You wouldn’t realize how poor No. 2 Gonzaga played offensively against No. 11 UCLA in a 74-62 win on Friday until you look at its season as a whole. The Bulldogs shot 40 percent from the floor and 16 behind the arc, which clearly isn’t great, but it feels like Kentucky won half of its games this season with similar shooting splits.
Gonzaga vs. Duke, 2015 NCAA Tournament: Time, TV schedule and how to watch online
The final game of the Elite Eight.
But Gonzaga’s success relies on its offense, and this season, the Bulldogs shot 52 percent from the field and 40 percent on three-pointers. In fact, their field goal percentage was the best in the entire nation while their three-point shooting was fourth.
Leading scorer Kyle Wiltjer was at the front of their struggles on Friday, shooting just 4-12 for eight points. He still found other ways to impact the game, finishing with a team-high 10 rebounds and four assists. But his scoring was still well below his season averages of 17 points on 54 percent field goal shooting and 47 percent shooting from the arc.
On Sunday, No. 1 Duke faces Gonzaga with a Final Four berth in play, and it will be the Blue Devils’ job to slow down Wiltjer and the rest of the Bulldogs in a similar fashion. They can do it, with athleticism on the wings and size down low, but it won’t be easy.
Jahlil Okafor, a likely top-two pick in the coming 2015 NBA Draft, leads Duke this season with 17 points and eight rebounds a game. He's a monster down low, but Gonzaga's 7'1 Przemek Karnowski may be one of the few players in this tournament with the size to slow him down.
Offensively, the Blue Devils rely on senior guard Quinn Cook and freshman forward Justise Winslow. Cook scored 37 points combined in Duke's first two games of the tournament, while Winslow is coming off a 21-point, 10-rebound effort against Utah in the Sweet 16. If all three of Okafor, Winslow and Cook are going at once, there may not be a way to stop Duke.
Here’s how to watch:
Time: 5:05 p.m. ET on CBS
Place: Houston, Texas
Online: March Madness On Demand
Odds: Duke -2.5
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