Who's slowing Gonzaga?

Good morning! If you didn’t stay up to watch Gonzaga-San Diego State (or got distracted by MNF), no worries. That’s why we’re here.

1. Gonzaga keeps on rolling

It was the Ryan Nembhard and Graham Ike show inside Viejas Arena on Monday, much to the dismay of San Diego State fans.

Mark Few has his sweet revenge. San Diego State ended Gonzaga’s 59-game nonconference winning streak last season with a two point win at The Kennel. It wasn’t even close this season.

Gonzaga walked away with a comfortable 80-67 road win, with Ike scoring 23 points and Nembhard chipping in 19 points and 10 assists. He now boasts an absurd 8-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Ike picked up two fouls in the first two minutes of the game, and he only played six minutes in the first half. Gonzaga still rolled to a nine-point lead at the break. When Ike came back to start the second half, Gonzaga stretched out the lead and never looked back. Ike scored 20 of his 23 points in the second half.

“For Graham to come back, especially after the early two fouls,” Few said. “A, to play him for spurt there in the first half and not pick up a third but B, to come in and get back to delivering in a hard, physical – those bigs are tough to post and tough to score on and I thought that was a huge key in the second half.”

San Diego State (2-1) got 23 points from Nick Boyd, and 15 from BJ Davis, but its other three starters combined to go 3-for-17 from the field. They’re now 60th in KenPom, their lowest ranking in five seasons.

Gonzaga is 4-0 and look every bit of a top-3 team in America. They have experience. They have continuity. And Ike is the centerpiece that drives it all.

“I told him, that’s what we need from him every night,” Nembhard said postgame. “That’s just who he is, just an All-American type player. And when he gets it down there, it’s almost a bucket every time. So, we know what he does, we trust him and we’re going to keep throwing it in there and he’s going to deliver.”

The Zags have three more non-conference games against power conference schools, plus the Battle 4 Atlantis. They’ll likely be favored in all of these games:

• Nov. 27: vs. West Virginia (Battle 4 Atlantis)

• Dec. 7: vs. Kentucky (In Seattle)

• Dec. 14: vs. UConn (at MSG)

• Dec. 28: vs. UCLA (at Intuit Dome)

If they come away with a title from Atlantis (likely vs. Arizona), then go 2-1 in their three other games, that’s peak-era Gonzaga results.

2. Newly ranked Wisconsin avoids a stumble

After an impressive weekend win over Arizona, No. 19 Wisconsin entered the AP Top 25 for the first time this season on Monday. It was almost a short stay.

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