinois in the 3rd, Duke in the 4th and a very talented Fordham team in the Final 4. Yep! You heard it! We have advanced to the National Championship game where we will face #4 seed Mississippi State. It should be a battle. Gonzaga is playing our best basketball of the season so far and we have one game left to bring a championship to Spokane. This is my 2nd time coaching in a National Championship game (was coaching Towson and won a championship 9 years ago).

 

[GStone899]

2nd place is the first loser...

Judging by the title you can guess what happened. We lost by 6 to Mississippi State in the Metrodome. The lack of pure shooters on the team came back to bite us. We rode our outstanding 7'3" Center (playing PF) Phillip Hunt through the tournament and he had 20 pts in the title game but it wasn't enough. Our PG chipped in 12 pts and that was all the double digit scoring we had. Our star SG Artie Goodson was 1-7 shooting with 4 pts. A very bad game for the player who had our highest scoring game of the season (31 pts).

 

[GStone899]

I am knee deep in this next season with the Zags and with 4 regualr season games remaining we sit atop the WCC standings with an overall record of 16-9. The key to this season has been establishing chemistry all around. I have no returning starters from last year on the roster so this is the first year starting for everyone. We have been very balanced scoring wise with our guards being forced to shoot the ball as most teams are running a 2-3 zone against us and daring us to shoot. We have a 1 game lead in our conference and 3 of our next 4 games are at home.

Pretty talented conference again this year with only one team under an 80 rating (San Diego @ 78). Most teams are hovering around 85 (Zags @ 91).

 

[GStone899]

Well, I have finished my season but am sad to say that we failed to reach the NCAA's. Got a bid to the NIT where we went to the Final Four but lost in OT to NC State. In defense of not making the tournament, this season was loaded with great teams. Kansas, Georgia, NC State, Gonzaga, Georgetown, Pittsburgh were all in the NIT this year and had great records and rankings.

We lost 3 road conference games in a row and I knew then that we needed to win out to make the dance. We won the rest of our regular season but then lost in the Quarterfinals of the WCC. It was tough with no returning starters from last year and having little team chemistry. Final record: 24-11.

Got a 5 year contract extension with the Zags that I happily took. I want to win a title with this team and love the conference. The conference keeps getting better and better with 4 and 5 Star recruits sprinkled through the teams.

Next season should be a great won and we have no explanation for not advancing to the Elite 8 or Final 4. We have a potential lottery pick at SF (Jr. Barney Abbot), talented SG (Senior Alexis Wilkerson), potential 1st Round Pick at PF (Jr. Winston Sanderson) and our Center who was the scoring leader on out team last year (Sr. Stan Brittan).

Great recruits coming in. Signed 2 **** PG's, have a talented SF and PF who red-shirted last year ready to be key contributors off the bench.

 

[the_icon14]

Nice to see the progress. I love this game and love seeing people post about it whenever possible. Fordham is so beast now. Good luck.

 

[GStone899]

Nice to see the progress. I love this game and love seeing people post about it whenever possible. Fordham is so beast now. Good luck.

Thanks for checking in!! Fordham is dominant every year now! They are always ranked in the top 25 too. Fordham, George Washington, Boise St, Pepperdine and Tulsa are all really good teams now. The Pac-10 is really down the past couple years.

 

[the_icon14]

How's Wake doing?

 

[GStone899]

How's Wake doing?

I wish i could tell you they have won multiple championships under the late Skip Prosser but I can't. They have been in the middle of the ACC pack for a while now. Duke, North Carolina, NC State and Florida State seem to dominate the conference every year. Been hard for teams like Wake and GT to get in the mix

 

[GStone899]

UPDATE:

We are ranked #10 in the nation but have lost 4 out of the last 5 games we have played. We now have 5 losses on the season and are 4-4 in conference. We started out blazing hot with multiple road wins over power teams. The team's ranking is 95 and we have loads of talent and climbed as high as #4 in the nation. We then lost @ Tulsa (#13 at the time) @ Pepperdine (#8 at the time) after my starting SG missed the second free throw with 0.4 seconds to go *ouch* and then lost at home to Santa Clara. That was a big loss for us because we had a huge win streak @ home snapped and this was the Bronco's second win over us this year. We have been killed by the 3 pt shot recently and teams have been playing an almost constant 2-3 zone against us and we haven't been able to hit enough jumpers to get them out of it.

