This was ugly.  The standard Gonzaga exhibition game where it's close for five minutes then quickly turns into a blowout.  Let's find out what we learned.

1) Despite some pretty solid frontcourt depth, the talent is at best raw, and at worst unskilled in the paint.  Sacre played garbage man, but his one post move, power through the defender will not be effective against NCAA teams.  Foster had a nice reverse lay-in but still did not show the ability to be an effective offensive center.  Poling = Sean Mallon.  Olynyk and Dower were impressive and MTR will cover them later.

2) Run, Run, Run, Run, Run -- I talked about pushing the tempo, and boy did the Zags ever.  There were times when this looked like a Fieldhouse pick-up game.  Very little offense was run tonight and we saw a lot of fastbreaks end in 15 foot jumpers.

3) Shooters.  Matt Bouldin and Steven Gray were what we thought they were.  The outside game was disappointing.  Meech struggled from the field.   Grant Gibbs has a phenomenal stroke but still looks lost and uncomfortable on the floor.  Arop is a slasher and likely won't become an outside threat.  The one guy who did impress was G.J. Vilarino.  G.J. gets great elevation on his jumper and his left-handed form is as pretty as Manu's.  As the season progresses look for him to be a threat from deep.

4) It's difficult to get a good read on the defense considering the opposition.  The Zags did come out with a full court man press as well as some good in your face half court man defense.  The weak side still helps too much when someone gets beat, considering there is always a 7-footer in the paint waiting for the block, there is no reason for so much help.

That's it for tonight; we'll be back later this week with more thoughts and analysis as the season kicks off.

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