Gonzaga Basketball: 3 keys to NCAA Tournament matchup with Grand Canyon

Make smart Decisions

Starting point guard Nolan Hickman has played much better as the year has gone on but at the start of the season many of the Gonzaga faithful were calling for something new at Point Guard. Hickman just didn’t always make the best decisions and left a lot to be desired in his decision-making. The guard is a sophomore and it is his first year taking over the offense. The Gonzaga fans were a little spoiled by their former point guards over the years that the learning curve for Hickman at times was too much to take.

The guard is playing very well right now but early on the season, there were times when he was not making the pass fast enough or over-passing or over-dribbling that problem seems to have corrected itself for the most part. One of the smartest decisions that Gonzaga is going to be able to make today is going to be regarding their shot selection. The Bulldogs don’t usually take bad shots but occasionally they will get one that leads to a runout or transition basket. Those shots usually lead to runs for the other team and in a tournament setting like this, as we saw yesterday with Princeton and Northern Kentucky, do not let less talented teams hang around bury them early. Good shot selection and staying with your game plan on defense will go a long way towards that goal.

Playing smart and making good decisions can mean so much more than making the right pass or staying in your lane defensively. It is communicating, executing the game plan and taking good shots. It is also rebounding and making foul shots. It all goes into making the right play for the man next to you in order to achieve the common goal of winning. Gonzaga is one of the best in the country at that, which is why they win all the time, but as we have seen so many times there are power teams who tend to deviate from what got them here and they get in trouble. Don’t do that and the Bulldogs will be just fine.