Meeting the Challenge: A Shannon Elliott Story

[collegesportsfanms]

Here are the seedings for the Coaches Classic:

(1) #12 Kansas
(2) #5 Florida
(3) #9 Syracuse
(4) #25 Gonzaga
(5) #19 Michigan
(6) Oklahoma St.
(7) #21 LSU
(8) #22 Memphis
(9) #18 Oregon
(10) Marquette
(11) Purdue
(12) Mississippi St.
(13) Texas A&M
(14) St. Johns
(15) Missouri
(16) BYU

Nov. 13, 2012
Coaches Classic First Round

(13) Texas A&M vs. (4) #25 Gonzaga

So we open the season once again in the Coaches Classic, hoping with a top 4 seed we can advance past the second round. WE wouldn't have any trouble in the first round against the Aggies, building a 17 point lead thanks to Cortez Rowe and Justin Mihm, who combined for 14 and 12 respectively. We cruised in the second half, winning 74-57. Here are the other first round results:

(1) Kansas- 80, (16) BYU- 72
(9) Oregon- 77, (8) Memphis- 62
(5) Michigan- 66, (12) Mississippi St.- 44
(2) Florida- 76, (15) Missouri- 62
(7) LSU- 73, (10) Marquette- 54
(6) Oklahoma St.- 70, (11) Purdue- 49
(3) Syracuse- 77, (14) St. Johns- 57


Nov. 15, 2012
Coaches Classic Second Round

(5) #19 Michigan (1-0) vs. (4) #25 Gonzaga (1-0)

I think Michigan is beatable, even though on paper they are stronger at every position. You don't play the game on paper, you play it on the court, and I like our chances. And my instincts were right. We started out very slow, falling behing 13-5, but evenutally picked it up. Justin Mihm was incredible tonight, scoring 25 points, and we won 74-65 to advance to the semifinals! Here are other second round results:

(1) Kansas- 73, (9) Oregon- 65
(7) LSU- 73, (2) Florida- 62
(6) Oklahoma St.- 59, (3) Syracuse- 56


Nov. 17, 2012
Coaches Classic Semifinals

(4) #25 Gonzaga (2-0) vs. (1) #12 Kansas (2-0)

On paper, we are even with Kansas. I like those odds. I think this is going to be an outstanding college basketball game. And by gosh we stayed hot. 4players scored in double figures tonight, and I was surprised by Denny King who scored 12 points. We built the lead up to as many as 21 points and won 75-62 to advances to the finals of the coaches classic! And we will play (7) LSU who hammered (6) Oklahoma St. 76-54.


Nov. 19, 2012
Coaches Classic Championship

(7) #21 LSU (3-0) vs. (4) #25 Gonzaga (3-0)

No matter what, win or lose tonight, we've had a great start to the season. But hell, I want to win! Our key will be stopping their SG Bryan Ross who is averaging 20 points a game in this tournament. We didn't stop him, he had 22points. But we had 6 guys score in double figures tonight. Justin Mihm led the way with 14, Denny King had 13, Sheridan Vinson and Cortez Rowe each had 12, Richie Darting had 11, and Matt Hawkins had 10, and also pulled down 9 boards. All in all, it led to an 82-72 victory as we took home the Coaches Classic championship! Wow, I never dreamed of this kind of start.

[collegesportsfanms]

What the last 10 days has done for Gonzaga basketball is change the face of the program. The Gonzaga Bulldogs for the first time ever, are ranked #1! I feel that this team can compete with any team, yes I said it, any team in the NCAA.

Nov. 22, 2012

Clemson (2-0) @ #1 Gonzaga (4-0)

We returned home to Spokane to a party. The streets of downtown Spokane and Seattle were rocking, but now it's back to business. We have to take on a very tough Clemson team that if we overlook them, can knock us off the undefeated ranks. That wasn't happening tonight, and Matt Hawkins made sure of that. He had 16 points and 9 rebounds, 6 of those being offensive boards, and we led the entire game, rolling to an 80-62 victory. We have lost Trent Butler for the next 2 weeks as he strained an abdominal muscle.

