Should Gonzaga Basketball be concerned after Texas setback?

It was a tough night for Gonzaga Basketball after falling to Texas in a true road game. What can be taken away from the Bulldogs’ issues?

Gonzaga Basketball got hit with a reality check on Wednesday night against Texas as the Longhorns made a statement against the number two team in the nation with a 93-74 blowout win in Austin. It’s part of a brutal early season stretch for Gonzaga that, in the span of a little over a week, sees them play on a boat against Michigan State, play in a raucous environment against Texas and a “home” game Sunday against Kentucky. While the Zags passed their first test of the season against a good Michigan State team on an aircraft carrier, they failed their second tough test against Texas.

After Gonzaga took an early 10-3, Texas ramped up the defensive pressure and did what Chris Beard coached teams do best: defend and force turnovers. What ensued was a few tough offensive possessions and poor perimeter defense that saw the Bulldogs dare Texas to beat them from the outside.

They did. Texas hit seven triples in the first half and extended their lead to 10 at the break before taking complete control of the game in the final 20 minutes, leading by as many as 23 when Dillon Mitchell decided to have his own personal alley-oop contest in closing time. There are a ton of lessons for Gonzaga to learn in this game and it exposed some of the warts this team has defensively that opposing teams will try to exploit as the season advances.

Defense needs improvement

The defense was rough all-around on Wednesday night. A lack of urgency to help out to shooters caused Texas to get some open looks (that combined with some really tough three’s hit by Marcus Carr and Tyrese Hunter led to a lot of Longhorn points) and a lack of rim protection led to Texas making 63.6% of their two-point attempts.

Clearly efficient offense is what makes Gonzaga so good, but when you don’t close out well to shooters and get stops, it doesn’t matter how efficient your offense is. I will concede that many of Texas’ jumpers and three-point attempts were contested to a degree as Carr and Hunter put on a tough shot-making clinic, but they didn’t contest enough jumpers to make their own luck.

Texas shot 61% eFG for the game. That number is way too high for Gonzaga to survive regardless of who they are playing. Texas is better than they were last season offensively. But they shouldn’t be 61% eFG good against your defense. The perimeter barrage from Hunter and Carr created the separation between these teams and if this is any indication of how to beat Gonzaga, you already know Kentucky will be scheming ways to get Cason Wallace and Sahvir Wheeler into the teeth of the Zags’ defense.

Turnovers continue to be an issue

The Zags committed 20 turnovers against Texas. Again, credit where credit is due, Texas is great at forcing turnovers and Sir’Jabari Rice along with Carr and Hunter made life hell for Gonzaga’s guards. But Drew Timme can’t be turning the ball over five times in a game. The continued carelessness at times with the ball negates their otherworldly efficient shooting.

Given the context that Texas is easily a top 5-10 defense in all of college basketball and Gonzaga still had an eFG of over 57%, which is exactly what their season total is per KenPom. They’re still an efficient shooting bunch that somehow managed to score at a point-per-possession pace against an elite defensive unit. However, none of that matters when you turn the ball over 20 times with careless mistakes that cost you possessions.

In the first half, with the game still competitive, Timme was called for a travel. Julian Strawther had a possession where he stepped out of bounds before his dribble. And one of the most egregious came in the final minute of the first half, out of a timeout when a careless pass from Nolan Hickman to Timme 35 feet away from the basket resulted in a Brock Cunningham steal and easy lay-up. That increased the Texas lead to 10 before the break and sent the arena into a frenzy.

After the game, Gonzaga now ranks 292nd in the country in turnover percentage per KenPom. They’ll still be able to get away with that in January and February when they’re playing their conference slate but if they want to be serious contenders, they can’t turn the ball over on almost a quarter of their possessions. If they do, it doesn’t matter how efficiently they shoot, they will get the same results they did against Texas.

Gonzaga is much more efficient when shooting indoors

In the aircraft carrier game against Michigan State, the Bulldogs shot poorly. The easy explanation is that they played outdoors (still something I despise). The three-ball was falling at a much better rate against Texas.

Gonzaga made nine of their 19 attempts (47%) from downtown against Texas on Wednesday night. The obvious problem here is that they should have taken more than 19 but couldn’t since they turned the ball over 20 times. Strawther was the marksman he has been known to be as he knocked down three of his five three-pointers while Hickman and Hunter Sallis knocked down a pair of triples themselves. It’s still a great perimeter shooting team and proved it in a tough, true road game.

There is a silver lining here with this loss and that is the potential of this Gonzaga offense. The shooting performance was good enough to keep them in this game but the turnovers allowed a much smaller margin for error.

Final takeaway

You win some, you lose some. Mark Few isn’t used to losing many but Wednesday night certainly felt like they got punched in the mouth by Texas. How they respond, will shape how they’re viewed nationally for the rest of the season.

The non-con schedule is brutal. They still have to play a top-five Kentucky team on Sunday and they will be just as hungry for a win after their double-overtime loss to Michigan State. A win against Kentucky can prove to the country that they are legit national title contenders. But the defense needs to improve and the offense needs to maximize its potential by cutting down on careless turnovers.

One more thing to watch for leading up to Sunday is the progress of Hickman’s ankle. He sustained the injury in the second half of the loss and according to Few, the ankle is “pretty banged” per Jim Meehan. His status will certainly be worth monitoring as we get closer to Sunday’s big match-up.