Where's the Weakness?
SAN FRANCISCO – Gonzaga, the tournament's top seed, has only lost three games, but the Bulldogs' struggles in the first two games of the tournament indicate there is a pattern teams are seeing that has makes them vulnerable.
One thing that is a more sure bet than choosing a 1 seed over a 16 seed is that Eric Musselman is going to pick apart even the tiniest of details to use as an advantage in the Sweet 16.
So what will Musselman see while looking at the tape?
ALABAMA
In this match-up in the "Battle for Seattle," the Crimson Tide went to Gonzaga's home state and put their foot on the Bulldogs' throats and never let off.
Alabama exposed Gonzaga's inability to deal with athleticism and quick ball movement at the same time.
In the first half, the Bulldogs were on their heels trying to account for the speed of the Tide's guards, which made it nearly impossible to recover once Alabama feinted a drive and swung it around the 3-point arc quickly for open threes. Once Gonzaga tried to adjust in the second half, the Tide began blowing by defenders, attacking from all angles with cutters coming in behind as insurance.
Gonzaga was overwhelmed the entire game. The one thing that will make this hard for Arkansas to replicate is the hot 3-point shooting of the Tide in the first half.
Arkansas is not a good long-range shooting team. The quick ball movement will create open looks, but the Razorbacks aren't the best even with open looks.
DUKE
The blueprint followed by Alabama was established the previous week by Duke in a neutral site game. The Blue Devils weren't able to build a big lead early on and ride it out like Alabama, but still did a lot of the same things to get the win.
One thing that Duke was able to expose is a level of slow processing on defense by the Bulldogs against athletic teams. Gonzaga spends a lot of time looking and thinking, lacking the natural reaction seen in most SEC teams.
In a world of powerful, athletic guards and forwards, reaction time is everything. It's an extra foot of open space for a shot, or an easy target for a blocking foul.
Another thing that is apparent in both the Duke and Alabama games is that Gonzaga is a team so by the book that it appears to be following a step by step from an instruction manual. Disruption and chaos is not a good fit for the Bulldogs as it short circuits their minds and overall team system.
This is a weakness where Arkansas can cause problems. The Hogs are big, athletic, and dedicated to causing chaos on the defensive end.
No one exemplifies the whole "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face" mantra like Arkansas when it comes to defense. If Musselman can get his players to commit to disrupting the Gonzaga game plan, there will be an opening to make big runs.
SAINT MARY'S
While the Duke and Alabama losses came back in the early part of the season, the loss to St. Mary's proved Gonzaga was still vulnerable late in the season.
When watching back the tape, it looks like the Bulldogs wandered into a high school gym where a solid church league team was practicing and challenged them to a game of pick-up.
From the basic uniforms, the leggings straight out of a Broadway performance of Robin Hood, to the general body types, it was hard to picture a team like St. Mary's beating a blue-blood like Gonzaga. Yet, there they were, using their own special definition of athleticism to get out to a huge jump on the Bulldogs and then just hold on.
It was the same game plan as Duke and Alabama, just in a much slower motion. The Gaels were able to use medium speed ball movement to create wide open shots.
Even with things moving slower, Gonzaga still struggle to react on defense. There are times where the Bulldogs either gave up or are the laziest team to ever play defense.
The number of plays where either give-up has set in or players look just unwilling to shift over to their man is astounding for a team that is supposed to be this good. Much like the Alabama game, the Gaels led by a solid amount pretty much from bell to bell.
CONCLUSION
While Memphis had a worse record, Arkansas may have caught a break from a match-up standpoint. The Tigers are very similar to Alabama and the version of Texas A&M that finished the season.
The two biggest things that play into the Razorbacks favor are Gonzaga's difficulty with athletic teams. The other is that the Bulldogs have shown they have a level of quit in them that can be beaten out.
The combination of size and athleticism makes Arkansas an even bigger match-up problem for Gonzaga. Another potential issue is that the Hogs are willing to sell out on defense so hard that they can completely shut down a key player and force other players to turn in the game of their lives against relentless defense to pull out the win.
While that defense can take a lot out of Arkansas on the offensive end, it is so mentally demoralizing for an opponent that it's hard to keep focus while trying to guard the Hogs. Mental focus and processing is already a major problem for Gonzaga, so this could be a perfect storm of negativity for the Bulldogs.
Much has also been made about Gonzaga getting to play on the West Coast, but that advantage is minimal at best, if it's an advantage at all.
For more information on how San Francisco provides Arkansas a huge advantage, click here:
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WHERE CAN MUSSELMAN, HOGS FIND WEAKNESSES IN GONZAGA'S GAME?
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