Gonzaga vs Oklahoma

NBA scouts, meet, Longer Longer. Bob Cousy pre-season selection committee, meet Jeremy Pargo. A game that was offensively-challenged in the first half became an entertaining see-saw battle in the second half. Infact the game had a soccer score at the first TV timeout (2-2). Four plus minutes of hoops and just 2 points for each team! Ouch!

The Sooners showed a lot of promise with the way they were able to push back after a run by the Zags, and earlier in the game the Zags did the same when the Sooners made a run.

Jeremy Pargo had an impressive run in the second half when he scored 11 consecutive points, but this may have damned his team's chances of a win as he continued shooting but not making the shots. But you can't complain about Pargo, he scored a career high 28 points, and a lot of them were critical buckets when the rest of the Zags were not able to make plays or score.

And to think that the preseason Bob Cousy selection committee did not have Jeremy Pargo as one of the 40 nominees! Really, there are 40 point guards better than Pargo? Where? In the NBA? Maybe, but certainly not in the NCAA!

This was a transitional game for the Zags. Josh "shroom" Heytvelt made his return to the court after ShroomGate and an injury, true freshman Stephen Gray played his second game, and tough cookie Matt Bouldin was coming back after an injury. With so many comings and goings there was expected to be some tumblings. But this is the short term. In the long term, this gives Few a 10+ man rotation, with a lot of versatility. The only weak point is backup point guard - if Pargo ever leaves the game - and there a combination of Bouldin and Gray will probably do for the few milliseconds Pargo is off the floor.

The first half the Zags played good defense as neither Ammo nor lil kiddie Raivio was on the court. But in the second half the defense was ...GoneZaga. This team certainly has a toughness boost as Pargo, Bouldin and do-it-all Pendo are definitely of the tough cookie variety. The only member of the "Moody Blues" appears to be "lowered expectations" Micah Downs.

If you had any questions whether Jeff Capel was a Dookie, just look at his hair. It looks like a blend between Coach K's head and the Duke logo! A total Dookie!

But the Sooners look very promising as of that game, with a four-pack of solid forwards, the Griffin Bros, Longar "I got offensive moves NBA scouts" Longar and Keith "Moose" Clark. The guards may be an issue but as long as Austin Johnson keeps making threes, things will be good.

But we learned more from this game, for instance, Fran Frachilla has an iPod, and he has Toby Keith songs on his iPod - according to Fran of course. The iPod was not made available for an independent entity to verify whether Frannie was just trying to please the home crowd. Toby Keith was right there watching the game :-)

More on this game at La Rev, Zagaholic, Ball Hype, News Channel 8, and AOL fan house.

For more TV games, be sure to check the December 2007 college hoops tv sked here at NCAA Hoops Today. Not to be confused with our beer blog, NCAA Hops Today ;-)

One funny thing we forgot to mention: At one point the TV cameras caught Mark Few looking miserable and sleepy on the bench. As soon as Few noticed he was on camera, he jumped up and started making (or faking) hand signals and hollering at his players down the court. I think he was faking it to save face :-)