Gonzaga remains focused on San Diego ahead of nationally-ranked Saint Mary's matchup
An ESPN bus will arrive in Spokane on Thursday, but the station isn't just coming to air Gonzaga's game with San Diego at 8 p.m. PST.
The crew is mostly preparing for its College GameDay morning show on Saturday before the Zags host No. 15 Saint Mary's in the West Coast Conference regular-season finale.
However, while the nationally-ranked matchup has Gonzaga fans excited, the team remains focused on San Diego.
If the Zags (23-5, 12-2 WCC) lose their only game with the Toreros (11-17, 4-10) this season, Saint Mary's will secure at least a shared WCC regular season title. This scenario would give the Gaels a chance to win the conference outright by defeating Gonzaga on Saturday.
San Diego is in a much different situation, sitting in second-to-last place in the WCC and dealing with injuries to four of its top five scorers.
“They’ve had various lineups because they’ve been so injured,” said Gonzaga head coach Mark Few told The Spokesman-Review. “I don’t know what the status and all that is. They’ve done a good job of battling through those, though.”
The injury-ridden Toreros nearly pulled off an upset win over Saint Mary's last Thursday. San Diego went on a 24-4 scoring run in the second half, but the Gaels hung on to win 62-59.
“They took Saint Mary’s down to the wire the other day,” Few said, “and they carved out a couple wins when I think people thought they might be done with when they were losing bodies like that.”
San Diego has the 65th-best adjusted offensive efficiency in KenPom, placing them third in the WCC. Gonzaga is No. 1 in that metric.
The Zags are led by senior forward Drew Timme and junior guard Julian Strawther, who combined for 62 points in the team's 97-88 win over Pepperdine last Saturday.
Timme accounted for 34 of those points and is the WCC's top scorer at 21.3 points per game on 61.5% shooting from the field. He's 80 points shy of Gonzaga's all-time scoring crown.
Strawther is averaging 27.3 points over the past three games, making 27 of 46 field goal attempts (58.7%) and 13 of 24 3-pointers (54.2%) during this span.
"It's huge and we need it," Timme said of Strawther's 28-point showing against Pepperdine. "That's something he's really learned as the season goes on. His role has really changed from last year and it's like look, 'You have to be the guy.' He's done a great job, especially lately, being aggressive and hunting his shot."
Gonzaga's high-scoring offense has made up for its inconsistent defensive play on numerous occasions, which Few said happened in last Saturday's win.
"That's all it was," Few said. "We were able to play great offense, a little better offense than they played."
The Zags are 87th in adjusted defensive efficiency, but it's all relative, considering San Diego is No. 333.
The Zags have won 15 straight against Toreros, who are winless all-time at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
