Gonzaga University News Services

Gonzaga advanced to the Sweet 16 after Freshman guard Demetri Goodson’s last second buzzer-beating bank shot lifted the Bulldogs past Western Kentucky for a 83-81 victory, earning Gonzaga a nomination for Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Tournament.

Now it is up to Gonzaga fans to determine if the Bulldogs will earn a Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Tournament. Gonzaga fans can go to pontiac.com/ncaa, where they can view video clips of the eight nominees and vote for the Bulldogs! 

Voting begins on Monday, March 30th and ends Sunday, April 5th. CBS will announce the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Tournament just before tip-off of the NCAA National Championship Game on Monday, April 6th.

“The Pontiac Game Changing Performance program has become a widely recognized platform in NCAA Basketball, providing fans with the opportunity to showcase their pride and enthusiasm for collegiate athletics. In addition, the program has a positive impact academically through general scholarship contributions to schools.” said Greg Gumbel, CBS Sports.

For full program details, visit www.pontiac.com/ncaa.

By Peter Tormey
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Four-time, first-team All-America forward Tyler Hansbrough scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while guards Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington added 19 each as No. 1-seed North Carolina overwhelmed No. 4-seed Gonzaga 98-77 Friday in the South Regional, sending the Tar Heels to an Elite Eight matchup Sunday against No. 2 seed Oklahoma, which beat No. 3 seed Syracuse 84-71 in the first game here.

The Zags had four players in double figures for the game, led by seniors Jeremy Pargo, Josh Heytvelt and Micah Downs with 16 points, 14, and 12, respectively, while Austin Daye added 10; Matt Bouldin, Ira Brown and Steven Gray contributed 7 each for the Zags. Heytvelt was held to no rebounds.

The 31-4 Tar Heels never trailed after Lawson sank a 3-pointer with 18:48 left in the first half to give North Carolina a 5-3 lead. Lawson made 6-of-7 shots from the floor and a devastating 3-of-4 from the 3-point line for 17 of his points in the first half and Ellington connected on 4-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from the 3-point line for 12 first-period points. The 28-6 Bulldogs shot a respectable 48.5 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from the 3-point line in the first half, but had no answer for the red-hot Tar Heels who shot 59.4 percent from the field, and a devastating 66.7 percent from the 3-point line to take a 53-42 lead into the locker room at the end of the first half.

Hansbrough shot 8-of-10 from the field and made 8-of-9 free-throws for the game while Ellington was 7-of-13 from the floor and 2-of-6 from 3-point range. For the game, the Tar Heels shot 52.9 percent from the floor and 57.9 percent from 3-point range while the Zags shot 46.6 percent from the floor and 30.4 percent from the 3-point line for the contest. Ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and No. 3 in the ESPN/USA Today poll, the Tar Heels gave up 9 turnovers to the Zags’ 12.

After the game, Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said the Bulldogs simply ran into a great basketball team in the North Carolina juggernaut.

“They played great. When they are shooting the ball like that, especially from the three-point line, I think it’s going to be tough for anybody to beat them,” Few said. “You know, you just tip your hat to them. They played a great game. My guys battled. We had our chances. We got it back to 11, and then Bobby Frasor hit back-to-back threes and kind of drove that thing up.”

Few said the Zags felt good at the half, trailing by 11 but could not stop the Tar Heels.

“I think we had some turnovers and some poor shots on offense, which just fuels their fire,” he said. “We pride ourselves on being a great transition team, but they were much better than we were tonight.”

Few said he felt the minor toe injury to Lawson might have actually helped him.

“I mean, he’s playing at a great pace right now. He’s not forcing anything. He got in the lane a couple times where he was closely guarded and we shut down option one, option two, option three, and he was under control and found option four wide open out there on the back side of our defense,” Few said. “When he’s distributing like that, I mean, he had nine assists, one turnover. He shot the heck out of it from three. And they took great care of the ball.”

Few said the Tar Heels played their “A game,” adding that when they are playing well, they are the best team in the country.

“I’ve said all along, if all 16 of us, if we all play at the top of our game, North Carolina wins the national championship. I just feel like, when they’re playing at their highest end, they’re better than the rest of us,” Few said.

