SAN DIEGO – Gonzaga players took different approaches to handling the short holiday break that spanned from the team’s nonconference finale on Dec. 21 against Oregon to Christmas Day, when they were expected to report back to campus.
Some continued to go through optional workouts and get shots up with friends or personal trainers while visiting with family members in their respective hometowns.
Braden Huff was planning to take multiple trips to his old high school in the greater Chicago area, Glenbard West, to visit with old coaches/teammates, get a sweat in and make sure his post moves stayed sharp through the break.
“I don’t know how serious a workout it’ll be,” Huff said after Gonzaga’s final nonconference game.
Other Gonzaga players went cold turkey.
“Yeah I didn’t touch a basketball, I’m not going to lie. I needed that,” said senior wing Tyon Grant-Foster, who returned to his hometown of Kansas City. “We’re away from our families so much, I just felt like that was the time to decompress and really just think about family. I was like, yeah when I get back with the team, that’s when I’ll lock back in with that. I really needed to see my family, so I was just focused on that.”
It was hard to argue either approach was the wrong one after No. 7 Gonzaga dismantled Pepperdine 96-56 on Sunday in the West Coast Conference opener at Firestone Fieldhouse, getting contributions from Huff, who had 10 points on efficient shooting (5 of 7), and Grant-Foster, who led the team with 18 points and matched his career-high with four blocks.
Point guard Braeden Smith leaned toward rest and relaxation during a brief trip home to the Seattle area. Smith was back in rhythm for the Zags on Sunday, scoring 15 points to go with eight assists and five rebounds while making his first start since Nov. 14 at Arizona State.
“I was rested for the most part,” Smith said. “But got after it, had those two practices back at home and just got right back into the flow so it wasn’t too bad.”
Not coincidentally, Smith and Grant-Foster, perhaps the two most important players in Gonzaga’s 50th consecutive win over Pepperdine, are the main focus of today’s rewind.
Another B-Smith masterclass
If Smith wasn’t already getting the point across with his scoring, assist and rebounding numbers, Grant-Foster stated the obvious to Gonzaga’s junior point guard midway through Sunday’s game in Malibu.
“If you want to be honest he’ll tell you, we were in the game and I said ‘Bro, you’ve been hooping,’ ” Grant-Foster said with Smith standing to his right during postgame interviews. “I literally told him, ‘you’ve been hooping.’ I said ‘keep going.’ Coach said, every dog has their day. (Smith) had his day and shoot, I feel that’s all he needed to really get that comfort and just play his game comfortably.”
Smith returned to the starting lineup on Sunday after coming off the bench in the team’s last nine games. The move arrived seven days after he scored a season-high 21 points and delivered seven assists in GU’s 91-82 win over Oregon at the Moda Center.
It was more of the same from Smith in the WCC opener. The junior initiated his own offense, buried consecutive 3-pointers early in the second half, consistently hit short , midrange shots and found teammates for eight assists. Over the last two games, Smith is now averaging 17.5 ppg and 7.5 apg. He’s had 15 assists and just one turnover during that stretch.
“I think he’s been terrific,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “I thought he was terrific again tonight, I thought he was terrific with his ball pressure. His 3 looks good coming off his hand, I thought once again he’s getting used to playing with great pace. We play with the right pace when he’s in there. Did a great job taking care of the ball, so everything we asked of him.”
Smith made both of his 3-point attempts against Pepperdine and was on triple-double pace at halftime, with seven points, five rebounds and five assists in the opening frame.
The junior has shown the ability to contribute in the starting lineup and off the bench, but savored the chance to be back in the first five on Sunday.
“Yeah, I’m playing pretty free as of late,” Smith said. “Put together a couple good games and just trying to continue to play free, play confident, find my teammates and score when needed. Starting lineup was cool tonight, but whatever I need to do, whatever my role is I’m ready to do that at this point.”
If the shoe fits
Athletes are nothing if not superstitious.
Grant-Foster can’t recall who he was watching – Paul George or Kevin Durant, he believes – but the 25-year-old Gonzaga player was in high school when he noticed one of the superstar NBA wings had made a sneaker change at halftime.
That inspired a new game-day routine for Grant-Foster, who’s brought multiple pairs of basketball shoes to every game he’s played in since high school and swapped them out at halftime, almost without exception.
Grant-Foster did forget on one occasion during his initial season at Grand Canyon and vowed to never make the mistake again after a seven-point loss to South Carolina.
“It’s just something that stuck with me,” he said. “… It’s kind of a routine I do every game. One year, my first year at (Grand Canyon) it was right before our streak happened when we won 16 games in a row. I didn’t change my shoes when we played against South Carolina and we lost. Coach was like, ‘Make sure you change your shoes every game now, every half.’ ”
Grant-Foster wore a pair of bright Nike LeBron 20 Pink Diamond shoes in the first half Sunday against Pepperdine. At halftime, he switched into Nike’s Ja Morant 2 Black Label, a collaboration the company did with Swarovski jewelry.
Grant-Foster was effective regardless of the Nike prototype on his feet Sunday. Playing against one of his former coaches – Pepperdine’s Ed Schilling was an assistant at Grand Canyon during Grant-Foster’s first season with the Antelopes – the first-year Gonzaga wing had nine points on perfect shooting to go with three blocks in the first half.
Wearing a fresh pair of shoes in the second, Grant-Foster added nine more points and one more block. The transfer has been inconsistent from the 3-point line this season, but made both attempts against Pepperdine – the first time he’s hit two in a game since joining the Zags.
“He did a really nice job making up for some of our – whenever we had a breakdown, he came over and rotated over and made some really, really nice plays,” Few said. “I thought he did a really nice job on the offensive boards. He didn’t get statted for it, but he must have had 10 tip -outs tonight and got his hand on rebounds, tipped to somebody else and they got it. Yeah, he helped us in a variety of ways and it was good to see some perimeter shots go down for him.”