To sum it up, we are in a funk but remain in the top 10 in the nation (surprising to me) but have enough talent to go on a run. We need to get our JR & SR post guys to score more inside and get some consistency from our perimeter game.

 

[the_icon14]

How's Wake doing?

I wish i could tell you they have won multiple championships under the late Skip Prosser but I can't. They have been in the middle of the ACC pack for a while now. Duke, North Carolina, NC State and Florida State seem to dominate the conference every year. Been hard for teams like Wake and GT to get in the mix

Skip? I believe Dino is coaching..

 

[GStone899]

Yea, I know it is Dino. I just wanted it to be Skip. May he RIP.

 

[GStone899]

Season Wrap-Up

I said we could make a run, right? And we did make a run in the tourny which was what I expected. With a starting line-up with 3 NBA first round draft picks I had a feeling they were gearing up for March Madness.

To end the conference season, we lost a total of 3 times to Pepperdine. 2 in conference and we then met them in the WCC Title game where they beat us by 2. We finished the season 23-9 and were a #5 seed in the tourny (Pepperdine was a #1 seed).

First Round: Gonzaga vs St. Josephs

A good warm up game for us against the #12 Hawks. We kept a 10 point lead basically the entire game and were very sharp as we shot down the Hawks.

Second Round: Gonzaga vs Kansas

The #4 Jayhawks were a formidable foe for us to take on. With an over ranking in the 90's they were destined to do some damage. The game was close in the final 2 minutes but our post play took over down the stretch as we won by 6.

Sweet 16: Gonzaga vs Vanderbilt

The #8 seed Commodores just got done knocking off the #1 seeded Temple Owls and had a boat-load of momentum behind them. Still, we played to our strengths, penetrating then dishing out and getting to the foul line. Vanderbilt had an 8 pt lead with 5 minutes left in the game and we made a huge run! Forcing turnovers and turning those in to easy buckets. We took the lead with 58 ticks to go and were up by 2. Vandy came down quickly and got fouled, converting on both freebies. Tie game. We ran the shot clock down and missed an open 3, vandy got the ball with 10 seconds left and pushed it up the floor. After a time-out they threw the ball to the wing where we forced them to take a 3 point shot with a man on him. Nothing but net with 0.4 left to go. The game was over and the dream dead.

#5 seed Oklahoma and Jeff Capel won the National Title over #10 seed St. Johns. Lots of high seeds made huge runs this tournament.

 

[GStone899]

6 Games into the new season and we are off to a hot start. We are 6-0! Just won the Great Alaskan Shootout by beating defending champs Oklahoma in the semis and Penn State in the finals. We have a nicely balanced team even though we have only 1 returning starter (PG Abdoulya Keita). We have a sure fire NBA lottery pick on the team in SG Jabari Taybron and our post players are dominant. Should be able to take care of business in the non-conference even though we have some tough games upcoming. Currently ranked #8 in the country.

 

[GStone899]

The season is off to a great start. We are 15-1 to start the season and are ranked #4 in the nation. Our lone loss came @ #3 Temple. We have beaten Tennessee and former #1 seed North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

I know I am going to jinx myself but this may be the most complete team I have ever had and reminds me a bit of my team at Towson that won a title. Dominant big guys inside who finish with dunks, good all around PG, lottery pick SG who has insane range, and a deep bench. Only questionable spot is at SF where we have a SO who doesn't score a lot. Then again, he doesn't need to with all the talent we have.

 

[GStone899]

It's been a minute but I am still playing. We are now enter the WCC Tournament and the Gonzaga Bulldogs are ranked #3 in the country. We only lost 2 conference games this year (one being @ Portland which is easily the worst team in the WCC). We seem to be doing a better job closing out games down the stretch. There have been a few memorable finishes that came down to the last possession and we came up big. Will keep you posted on my seeding in the NCAA tournament. This team seems very well balanced and very (dare I say) special.

 

[GStone899]

We took the WCC Tournament Title along with the regular season title. We played Pepperdine in the finals of the tournament and won by 9.

So now it is on to the NCAA Tournament where we are the 2nd #1 Seed! My first time being a number 1 with Gonzaga.

 

[the_icon14]

Wow fill us in on what happened.

