Ever Wonder Why?

At the beginning of every sports season, there is that euphoric feeling one often gets when those thoughts that this could be that special year creep into the fan’s psyche. “This person is a senior and we all know how well they did last year,” is often how the justification begins.

Don’t we also forget how other teams in a particular league may have also improved? I think back to last year when Gonzaga gave eventual Final Four team Ohio State fits until finally coming up a bit short and were out of the NCAA tournament. I was upset, but had a good feeling about this year’s team. Sure Rob Sacre was going to graduate, but I remember seeing the possibilities that a young Kelly Olynyk might bring to this year’s team.

I’m not sure what it was, but I liked Olynyk even more than I did Sacre. It wasn’t the tattoos that Sacre has. No I’m not a fan of tattoos and never will be, but that is my personal opinion. Although, it does seem to me that players think that the person with the most tats will win the game. Again, it’s just my personal opinion. As big as Rob Sacre is, he could have been an animal near the basket, but there were a fair amount of times the big guy couldn’t finish around the basket. To his credit, he did make up for it by being an excellent free throw shooter, but it would have been neat to see more three-point plays.

One thing I’ve wondered about the Zags is how a team that is so loaded with talent have problems putting away some of their opponents that don’t match up very well athletically. The one thing that started me thinking was attendance at the opponent’s arena. When a team comes to Spokane the opponent knows that the MAC will be sold out and the game will be on TV. These teams come in to Spokane ready for an upset. It doesn’t matter how poorly a team may have played two nights previous they’ve prepared all week for the big upset in order to see their name in the headlines. At least that is what is seems to be.

How about when the Zags go on the road? The arenas are filled to capacity with many of the students sporting “Beat the Zags” or “Bulldogs” t-shirts. To those student fans that game is everything and they might be working out all week in case they get to storm the court after a big upset victory.

The biggest attendance for a WSU home game this year was when Gonzaga came to Beasley Coliseum.

More than 1,600 more people attended than showed up for the UW game. Sure there are a lot of GU fans that go to this game, but when it comes to the students and conference rivals there should be no comparison.

But the nationally ranked Bulldogs are fast becoming the Cougars big rival. Not bad for a team that Kelvin Sampson refused to schedule when he was WSU’s head coach.

I watched GU’s game with San Francisco on Saturday at War Memorial Gym and it was full to capacity like every WCC gym is when the Zags are in town.

After the game ended I flipped channels to watch some of the St. Mary’s versus LMU game. The one thing that really stuck out was the fact that there were so many empty seats when the second place team shows up. The GU game was sold out when they were in town. There must have been a lot more seats sold than people who showed up on Saturday. Well, it must have been a nice day in Los Angeles.

Fans and students should take a look at the Zags because they can sell out or bring a large audience to an otherwise small attendance venue.

What it does do to the home team is bring more energy everywhere Gonzaga plays. Case in point, T. Boone Pickens put up a thousand tickets or so and gave them away to make sure Oklahoma State had a full arena when Gonzaga arrived in Stillwater for a New Year’s Eve game. GU won a high-octane game but the energy at OSU made this a huge game for both programs.

Do you ever wonder why teams play so much better in front of big crowds? Gonzaga is used to it and embraces these types of games home or away. And that is one of the primary reasons the Zags are getting very talented athletes who certainly enjoy those winning ways