Nov. 25, 2012

#1 Gonzaga (5-0) @ Nevada (2-3)

Nevada is a dangerous team as well, as they've already beaten USC and Minnesota this year. This team is sharp though. They have great teamwork. Unfortunately, tonight wasn't our best effort. We only shot 35% from the field and were down by 5 at the half. We put it together in the second half though, and won going away, 68-59.

We actually dropped in the polls this week, as Georgetown leapfrogged over us for the #1 spot, we are #2. It doesn't matter to me, as I've said before, the only thing that matters is being #1 at the end of the season.

Nov. 29, 2012

#8 LSU (5-1) @ #2 Gonzaga (6-0)

The rematch of the Coaches Classic championship from a few days ago, and obviously LSU wants to hand us our first loss. How good it would be to beat this team twice in less than 2 weeks. It took an extra 5 minutes to settle this one, but unfortunately LSU was stronger in the overtime. They got a little bit of revenge by handing us our first loss, 80-75 in OT. The loss wasted a couple solid efforts. Justin Mihm had 20 points and 7 assists, and Matt Hawkins finally got his double double with 14 points and a career high 15 rebounds. So we end of the month of November on a losing note, but what a month it was!

November Wrap-Up

Overall Record: 6-1
Neutral Record: 4-0
Home Record: 0-1
Road Record: 2-0
RPI: 1
Rank: 2

Leaders

PPG- Justin Mihm (15.0), Cortez Rowe (10.6), Matt Hawkins (8.4)
RPG- Matt Hawkins (8.1), Brooks White (6.1), Sheridan Vinson and Richie Darting (4.6)
APG- Justin Mihm (5.3), Cortez Rowe (2.7), James Whaley (1.7)

[collegesportsfanms]

Dec. 2, 2012

#2 Gonzaga (6-1) @ Kent St. (3-3)

OK here we go. Now it's time to see how this team bounces back from a loss. I need not worry, as this team has balance. 5 players scored in double figures tonight, led by Justin Mihm with 23 points and 7 assists. Cortez Rowe had 19 points, Richie Darting had a double double with 12 points, 12 rebounds, and James Whaley came off the bench to score 11. Oh yeah, Sheridan Vinson also had 10, and we won easily, 89-68.

As expected, the loss to LSU dropped us in the polls, as both the media and coaches have us listed at #4.

Dec. 6, 2012

#4 Gonzaga (7-1) @ Delaware (1-3)

I'm hoping to give everybody some playing time in this game, not expecting much of a challenge. You know how the old saying goes, if you overlook your opponent, you're bound to get burned? Well we got burned tonight. Delaware scored the first basket, and never allowed us to get into a rhythm. We did not lead once, and they led by as many as 13. We bit the dust, 69-62.

Dec. 9, 2012

#4 Gonzaga (7-2) @ Florida St. (5-2)

Even though the Seminoles aren't ranked anymore, I know that they are going to give us a tough game. And we haven't been very good going into other teams' gyms so far this year. Tonight however, we refocused. The team wasn't about to lose 2 in a row, and they battled. We hit the boards hard, outrebounding them 45-35. Matt Hawkins and Brooks White did their part with 12 and 10 respectively. Hell, even Justin Mihm had 8 boards. After an even first half, we outscored them by 11 in the second half to win a tough road challenge, 79-68.

No big surprise, as the loss to Delaware dropped us down to 8th in the rankings.

Dec. 13, 2012

Washington St. (4-5) @ #8 Gonzaga (8-2)

We return home for the first of 3 meetings with what was our non-conference rival. This is where I fear the game is going to mess up on me, as this is listed as a conference game, but it shouldn't be. As for the game itself, well it wasn't much of a game. We took a 29 point lead early in the second half, and had our usual 5 guys in double figure scoring, cruising to a 76-59 victory. And from what I can tell, DDS:CB did not count this as a conference game after all. Hmm, wonder why it had an asterik by it. Ah well, as long as things go smoothly, I'm happy.

Dec. 16, 2012

Michigan (5-4) @ #8 Gonzaga (9-2)

Now we have a rematch against Michigan, who we beat in the Coaches Classic. This is another game that scares me, because they are tough, and they will also be looking for revenge. Fortunately we had nothing to worry about. We shot 55.4% from the field, and it's hard to single any player out this game, because it was a total team effort. But then again, isn't it always with this group? This game had 9 lead changes, but when it was all said and done, we had the final lead, as we won 76-62 for our 10th win of the season!