“And they played that way tonight.”

North Carolina Coach Roy Williams said the Tar Heels caught the Zags when they weren’t at their best.

“We didn’t shoot free-throws well and took a couple of bad shots in the middle part of the second half, but I thought we beat a fantastic basketball team in Gonzaga that did not have their best day,” said Williams, whom Few has called a mentor.

“I think Mark and his staff just did an absolutely fantastic job. We knew it was going to be a big time game, and we knew we’d have to play really, really well,” Williams added. “I don’t know this for sure, but I sensed that Matt Bouldin was not feeling real well.  . . . We did catch them on a day where they didn’t play as well as they wanted to play or as well as they’re capable of playing.”

Note: Videos below of Austin Daye & Steven Gray on today’s match-up.

By Peter Tormey
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Gonzaga University is a Catholic, Jesuit institution but people of all faiths are wholeheartedly welcome and supported. In fact, approximately half of Gonzaga’s undergraduates hail from other faith traditions and it’s no different for the Bulldogs’ basketball team. So, when the No. 4-seed Zags kneel to pray tonight before taking on the No. 1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels in the South Regional of the NCAA Tournament, Ira Brown, son of a former Baptist pastor, will lead the prayer.

Brown, who has averaged nearly 10 minutes per game in a reserve role this season, is perhaps the Zags’ most physical player. At 6-foot-four and 235 pounds, he is sculpted like a heavyweight boxer or an NFL linebacker. The senior from Conroe, Texas, said he loves to be physical and is expecting a “blood-bath” today against the Tar Heels whose star 6-foot-9, 250-pound star Tyler Hansbrough is known for his uber-aggressive play. Hansbrough is the only player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to earn first-team All-America and all-ACC honors four times.

Brown could play an important role in slowing Hanbrough down – a role he would relish.

“I am just ready for a blood-bath actually,” Brown said. “I know it’s going to be an extremely physical game. We’ve got to come out and play our game and they are going to be all over us and we are going to be all over them. The intensity level is going to be increased 100 times, so it’s just something we have to be prepared for.”

Brown said slowing the Tar Heels’ speed-demon transition game, led by 5-11, all-star junior guard Ty Lawson pulling the trigger, will be key to a Gonzaga victory.

“We’re going to have to stop Ty Lawson. That’s our main thing because he pushes it up the floor extremely hard and we’re going to have to get back because all their guys are trained to run up and down the floor really hard,” Brown said. “And we’ve got to be able to rebound as far as keeping (6-6 forward Danny) Green off the glass and Tyler Hansbrough off the glass as well because they are trained to go extremely hard to the boards.”
North Carolina is ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and No. 3 in the ESPN/USA Today poll vs. Gonzaga’s No. 10 ranking in both polls, but Brown and the Bulldogs are undaunted. This game tips off at 8:57 p.m. here (Central Time) and 6:57 p.m. in Spokane (Pacific Time).

“I think we match up because our guys love to be physical at times,” said Brown, who hopes to lend some brawn and bite to the Bulldogs’ cause, particularly against Hansbrough. “To me personally, I am just ready for the challenge myself because I am a physical type of guy and I know he’s physical. So, I figure if we go head-to-head, that would be great.”

Coach Mark Few, whose father is the Rev. Norm Few, leads the team in prayer at times, said Brown, who does it most often.

“Coach Few and I switch off from time to time,” Brown said, explaining that he suits each prayer for the circumstances.

“I suit it for a particular game,” he said, adding he waits for divine inspiration to determine what to say. One phrase he includes in most prayers, however, is a request “that the Lord will bless us with thy energy, passion and desire,” he said. “I just go as it comes.”

Unseen, behind the curtain of this national stage, before tipoff of this Sweet 16 game tonight, Ira Brown will ask the Lord to give the Bulldogs the power to play their best against the Tar Heels.

And to Him will Brown, Few and all of the other faithful Zags give all the glory.

