Former Gonzaga standout Cory Violette joins Adam Morrison and Dan Dickau to break down the Bulldogs' path to the NCAA Tournament
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Episode 14, Talking Zags for Gonzaga Nation.
00:10 Myself, Dan Dickow, alongside co-host Adam Morrison,
00:13 joined by a former teammate of both of ours,
00:17 none other than Corey Violet.
00:19 So Corey, thanks for joining.
00:20 - Hey, thanks for having me.
00:21 - Yeah, well, the platform,
00:23 Adam and I usually cover recent games,
00:26 a little big picture stuff with the season,
00:28 and we'll get into a little bit of experiences
00:30 and thoughts on some all-encompassing Gonzaga stuff.
00:34 So first off, what are your thoughts on this year's team
00:39 in regards to just everything that's going on?
00:42 - It's been interesting.
00:44 In my line of work, I get a lot of phone calls
00:47 this time of year that are not related
00:49 to what I do for my clients.
00:51 It's more like, what's going on with this team?
00:54 What's Pheu doing?
00:55 And they need to do this.
00:56 And so you hear the armchair quarterbacking from Spokane,
00:59 but what I try to think about is,
01:01 what if this was us,
01:04 and they were talking about us like that,
01:05 and you think about the pressure
01:07 these teams now are under for GU.
01:10 It's so different.
01:12 It's just so different.
01:14 The expectation is so high.
01:16 And I always try to tell them, hey, we live in Spokane.
01:19 We got 6,000 undergrad.
01:21 We don't have football.
01:22 There's a lot of things that are working against us
01:25 in that regard.
01:26 And so we've got a team here that's a little different.
01:28 Let's try to find its way.
01:30 Before we push the panic button,
01:32 let's all relax a little bit.
01:34 They're still a really good basketball team.
01:35 - Yeah, no, I like the way you put that,
01:37 put yourself in their shoes,
01:39 and then put them in your current role
01:41 and what you do with the business,
01:42 and everybody's asking for your take,
01:43 'cause you were on the inside for a long time.
01:46 - Yeah, I had one year doing the radio
01:49 that Adam's doing now,
01:50 but that was an interesting look at being an old man
01:54 sort of next to the floor
01:56 and trying to understand
01:57 what some of the kids are going through.
01:58 But it's different.
02:00 And this team reminds me the most
02:03 from teams that I played on our junior year,
02:06 where we maybe had a chance to miss the cut
02:10 and kind of there was some pressure on the team.
02:13 But it's kind of interesting to watch them this year
02:17 and to see how the coaching staff's evolving
02:20 without Tommy on there and how they try to find their way.
02:24 But I don't know, having been a former player,
02:28 I feel like I'm a lot less critical
02:32 of what those kids are trying to do.
02:34 - Sure, yeah, unfortunately,
02:36 I've heard some critical comments from people.
02:38 And I mean, I get it, they're passionate, they care,
02:41 but some of them are coming from a place of--
02:44 - Ignorance.
02:46 (both laughing)
02:47 - Yeah, I mean, that's the best way to put it.
02:49 I mean, I wanted to say the short word for fanatic is fan.
02:52 So from a fandom, they get too wrapped up,
02:55 too worked up with all the little details
02:57 that aren't as bad as they think.
02:59 So let's get into those last two games.
03:02 Mo, you called them courtside radio again, as you always do.
03:05 But I saw growth this past weekend
03:08 'cause they finally went on the road
03:09 and take out that first 20 minutes against Pepperdine,
03:12 which I thought Pepperdine did some decent things.
03:14 The last 60 minutes were great.
03:17 - Yeah, I think we saw a better focus and road mentality.
03:22 I always talk about on a broadcast and this show is,
03:26 you know, when you go on the road
03:27 and you guys obviously know this,
03:28 you gotta be tighter in your calls,
03:29 you gotta be more togetherness.
03:33 Nowadays, you gotta create more energy yourselves
03:35 in some of these buildings.
03:36 When we were going down there, it was a bigger deal.
03:39 Now you go to Pepperdine in San Diego and God bless them,
03:41 but there's not as much juice.
03:43 It's still people there, but it's not as much juice.
03:46 So those things have to be heightened.
03:48 And we saw those, didn't see that against Santa Clara.
03:52 We started the game terrible
03:54 and then came out in the second half terrible against them.
03:57 But both games on the road,
03:59 especially second half on from Pepperdine
04:01 and then in the San Diego game, much better,
04:04 you know, sharing the basketball,
04:06 getting up the floor, foul pressure,
04:08 you know, all that stuff that you have to have on the road.
04:11 So I was pleased for it.
04:13 Now these aren't the murderer's row of defensive teams.
