Mark Few knows both Kentucky and Gonzaga will be "desperate" on Saturday

Both Kentucky and Gonzaga are coming off lopsided wins, the Cats beating Vanderbilt by 32 and the Bulldogs beating Portland by 28; however, those results will do little to move the needle on Selection Sunday. Saturday’s showdown in Rupp Arena is a Quad 1 game for both teams, which both desperately need for their NCAA Tournament resumes. Kentucky is trending as a No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the latest projections, while Gonzaga is currently on the wrong side of the bubble, which puts its streak of 24 consecutive NCAA Tournaments at risk.

Kentucky is 2-4 in Quad 1 games thus far, beating North Carolina and Florida. Gonzaga is 0-5 in Quad 1. While the Cats have five Quad 1 opportunities remaining, Saturday’s game is just one of three Quad 1 games left on the Zags’ schedule. All three are on the road. Mark Few knows the stakes will be high in Rupp.

“They’re desperate just like we are but man, they’ve got some high-level talent,” Few said after Gonzaga’s win over Portland last night. “Cal’s done a good job bringing freshmen in and mixing in some experienced transfers and keeping a couple of guys around from last year and they’re really, really something on offense right now. We’ll have to prep for them tomorrow. It’s a long flight and they’ll be ready for us.”

Why is Gonzaga so bad this season? The Bulldogs return only 34.7% minutes from last year’s team that went to the Elite Eight. Gone are Drew Timme and Julian Strawther, the latter a first-round NBA Draft pick. Hunter Sallis transferred to Wake Forest. The Bulldogs nabbed a big transfer of their own, sharpshooter Steele Venters, but he tore his ACL in the preseason. Two-thirds of the way through the season, this team hasn’t found its footing yet, especially on offense.

Gonzaga is hitting 34% from outside, the worst three-point percentage of Mark Few’s tenure. In the loss to Saint Mary’s on Saturday, the Bulldogs made only three three-pointers. They hit two in losses to UConn and Santa Clara. Last night, they had a bit of a breakthrough on the perimeter, making 15 threes, albeit against a Portland team that ranks No. 303 in KenPom and No. 343 in three-point defense.

“Hopefully, we’ll make shots like we did tonight,” Few said of Saturday’s game at Rupp. “The game feels a lot better, looks a lot better, and the result is usually a lot better when you just make those open shots. Helps when you make 15 threes instead of three or four.”

“Obviously, it’s a whole other entity we’re going to deal with in Rupp.”

Few raves about Kentucky’s freshmen, offense

Last season, Gonzaga handled Kentucky easily in the first game of a six-year series, winning 88-72 in Spokane. The Cats made just 39% of their shots, 25% in the first half. As Few noted, that doesn’t happen a lot with John Calipari’s new squad.

“I’m so impressed with their freshmen’s skill level. It’s crazy. [Reed] Sheppard and [Rob] Dillingham, just how skilled they are. Obviously, they’re talented but it’s amazing how they shoot it and shoot it so easily, how confident they are. The whole group is very impressive.

“I don’t think offensively they were quite there last year but this is a really, really good offensive team. And they’re deadly in transition so we’ve got to get back and guard the three-line and try to set our defense and keep them in front.”

“They’re super talented,” Grad forward Anton Watson said of Kentucky. “They like to go up and down the court. They don’t play slow so I think it’s going to be a high-paced game so I think it’s going to be super fun to play.”

Kentucky and Gonzaga have major areas of concern on opposite sides of the ball. The Cats need to put together some semblance of a defense, and the Bulldogs need consistency on offense. Which team makes the most progress in those areas could determine who comes out on top. Motivation won’t be an issue, at least for two Bulldogs. When asked if they knew what a win over Kentucky would mean moving forward, both Watson and redshirt freshman Braden Huff nodded and laughed.

“I would say so,” Watson said. “Yeah. Definitely.”

“We’ll be locked in for that one, for sure,” Huff added.