 

[GStone899]

In the first round we played #16 Southern. I completely crushed them, winning by 38 points. Next was #8 Oregon. A bit of a tougher opponent but still not on our level as we beat them by 16 points. The Elite 8 had us up against #3 Memphis Tigers. It was surprising to me that they made it that far as we took them out with a 12 point win.

The Final Four: #1 Gonzaga vs #1 Alabama - #3 Colorado vs #5 Michigan State.

Alabama had an overall rating of 94 while Gonzaga's was 95. What a game it was!! We started strong but then hitting a shoot lull as we were down by 8 at half time. We then started the 2nd half on a 16-2 run to pull ahead. As time was winding down, the score grew close. We held a 2 point lead until Alabama hit a clutch 3 from their PG with 7.2 seconds remaining. Alabama up 1. While Alabama was celebrating their shot, we quickly pushed the ball down the court (electing not to call time-out). With the ball in my JR PG's hands, he drove to the basket with an up-and-under layup. Off the backboard and off the rim. Lots of contact but no foul. The dream had died.

I was pretty much in disbelief as we had such a talented team with great chemistry. We had won many close games that season with game winning shots to boot. Just couldn't get the final shot to go.

Alabama went on to beat Colorado in the NCAA Title game.

 

[icuwoot]

Damn! Now Bama is good at BB too! lol. Awesome job gstone. Keep it up.

 

[the_icon14]

Wow nice update, can't wait to hear about future updates.

 

[Skyflame21]

I wanted to say I just read all your posts and it felt like I was riding shotgun through your seasons. Good Luck next year. Gotta a question.

Are you feeling like you'll never quite get over the hump. 2 seasons have felt like great opportunities for titles and just fall short. Are you feeling like maybe its time to move on to greener pastures or is that fire still burning for a title in Spokane.

Thanks for the great read.

 

[GStone899]

Sorry I've been AWOL lately fellas. Been super busy with work and haven't had a whole lot of time to play CHoops but I do have an update coming. Thank you all for following.

Skyflame: The previous 2 seasons have been big let downs for me. We seemed to be poised to take the title but things keep falling short (especially last season). I have really enjoyed building this team in Spokane. I love competing with the big Pac-10 schools for recruits and I even have to compete with Pepperdine and Santa Clara for **** recruits.

With that being said, I have received coaching offers from major conference schools and although leaving for the seemingly greener pastures of the Big East, Big 10, Big 12 or Pac-10 have been tempting, I have stayed the course @ Gonzaga.

I think I want to keep building this program and make them into a major contender every year. I brought them to their first Final Four since Mark Few was coaching and want to hang a banner in Spokane. I also like the fact that the Pepperdine coach (who is rated 88 overall I believe) has stayed at the school! It really stunk when I was at Towson because once a coach got good they left and the team had to rebuild. In the WCC, I feel like I still get challenged in conference play. I also want to complete an undefeated season eventually (have never seen a team do it my legacy).

Big update coming this weekend guys, thanks for being patient....

 

[GStone899]

Update!!!!

Dateline: March 2036 - Spokane, WA - Gonzaga University

As the WCC Tournament winds to a close, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have had maybe their most impressive year. Started off being ranked #1 for the first 8 weeks of the college basketball season with a record of 28-4, they are now ranked #2. We lost one non-conference game to Iowa State during the Maui Invitational preseason tournament and then lost 3 of the first 5 conference games. After that, we put things back together and really haven't looked back. We managed to take the WCC Regular Season Title by two games.

Now, the finals of WCC Tournament are here and to no one's surprise, the final is Gonzaga vs. Pepperdine. Pepperdine is a bubble team that really needs to win the automatic bid to gain entry to the NCAA tourny. While the Gonzaga Bulldogs are playing to prove their dominance in the WCC and win a 3rd straight WCC Tournament title.

I have never seen a team this loaded with superstars. Our entire starting 5 (which includes only 1 senior) are projected lottery picks as well as two of our bench players. There is likely to be very high turnover for next year's team so this is the year Gonzaga needs to win a title. The cupboard will be looking pretty bare next year with freshman littering the starting line-up. The question is can Gonzaga get over the hump and bring a title to Spokane?

 

[the_icon14]

Hopefully some of the guys stay and can't wait to hear what happens in March.