04:16 We gotta be honest there,
04:18 but they also had much better focus as a group
04:23 on what the task was at hand.
04:25 And there was a little bit pressure.
04:26 Like you come off a loss,
04:28 you're still chasing San Francisco now and Santa Clara,
04:31 you can't drop any more games.
04:32 So I was pleased with it.
04:34 I liked what they did with Ben Gray,
04:36 putting him in the starting lineup,
04:37 allowing Dusty Stromer to come off the bench.
04:39 Then I thought Ryan Nembhard had a good weekend
04:43 sharing the basketball, it was fantastic.
04:45 - 20 assists, zero turnovers for the weekend for Nembhard.
04:47 And that's, I think something that, you know,
04:50 Coach Few and staff have to be happy about.
04:53 You move Ben Gray into the starting lineup.
04:55 I think it evens out the substitution pattern
04:58 in regards you got one guard and one big
05:02 to get in an early wave.
05:04 And then you kind of see who's playing well from there.
05:06 Do you remember your first start, Corey?
05:08 - It was my sophomore year.
05:11 Technically, I think I started one game as a freshman.
05:13 Casey had something going on,
05:15 but it wasn't really a,
05:16 it wasn't a role change by any stretch.
05:18 But yeah, sophomore year.
05:20 And, but, you know, Adam and I were talking about this
05:23 a little bit before the, before we got rolling here,
05:25 but it was such a different world back then.
05:28 Like you were ready, you grew up as a freshman,
05:31 you know, you got the, you knew what you were running.
05:33 There was no, there was nowhere near the amount
05:37 of creativity from a offensive standpoint for us.
05:41 Like we knew, I knew exactly where I had to be.
05:43 We could almost draw a line.
05:44 I was going to be in that spot.
05:45 And so there wasn't a lot of pressure.
05:47 And I was also not a,
05:49 I was not a guy that was relied upon
05:50 for any kind of like clutch scoring load
05:53 or anything like that.
05:53 It was just go out, you know,
05:55 guard the best post player they have
05:57 and then rebound the ball.
05:58 That was it.
05:59 - Yeah.
06:00 Well, I liked the addition to Ben Gregg again.
06:03 Did you see a different kind of Anton Watson
06:07 by being starting at the three,
06:09 as opposed to just getting at that point
06:10 during this course of the game?
06:11 - No, I think, I think what it does,
06:14 you mentioned it, is the substitution patterns.
06:16 Normally we have three at each spot
06:18 and we've done that in the last decade or so.
06:21 And then it trims down a little bit,
06:22 but the three bigs has been 10, 12 years we've done that.
06:27 And I think it just makes that rotation for Braden,
06:30 who we'll talk about in a second, how well he played,
06:33 but it allows him to naturally sub for Graham EK.
06:38 And then they can have probably a little bit
06:39 more minutes shared.
06:41 And then it gets your best energy guy
06:43 on the floor with Ben Gregg, right?
06:45 Obviously Anton's been that guy,
06:48 but as far as like cheering and, you know,
06:50 diving and doing all that stuff that he does.
06:53 - Do that one again.
06:53 - Yeah, you know, but like he just,
06:56 you need to have him on the floor more.
07:00 And then it allows Dusty to not, I guess,
07:03 burn himself out, if that makes sense.
07:06 'Cause I think he's physically close
07:09 to being completely there,
07:10 but I think playing less minutes
07:12 and having more burst is going to help him.
07:14 - Well, people don't understand that the adjustment
07:17 from high school to freshman year, I mean, it's everything.
07:21 It's mental, it's emotional.
07:22 And then the physical aspect of probably in high school,
07:26 he played in a really good league in Southern California,
07:28 but you're the best, most physical player in your league.
07:32 That's not the case when you get to the level
07:34 that he's at now with Gonzaga.
07:37 And that's one reason I think you saw Braden Huff
07:38 and also because of Drew Timmy Redshirt last year.
07:41 When you look at a big like Braden Huff,
07:44 Corey, with his skillset, I mean, he's scored it in bunches.
07:48 He struggled at times against size,
07:51 but I thought he was tremendous against San Diego.
07:53 What do you see that's unique about him
07:55 or that you really like?
07:56 - I think he potentially is one of the more exciting bigs
08:00 we've had in a while.
08:01 And I don't want to forget about Graham
08:03 'cause I'm pumped about the way he's been playing too,
08:05 but Braden's got a chance to do some different things.
08:09 Being left-handed is such a lottery ticket
08:12 for a big especially, for anybody but for a big.
08:15 And you can see kind of flashes
08:17 of where if he could get his feet right,
08:22 he'd be like effective in the way that Drew was.
08:26 He's not gonna get to where I don't think Drew was foot-wise.
