Coming into this 2009/2010 college basketball season, not much was truly expected of Gonzaga. Sure, they would still compete and possibly win the West Coast Conference, but the hype and recognition was not the same as years past. The Zags found themselves far from the top 25, thanks to young, unproven talent.

Gonzaga received no preseason respect for the first time in what felt like forever. It was time for them to earn their way into the top 25 and earn it they did. Nearly beating Michigan State in East Lansing was one thing, but going to Maui, and handling business the way they did is even more impressive. Showing up for one game against a good team is much different than winning a tournament with 3 wins in 3 nights.

The Zags locked up their first Maui Invitational title in three tries this week, let's review.

Having spoken to the coaching staff after the victory, Coach Few was very pleased with how the young Zags played in Maui.  Maui and the Preseason NIT are really the premier events and to come home with a title is always impressive.

By now you know that Gonzaga won the Maui Invitational by beating Cincinnati in a thrilling 61 to 59 overtime victory. Gonzaga showed a ton of heart and resiliency during the three game tournament. There were moments during the championship game where Cincy was dominating, and the Zags could have easily packed it in. But they fought through it. It was one of my favorite non-NCAA tourney victories. They stood up to a cocky Bearcat team and came out victorious.

Gonzaga went out last night and battled back to beat the Bearcats of Cincinnati in overtime. Things looked tough for awhile, but Gonzaga showed a lot of heart, and the starting five played absolutely tremendous basketball.

Nothing like the young Gonzaga team from Spokane beating up on the cocky, chest pounders from Cincinnati. Look for more to come as far as a Maui recap for Gonzaga. Some links for now:

Box Score from Last night's game.

Slipper Still Fits with a recap of the overtime victory.

Spokesman Review run-down.

Yahoo! Recap.

Bleacher Report on Gonzaga making a case for the top 25.

1. Will the Zags put together another balanced offensive game? Cincinnati's defensive effort will likely be more on par with what we saw from Colorado. If the guards can score the basketball the Zags should get the W. Again the focus will be on how Matt Bouldin plays against more athletic defenders. If Matt can turn in another productive night and the Bulldogs continue to get double-double production out of the big men, a Maui title should be in order.

With balanced scoring and an impressive all around team effort, Gonzaga convincingly beat Wisconsin 74 to 61, advancing to the Maui Invitational final against Cincinnati.

Led by Matt Bouldin's balanced 18 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, the Zags controlled this game from start to finish. Coming in, Gonzaga was focused on stopping Trevon Hughes who had dropped 24 points, 7 rebounds and 5 steals on Arizona in the first round of the Invitational. Goodson and company took that to heart, getting Hughes into foul trouble and holding him to only 10 points.

This is our first attempt at a game day open thread. Feel free to come in here and share your feelings about the game. We'll be there too talking it out.

We're most interested in seeing what Trevon Hughes does to our defense. If he's as good as advertised, it will be tough to prevent him from breaking down our defense and getting our big guys in foul trouble. Let's hope Meech can stop him in his tracks!

This is our tournament to win, Zags for the win!

Do you have a blackberry? Do you love the Zags? Well then today is your lucky day! We have Gonzaga themes ready to roll for the season. We've got themes for the Bold 9000, Curve 8300/8310 and Pearl 8100/8110/8120. Unfortunately we won't be able to make them for any of the new phones, but hopefully a few of you will enjoy this.

Also keep in mind a few things. If you decide you want a theme, you have to download it directly from your phone browser. Or you can copy the link and email it to yourself. Once the theme is installed and you are using it, pull the battery and reset the phone. That will maximzize speed as it needs to reset after a theme install.

Maui Invitational Team Preview

Wisconsin Badgers

Gonzaga takes on the Wisconsin Badgers in a semi final match-up at the Maui Invitational. The game tips at 6:30 pm pacific time. For now let's take a look at the Badgers and the problems they may present Gonzaga. JRillie took a late flight out to Maui so look for excellent first hand coverage after the game tonight and tomorrow.

First and foremost, the guy to stop will be Trevon Hughes. Hughes is the leader of this young Badger team as well as the primary scorer with nine 20-point games in his career. It will be key for Demetri Goodson to stop Hughes at the point of attack. Hughes presents so many problems for Gonzaga defensively with his ability to hit the three and draw fouls driving in the paint. Help defense will be key, but with Bouldin, Gray and Sacre playing big minutes against Colorado, will the proverbial tank have anything left?

What We Learned:

This was a squeeker.  With a line of the Zags by 10.5 and then seeing the boys down by 15 to a Colorado team that only won one Big 12 league game last season and finished last in the conference, many people were on the edge of their seats.

As we pointed out in our preview, Steven Gray stood out this afternoon.  Despite a few struggles when he put the ball on the deck, Gray was the Zags go to guy this afternoon as he put up a career-high 27 points.  Matt Bouldin chipped in 21 in a gutsy, not his best night, performance.