No. 3 Gonzaga continues busy stretch against San Diego (Jan 26, 2017)
No. 3 Gonzaga has suffered several injuries affecting its rotation and San Diego is trying to overcome sickness with its lineup when the Toreros play a West Coast Conference game against the Bulldogs on Thursday night in Spokane, Wash.
Gonzaga point guard Nigel Williams-Goss is trying to play through a sore hip and reserve forward Killian Tillie is nursing a sprained right ankle. Their status for the 9 p.m. ET game is uncertain.
Gonzaga (20-0 overall, 8-0 WCC) has no time to rest. The Bulldogs area in the middle of playing five games in 10 days.
"It was physical in there, that's what scares you a little bit," Gonzaga coach Mark Few after Monday's 83-64 win at Portland, a game rescheduled from Jan. 7 because of inclement weather.
"We've been going pretty hard here. We'll get a rest day (Tuesday) and get 'em back up again for another Thursday, Saturday. Monday's (rescheduled game) doesn't just impact last week but this coming week."
With No. 1 Villanova losing at Marquette and No. 2 Kansas falling at West Virginia on Tuesday, that opens a path for Gonzaga to reach the No. 1 spot if Few's team can defeat San Diego on Thursday and win at Pepperdine on Saturday night.
San Diego (10-10, 3-5) will try to rejuvenate itself after losing 60-43 at San Francisco last Saturday, ending a stretch of winning three of four games. The Toreros were without second-leading scorer Olin Carter III and second-leading rebounder Juwan Gray. Both were suffering from the flu in the loss to San Francisco.
Carter and Gray, who combined for nearly 25 points per game, should return against Gonzaga.
"This is sports. Those things happen," San Diego coach Lamont Smith said. "You would hope other guys would embrace the opportunity. (But) some of our starters no-showed.
"Our mentality has got to change if we're going to keep moving forward. You've got to compete. Nobody cares if you've got guys out. Gonzaga doesn't care. USF doesn't care."
Gonzaga has the longest winning streak in the nation at 20 games and the second longest in school history, matching the 2005-06 and 2003-04 teams. The 2014-15 team has the record of 22 games.
Aside from the recent injury bug, the Bulldogs are trying to overcome the possibility of overlooking lesser WCC opponents. Five of the 10 conference teams have overall losing records or are at .500 (San Diego). And Santa Clara is close at 11-10.
Portland (9-11, 2-6) outrebounded Gonzaga (including 21 offensive rebounds) and limited the Bulldogs to two fast-break points last Saturday in a 73-52 victory. Two days later in Portland, Gonzaga had the rebounding edge and was more active with nine fast-break points in an 83-64 win.
"We got our --- kicked on the offensive rebounds in the last game," Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski said. "Our effort on the glass (Monday) was way better. We got to most of the balls on our end."