08:28 Not that you'd even want him to,
08:29 but he's got some serious potential
08:32 to put up some big numbers.
08:33 It'll be that, like you talked about,
08:35 it'll be that, can he grow up fast,
08:38 and not be a freshman in big moments
08:40 and be ready to take that shot
08:42 and or make that move and just say,
08:44 heck with the consequences.
08:46 If he gets there, he could be really impressive.
08:48 And then you start worrying about like with the NIL,
08:51 can we just keep him around?
08:52 - Yeah, that's a big question mark for every program.
08:55 Talk a little bit more about the uniqueness
08:57 of a left-handed post player.
08:59 'Cause I felt the same with lefty point guards.
09:02 You just have to flip your mind in a hurry
09:04 and sometimes you're a step behind
09:06 if you're like in rotations.
09:09 - I mean, your whole life,
09:11 you're guarding right-handed players.
09:14 And even when they go left,
09:15 you don't have a lot of a fear of it most of the time
09:19 'cause it's their second option.
09:21 They'll make some shots here and there,
09:22 but you're always forcing guys to go that way.
09:25 And there's more to it than just
09:27 when you slide over to take away his right hand
09:30 or slide over to take away his right.
09:31 The shots come from a different angle.
09:34 You're using the wrong hand sometimes defensively
09:36 to guard a guy like that.
09:37 And it's just,
09:40 it's not like you're gonna miss it every time,
09:42 but you're gonna miss it once or twice in critical moments
09:44 and it's gonna get a bucket.
09:46 And you're gonna just forget the game's going fast enough
09:49 that, oh, when he catches it and he does his jump stop,
09:52 he wants to go that way.
09:54 And you're so used to pushing off that right leg
09:56 to stop that right hand that it can,
09:59 you just get a couple.
10:00 And it's not, again, you're not gonna have him go crazy,
10:03 but it's just one or two buckets here and there.
10:05 And it makes a guy like that have the potential
10:07 to average 15 instead of 12.
10:10 And that's a big number change over time.
10:13 - Yeah.
10:14 - Was there a lefty you ever played at against any level
10:17 that was like, just absolutely gave you fits?
10:20 - I mean, Michael Redd was good when I was playing.
10:23 Obviously, I played with Lamar Odom.
10:26 It's just a uniqueness.
10:28 And like Corey said, like guarding is so different.
10:31 And then when they're good, they always look better.
10:35 You get what I'm saying?
10:36 Like when the lefty's smooth, it's like, whoa,
10:38 it's something different.
10:39 So I think Braden's got a great potential
10:42 and a great touch around the rim.
10:44 Obviously, he'll get tougher and more physical,
10:48 but he's just, he's one of those guys where
10:51 when it hits the rim, it bounces in, right?
10:53 He's one of those scores like Drew was.
10:55 So being a lefty is gonna help him as well.
10:58 But he had a fantastic weekend.
11:00 I think he has a great career ahead of him.
11:01 - Yeah, I think the lefty for me that was kind of
11:04 the hardest was Damon Stoudemire,
11:06 'cause he was so fast, so shifty, and he could shoot it.
11:09 He could do all that.
11:10 Yeah, there's just a difference to a lefty
11:13 that you gotta prepare for, and it's hard.
11:15 So we talked about the two road wins, which was big,
11:17 'cause they lost to Santa Clara in a two road game.
11:19 They lost to UW.
11:21 They have an easier road game at Pacific.
11:24 So it's kind of nice in my eyes that you can kind of stack
11:28 up a couple road wins against teams at the bottom
11:30 of the league before you go on the road against St. Mary's
11:33 to finish the league, before you play San Francisco,
11:36 even though that game's in the Chase Center, not on campus.
11:38 How important do you guys think that is to build confidence
11:41 in some of these, what would be deemed easier games
11:45 on the road in comparison?
11:46 - Well, I think getting the first one out of the way
11:48 is obviously, is good.
11:50 You know, you could argue that you'd want the schedule
11:54 to be a little bit more mixed, but this weekend was needed
11:57 after the Santa Clara loss.
11:59 So yeah, I think we have the chance to, you know,
12:03 come on a nice home stretch and then be prepared,
12:06 like you said, and have the experience of winning
12:08 on the road when we play that tougher team.
12:11 So it'll be interesting to see how we handle,
12:13 like St. Mary's, 'cause that place gets live now.
12:15 I mean, it's the best road game to play in
12:19 in probably the last 10 years.
12:20 It's fun atmosphere, it's a cracker box gym,
12:23 but it's hard to win there.
12:24 So it'll be interesting to see how our crew handles that.
12:27 - Yeah.
12:28 You remember St. Mary's when we were there?
