Drew Timme reminded everyone he’s the best player on the the best team in the dominant win over the Longhorns
2 min read
Knee-jerk reactions are a natural thing in sports. Almost all of us are susceptible to them sometimes. The most common one in college basketball after Gonzaga’s season-opening win in which five-star freshman Chet Holmgren produced a historically great stat line was that Drew Timme might not be the best player on his team even though he is the consensus preseason national player of the year.
In passing, half-joking, even I wondered about it.
But by the time the Zags were done with Saturday night’s 86-74 victory over Texas in a high-profile matchup of top-five teams, there was little doubt that Mark Few’s top player — not prospect, but player — remains the same guy who led the national power in both points and rebounds last season. Timme took 19 shots against Chris Beard’s Longhorns, made 15 of them and finished with a career-high 37 points and seven rebounds. The 6-foot-10 forward was dominant from start to finish and literally impossible for any single Texas player to handle.
“He played like [the best player in college basketball] tonight,” Few said. “He’s an off-the-charts competitor.”
The most impressive thing about the Zags’ 12-point win was how it was completely uncompetitive. They jumped to a double-digit lead barely seven minutes post tip-off and were never threatened after leading by 20 at halftime. The last time the game was in single digits was at the 5:57 mark of the first half.
“I wish we’d played better,” Beard said.
Gonzaga tends to make opposing coaches say things like that. Yes, the Zags were undeniably outclassed in the title game of the 2021 NCAA Tournament by a Baylor team that was super-athletic and led by NBA guards. But as Matt Norlander pointed out in Saturday night’s column from Spokane, before that beating the Zags played 15 games against power-conference and/or top-75 KenPom teams and won them all by an average of 15.1 points. So what they just did to Texas is what they’ve been doing to most teams like Texas for years now. This was just a restart of an impressive stretch and reminder of why this West Coast Conference program is once again the betting favorite to win the national championship.
The Zags remain No. 1 in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Their next game is Monday against Alcorn State. Their next high-profile contest is scheduled for Nov. 23 against UCLA in Las Vegas.