Bulldogs’ Video Shots

Austin Daye believes transition game will be key:

Steven Gray’s Keys to Zags’ game vs. UNC

Memphis scene: My Dog’s a Real Good Dog, If You Don’t Mind Dogs

Pregame Social
5:30 p.m. (CDT) Social/8:57 p.m. (CDT) Tip-off
BB King’s Blues Club/143 Beale St.
Memphis/901.524.5464

By Peter Tormey
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – It was shorts and T-shirt weather here today as the mercury rose to 74 and a hue of smoke wafted throughout downtown, but no one was complaining as the smoke carried the smell of some of the most amazing barbecue on the planet. At 191 Beale St. sits the FedExForum, which seats more than 18,000 for basketball and is where Gonzaga’s Bulldogs went through their paces and met the media this afternoon.

The No. 4 seed Zags held a shoot-around for 50 minutes and looked loose but ready to take on the No. 1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels tomorrow (Friday) at 8:57 p.m. Central Time (6:57 p.m. Pacific) in the South Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Before their game, at 6:27 p.m. local time, No. 3 seed Syracuse battles No. 2 seed Oklahoma for the right to advance to the Elite Eight and play Sunday against the winner of the GU-UNC contest.

Facing a swarm of reporters, Gonzaga’s 6-foot-11-inch senior forward Josh Heytvelt said he doesn’t mind being called the underdog at all — especially when facing the Tar Heels.

“It’s kind of nice to be the underdog, you know. Most of the season we’ve had the bull’s eye on our back through our conference and a lot of preseason games,” Heytvelt said. “You know, there’s a lot of hype for Carolina. The fans don’t expect anything less than a championship from those guys. And to have a little bit of pressure off the back to come in and be able to play a little bit looser, it’s kind of a relief.”

Guard Matt Bouldin said he wouldn’t trade teammate point guard Jeremy Pargo – even with the other outstanding guards here in the South Regional.

“I’d take him over all the other ones in this region, that’s for sure,” Bouldin said. “Ty Lawson, Jonny Flynn, both unbelievable point guards. We’ve played them both. I’ve played with both of them. Yeah, I wouldn’t trade Jeremy for anybody.” Heytvelt said he wouldn’t trade Pargo, either.

Bouldin said the Zags have changed a lot since Nov. 22, 2006 when they beat the Tar Heels 82-74 in a preseason NIT semifinal.

“I think this year we’re a lot deeper. We’re much more experienced,” he said. “I mean, we think we have one of the most talented teams we’ve had here, and I don’t know if we really felt like that the night we played them in New York.” The Tar Heels have changed much since then, too, he added.

“They’ve developed into much better players. I mean, every one of their guys has gotten better since the time we played them,” Bouldin said.

Heytvelt agreed.

“Coming into that game a couple years ago where we knew we were a pretty good team and we knew those guys were a pretty good team,” he said. “We just had to match them up and go with it. We had a lot less experience back then, like you said. Coming into this year, we knew they had a lot of hype, and they have a lot of good offensive players, some shot-blockers. We feel like we have grown just as much as they have. I think we have a lot better chemistry than we did a couple years ago. We love each other, and we’d do anything for each other.”

Gonzaga Coach Mark Few, is in his fifth trip to the Sweet 16 as head coach, said the Zags have had a great week.

“It’s nonstop excitement and then apprehension from a coaching standpoint. But our guys have practiced well this week. They’re excited to get to come to Memphis, love the building. And, you know, the town just embraces college basketball so much here,” Few said. “Then obviously, just an opportunity to play Carolina, probably the greatest basketball program in the history of college basketball. I think our guys have a great sense of appreciation for that, too.”

 Check out this video of Beale Street in the evening.

By Peter Tormey

 MEMPHIS, Tenn. – By the time our plane landed here Wednesday evening, I felt like a hound dog roughed up by a pack of ornery raccoons – ah, but it was sunny and warm, a saving grace sure to soothe even the most weary traveler after Spokane’s long winter extends into spring. The high here Wednesday was 66 degrees. 

