SportsLine.com report
March 23, 2000

Sweet 16: Shots don't fall, so Bulldogs do

The party is over for Gonzaga. What's worse, Gene Keady and the Purdue Boilermakers made sure there would be a hangover.

Whatever pain Gonzaga felt in its 75-66 loss to Purdue in the West regional semifinals Thursday night in The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M., it will surely be felt all over again when the Bulldogs wake up Friday morning. You see, the Boilermakers don't bother with finesse. As they had done to Dayton and Oklahoma earlier in the tournament, the Boilermakers gave the Bulldogs a beating.

Purdue was stronger in the paint … and stronger on the perimeter. And, in the end, the game wasn't much of a contest. Gonzaga shot just 25 percent from 3-point range, 64 percent from the free-throw line and was battered on the glass, 40-30.

After leading by six points early in the game, Gonzaga could do little to stop the Boilermakers and spent most of the second half fighting back from double-digit deficits.

Gonzaga's cause wasn't aided by the poor shooting of Matt Santangelo and Richie Frahm. The seniors combined to shoot just 2 of 13 from 3-point range, and Frahm's lone make of the game came when the outcome was all but decided. Santangelo did finish with nine points and eight assists, but was 4 of 18 from the floor and 1 of 7 from 3-point range.

Purdue continued to get solid play from shooting guard Jaraan Cornell, who scored 18 points. Purdue also received balanced scoring from their inside tandem of Greg McQuay (11 points) and Brian Cardinal (10 points) while point guard Carson Cunningham added 14 points.

Gonzaga's loss left them one game short of the regional final, where the Bulldogs fell out of the draw last year in a loss to eventual national champion Connecticut.

How They Got There

Gonzaga entered the West Coast Conference Tournament as the second seed and defending tourney champ. In the first tournament meeting between the top two seeds in the 14 years of the event, the Bulldogs dropped Pepperdine, 69-65, in overtime for the title. They then went about defeating the same seeds they did in last year's miraculous run ... the seven and the 10. This year, it was Louisville and St. John's.

Starting lineup

• PG Matt Santangelo (6-1, 176, Sr.) 13.4 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 6.4 apg
  He doesn't need to score as much this year as he has in the past, and hasn't. But he's done a good job of quarterbacking the team, his assist-to-turnover ratio the best of his career. If Santangelo adds offense -- he had 26 in the second-round win over St. John's -- he makes the Bulldogs that much tougher to stop.
• SG Ryan Floyd (6-1, 200, Sr.) 5.9 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.8 apg
  Replacing injured Mike Nilson in the final two games of the WCC Tournament, Floyd tripled his number of career starts. His only other start came on Senior Night at home two weeks earlier. Floyd was a big lift off the bench this season with his long-range shooting. He's not as physical as Nilson can be a liability on defense. On the upside, his presence in the starting lineup forces the opposition to guard five guys instead of four, as many times teams dared Nilson to bomb away from the outside.
• C Axel Dench (6-11, 245, Sr.) 9.5 ppg, 5 rpg, 1.5 apg
  Solid in the middle this season, both with his rebounding and scoring. He's become more aggressive, which has made him a better player, as evidenced by his 14 and 17 points in the two NCAA Tournament victories -- which opened things up on the outside. His defensive play is critical, too.
• SF Richie Frahm (6-5, 210, Sr.) 17 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.5 apg
  Inconsistent with his jumper this season, but still good enough to lead the WCC in scoring. When the Bulldogs have lost, it's been partly because his shot hasn't been on. To be fair, they've won most nights because Frahm was at his best. He bombed away for 9 of 14 in scoring 31 points against Louisville; against St. John's he made just 2 of 7 and scored only 10 points -- but all were important in the second half. Frahm is just a pure shooter ... some nights it's falling, others it's not. The magnitude of the game doesn't seem to sway him one way or the other.
• PF Casey Calvary (6-8, 235, Sr.) 13.2 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 1 apg
  A big-game guy, his tip-in with 4.4 seconds to play last year beat Florida in the Sweet 16. He was named the MVP of the WCC Tournament, scoring back-to-back career highs of 22 and 28 against San Diego and Pepperdine. He led the league in blocked shots for the third straight season and was again one of the top rebounders. Calvary hasn't scored big in the first two games, but has averaged 10.5. With the guards popping, he hasn't been needed much, but against more physical teams he will have to be more of a factor.

Keys to Success

The outside game remains a key. Casey Calvary carried the Bulldogs with his inside play for the final two games of the WCC Tournament, but if the outside game is spotty, teams will be able to concentrate on shutting down the inside. Richie Frahm was hot in the first game of the NCAA Tournament, scoring 31 points against Louisville. His shot wasn't falling against St. John's but he still managed to score in double figures ... and Matt Santangelo picked up the slack and drilled it from long range.

In Nilson's absence the Bulldogs have been forced to start Ryan Floyd at the off guard. Usually an offensive threat off the bench, as evidenced by his career-high 17 points to rally the Bulldogs over UCLA, depth becomes an issue when he starts. Gonzaga used just seven players in the win over Pepperdine as Santangelo played all 45 minutes and Floyd 42 at the guard spots. Freshman Jimmy Tricco may have to be called on for critical minutes in the NCAA Tournament to spell Floyd, who was used in place of Santangelo prior to being summoned to a starting role.

Frahm needs to regain his shot to extend the opponent's defense and keep the inside game a viable option.

The Coach

There was little or no doubt that nine-year assistant coach Mark Few, who had been named associate head coach in April, would get the nod to succeed Dan Monson when the latter departed for Minnesota in late July. Few recruited several of the players who were instrumental in the Bulldogs' run to the NCAA Elite Eight a year ago.

With huge expectations, Few's mission was challenged with injuries and illness throughout the season. But he never aborted the game plan and did an excellent job of holding together a fragile team. Few did an excellent job for two games in the WCC Tournament of using the Nilson injury as a motivating factor. Whether he can continue to keep them up for a run to the Final Four remains to be seen.

The Bench

With Mike Nilson out for the season, this team isn't as deep as it was entering the WCC Tournament. And entering the season it wasn't as deep as it was a year ago.

Ryan Floyd's insertion into the starting lineup in place of Nilson leaves the Bulldogs thin at guard. They have just true freshmen walkons John Gebbers and Kenny Williams to spell Santangelo at the point, and neither is ready for prime-time minutes.

Mark Spink (a 6-8 junior) fills in at the three spot, but the Bulldogs use a lot of three-guard sets with Frahm at small forward. Zach Gourde is also around to give the Bulldogs a solid inside presence.

Starters are eating up the bulk of the minutes, leaving the reserves -- largely Gourde and Spink -- to split 20 minutes or so.

Offense

The Bulldogs lead the WCC in scoring at 77.9 points a game, in field-goal percentage at 47.9 and in 3-point percentage at 36.2. They also have three players averaging double figures -- Richie Frahm (16.8 ppg), Casey Calvary (13.4 ppg) and Matt Santangelo (12.8 ppg). Plus, Axel Dench checks in at 9.1 points per game.

Defense

Gonzaga's defense suffered a severe blow when Mike Nilson, the WCC Defender of the Year, went down with a ruptured Achilles' tendon in the opening game of the WCC Tournament. The Bulldogs have a solid defensive corps underneath the basket, as Calvary has led the WCC in blocked shots for three years and is also among the leading rebounders in the WCC at 6.4 rpg.