Gonzaga Basketball: Early predictions for games against top 2021-22 opponents
Texas Longhorns
November 13th at home
New head coach Chris Beard may have had the greatest offseason ever in terms of landing talent from the transfer portal. They landed seven transfers total and five of them may be ranked in the top-20 of best available overall.
In the frontcourt, UMass transfer Tre Mitchell was a near 20 and 10 big man, who can spread the floor as well. Christian Bishop may be undersized as a center but is a quality defender and potential mismatch with his ability to take bigs off the dribble from the perimeter. Timmy Allen of Utah averaged over 16 ppg and is a combo forward with an elite mid-range game. And somehow Vanderbilt forward Dylan Disu has flown under the radar for Texas, coming off a season of averaging 15 ppg and 9.0 rpg.
In the backcourt, 20 ppg scoring guard Marcus Carr gives them even more offense to work with. The senior guard joins double-digit returning scorers Andrew Jones and Courtney Ramey for one of the best backcourts in the country. And that’s without former Kentucky guard Devin Askew potentially having the same kind of breakout campaign after leaving the Wildcats that UCLA star Johnny Juzang did this past season.
How will this game play out?
In the past few seasons, Gonzaga has led the nation in scoring. And the early bets are that they’ll do it again. But the biggest threat to the team scoring title has to be Texas, who on paper has over 130 ppg worth of offense on its roster. Of course, most of the players will see their production decrease, with one of two likely to end up in double figures.
From a talent standpoint, this is an even match. Allen’s size makes him a great option to guard Holmgren and both Mitchell and Disu, while not being great individual defenders, can throw some size at Timme inside since we saw what happened to Bishop when Creighton faced the Bulldogs in the Sweet 16.
Carr vs Nembhard will be a great battle to watch at point guard, as whoever outplays the other may provide the decisive advantage in this game. The Longhorns have the experience advantage but the Bulldogs should have more chemistry overall.
With the game being right at the beginning of the season, it would look as if Coach Mark Few would have the coaching advantage since there’s no chemistry for Texas to build off of, as well as they’ll still be working out its rotation. However, I believe this plays into Coach Beard’s hands, as Gonzaga will have little to scout on a team with so much individual talent.
This game has “shootout” written all over it and while the game is in Spokane, I think we’ll see the veteran Longhorns make a national statement with a victory.