While approaching the hotel, across the street loomed the FedExForum, where the No. 4 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs take on No. 1 seed North Carolina in their Sweet 16 match-up at 6:57 p.m. (Pacific Time) Friday in the South Regional of the NCAA Tournament. First on tap, Friday, the No. 3 seed Syracuse Orangemen will take on the No. 2 seed Sooners from Oklahoma at 4:27 p.m. (Pacific Time).

 Of course, no trip to Memphis would be complete without a visit to the world-famous Beale Street. Memphis is said to be the home of the blues and the birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll and they say it all started here on Beale Street.

 As early as the 1860s, many black musicians performed here and it eventually became a recreational and cultural center for blues musicians. It was booming with clubs and restaurants by the early 1900s and many were owned by African Americans. Jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Rosco Gordon, Albert King, B. B. King, Memphis Minnie, Rufus Thomas and Muddy Waters performed on Beale from the 1920s to the 1940s leading to development of the style known as the Memphis Blues.

 Today, the four teams here will practice and meet the media one last time before they play on Friday. Then, two teams here will be singing the blues and the other two will be jumping for joy and beginning to prepare for their Elite 8 match-up on Sunday to determine which team from this bracket advances to the Final Four.

By Peter Tormey
SPOKANE, Wash. – The No. 4-seed Gonzaga Bulldogs depart today for their Sweet 16 date with the No. 1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels at 6:57 p.m. (Pacific Time) Friday in the South Regional of the NCAA Tournament at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn.

 Tennessee has two time zones: the eastern portion of the state is in the Eastern Time Zone; the western part is in the Central Time Zone. Memphis, home of the NBA’s Grizzlies, is in the Central Time Zone, two hours ahead of Spokane (Pacific Time Zone). 

In 1948, Memphis became home to a shy 13-year-old boy named Elvis Presley. Six years after moving to Memphis with his parents, Elvis and some local musicians recorded “That’s All Right” at Sun Records in Memphis, sparking his meteoric career. The King’s legacy is preserved at the 13.8-acre estate and museum Graceland, 12 miles from downtown.

 The 28-5 Zags will surely enhance their legacy if they beat the Tar Heels, one of the nation’s most storied programs. The winner of the GU-UNC game will take on the winner of the Syracuse-Oklahoma game, which begins in the FedExForum 30 minutes after the Zags’ game.

As the Zags seek to improve their 14-11 NCAA Tournament record Friday, this will be the Tar Heels’ 138th Tournament game as they aim for their 99th Tournament win against 39 losses.  The 30-4 Tar Heels met the media Tuesday and Coach Roy Williams said Gonzaga is the sort of team that worries him the most.

 “I’ve always felt like the most difficult teams to guard were teams like Gonzaga,” said Williams, who is 172-37 in his seventh season leading the Tar Heels and 590-138 overall in his 21st year as a head coach. “They are well balanced, they have more than one guy that can really, really hurt you on a night.”

Speaking of balance, five Zags – Jeremy Pargo, Austin Daye, Matt Bouldin, Steven Gray and Josh Heytvelt – have scored 20 points in a game this season and Micah Downs had 18. Williams said this sort of balance makes Gonzaga very difficult to guard.

 “When I look at another team, the first thing I look at is their offensive field-goal percentage and the second thing I look at is their defensive field-goal percentage,” Williams said. “And that’s as big a gap as I’ve seen there, that spread there, plus-12. They are shooting 49 percent and giving up 37 percent. That’s almost unheard of. If you look at that, you say ‘wow.’ And then they’re shooting 39 percent from three and we’re really a really good shooting team and we’re shooting 37 or 36 (percent) or something and they’re shooting 39. If you look at those things you start looking at other things because those things make you sick.”

Williams said the Zags are sound fundamentally, don’t hurt themselves with mistakes, guard well in the post and don’t let their opponents get many second shots.

 “It’s a very, very good basketball team who, in my opinion, probably deserved a better than a four seed,” he said. 

 Returning from a toe injury, Tar Heels’ guard Ty Lawson scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half on Saturday to lead UNC to an 84-70 victory over Louisiana State University in the South Regional. Lawson said his toe will not keep him out of the Gonzaga game, either.

