Playing in Gonzaga's home environment is also difficult--it is not an easy trip and they have a big fan base. Home court advantage counted a lot for them. Obviously, we won't have much of a home court advantage given that fans won't be there, but at least Gonzaga is traveling and won't have an emotional crowd behind them.
Not only were we missing Jones during out first game, Brink played only 19 minutes and sporadic stretches due to foul trouble, and Jerome wound up playing for 14 minutes without scoring. We were still sorting out point guard responsibilities. So, all in all, I think we should play better than we did the first time around.
Gonzaga, on the other hand, has had 3 out of 4 of their most recent games postponed, so they also are looking anywhere to find games to play. They were supposed to play Santa Clara today and that got postponed, so staying over a day to play us makes a lot of sense from their point of view.
Not only were we missing Jones during out first game, Brink played only 19 minutes and sporadic stretches due to foul trouble, and Jerome wound up playing for 14 minutes without scoring. We were still sorting out point guard responsibilities. So, all in all, I think we should play better than we did the first time around.
Gonzaga, on the other hand, has had 3 out of 4 of their most recent games postponed, so they also are looking anywhere to find games to play. They were supposed to play Santa Clara today and that got postponed, so staying over a day to play us makes a lot of sense from their point of view.