Well despite winning both our games this week, we actually dropped to 10th in both polls. Don't quite understand that, but then again, I say the rankings don't matter. Let them keep dropping us, we'll just have to keep winning.

Dec. 20, 2012

#10 Gonzaga (10-2) @ Southern Illinois (3-5)

Every game on the road has been tough for us so far, and Southern Illinois always played tough, hard nosed defense. We would need to be very efficient offensively tonight. One thing I wasn't expecting, however, is for them to score the first 14 points of the game. They wanted this one more than we did, and they handed us our third loss of the season, quite easily. The final score of 64-53 does not indicate just how badly we played this game.

Dec. 23, 2012

#10 Gonzaga (10-3) @ St. Johns (5-5)

I'm getting tired of us playing so badly on the road, so I made the team practice right after we got off the bus. They practiced hard for an hour and a half, and hopefully they are ready for this game. I'd like to think they responded well, as they lead the entire game. Matt Hawkins, as always, was a force on the boards. He pulled down 13, and again we had 5 guys in double figures as we won another tough road game, 74-61.

As we get ready to begin the conference season, let's look at the non-conference standings and top 25 rankings for the Pac Ten Conference.

#1 Arizona (13-0)
Washington (11-2)
#10 Oregon (10-2)
#13 Gonzaga (11-3)
#9 UCLA (9-4)
#16 Stanford (9-5)
California (7-5)
Washington St. (5-6)
Arizona St. (5-6)
USC (5-7)
Oregon St. (5-7)

[collegesportsfanms]

Dec. 30, 2012

#13 Gonzaga (11-3) @ Washington St. (5-6)

So this officially begins the conference season for us. We've already beaten the Cougars once, and now we need to do it again on the road. It's very important for me to win this first conference game. It took us a few minutes to get going, but once we did, we got rolling. Justin Mihm led the way with 18 points and 5 assists, and we rolled to an 83-64 victory.

December Wrap-Up

Overall Record: 12-3
Conference Record: 1-0
Neutral Record: 4-0
Home Record: 3-1
Away Record: 5-2
RPI: 6
Rank: 14

Leaders

PPG- Justin Mihm (14.3), Cortez Rowe (12.2), Richie Darting (9.1)
RPG- Matt Hawkins (8.2), Brooks White (5.9), Richie Darting (4.9)
APG- Justin Mihm (5.3), Cortez Rowe (3.1), James Whaley and Brooks White (1.6)

[collegesportsfanms]

Jan. 3, 2013

#14 Gonzaga (12-3, 1-0) @ #17 Stanford (9-6, 0-1)

Ah, welcome to the Pac Ten, where every game is a tough game. No way in the WCC would you find a 9-6 team ranked 17th, but that's what we have here. It's gonna be tough, don't get me wrong. Well.. I thought it was going to be tough anyways. Stanford led once, at 2-0. After that, they never led again. James Whaley came off the bench to score 18 points, and we rolled to a 77-57 victory that shocked even me.

Jan. 6, 2013

California (8-6, 1-1) @ #14 Gonzaga (13-3, 2-0)

We go back home, where the Zags have had much greater success lately. Coming off a 20 point pounding on the road at Stanford, I like our chances in this one. Then again, we did lose to Delaware, so anything is possible. Cortez Rowe made sure that a loss would not happen tonight, as he scored 22 points. He was helped by Sheridan Vinson who scored a career high 16 points, and we held tough to win 79-69!

Jan. 10, 2013

USC (6-10, 1-3) @ #12 Gonzaga (14-3, 3-0)

It's been a while since we faced a team with a losing record, but don't sleep on USC. They beat top 10 ranked Duke earlier in the year, and everybody knows we are prone to the upset this year. The thing is, this game is at home, where we are almost unbeatable. As I said though, USC beat Duke earlier in the season, and tonight they beat us. We came out flat in the first half and trailed by 17 at halftime. The second half was a little better, but I knew we were in for a long night when Matt Hawkins picked up his third foul within the first 10 minutes. He managed to play a whopping 11 minutes in our 86-76 defeat.