12:30 'Cause I think it was my junior year,
12:32 they had three wins on the season and it was dark,
12:35 but nobody was there.
12:36 Now, like Adam said, it was crazy.
12:38 - Yeah, that program came out of nowhere.
12:40 We won games against them by 50 at one point.
12:43 And then to have them be the top of the leagues,
12:45 kind of, that's a remarkable story in and of itself.
12:48 - Yeah, I think if you take Gonzaga out of the WCC,
12:51 more people nationally would realize
12:53 just how good St. Mary's is.
12:54 I mean, their defense is, I mean,
12:57 they don't give you anything easy
12:58 and they finish everything with a rebound.
13:01 Yeah, they're good.
13:02 - I think, sorry to cut you off,
13:03 I think they have the most wins in California
13:06 in the last 10 years.
13:07 - Yeah, I think it's them and then San Diego State
13:09 right behind. - Yeah.
13:10 All the California schools.
13:11 - And they've put guys in the league
13:12 and that's always a sign of, you know,
13:14 you get good, you know, Delva Dover and Patty Mills,
13:17 you get some guys, you know.
13:18 - Landell or whatever.
13:19 - I mean, you get guys that are making it to that level,
13:22 you know, that's a big deal.
13:24 - So obviously they've gotten better.
13:26 What's the formula to beating a team
13:29 that plays at such a slow pace
13:31 and is so good defensively?
13:33 - Obviously you have to impose your will
13:37 pace-wise offensively.
13:39 If you can get a lead early,
13:40 that always negates the slower pace.
13:44 Defensively, you have to get through your first,
13:47 you can't go on the first side, obviously,
13:49 even second side sometimes,
13:50 but you have to get through your multiple actions
13:53 and stuff like that.
13:54 And then they're usually never deep.
13:57 So if you can get them in foul trouble at every position
14:01 that they really struggle,
14:02 'cause Randy always plays seven at most,
14:04 like six and a half, you know.
14:06 I mean, this is how he does it,
14:08 but they always know what their role's supposed to be.
14:11 They always play hard.
14:12 But if you can jump on them early and push the pace,
14:16 and then, like I said, get them in foul trouble,
14:17 they have a hard time scoring.
14:19 But if you don't do those things,
14:21 it's an uphill climb 'cause the possessions are,
14:23 you probably get 10 less possessions.
14:26 - Yeah, I think they're bottom 5% in the country in tempo.
14:29 So they play as slow as anybody.
14:31 But one of their strengths is what you were
14:34 maybe the best at Gonzaga at, and that's rebounding.
14:38 How did that come about for you?
14:39 And what was Coach Few's kind of mantra to you?
14:43 - I don't know that he,
14:47 I didn't work with Coach Few as much in those years.
14:50 That was more Leon and Billy.
14:52 But you recall, we went to the Sweet 16,
14:56 my freshman year, junior year against Michigan State,
15:00 and they hammered us on the glass.
15:02 I wasn't involved in that game except for maybe 10 minutes.
15:06 And they were bigger to a man across the board.
15:10 Zach Randolph was in the middle.
15:11 I think he was a freshman that year, and he was a monster.
15:14 But it's kind of, I think it's sort of famous now,
15:17 but Few, he called Izzo and said,
15:19 "How do you get these guys on the glass?"
15:22 Well, the very next year, practices were totally different.
15:26 I mean, they were bloody and violent,
15:29 and it wasn't all like this, but we focused on rebounding.
15:34 And I'd started to just feel like
15:37 I had a bit of a knack for it.
15:38 And it was kind of what I could bring to the table.
15:42 We were not going to run offensive sets to me.
15:46 There were a few times here and there, but we had Roney,
15:49 and we had a great backcourt.
15:52 So it wasn't gonna be an important part of the offense
15:56 from a, okay, let's build a set around what I'm doing.
15:59 So I got to kind of get into my spots,
16:02 and you guys were so disciplined
16:04 on where your shots were coming from,
16:06 I would just go to the glass.
16:08 And I had a huge amount of tip dunks from that.
16:11 I had a ton of just offensive rebounds.
16:14 I got most of my work done on the offensive side.
16:16 That got me maybe above average in rebounding.
16:20 But it was partly because that was
16:22 the only work available at the time.
16:24 That was the job I was applying for,
16:26 was if I wanted minutes, and we had four great bigs,
16:30 so if I wanted minutes, I had to do that.
16:32 And then having a little bit of a knack for it helped.
16:36 - Yeah, but you could step it out and stretch,
16:38 hit a trail three when the ball got swung to you.
16:40 - That was what I loved to do.
16:40 And if I'm playing now, that's what I do.
16:42 I don't go inside the three-point line.
