[insert melody from the Irish sounding song Gonzaga always plays at their games]

Gonzaga rocks my face off.

That said, we looked good tonight. There for a little while we were getting too hyped, throwing the ball away and making foolish mistakes. Then we came out chill in the second half, played the game at our pace, executed our offense, and just played Gonzaga basketball. We also shut down the perimeter shot (aka the three-pointer for you non-basketball literates) which is our huge weakness. We shuffled our defense from our standard 3-2 zone into man back into a different zone (this time a 1-2-2... I don't know the real name, I can't lie. But it has a man out on point, then with a man at each corner of the key, two on top and two on bottom). Our defense is what normally keeps us out of the upper tiers of the NCAA tourney in March so maybe this year things will be different.

How about Ammo? (Adam Morrison) This All-American scored 25 points and pulled down 9 rebounds- one rebound away from a double double baby!! Derek Raivio, my favorite sophomore point guard, had 23, and our only real senior, J.P. Batista (I doubt Floyd will get many minutes), put in 21.

What I really liked was how we played with confidence. Not a bunch of nervous guys with something to prove- we just played our game and it looked good. There are definitely some kinks to work out and it was closer than I would prefer, but we buckled down and played basketball. We looked good- yay for us.

Final score:

#9 Gonzaga Bulldogs 88
#20 Maryland Terrapins 76

I love these boys!! You'll be sure to hear a lot throughout the season!