Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau breaks down what he saw from the Bulldogs at the Kraziness in the Kennel event.
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00:00 What's happening, everybody?
00:01 Christian Pedersen joined by Dan Dickow back for another episode of the Gonzaga Nation
00:04 podcast.
00:05 You're catching us on a mailbag edition.
00:07 That's where we ask Dan the fan submitted questions sent to us on social media at Fan
00:11 Nation Zags or to Dan at Dan Dickow 21.
00:14 Dan, thank you, as always, for letting us pick your brain.
00:18 Let's get to the first question.
00:19 Following up on the craziness in the kennel, who impressed you the most?
00:26 You know, I was I was the easy answer is Brayden Huff.
00:29 He was aggressive to score and he scored pretty effortlessly on the interior, which was a
00:36 great sign.
00:37 He was aggressive, which you like to see.
00:39 But unfortunately, on the defensive end of the side of the floor, he committed four fouls.
00:45 So that's going to be a work in progress.
00:47 But that he's the easy one.
00:49 I think the other one where you might have to sift through some things a little bit would
00:55 be Nolan Hickman.
00:56 You know, I think he showed a comfort level of kind of making the right reads and picking
01:02 rolls, whether it was to score it, whether it was to move it.
01:06 He split the pick and roll a couple of times.
01:08 I think one time he hit a floater and another time he split it, kicked it to a guy who didn't
01:13 make the shot upon the pass.
01:16 But I think Nolan looked really good.
01:19 You know, you can kind of go on down the list of everybody.
01:22 I thought there were lots of positives.
01:24 I think Kranjovic and bear with us, we're going to get the name right.
01:28 I know a couple of people were not happy with Greg Heister and I during the Kennel Craziness
01:33 in the Kennel broadcast.
01:35 Pronounced it the way I was told we will get it dialed in for the regular season.
01:40 So we'll go from there.
01:41 But he had some great moments.
01:43 I thought Ryan Nembhard did a nice job of pushing the pace, getting other guys involved.
01:48 He didn't score it the way that he was capable of.
01:52 You know, and then Dusty Stromer and Steele, neither one of them shot it great yet.
01:56 But you see the ability that they have to stretch the floor and the problems that those
02:01 guys are going to pose.
02:03 Next question we got is regarding Graham EK and his health.
02:06 If he is not able to go at the beginning of the season, how is that going to potentially
02:09 impact the starting lineup?
02:12 Well, that's that's definitely a question mark.
02:18 And you know, hopefully he'll be fine.
02:21 My understanding is it's just simply one of those precautionary things where in the preseason
02:27 for guys who have come off of injuries, sometimes you limit their minutes.
02:31 Some days it falls on a scrimmage day.
02:33 Sometimes it doesn't.
02:34 This craziness in the Kennel so happened to fall on a day off that it was scheduled for
02:39 him to have a day off.
02:40 I wouldn't read into it too much, to be honest with you.
02:43 But if by chance, you know, he isn't there, you know, I would say it's a toss up between
02:49 Braden Huff and Ben Gregg.
02:52 I think Ben poses, you know, some problems that maybe Braden doesn't.
02:57 And I think a lot of times it's nice to have a curveball off the bench, like a lefty score,
03:02 like what Braden Huff showed in the in the scrimmage.
03:06 But I think if EK were to not start, I think you would probably see Ben Gregg in that role
03:11 and Ton at the fore like we've talked about.
03:15 But you know, Adam Morrison and I talked about this the other day.
03:18 You can even go small or sorry, you can even go big, put Anton at three and then you can
03:24 put Ben Gregg at the four EK at the five and then Huff comes in as your first big off the
03:30 bench.
03:31 It's it's going to be fun to track and fun to follow to see what coach few and staff
03:36 do in your first answer.
03:38 You talked about how a lot of people excited you.
03:40 So this next question is kind of following up on that a little bit and says that coach
03:43 few usually likes to go about eight deep this year.
03:46 It looks like you could make an argument for 10 or even everybody get a little bit of time.
03:51 Your thoughts on that.
03:53 I mean, that's people always get excited about the roster late in summer, early in the fall
03:59 and saying, hey, we're a deep team.
04:01 We're going to play 10, 11 and possibly.
04:04 But the beautiful thing about sports is guys having the opportunity to play them in themselves
04:09 into a role in a rotation and play themselves out.
04:12 Now, it doesn't mean maybe that nine, 10, 11 guys aren't talented, but maybe they haven't
04:17 taken advantage of those opportunities.
04:19 I would imagine there's going to be some tinkering with lineups early in the season.
04:24 If you look back to last year, most people had Efton Reed penciled in above Ben Gregg
04:30 early in the season.
04:31 Ben Gregg made the most of some minutes early on, and he took those minutes from Efton Reed
04:36 and kind of he really solidified himself for the rest of the year.
04:40 I think you're going to see some tinkering with lineups early, but I think at the end
04:45 of the day, you are going to have an eight ish man lineup.
04:49 I think there might be occasional game you get to nine, but I think if history.
04:57 Is it is any type of reminder, it's generally an eight man rotation occasionally stretches
05:03 the nine, but really it would stretch in the other direction and shorten to seven down
05:09 the crunch time of the season.
05:12 Last question we got here is what's the latest on Nick Kamania, the recruit that was at craziness
05:17 in the kennel.
05:18 Yeah, he was the only recruit at craziness in the kennel.
05:23 He was on an official visit.
05:25 My understanding is it went well, but nothing to get too excited away one way or the other.
05:33 A lot of times some guys want to take as many visits as they can and really kind of get
05:38 comfortable before they make their decision.
05:40 Now the other player that Gonzaga is recruiting out of Southern California, his teammate has
05:46 set a deadline of Friday this Friday, the 13th, making a decision.
05:51 Gonzaga is in the final five for him.
05:55 He's the point guard for Harvard Westlake.
05:58 Apologize, his name's escaping me right now.
06:00 I want to say it's Trent Trevor Perry.
06:03 Maybe you can go back and check on this for me after we finish up, but I believe it's
06:07 Trevor Perry out of Harvard Westlake, a combo guard who can make plays as a scorer, but
06:13 also as a facilitator.
06:14 What's that?
06:15 Trent.
06:16 Trent.
06:17 I knew it started with a T. You're always coming through in the clutch, Christian.
06:23 I appreciate that.
06:24 So Trent Perry, I did see, is going to make his decision end of this week.
06:28 So we'll see.
06:29 Could be good news for Gonzaga.
06:32 Many times when guys say they're going to make that decision, it might initiate someone
06:38 to make their decision a little bit earlier.
06:40 I know being a Northwest program, you want to keep the best Northwest guys in state.
06:46 Well, Zum Diallo has been a primary target of theirs for some time now.
06:53 Maybe Zum Diallo's got a decision to make in the near future.
06:57 Maybe he decides before Perry.
06:59 Maybe Perry decides and now that takes Gonzaga off of the opportunity list for Zum Diallo.
07:04 So there's always these checks and minuses that go along with recruiting that are fascinating
07:10 to watch.
07:11 Dan, I'm excited.
07:12 Thank you very much for tuning in.
07:14 Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and opinions on all of these.
07:17 And reminder, as always, if you want to get to us for some of these mailbag questions,
07:21 hit us up at Fan Nation Zags on all the social media.
07:25 Hit up Dan at DanDickout21.
07:26 You can search and subscribe to Gonzaga Nation wherever you get your podcasts.
07:31 Until next time, we'll talk to you guys soon.
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