Monday Night's Zags Around the Web

The basketball season officially began tonight with the Duke Blue Devils dismantling Presbyterian. What does this mean to the basketball fan? Basically that the first few weeks of college basketball are excruciatingly slow. Most high major schools like Gonzaga schedule some "ego-boosters" to get them ready for the non-conference schedule. The good part of this all means that the predictions and prognostications are all out the window soon and all that is left is some college basketball.

For now, we'll just humor you with some inklings from the college basketball world...

-- The digging for information on the Texas-Gonzaga scrimmage in Colorado continues. We are relatively sure about a few things and one of those is that the Zags came away victorious. We should have more information for you guys tomorrow from a first hand source but until then we will continue to wonder.

-- Some very happy news is on the way and that is the Early Signing Period for 2009 recruits. The signing period begins on November 12th and Sam Dower and Mangisto Arop are slated to be the first signatures received for Mark Few. There have been rumors about some mystery recruits floating around. TKR will keep you updated if these rumors turn into fact.

-- One rumor we are very happy to see is the status of Bol Kong. Kong has been battling a very difficult battle after committing to Gonzaga. Due to some Visa issues, Kong, a Sudanese native, has been unable to get into the country. The perfect scenario was to have him here at the start of the year but that has obviously been delayed. Kong is priority number one for the staff and they have been working very hard on his situation and it appears that the outcome may be positive and he may be a Bulldog very soon. Kong is rumored to be one of the most talented players to come along in quite some time. Many scouts have hinted that if Kong joined the Zags today, he would be one of the most talented players on the team from jump street.

-- The Internet is kind of a strange place and proof of that is this preseason rankings by Addicott Web. I'm not really sure what it's all about but they have the Zags at 11th to start the year...I hope he likes our new school website.

-- Yard Barker, a sports site, has broken down the West Coast Conference. No surprise that they have Gonzaga as the top-ranked team in the WCC but they peg USD as the second best team in the conference. Saint Mary's is barely on the outside of the top 25 so I was surprised that they had USD there but there can definitely be a debate for either team being there. Even more surprising is that they have Gonzaga as the only team from the WCC making the NCAA Tournament. Methinks that this site does not know too much about the Saint Mary's Gaels because I think the WCC will definitely be a two bid conference this year, if not three.

-- In one of my favorite preseason breakdowns, the Sporting News broke down the NCAA in a bunch of categories of superlatives. Gonzaga was a top-5 team in two of his categories including the fourth best offense in the nation and the second team with the most potential to improve upon. I think that both of these rankings are spot on. Led by Austin Daye, Gonzaga has tons of potential and if they maximize it, the results should be excellent. In his breakdown of best offenses, the authors writes that for the Zags to be as good as projected, Josh Heytvelt has to excel and once again he is correct. Heytvelt is the lynch pin of this offense and he must be dominant if Gonzaga is going to be a final four team.

-- I was able to dig up this video in case you were unable to make it out to Kraziness in the Kennel...ugh...can we please start playing some basketball?