Jan. 13, 2013

#12 Gonzaga (14-4, 3-1) @ #1 Arizona (17-0, 4-0)

Coming off the loss to USC, this is definitely not who we wanted to play in our next game. Never mind the fact that it is on the road, but Arizona has won every single game by double digits, and has an average margin of victory of 26. I'm just hoping to keep it within 10 or 15. We would be no different than the previous 17 Wildcat opponents. Arizona held us to just 25% shooting, led the entire game, and we didn't have 1 player in double figures. The good news is, we were only outscored by 2 in the second half, but we lost our second straight game tonight, getting beat 61-41.

Jan. 17, 2013

#8 Oregon (13-4, 3-2) @ #14 Gonzaga (14-5, 3-2)

Things sure don't get any easier. We return home, but we face another top ten team. This is one reason why I wanted to go to a conference like the WAC for a few years. It's a lot of pressure jumping from a one or two bid league like the WCC, all the way up to the Pac Ten who could send 7 teams to the postseason. And we had to fight hard for this one, especially since Justin Mihm went down 4 minutes into the game with a knee injury. Sheridan Vinson picked up the slack with 14 points and 8 boards, and we won a hard fought game 68-61. You would think I'd be excited about picking up our 15th win of the season, that is until I got the news about Justin: torn ACL. His basketball career is most likely over. His college career definitely is. This is a huge blow to our season.

Jan. 24, 2013

#17 Gonzaga (15-5, 4-2) @ #19 Washington (17-3, 6-1)

So we go on the road to play our first game without Justin Mihm. I've decided to give Trent Butler the starting PG spot, he's been working his ass off in practice. Fortunately we've had a whole week to get ready for this game. At this point I'm not expecting much. The guys are down, I'm down, and I just hope we can find a way to win another 5 games to at least meet that goal. Of course I don't know why I worry, I mean every time I do, this team proves me wrong. And Trent, well he filled in nicely tonight scoring 11 points and dishing out 9 dimes. The game was nip and tuck throughout, but we survived on the road, winning 67-59!

Jan. 27, 2013

Arizona St. (7-11, 2-5) @ #17 Gonzaga (16-5, 5-2)

Last time we played a team with a losing record at home, we got beat. I don't want the same result tonight. I feel like this team can overcome the loss of Justin. We need to win the games we are supposed to win. Arizona St. was picked last in the conference for a reason. The first half was much closer than it should have been, but we took control in the second half. Cortez Rowe led the way with 19 points and 7 assists, and Trent Butler had another solid game with 14 points as we won 77-61.

Jan. 31, 2013

#18 Gonzaga (17-5, 6-2) @ #12 UCLA (14-8, 5-4)

We want to end the month of January on a good note, but it won't be easy. I mean even though UCLA is struggling, they are still one of the best teams in this conference. This was a great game, with 13 lead changes and 1 tie. Unfortunately, we could never get over the hump, and we lose our sixth game of the season, 65-57.

January Wrap-Up

Overall Record: 17-6
Conference Record: 6-3
Neutral Record: 4-0
Home Record: 6-2
Away Record: 7-4
RPI: 5
Rank: 18

Leaders

PPG- Justin Mihm (12.9), Cortez Rowe (12.5), Sheridan Vinson (8.2)
RPG- Matt Hawkins (7.6), Brooks White (5.8), Richie Darting (4.5)
APG- Justin Mihm (5.1), Cortez Rowe (2.6), Brooks White (1.6)

As far as the bubble watch goes, we are still in great shape. We are 11th in the Who's In list. Unless we lose pretty much the rest of our games, we need not worry. 7 of the 11 Pac Ten teams are projected to be in the NCAA Tournament. Even USC, who is only 11-11 right now.

[collegesportsfanms]

Alright so that gets me caught up to where I am on DDS:CB. Hope you all are enjoying thus far.

[collegesportsfanms]

Feb. 3, 2013

Oregon St. (9-13, 4-6) @ #18 Gonzaga (17-6, 6-3)

We are nearing the homestretch of our first season in the Pac Ten, and I know these home games are very important. We need to keep defending our home turf, and tonight Oregon St. shouldn't offer a lot of resistance. And for the most part they didn't. Cortez Rowe went off tonight, scoring 26 points, and Trent Butler had 19. He's really filled in nicely in the absence of Justin Mihm, as we won tonight, 84-70.