 “I just showed everybody I could go out there and play through pain and still be successful on the court,” Lawson said. “It gave me a lot of confidence and that is the main thing I needed, that I wouldn’t get hurt and confidence that it wouldn’t fall off or something like that.”

While Coach Williams said six weeks off is what Lawson really needs to heal the toe, both he and Lawson agreed there will be plenty of time to rest once the Tournament’s over.

Williams called Gonzaga Coach Mark Few “one of the great coaches in our game” and said they enjoy each other’s company.

 “I enjoy the dickens out of him,” Williams said. “He’s a fisherman much more than a golfer. I told him I’ll go fishing with him if he finds us fish that will jump in the boat with us and that’s about the only way he’ll get me out there.”

SPOKANE, Wash. – No. 4-seed Gonzaga, which takes on No. 1-seed North Carolina on Friday in the NCAA South Regional at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., met the press again Monday and Coach Mark Few talked about Gonzaga’s only previous encounter with UNC.

That was Nov. 23, 2006 when the then No. 23-ranked Zags upset the No. 2-ranked Tar Heels 82-74 in the NIT Season Tip-Off semifinals in New York City. Former Zags’ guard Derek Raivio scored 21 to lead the Bulldogs’ scorers. Zags’ Coach Mark Few, who watched film of that game before taking media questions, said the 2006 contest bears some relevance to Friday’s Sweet 16 match-up.

“The relevance is there are a lot of the same characters in the play that will be in this one,” Few said, including Tar Heels’ standouts Ty Lawson, Danny Green and Tyler Hansbrough and Bulldogs Jeremy Pargo, Matt Bouldin and Josh Heytvelt. “They look different but they’re the same characters.”

The Zags’ 6-foot-11 forward Heytvelt poured in 19 points that day in Madison Square Garden while point-guard Pargo added 16.

Few said Hansbrough – the returning National Player of the Year – has improved significantly. The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Monday that Hansbrough headlines the list of four finalists for the 2009 Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year Award.

“I would describe him as much more confident today, much more aggressive than he was in the game in the Garden and he has expanded his game,” Few said. “He’s banging in some threes now, which he wasn’t doing back then. I would say his game has really grown, obviously, into the player that he is now.”

Few called Lawson, UNC’s 5-foot-11 junior guard who has scored in double figures 47 times with a career high of 26 (in 2007), “the consummate triggerman for a high-octane, probably the most high-octane, offense in the country.”

“There is probably no faster guy out there with the basketball. Meech (Zags’ guard Demetri Goodson) is probably second, maybe. He just does a great job of running the Carolina break,” Few said. “And then you look at his shooting numbers and what he’s doing from the three-point line, he is having a heck of a year.”

UNC and its Coach Roy Williams can beat teams in multiple ways, including through depth, persistence and their fast-pace transition game, Few said.

“They have probably more depth than we have now, especially without (injured 7-foot center) Rob (Sacre),” Few said. “Their defense is so much better than people give them credit for.”

Few said the freshman Goodson, who made the game-winning shot Saturday in Portland to lift GU to an 83-81 victory over No. 12-seed W. Kentucky with 0.9 seconds left, is handling all of his newfound attention well.

“Meech is fine,” Few said. “He shows up and puts his hard hat on every day for practice as well as anyone we have in the program. He was in the gym yesterday shooting. He and Pargo came down. He is as competitive an athlete as we have and I think he is ready to start playing and ready to get focused a couple of hours afterward Saturday, and humble, he’s very humble; he has a lot of great qualities.”

This is the Zags’ first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2006, Few’s third time as head coach, and Gonzaga’s fourth time overall. Coach Dan Monson led the Zags to the Elite Eight in 1999.

Tickets for the game went on sale today to all current Bulldog Club members through phone orders only by calling the athletic ticket office at (509) 313-6000. Tickets are $159 each and include both games Friday – GU vs. UNC at 6:57 p.m. (Pacific Time) and Syracuse vs. Oklahoma at 4:27 p.m. (Pacific Time) – as well as Sunday’s regional final that will send the winner to the Final Four. Tickets must be secured with a credit card and Bulldog Club members have until noon Wednesday to place orders. Tickets go on sale to GU alumni Tuesday at 10 a.m. by calling (509) 313-3964. Gonzaga Athletic Director Mike Roth said Gonzaga has 1,200 tickets and should be able to accommodate most requests.

