Despite being a heavy favorite, Gonzaga basketball was tested by UT-Arlington before walking out of “The Kennel” victorious. What were some major takeaways?
It wasn’t easy, but Gonzaga basketball now holds a 5-0 record on the season. After four blowout wins, including one on the road over Texas A&M, the Bulldogs were challenged by UT-Arlington on Nov. 19. The Mavericks got off to a hot start despite playing on the road and they were able to carry that momentum nearly into a halftime lead. And while the Bulldogs held double-digit advantages on multiple occasions in the second half, they were never able to completely put UTA away. In the end, though, the final score showed a six-point advantage in favor of Gonzaga.
In the end, this was far from a perfect game by the Bulldogs. They struggled to find any rhythm on offense and appeared to rush some possessions, even for a team that is used to playing fast. They seemed a bit out of character on the whole and UT-Arlington deserves a lot of credit for that. The Mavericks forced the Bulldogs to play out of their system a bit.
While this wasn’t the greatest performance by head coach Mark Few’s team, on the whole, it will still go down in the record books as a victory. In the end, that is all that matters, especially for a squad that is full of newcomers that still need to work on their overall cohesiveness as a unit. There were bound to be growing pains to begin this season and struggling a bit against a high-energy unit like UTA isn’t something to be overly worried about.
Yet, with a difficult stretch of schedule approaching, it is worth diving a bit deeper into this game to find some major takeaways. Considering Gonzaga only won by six points despite being favored by 20+, it is more reasonable to focus on the things that went wrong as the team “underachieved” compared to expectations. A win is a win, but there are areas for improvement (as always).