Feb. 7, 2013

Washington St. (6-16, 1-10) @ #16 Gonzaga (18-6, 7-3)

We've already beaten the Cougars twice, and pretty easily both times. I can't see how this time would be any different. It wasn't. We rolled to a 77-49 victory and had 4 players score in double figures. We shot 50% in the game.

Feb. 10, 2013

Stanford (15-10, 6-5) @ #16 Gonzaga (19-6, 8-3)

This is gonna be our toughest game of the 3 game home stretch. We beat them at their place by 20, so they would be looking for revenge. It's hard to believe but we actually played better than we did last time. We jumped out to a 14-2 lead, with a balanced effort from the starters. Matt Hawkins got player of the game with 13 points and 8 rebounds. We shot 51.7% from the field and forced 22 turnovers while rolling to an 80-55 victory.

Feb. 14, 2013

#13 Gonzaga (20-6, 9-3) @ California (11-13, 4-8)

We start our season ending stretch with 3 of our last 4 on the road. Cal played us very tough at home the first go around, as we only won by 10. We knew they had something to play for and they would try to scrap a victory out. As expected it was a very tough game. Both teams wanted this one, as there were 18 lead changes and 7 ties. Matt Hawkins had 12 points and 14 boards, but it wasn't enough. Brooks White missed a jumper at the buzzer that would have tied the game, and we lost a heartbreaker, 86-84.

Feb. 17, 2013

#13 Gonzaga (20-7, 9-4) @ USC (12-13, 7-6)

We knew that this was a must win situation, with Arizona awaiting us in our next game. USC is still fighting for a winning conference record and an NIT bid, so they had something to play for as well. As expected, it was a tough game, as there were 13 lead changes and 10 ties. Brooks White put us in front for good with a monsterous slam dunk, and we went on to win 69-62, keeping a 1/2 game lead over UCLA for second in the Pac Ten.

We are 1 of 5 Pac Ten teams listed in the top 16 of the Bubble Watch this week. We are listed as the #5 team on the who's in list, which means we are a lock for the tournament no matter what happens the rest of the way. While there is still a chance we could get a #1 seed, I'm expecting no better than a #3 seed.

Feb. 21, 2013

#1 Arizona (27-0, 14-0) @ #12 Gonzaga (21-7, 10-4)

The only thing that eases my mind about this game is that we are at home. I know that for us to beat Arizona, we would have to have somebody pull a Nancy Kerrigan on all their starters. The thing we want to do is just keep it close. As cocky as I am about Gonzaga basketball, I'm also a realist. Arizona is good, damn good. I'd like to think we did the best we could, especially since we only lost by 9. They've got a player named Derrick Thorne, who is a Norton Finalist. He only had 15 points tonight, but it's all the little things that he does, like forcing us into 19 turnovers. As it stands, I don't believe in moral victories, but losing 66-57 to Arizona has to be considered some kind of victory.

Feb. 24, 2013

#12 Gonzaga (21-8, 10-5) @ #13 Oregon (19-8, 9-6)

The result of this game could decide whether we take second or fifth in the league. We can do no worse than fifth, and we could still finish second. Unfortunately we didn't come to play tonight, and we got hammered, 77-57.

[collegesportsfanms]

February Wrap-Up

Overall Record: 21-9
Conference Record: 11-5
Home Record: 12-3
Away Record: 9-6
Rank: 15
RPI: 9

*I decided to do away with neutral record. Even though the preseason tournaments are on neutral grounds, the game doesn't calculate them that way, so I'm not either*

To say we got a bum draw for the Pac Ten tournament is an understatement. Our loss to Oregon dropped us to fifth. Our first round opponent will be.. Oregon. If we win that game, we would face... Arizona. Ay yi yi. The 2013 Pac Ten tournament sets up like this..

The first round will see (9) Oregon St. taking on (8) Arizona St., then (11) Washington St. and (6) USC, and finally, (10) California taking on (7) Stanford.