16:44 But no, it's just, it truly was the role.
16:49 And I relished it.
16:51 On a team like Gonzaga, when they're as good as they are,
16:56 it's harder to identify a role guy like that.
16:59 But for me, it was just, I loved doing it.
17:03 I loved getting onto the stat sheet that way.
17:07 And I tell my boys now,
17:09 I scored a lot of points just off of putbacks
17:12 and things like that,
17:13 not because I was some fantastic post player.
17:15 - Well, I remember a game,
17:17 it would have been my senior year, your sophomore year,
17:20 we played in the Forum against Fresno State,
17:23 who was good at the time.
17:24 I think you had 20 and 20.
17:26 - Yeah, that was, you know when people ask you,
17:28 like, what was your toughest matchup in a game?
17:30 That's always my game I go to.
17:31 So I had a good game that game on the boards,
17:33 but I was guarding Melvin Eli.
17:35 And that was the first time
17:36 where I came running over to the bench,
17:38 and I was like, I need a double.
17:39 I gotta stop this guy.
17:41 Like he was, there was nothing I could do.
17:43 Everything I took away, he went the other way.
17:46 He had a fadeaway that, you know, it was about 6'10",
17:48 and I couldn't get to it at all.
17:50 Couldn't even bother it.
17:51 And I think he had like 24 or 26 points.
17:56 And that was the first guy that just gave it to me.
17:59 Like there was just nothing I could do about it.
18:00 But I, you know, in that moment,
18:03 I'm like trying as hard as I can,
18:05 so I wound up getting 20 rebounds, you know,
18:06 in the midst of it.
18:07 - Did you play with Melvin Eli in Charlotte?
18:09 - Yeah, Melvin was on my, with me in Charlotte.
18:13 Funny dude, show-nuff is what we used to call him.
18:16 That's all I'm gonna say.
18:18 It's the only stories I can tell.
18:19 He's an awesome dude, awesome teammate, cool dude.
18:21 - Yeah, I got to know him a little bit
18:22 with USA Basketball stuff, and he was,
18:25 he was loud, he was outgoing.
18:27 - He's a good dude, he's funny.
18:28 - He saw something, he said something.
18:30 - Yeah, yeah, he's funny.
18:31 - Yeah.
18:32 How about, Adam, how about
18:38 Drew Timmy, Malachi Smith, they're in the G League together.
18:41 Malachi Smith got traded recently,
18:43 so now they're teammates together in the G League.
18:45 Did you ever have teammates from Gonzaga on the NBA?
18:50 - No.
18:51 - No, you never had one?
18:52 How about you, did you ever cross paths
18:54 and were teammates with somebody from Europe?
18:55 - With another G guy?
18:57 - Or in the G League?
18:58 - I did not.
19:01 I was a part of getting Richie Fromm to Japan.
19:05 - Really?
19:06 - And then a part of getting Nick Fizikas,
19:09 which that was, that was stung a little bit,
19:11 'cause he was on that Nevada team that put us out, but.
19:13 No, I never crossed paths with,
19:16 never went against anybody that I could think of,
19:20 and yeah, never played with anybody.
19:23 - So you never played against a former teammate
19:25 or a former Zag anywhere?
19:27 - No.
19:28 - Wow, yeah, Richie Fromm and I were teammates
19:29 for a short stretch together,
19:31 and one of the coolest experiences I had was,
19:34 it was, we were on the Clippers,
19:37 Rony was on the Lakers.
19:38 Rony started, Richie and I started,
19:40 so we had three Zag starters of the 10 guys,
19:43 and I still have that picture.
19:45 It's pretty cool, so.
19:47 - It's been so cool to see,
19:48 they've been putting up that stat of teams
19:52 that are putting guys in the league,
19:53 and we're, I think we're fourth or fifth right now
19:56 in terms of active players, which is just incredible.
19:59 - I mean, you look at it, it's like,
20:00 Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Carolina,
20:02 and then I think it's Gonzaga.
20:04 - Yeah.
20:05 And guys that are, I think, is this year the first year
20:09 we're gonna have maybe two all-stars?
20:11 - All-stars, yeah, it's gonna be Chet and Domas most likely.
20:14 So yeah, it'll be pretty neat to watch them go at it.
20:19 - Yeah, that's amazing to think that,
20:21 you and I have talked about Chet a number of different times,
20:24 but I had him as my guest for Rookie of the Year prediction
20:28 before the season started.
20:29 He keeps getting better and better.
20:32 Like, the more comfortable he gets,
20:34 the better he looks.
20:36 What would you have done defensively against Chet?
20:39 Or tried?
20:40 - Hope and pray.
20:41 No, I mean, you know, in college,
20:43 like, our team would have guarded him like this.
