Gonzaga responded to a rare embarrassing blowout loss by delivering its own fierce domination of Kentucky.
Now the No. 11 Bulldogs will see easier competition when they face North Florida on Sunday night at Spokane, Wash.
Gonzaga (8-1) trounced No. 18 Kentucky 94-59 on Friday night in front of a pro-Wildcats crowd in Nashville. The victory came nine days after the Bulldogs were annihilated 101-61 by then-No. 7 Michigan in the Players Era championship game in Las Vegas.
The period between games was highly tense as the team attempted to move on from being crushed by the Wolverines.
“It’s no fun for anybody. Those practices were not fun,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said after Friday’s victory. “… I think everybody got their frustrations out.”
One player who had a huge turnaround effort was big man Graham Ike.
Ike was nonexistent against Michigan, missing all nine of his field-goal attempts and had just one point with no rebounds.
It was a much different deal against Kentucky as Ike had a season-best 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds.
“It was a long nine days between games,” Ike said. “Standard nine days, but definitely just wanted to dial in our guys with a great opportunity to see what we’re made of and we responded well. I’m proud of the guys.”
Ike has stood out against Kentucky in three straight seasons, with outings of 23 points two seasons ago and 28 points and 11 rebounds last season before Friday’s stellar performance.
Ike leads the Zags in scoring (16.4 points per game) and rebounding (8.1) and Braden Huff ranks second with a 16.2 scoring average.
Huff also excelled against Kentucky with 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting. It is his third effort of 20 or more points this season.
North Florida (2-6) is 0-3 on the road and the chances of nabbing that first away victory at “The Kennel” is microscopically slim.
The Ospreys made the trip to Spokane early in the 2022-23 season and it didn’t go well. Gonzaga won 104-63.
First-year coach Bobby Kennen wants to visit opponents like Gonzaga, Florida and Tennessee. The Ospreys lost 104-64 to the then-No. 3 Gators on Nov. 6 and 99-66 to the then-No. 20 Volunteers on Nov. 12.
“We’ve had a consistent tradition of playing one of the top schedules in the country,” Kennen said recently. “Part of that fabric, we recruit guys who look forward to the challenge and look forward to the fight.”
Kennen was a North Florida assistant for the past 16 seasons before being promoted in the offseason when Matthew Driscoll resigned as coach and joined the Kansas State coaching staff.
The Ospreys last played Tuesday when they dropped a 72-63 home decision against SIU Edwardsville. Kamrin Oriol and Trey Cady each scored 16 points to pace North Florida.
Oriol averages a team-leading 17.5 points and has scored 20 or more three times with a high of 30. Kent Jackson (12.5) and Cady (10.3) also average in double figures.
Jackson has sunk a team-best 23 3-pointers but his percentage is just 33.8. Oriol (22 of 51) has made 43.1%.