The quarterfinals are as follows:

Arizona St/Oregon St. winner vs. (1) Arizona
(5) Gonzaga vs. (4) Oregon
Washington St./USC winner vs. (3) UCLA
Cal/Stanford winner vs. (2) Washington

[collegesportsfanms]

March 9, 2013

The first round of the Pac Ten tournament took place today, and here are the results:

(8) Arizona St.- 77, (9) Oregon St.- 66
(6) USC- 65, (11) Washington St.- 50
(7) Stanford- 78, (10) California- 71

March 10, 2013
Pac Ten Quarterfinals

(5) #16 Gonzaga (21-9) vs. (4) #12 Oregon (20-8)

So we are playing Oregon for the second time in 2 weeks. They whooped us good last time, so I've made a few adjustments in hopes of getting a better result. I'd say the change worked, as we jumped to a 43-28 halftime lead. In fact, we led the entire game. Only 1 player in double figures for us tonight, and that was Cortez Rowe with 18. That was enough though, as we get a big, big victory 74-66 to advance to the semifinals of the Pac Ten Tournament. Other quarterfinal results:

(1) Arizona- 59, (9) Arizona St.- 34
(6) USC- 70, (3) UCLA- 55
(2) Washington- 58, (7) Stanford- 57

USC gets the biggest win, keeping their small postseason hopes alive, and Stanford had a great chance, but will have to hope their 16-16 record is good enough.


March 11, 2013
Pac Ten Semifinals

(5) #16 Gonzaga (22-9) vs. (1) #1 Arizona (30-0)

I feel good about this game, for the simple fact they only beat us by 9 last time, and that the offensive changes I made worked so well against Oregon, I'm keeping them against Arizona. Unfortunately it didn't work this time, we led 4-2. Trent Butler had a horrible game, with 11 turnovers and missed all his shots. Arizona is damn tough, and they beat us 63-40. The other semifinal saw (2) Washington end (6) USC's run 75-62.

And in the Pac Ten final, I watched, expecting Arizona to continue its undefeated run. What I saw was Arizona jump out to a 9 point lead. But it never got any bigger. In fact, Washington kept cutting into it, finally taking a 50-48 lead with 10 seconds to go. Derrick Thorne had a chance to send the game to overtime, but missed a 14 foot jumper, and Washington pulled off the stunner, handing Arizona its first loss of the season and winning the Pac Ten Tournament 50-48.. Wow

So it is time for the selection show. Me and the team had a watch part at Wingdome here in downtown Seattle. We knew we would be in the NCAA tournament. The question is, what would our seed be?


The show started with the East Region, where Lousiville took the #1 seed. It didn't take long to see our name, although I can't say I'm thrilled. While we do get the #3 seed in the East Region, I'm ticked because once again we have to go out east. It's a shame. This year we'll be travelling to Philadelphia and taking on 14th seed VMI. Joining us in Philadelphia would be Oregon, who took the 4th seed. What is it about these guys that we always seem to match up with them. Assuming we win our first round game, we'll meet up with either 6th seed Memphis or 11th seed BYU.

I just want to know who puts together these brackets? I can understand having 2 teams in one region, but the Midwest Region got 3 teams. Arizona took the #1 seed, Washington the #3 seed, and UCLA the #5 seed. Meanwhile, the South and West regions, got no teams. It's crazy. An interesting note, as the city of Spokane, our hometown, is hosting the West Region this year. Would have been great to stay home.

No Pac Ten representation in the NIT this year, as Stanford probably would have gotten a bid had they beaten Washington. Since they didn't, they end their season, along with USC which was the other bubble team.

[collegesportsfanms]

March 16, 2013
NCAA East Region First Round

(14) VMI (20-10) vs. (3) #17 Gonzaga (22-10)

All 5 Pac Ten teams are playing today, and all 5 of us are heavily favored in our games. VMI could be a formidable opponent for us however, as they have 3 starters averaging double figures. Still though, we should advance to the next round. And we did, easily. Cortez Rowe led the way with 17 points, and Trent Butler had 13, as we built a 27 point lead and never looked back in an 80-56 victory. Our second round opponent will be 6th seeded Memphis, who beat BYU 77-70.