20:47 We would have burned fouls.
20:48 We would have tried to break him in half.
20:50 And it would have been a bother to him,
20:52 but you're not gonna stop a guy with that kind of length.
20:55 I mean, he just physically could do things
20:57 that you're not able to stop.
20:59 That's what, you know, partly why a guy like him
21:01 is so attractive to the league.
21:03 But I always used to laugh at the people that were like,
21:05 oh, he's gonna have to put 40 pounds on his frame.
21:08 It's like, no, it's not how he plays.
21:11 It doesn't, you know, you can watch him now,
21:13 like when he was in college
21:15 and he was guarding a bigger, stronger guy,
21:18 obviously not taller, they'd hit him
21:21 and he would just fold and his arms were still there.
21:24 So you don't need, you know,
21:25 he's still bothering that shot.
21:26 It's not a football game and they're even as rough as it is.
21:29 - And he was tough too.
21:30 People used to, you know, like he would get knocked down
21:33 and get right back up.
21:34 He would deliver below, you know what I mean?
21:35 It's like, yeah.
21:37 - He used to wear, you know, he used to put on,
21:40 he's just like, you guys are idiots, man.
21:42 - He's not gonna guard Shaq.
21:44 - Exactly.
21:44 And that's not his frame, man.
21:46 His frame, that's his body type.
21:48 Certain people have body types.
21:50 Now, if you look at him now from last year,
21:52 like you just seen his face,
21:53 he's gained probably 15 pounds.
21:56 Looks fantastic.
21:57 You know what I mean?
21:58 - Yeah, he's gotten the right kind of strong, I think.
22:01 - Yeah, same here.
22:02 But he, I always, you guys were NBA guys
22:06 and I don't have that experience.
22:08 But when I watched like a guy like Chet,
22:10 everyone's like, how is he gonna guard so-and-so?
22:13 And it's like, who's gonna guard him?
22:15 Like, don't forget the NBA is an offensive game.
22:18 It's not like college where you put a crazy defensive team,
22:22 take advantage of the officiating
22:24 and stop a good team, right?
22:26 - Well, in the college game though too though,
22:28 college coaches are so much more controlling.
22:30 And so they're gonna make you be in help side.
22:33 They're gonna make you tag the roller.
22:34 They're gonna make the game junked up in so many ways.
22:37 Where in the NBA, too many guys are like, that's my guy.
22:41 I am not gonna let him score.
22:42 So it spaces the floor more.
22:44 So the guy that has the ball has more angles.
22:46 Granted it's quicker and it's physical and spurts.
22:50 So you gotta make your moves a little bit more defined.
22:53 But I think the NBA fits Chet a whole lot better
22:56 than the college game.
22:57 - Yeah.
22:58 - Especially the team he's on now with SGA.
23:01 Like, he's just can't do this.
23:03 And then he can kind of be the second, third guy.
23:05 It's just perfect fit for him.
23:06 - They're the polar opposite, like Drew Timmy and Chet.
23:09 You can see why, and Chet was effective in college.
23:12 He knows a better example is DeAndre Jordan.
23:15 DeAndre Jordan was terrible in college.
23:17 He couldn't do anything.
23:18 But he can out jump, out leap anybody.
23:20 So you put him on a team with Chris Paul mixing him.
23:22 - Yeah, pick and dive.
23:23 - Yeah, so he just doesn't, the game doesn't fit, right?
23:25 So, but Mo, you're kind of a good example of this too.
23:30 People will tell you about the NBA game,
23:31 like, oh, those guys don't play defense.
23:33 Well, first off, it's like an 82 game season.
23:35 So let's give a little bit of a break for how hard that is.
23:39 But the same thing, the same idea,
23:41 by the same token I should say,
23:43 they can't stop each other.
23:45 Like, how do you stop each other?
23:45 And the reason, like, Mo, you had two back-to-back games
23:48 over 40 when you were, it was either a sophomore or junior.
23:52 And I was like, well, do you think,
23:54 one of them was against Michigan State.
23:56 It's like, do you think Izzo is saying,
23:58 don't guard him, or like, don't do,
24:00 I mean, guys get so good offensively at that level
24:04 that there isn't really a way to guard them.
24:06 And if you leave somebody open,
24:07 they find them and then that guy can score.
24:09 - Yeah, it's, they always say it's the make or miss league.
24:12 And like, you drop your actions,
24:14 you're gonna get a, not a wide open shot,
24:16 but you're gonna get a shot that's makeable.
24:17 And if you make it, obviously you win.
24:20 If you don't, you lose, you know what I mean?
24:22 Sometimes playoff series are literally
24:24 defined on that, like small adjustments.
24:27 And if you're guys, you're right guys make shots.