 

Missed opportunities. After one of their hardest-fought games, the Lady Zags bowed down to the Pittsburgh Panthers 65-60. The Panthers now move on to the Sweet Sixteen next weekend in Oklahoma City, where they’ll face either No. 1 Oklahoma or No. 9 Georgia Tech (the two play Tuesday). The Gonzaga Bulldogs finish their season, albeit much too prematurely in their eyes.

The Lady Zags weren’t without their chances to be the victor tonight. With 23 seconds to go, sophomore Janelle Bekkering stole the ball from the Panthers, ran the length of the court, but was called for traveling before she was able to put it up. With only 21 seconds to go, the Zags were forced to foul. Vivian Frieson fouled Zellous, who aced both freethrows, putting the Panthers up by three. Gonzaga called a timeout, obviously to set a plan for a three-pointer. Vandersloot ran the length of the floor, made a hard cross-court pass to Bekkering who put it up from the three-point arc, but it bounced off the rim. Bekkering immediately fouled to stop the clock and the Panthers made the next two freethrows, securing their win and extending their lead by five, 65-60.

Vandersloot was the Zags’ leading scorer with 18, followed by Bowman with 15 and senior Jami Schaefer with 10. Vandersloot also tied her career high with five steals, had seven assists and seven rebounds. Head Pitt Coach Agnus Berenato compared Vandersloot to the Energizer Bunny at the post-game conference. “We found she wasn’t only driving in for two, she was driving in for two plus one,” Berenato said. “We changed our defense up to a 3-2, which we rarely run, for the last three minutes of the game because we figured the only way we were going to stop her was to do it collectively.”

For the Panthers, Zellous came out strong in the second half, scoring 22 of her 24 points, followed by senior Xenia Stewart with 12 and Pepper Wilson with 10.

It was the first game this season that Pitt went into the locker room halftime with the score tied; for GU it was the second time the score was tied at halftime this season. The loss marks the end of Gonzaga’s five-game winning streak and its first loss on a neutral floor this season, having won the previous five neutral-site contests. The Lady Zags also fell short of tying the school record for victories, which is 28, set in the 2004-05 season.

Gonzaga was a perfect 16-of-16 from the freethrow line, the fourth time in school history. Gonzaga became the 10th team to be perfect from the charity stripe in an NCAA Tournament game, the last time occuring last year.

Head GU Coach Kelly Graves had plenty of accolades for his team. “These young women set high goals for themselves at the very beginning of the season,” Graves said. “And I told them tonight that sometimes when you set high goals, you may not reach them, but you’ll often go higher than you did before. I’m really proud of what these young ladies accomplished and how they played such physical ball the entire time. They proved they can play with that kind of intensity.”

For Vandersloot, she knows there’s a lesson to be learned from the loss. “It has to be a learning experience for us,” she said. “We’ll grow this this; it will make us stronger.

And for Schaefer, who finished out her Gonzaga basketball career, she emphasized how “everyone battled. I’m proud of everyone, we’re a team, we came in and we did everything we could. I’m proud to be a Zag.”

So though the Zags season is over for now, they’ll be back. Now that they’ve “been there, done that” they’re ready to do more. Next time. We’ll see you then.

With 1:09 left, the Zags are down by one, 58-59 and Coach Graves just used one of his remaining three timeouts. When they come back on the floor, it will be Zag ball on their end of the court. The latest score came from Vivian Frieson, near but just inside the three-point line.

With 3:58 left to play, the Lady Zags lead by one, 52-51. Neither team has scored on their last three possessions, perhaps a sign of fatigue but definitely not one of wanting to win this contest.

One of Pitt’s leading scorers, guard Shayla Scott, was called for her fourth foul and subsequently benched by head Coach Agnus Berenato.

The Zag fan presence is impressive all around the arena and is sure to get louder as the time winds down.

Now, back to the game.

Go Zags!