The Zags head over to the western side of the state to take on the Davidson Wildcats at Key Arena for the 7th annual Battle in Seattle. The game is tomorrow at 4:00pm PST and will be broadcast by FSN.

This year's game isn't as high profile as years past, playing a mid-major Davidson team that is in a down year. This game was scheduled while Stephen Curry was still at Davidson, but Gonzaga had a fairly good idea that he would be gone. Of course, there was a chance that he could come back in which case this would be a huge game. Gonzaga had been very close to scheduling Kansas for this year's BiS, but when that fell through, they had to scramble for a new opponent.

Gonzaga routed D lll Augustana last night 79-40.

Bouldin may have got a concussion. He managed to pump out a tweet despite the grogginess:

"Feelin better. This isn't my first rodeo."

A recap from the opposing side.

Gonzaga is ranked #1 in the non-Big 6 power ranking by Yahoo Sports.

The Zags are ranked #21 in the AP and #22 in the Coaches poll this week.

Courtside tickets released for Battle in Seattle. You know you want to have your feet touching the court.

Augustana College is a Division III school from Rock Island, Illinois, that is coached by a good friend of Gonzaga assistant coach Ray Giacoletti. This is the first time that a ranked Division I team and a Division III school have played in the regular season since Nov. 14, 2008, when then-No. 20 Davidson defeated Guilford 107-83. The Zags should have no problem taking care of the Vikings and will use this game as a tune-up for the Battle in Seattle and Duke.

What 2 Watch 4...

Bench Rotation: In Saturday's loss to Wake Forest, both Bol Kong and Mangisto Arop played meaningful minutes down the stretch for Gonzaga. Kong was lights out from behind the arc connecting on 4 straight 3 pointers in just 12 minutes to keep Gonzaga within striking distance of the Demon Deacons. This could be a break out game for Kong as he will likely get to play extended minutes against Augustana as Bouldin and Gray get some much needed rest. We would like to see Kong show his ability to put the ball on the floor and slash to the hoop, as up until this point we have only seen him settle for jumpers. Kong appears to have already proven to Mark Few that he can be relied on to provide scoring, but at this point he is a defensive liability and will need to continue to improve his defense and rebounding before Few will be able give him regular minutes against good opponents.

As many of you saw during Saturday's loss at home to Wake Forest, Elias Harris was ejected and made the scapegoat of a loss that should never have happened. Harris put a hard fore-arm to the chest of Chas McFarland, only to have it slip up into his throat area. McFarland then flopped wildly, similar to an NBA acting job. Unfortunately, the refs fell hard for this soccer-esque flop and ejected Elias.

If you are a Zags fan you felt pretty good about this game for the majority of the first half.  There were really three sections to this game, pre-Harris, post-Harris and then GU comeback effort.  Wake came out in the second half and just hit shots, culminating in their 37-12 run.  Gonzaga settled into a soft little zone and failed to get out contest Wake's perimeter jumpshots.  Until Wake slowed the tempo down around the 8 minute mark and the Zags clawed back, the Demon Deacons were in control.  Al-Farqouq Aminu really was a non-factor as he was saddled with foul trouble and ended with only 9 points.

Matt Bouldin's seven three-pointers versus Washington State brought back visions of Blake Stepp and Dan Dickau. He even pulled up from deep beyond the arc as a "heat check", the way Stepp would when he got hot. I've always felt that Bouldin was a player in the mold of those two, that should be attempting a high volume of 3-Pointers per game the way Dan and Blake used to back in the old Kennel.

Box Score

Well, one team brought their A-game and the Zags weren't that squad, but what a battle.  The lack of interior play on in the first half really hurt Gonzaga.  Casto and the Coug D shut down Gonzaga for the entire first half and set the tone.  Finally, in the second half the Zags found some competitive fire in Bouldin and Harris and overcame the deficit.

The decision making of the Zags was again highly questionable with 18 turnovers; there really is a total lack of leadership and point guard play this season.  The post players are solid but need to learn how to kick the ball out to the shooters instead of forcing shots through triple-teams.  The Wazzu supporting cast stepped up as Thames and Koprivica actually had solid games.  The Zags bench and supporting players just flat-out didn't show up tonight until Kelly Olynyk had a great six minute stretch to end the game and help lift the Zags to victory.

The next few weeks will say a lot about the 2009/10 Gonzaga Bulldogs; first up is the home battle on Wednesday night at 6PM against the Cougs, here's what to watch for:

1) First things first, these are not the Tony Bennett Cougars.  New coach Ken Bone, who was at Portland State last year when they beat the Zags, has brought in an uptempto approach and Wazzu has really been lighting up the scoreboard this season.  The Cougs are coming off a championship in the Great Alaska Shootout where they cruised to a championship after running San Diego out of the gym 93-56.  Statistically the Cougs are an offensive juggernaut, averaging nearly 85 points per game; shooting 52 percent from the field, 73 percent from the line and 46 percent from three.  All these numbers far outpace the Zags.  This has potential to be a shootout unless the Zags defense clamps down on the Cougs.

2) If you don't know the Cougs best player already, you should, his name is Klay Thompson, and he is a stud.  Thompson is a 6'6" sophomore who can score in bunches and is leading the NATION in scoring so far this season at over 28 points per contest, as he went off for 43 against San Diego in his last game.  Look for the Zags to shut Klay down and force the other Cougs to pick up the offense.  If Thompson gets hot this one could get interesting; I'd expect to see Steven Gray get the assignment if the Zags go man, and God help us if the Bulldogs go zone and he gets open looks from three all night.

Our final New Zag preview features Bol Kong.

Bol Kong is the highly sought-after and much ballyhooed sophomore from British Columbia.  A little personal background on Kong is in order before we get to his basketball talents.  Kong was born in Sudan and moved to Canada at the age of 7.  Unlike fellow Zag Manny Arop, Kong did not obtain his Canadian citizenship until May of 2009.  Due to United States policy regarding the issuance of visas to Sudanese nationals, Kong was unable to enter the United States after his senior year in high school in 2006 and he subsequently sat out a year prior to attending Douglas College.  After finally obtaining his Canadian citizenship and receiving what is presumably a student visa, Kong joined the Zags on campus this September.