24:29 - Yeah. - You know, it's crazy.
24:31 - Well, as a big in the program,
24:32 there's been a lot of really good bigs over the years.
24:35 You can go down the NBA list of the guys.
24:37 We just touched on two of them,
24:39 Dillmas, as well as Chet.
24:41 You were kind of flirted with the NBA
24:44 with summer leagues for a while.
24:45 You played overseas for a while.
24:47 Is there one or two bigs that have been across the board
24:50 in Gonzaga the last 20 years
24:51 that you really loved watching them play?
24:55 - You know, I love watching, I love watching Sabonis.
25:00 To me, he's like, he, I'm not trying to say
25:03 I was anywhere near his level,
25:04 but he's a guy that I relate to the way that he plays.
25:06 Really, you know, really hard nosed.
25:09 He's taller than me.
25:11 He's built now as strong as I was in college.
25:15 And he's just a monster.
25:17 I just, and I like, 'cause he's not like a,
25:18 he doesn't have a lot of finesse to his game.
25:20 He has some, he can shoot the ball.
25:22 I mean, he's in the NBA.
25:24 But to me, just watching him play
25:26 with his kind of heart on his sleeve out there
25:28 is pretty cool.
25:30 One of the bigs that didn't make it from our teams
25:34 that I always thought was, had to be in the top,
25:37 you know, one or two bigs all time at GU was Batista.
25:41 He was just unbelievable how physical he was
25:46 and how easy that was for him to be that way.
25:48 He never looked out of control,
25:49 you could not move that guy.
25:51 - I remember watching JP in summer league
25:53 when I was down in Vegas.
25:54 And we talked a little bit and he was like,
25:57 "I don't know how much playing time I was gonna get."
25:59 I was thinking, I think it was the only year
26:01 he played summer league.
26:02 I think he just played one year.
26:03 But the minutes he get, he got,
26:05 nobody could stop him on a duck in.
26:07 And like, he always had the right angle on a pick and roll
26:10 and he always made the right decision
26:12 if it was pop or it was hard dive.
26:14 Like, one of the smartest, most overlooked players
26:17 that I can remember.
26:19 - What was it like playing with him?
26:20 'Cause that had to have been fun.
26:21 - Yeah, no, he was a great angle guy,
26:23 obviously a great screener.
26:25 And then he was super efficient.
26:26 I think the year, my last year, he was 19 and 10
26:29 and we barely threw him the ball.
26:30 Like, you know, I was taking a lot of the shots
26:32 and the offense was geared around how I was playing.
26:36 So, fantastic.
26:38 He said it best is like, you know,
26:41 we've all played with dudes where like,
26:42 if you ran full speed and you try to get through a pick,
26:45 you think you can move a guy no matter how big you are.
26:48 JP's one of the guys at all levels
26:49 that you're gonna break your shoulder.
26:51 - Yeah, you wind up like a chiropractor.
26:53 - Yeah, like he just, he was one of the strongest dudes
26:56 and I've only played with maybe two others,
26:59 but that was at the NBA level that were stronger
27:01 and, you know, four inches taller or whatever.
27:03 But he was really good.
27:05 He was just super efficient.
27:06 Like, you just, and it was never anything,
27:09 couldn't jump, barely dunk, you know what I mean?
27:12 Like, but it was all angles and then touch.
27:14 And he was really smart, duck ends.
27:16 But then like you said, pick and pop, all that stuff.
27:18 He was really good at it.
27:19 - Who would have been those stronger guys in the league
27:21 that set those screens?
27:23 - DJ Banga was one of the stronger guys I've ever seen.
27:26 Just out for just, you know,
27:30 and then you always played like, obviously like Shaq,
27:32 you know, things like that.
27:33 - Back at that time, like most similar,
27:36 like when I was at Utah for that camp was Boozer.
27:41 - Yeah, yeah.
27:41 - He was like that.
27:42 - Yeah, he was just one of those guys.
27:44 - I had a similar welcome to the NBA moment like that.
27:47 It was my rookie year with the Hawks.
27:48 We were playing the Jazz
27:50 and I got hit by a back screen from Karl Malone.
27:53 - Oh yeah.
27:54 - I like literally felt every vertebrae in my back
27:56 go pop, pop, pop, pop.
27:57 And then I like had to look around
27:59 and see what the heck happened.
28:00 'Cause like literally it was like quick second,
28:02 like where am I?
28:03 Oh, I got hit by him.
28:04 And then I kind of stumbled back to my assignment.
28:07 So we're about a third of the way through the WCC.
28:11 They're a game or so behind.
28:14 You know, what are your expectations?
28:16 Is this a tournament team?
