Gonzaga Basketball: Making or breaking Bulldogs march to the Final Four

PORTLAND, OREGON - JANUARY 02: Drew Timme #2 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs goes after a rebound with Tahirou Diabate #14 of the Portland Pilots during the second half of the game at Chiles Center on January 02, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. Gonzaga won 85-72. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /

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SPOKANE, WASHINGTON – NOVEMBER 05: Filip Petrusev #3 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs (Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images) /

First 20 minutes and lack of competition

In the same light that Gonzaga’s success in the WCC cannot be disputed, it can not be disputed how much difficulty the Bulldogs have had preventing teams from scoring in the first half. On the season Gonzaga has surrendered an average of 32.5 points in the first twenty minutes of ballgames.

This has not been an area of concern for Gonzaga because they averaged a nation-leading 42.6 points in the first half, but as every coach knows, they need to protect against ‘winning solving everything’ mentality.

Despite the final scores, Gonzaga’s slow starts should be a concern. In their 18 point loss to Michigan in late November they lost the first half 36-25. Even in victories, the first half has influenced the final score. Gonzaga’s four-point victory over San Francisco in February saw San Francisco enter the locker room at half time leading 43-35. In their most recent loss to BYU, they were trailing at half as well after giving up 48 points.

The tendency to be less than inspired in the first half will contribute to Gonzaga possibly breaking prior to the Final Four. When you take into consideration that their strength of schedule playing out of the WCC was not as challenging as the competition they will be facing in the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.

Currently, the WCC is the ninth-ranked conference in terms of RPI, which places them between Dayton’s Atlantic 10 Conference and San Diego State’s Mountain West Conference. This is with BYU at ninth in the NET, and St.Mary’s being 30th. What has to be noted is, some of that NET ranking is due to playing Gonzaga, so it may be artificially high.

Next. Bubble Watch. dark

If anything the WCC is top-heavy and only provides two teams that can actually compete with Gonzaga. Aside from BYU, the only teams that Gonzaga played who were nationally ranked came from the PAC 12. Despite going 3-0 versus those ranked teams, Gonzaga’s total margin of victory was just 12 points. Once out of the first round, Gonzaga will be facing tougher competition than 80% of their regular season schedule, every round increases the likely hood of them breaking.

Teams that can potentially “break” Gonzaga prior to the Final Four: Dayton, Creighton, Florida State, Kansas