In other NCAA Tournament games involving Pac Ten teams:

East Region

(4) Oregon- 77, (13) Gardner-Webb- 51

Midwest Region

(1) Arizona- 67, (16) Fairleigh Dickinson- 50
(5) UCLA- 75, (12) Eastern Kentucky- 63
(3) Washington- 72, (14) Morgan St.- 63


March 18, 2013
NCAA East Region Second Round

(6) #19 Memphis (24-8) vs. (3) #17 Gonzaga (23-10)

I'm expecting a much tougher game tonight, as Memphis is a tough opponent. I still feel that we are the favorites, but I think we'll have to work harder to get this one. If you would have told me that Cortez Rowe would be held to 4 points and that we would still win by 19, I would tell you that you were crazy, but that's exactly what happened. James Whaley came off the bench to lead us with 18 points, and Brooks White had a double double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. We advanced to our second straight sweet sixteen with a 74-55 win. Our sweet sixteen opponent would see a rematch with Kansas, which we beat in route to winning the Coaches Classic in November. It wasn't a good overall day for the Pac Ten. Here are the other results.

East Region

(5) Indiana- 61, (4) Oregon- 52

Midwest Region

(1) Arizona- 79, (9) Akron- 35
(4) Florida St.- 69, (5) UCLA- 59
(6) Notre Dame- 47, (3) Washington- 42

That means us and Arizona are the only Pac Ten teams left still playing.

[collegesportsfanms]

March 23, 2013
NCAA East Regional Semifinal

(3) #17 Gonzaga (24-10) @ (2) #5 Kansas (31-3)

We are 1 of only 3 teams to beat Kansas on the season. They've got a legit candidate for Norton player of the year in Boney Williams, who is averaging a double double. I'll be honest with you guys, I wouldn't be surprised if our season came to an end tonight. I know we beat them in November, but that was 4 months ago. The good news is that we held Boney Williams to 12 points. The bad news is they had 3 other guys in double figures. It was a close game, with each team holding double digit leads at one point, but they just had too much for us tonight, and we ended our season with a 69-57 loss.

Arizona won their sweet sixteen game over Florida St. 71-46, and then crushed Wake Forest 88-62 to advance to the Final Four.

[collegesportsfanms]

Postseason Wrap-Up

This years NIT final four featured a seed no higher than 3. 2 #3 seeds, Marshall and Wisconsin, would face off in one semifinal, while a third #3 seed, Seton Hall, would take on (5) Cal St. Fullerton in the other semifinal. Seton Hall beat Fullerton 64-53, and Wisconsin hammered Marshall 75-54. Then Wisconsin beat Seton Hall 76-68 to win the 2013 postseason NIT tournament.

I was headed down to Houston to watch what I thought would be a very exciting final four. We came within 2 points of having all 4 #1 seeds in the Final Four for the first time in history. Instead, we've got #1 Lousville facing #1 Arizona in the first semifinal, while #1 Georgetown takes on #3 Syracuse in the other semifinal. Syrcause beat #1 Michigan St. by 2 to advance. The first semfinal was in my mind, the national championship. I fully expected whoever won this game to win the championship, with 1 loss between them. It did not dissapoint, as Arizona won a low scoring battle, 49-43. The second semifinal was a tale of 2 halves. I left at halftime with Syracuse leading 40-22 and was shocked when I found out about 2 hours later that Georgetown outscored their Big East counterparts 41-17 in the second half to win 63-57. So it would be a national championiship of Arizona vs. Georgetown, and I had a front row seat, hoping it would be as good as the final four was. It was, and then some. Neither team got a double digit lead. When it was all said and done, Arizona had prevailed in the best national championiship game I've seen in a while, 73-67, to win their second straight national championship!

Season Awards

As always, we were left out of any mention for national awards. Theo Worrell of Florida took home the Norton Award, and Derrick Thorne of Arizona was Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA tournament, and also WS Freshman of the Year. Todd Booker of Arizona was WS National Coach of the Year.

As for the Pac Ten, I pretty much figured we would not sweep the awards here like we seemed to do in the WCC. But boy was I shocked when I got the phone call. I, Shannon Elliott, had just been named the Pac Ten Coach of the Year! I couldn't believe it. I guess they figured that my 5th place finish in our first year of the Pac Ten was good enough, but I really figured it would go to Todd Booker. The only other award we got was Cortez Rowe as Pac Ten second team all-conference.

Season Review

I had 5 goals this year. Let's go over them.