28:18 'Cause people are like,
28:19 "Oh, they're not gonna make tournament."
28:20 They're top, they're 30th in the net.
28:22 If the season were to end today at the net,
28:24 no team ranked 30th has never been
28:27 not invited to the NCAA tournament.
28:29 They still got some work to do, but what do you see?
28:31 - There's a road ahead for sure.
28:34 First off, you know,
28:36 if they miss the cut in the tournament,
28:38 that doesn't mean they're,
28:39 in my mind, they weren't good enough.
28:42 They have some things they have to put together.
28:44 Mo was mentioning this before.
28:47 They need a guy who emotionally
28:50 and from a scoring perspective in particular says,
28:53 "Nope, it's my ball."
28:55 And I don't see that right now from them.
29:00 I think the substitution on a big standpoint
29:03 does a lot of good things for them,
29:05 but I don't think it answers that question per se just yet.
29:08 So, and in college, it really, you know,
29:13 and I'm a big guy saying this,
29:15 it has to be a guard that does that.
29:17 'Cause you could throw the ball down low,
29:19 but if teams know it's coming,
29:21 there's no defensive three seconds,
29:22 it's really difficult.
29:23 There's not the space, right?
29:25 But they have, you know, if you're just doing the math,
29:31 if they win out there and obviously,
29:33 even if they lose in the WCC,
29:34 but if they lose the tournament,
29:36 if they lose one more and drop the tournament,
29:39 now you do have probably an issue
29:41 'cause unless it's a highly ranked team in the WCC,
29:46 you're looking at no quad one wins.
29:48 But I don't know, it's as cliche it is,
29:53 it's really pointless.
29:54 Like you're going game by game, right?
29:57 And they, you know what you have to do.
30:00 It's not that you have to go out and win.
30:02 You don't say to yourself, like, "We've got to win out."
30:04 You say, "All right, we made this lineup change.
30:08 Now who's going to be our guy that steps up and does it?"
30:13 I don't know if it's going to be Nolan.
30:14 I mean, Nolan's got his hand a lot of scoring,
30:16 but he hasn't seemed to take the reins on that.
30:18 And then with Ryan, you know, he does really well creating,
30:24 but he doesn't seem to want to take
30:25 that big shot all the time.
30:26 So they got to find that, you know?
30:30 So I don't think it's without its challenges,
30:32 but they're very, I mean, I don't,
30:34 if you go man to man across the country,
30:38 they're in the top 10 personnel wise,
30:40 but putting it together has been an issue.
30:42 - Yeah.
30:43 Awesome.
30:44 Well, anything to, in your eyes to finish up with thoughts?
30:47 - No, I think Corey hit a lot of the stuff
30:50 that needs to be addressed and they had a great weekend
30:52 and I think it's game by game.
30:54 You know, and then you also got to remember
30:57 if they do slip up and lose one,
30:59 you still got the, you know, Vegas.
31:01 You win two games in Vegas.
31:03 That's all you got to do, right?
31:04 To get back in the tournament.
31:05 We've had teams like this before where they weren't,
31:09 you know, maybe nationally ranked and, you know,
31:12 people kind of think that they're not, you know,
31:15 worthy or playing as well.
31:16 The team after me that had the Cuso and Pendo
31:21 and Ravs team, you know, they figured it out
31:24 and ended up making the NCAA tournament.
31:26 You know, so like teams,
31:27 sometimes it takes them a little bit while to peak.
31:30 I said it on the show before, last year we were 15 and five,
31:33 lost to LMU and the sky was falling.
31:36 We made it to elite eight.
31:37 - Yeah.
31:38 - Okay.
31:39 So at some point, sometimes we have to just maybe
31:42 understand that, you know,
31:44 Santa Clara was better than maybe we thought.
31:46 It was a tough place to play.
31:48 And, you know, some of the issues, you know,
31:51 as far as maybe lineup are corrected now.
31:55 - Well, I like the optimistic viewpoint from both of you guys
31:57 and hopefully more fans take that
31:59 over the next couple of weeks
32:00 'cause they got a chance to get on a little run here
32:03 before those kind of dog fights on the road with Santa Clara
32:07 or excuse me, with St. Mary's as well as San Francisco.
32:10 'Cause I think it's gonna come down
32:11 in the last week of the regular season,
32:12 which is a competitor.
32:14 Yeah, you wanna blow everybody out,
32:15 but you also live for those tough games
32:18 where there's something on the line.
32:19 - Yeah.
32:20 - So. - It's gonna be fun.
32:21 - For Adam Morrison, I'm your host, Dan Dickout.
32:23 Today's guest on Talking Zags, episode 14,
32:27 the tremendous Corey Milet.
32:30 (upbeat music)
32:32 (upbeat music)