In the latest Zags Basketball Insiders Podcast, Richard Fox and yours truly covered Gonzaga’s convincing win over Alabama, the impact of Mario Saint-Supery and Tyon Grant-Foster and the pluses and minuses of NIL-driven tournaments.
If we recapped it all here, the copy might fill up a newspaper page, so we offer a condensed version below (edited for space considerations).
For the entire podcast, go to https://www.spokesman.com/podcasts/zags-basketball-insiders or https://youtu.be/QRrDlr2jTDk.
Gonzaga guard Mario Saint-Supery (17) moves the ball against Alabama’s Aden Holloway (2) during the second half of GU’s 95-85 win at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Monday. (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review)
Mario shines as starter
Fox: It’s pretty obvious that Mario has the car keys now. What a remarkable stat line, but again he kind of finds way to fill stat sheet (10 points, all on free throws, six assists, five rebounds against Alabama).
For a young guy in a very fast-paced game, because that’s not the pace of play they have overseas, he was comfortable. He did a really good job of knowing when to slow down. He had a great pass inside to (Graham) Ike where he waited. Ike’s there, he could throw it but he waited just half a second so Ike could take another step toward the basket and he delivered just a perfect bounce pass. He had three or four of those that were really high-level, mature plays.
If you didn’t know he was freshman, you’d think he was a junior. He plays with that kind of poise.
Meehan: You saw a few things (against Alabama) that almost made it inevitable that it was heading that way (Mario starting). He brings charisma and energy. His body, 6-foot-3, very strong for only being 19, but he guards, levels off guys on the drive, moves them without fouling, he can shift them away from the rim.
This is in no way anything against Braeden (Smith). I feel like Braeden has lost time even though he’s played pretty well, especially distributing and taking care of the ball, but Mario just has some juice when he steps on the floor and the rest of the guys feed off that as well.
Does he change their ceiling? It’s trending that way.
Gonzaga’s Tyon Grant-Foster moves the ball during the second half of the Zags’ 95-85 win over No. 8 Alabama on Monday at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review)
Tyon torches Crimson Tide
Meehan: Tyon was huge. He may just make it a Big 3 (with Ike and Braden Huff) if he keeps doing things like he did (Monday).
Mark Few put it this way: He’s a guy that can score when the play breaks down. Plays break down all the time. You can draw it up and it looks great in practice and you run it against air and it works every time. And it might work against a lot of teams, but when you’re playing high-level teams, they’ve got you scouted, they’re going to take away things, they’re athletic enough to recover.
Tyon can get the ball with six seconds left 20 feet from the hoop and get to the rim or the mid-range or scoop up a rebound and get the putback. He can do stuff that a lot of their guys can’t do. He is the piece that just gives them such a high ceiling.
Fox: He’s like, in football, the big-play wide receiver. He’s a big play guy. It’s the block in transition, flies in from the wing, catches the lob from (Adam) Miller and dunks it. These really high-level, impactful plays that insert a jolt of energy, either changes momentum or accelerates the momentum Gonzaga might have.
While he’s a flawed player with his really inability to shoot the 3-point shot, that doesn’t slow him down if he’s selective with that part of his game. He still finds a way to get to the basket, mid-range, offensive rebound. It’s remarkable to think what this team might look like if he hadn’t gotten eligible.
Now that you’ve seen it, maybe the ceiling is a bit higher, at least for me, than I thought.