Reach Final Four: Failed. I was mildly upset by this, especially considering the fact that we won a very important preseason tournament.
Win Conference Tournament: Failed. I mean come on, it's very tough to win the Pac Ten, especially in our first year here.
Win 20+ games: Succeeded
Maintain School Prestige: Succeeded
Sign 4 Star Recruit: Succeeded

I consider the season a success, even if my AD Roger Patrick is upset with the fact we didn't get an automatic bid and make it to the final four. Now as for job offers: The only 2 that really caught my eye were Kansas St. (a chance to go back to Kansas) and North Carolina (Always a dream job.) But there's no way in hell I could leave Gonzaga, especially after putting together what I feel should be a definite top 25 recruiting class. So I'm staying put.

Departing Players

PG Justin Mihm (graduated)- 12.9 ppg, 5.1 apg. I just wonder what things would have been like had he been around for the NCAA tournament. Maybe we would have met our goal to make the final four.

C Darcel Martin (graduated)- 2.2 ppg, 1.1 rpg. Darcel had a few big games for us, including his 16 point, 12 rebound effort, but could never really find that consistent to earn him more than a few minutes a game.

PF Brooks White (graduated)- 6.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg. This is 1 of our starters that will not be around next year, and he's a big loss. A walk-on who was first team WCC last year. He was a role player for me, and he played his role well.

SG Cortez Rowe (graduated)- 13.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg. Another tough loss for us. He really picked up the slack after Justin went down.

SF Andrew Brinker (graduated)- 1.7 ppg, 0.8 rpg. This isn't really a bad loss, as Andrew was mostly ineffective. A great team leader though, as he really got along with everybody and helped keep everybody together this year.

SF Sheridan Vinson (graduated)- 7.8 ppg, 4.1 rpg. If you count Justin, who was a starter until he went down, we lose all but 1 starter from this years team. Sheridan kept improving, and while he didn't put up all star numbers, he was consistent. That's all you can ask of a player.

Staff Hiring

This year is easy.. Nobody is leaving, and I want to keep everybody. We'll have the same staff for the 2013-2014 season. Again, it was time to meet with the board. The problem is, my job security is fine, the facilities are great, and I always have more than enough of a budget left over after recruiting. So what to ask for? I just asked for more time. Maybe next year I'll try a facility increase.

[collegesportsfanms]

The only conference movement this year would be Longwood, who made the NIT as an independent school. They've moved to the MEAC. In other news, my hard recruiting work finally paid off, as the top 25 recruiting class rankings came out today, and we finished 7th! We were 1 of only 3 Pac Ten schools in the top 25. Arizona was first, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the conference. Their top recruit was.... Derrick Thorne!? The same Derrick Thorne they recruited last year? Same position, same hometown. Somebody help me out with this, as it must be a bug in the game. Also in the top 25 was Stanford.

2013-2014 Season

Coach Information

Name: Shannon Elliott (32)
Record: 80-22 (.784)
Contract: $950,000/2 years
Reputation: 80 (+5)
Offense: 90 (+5)
Defense: 90 (+5)
Recruiting: 82 (+4)
Scouting: 77 (+1)
Development: 90 (+5)
Job Security: 13 (Very Secure) (+1)

School Information

School Information
Name: Gonzaga
Mascot: Bulldogs
Location: Spokane, WA
Arena: McCarthey Athletic Center (capacity 6,000)
Facilities: A
Academics: B
Conference: Pac Ten
Conference Prestige: 84 (-1)
Team Prestige: 82 (no change)
Minimum SAT: 940
Starting Budget: $298,100
Asst. Salaries: $193,000
Remaining Budget: $105,100

Administration Goals

1. Reach NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2. Win Conference Tournament
3. Win 20+ games
4. Maintain School Prestige
5. Sign 4 star recruit

I'm ok with these goals. With the recruiting class we had, I think all those goals are reachable, even winning the conference tournament. And if I win 20games this season, that will give me 100 wins for my career in just 4 seasons.

My assistants

1st Assistant: Rob Yearwood (57, $115,000 / 2 years) - Practice/Development
2nd Assistant: Randy Fitz (66, $61,000 / 2 years) - Scouting
3rd Assistant: Chucky Tebbs (49, $17,000 / 2 years) - Recruiting