Free Ira Brown! - The Gonzaga Hoops Podcast

Emergency final four squeaky bum victory time is now. Brain function compromised. Apologies for lack of word-smithing.

The Free Ira Brown Boys break down Gonzaga's demolition of another NCAA tournament team as they crushed the much ballyhooed upstart Trojans of USC. Turns out even Evan Mobley wasn't long enough to slow down this juggernaut of an offense. Congrats to Drew Timme on most outstanding player in the West Regional.  We also take a look ahead to another PAC12 opponent in the UCLA Bruins, breaking down our expectations for the upcoming tilt. All this and more on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown! THE INDEPENDENT Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. @freeirabrown  patreon.com/freeirabrown

Dude! Sweet! Gonzaga crushes Creighton in a Sweet Sixteen match-up that turned forever sour for those other Jesuits. We celebrate the win and break down the bad-assery that was Gonzaga's latest victory.  We also look ahead to an imposing defensive squad in the Trojans of USC. We'll let you know what to look out for, and what not too on this BONUS episode of Free Ira Brown! THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. @freeirabrown patreon.com/freeirabrown

In the latest episode of Free Ira Brown, we celebrate the ongoing brilliance of the Bulldogs. A comfortable win over Suffolk Norfolk St. followed by an at-arm’s-length victory over Oklahoma (NOT gifted to GU by the refs, like many Sooners fans would have you believe) extends the nation’s longest Sweet 16 streak, and we have it all covered. Those stories, plus our thoughts on the NCAA Tournament in general, from the Pac-12’s dominance to the Big 10’s, uh, something less than dominance to the which matchups gave us the highest scoring on the Schadenfreude Meter. We also say hello to some of our friendly derps, check in with the Gonzaga women and the disappointment of their loss to Belmont, get prepared for Creighton and touch upon the USC/Oregon matchup. And finally, since most of our brackets are in shambles and we proved, once again, we aren’t any good at picking games, we decide to look into what world-class abilities we’d like to have. If we couldn’t make any money off it, where would we still like to shine

In the past year, we haven’t had a ton of good news as a society. The same has held true for the sports world. But now, finally, after two long years, the NCAA Tournament is back. And we here at Free Ira Brown couldn’t be happier. In our latest episode, we look at the #1 overall seed (spoilers: it’s Gonzaga…perhaps you’ve heard of them?) and the Bulldogs’ route to the Final 4. Did we like the bracket? How does Gonzaga’s bracket compare to the other #1 seeds? Do we HAVE to play the same teams again? Those stories, plus we look back at the conference tournaments, what stood out to us, what surprised us and who else we’re rooting for. And finally, it’s time for a little bracket fun of our own. We’ll take a trip down memory lane, discussing the 16 most memorable Gonzaga NCAA Tournament games, Sweet 16 style. Like many Gonzaga runs, there were upsets galore. All that and more on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown, THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. For the first time in two years, do come review some brackets with us, w

Admit it: It’s a bit more fun when there are some nerves attached, right? If Gonzaga had just waltzed through things, blown BYU out of the water, of course it would have been fun and enjoyable. But having taken a punch, having withstood the best BYU had to offer, to come back and not just win, but win by double digits, THAT was a lot more fun. And we’re all about fun on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown. So much so, that we brought in Will Maupin, writer extraordinaire for The Inlander, to help us review what was maybe the biggest test Gonzaga has had all season and put all the fun numbers (26-0, 30 consecutive wins, 23 straight by double digits, etc.) in the proper perspective. Those stories, plus Gonzaga’s women take home the WCC Tournament title in about the most difficult way possible, Jill Townsend hitting a buzzer-beater to give the Bulldogs the crown. We’ll also get into a bit of point-counterpoint and look ahead to what matchups we’d like to see and avoid in the NCAA Tournament. And finally, we’re

A perfect regular season. Twenty-four games, 24 wins. The first time in the 116-year history of Gonzaga basketball the Bulldogs have finished the regular season unbeaten. It’s not everything, obviously the goal is still a national title. But it’s certainly not nothing, and here at Free Ira Brown, our latest episode celebrates this weirdest of seasons. From Jalen Suggs’ first basket against Kansas to Corey Kispert’s 3-point barrage on Senior Night, we look back on a season most memorable. Those stories, plus don’t know if you heard, but Michigan got thumped by Illinois on Tuesday night. Luckily, Adam was on the front lines to send back missives for us. There are also some WCC awards to discuss, the WCC Tournament is starting shortly and the Gonzaga’s women reacted pretty well to the loss to BYU last week. And finally, we finish with some Crazy/Not Crazy looking ahead to the weekend’s games, the NCAA Tournament and who knows what else. All that and more on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown, THE Gonzaga Hoops

Do you remember when the Gales were actual rivals? Not really sure Gonzaga does, as the Bulldogs smacked around the artist formerly known as Saint Mary’s with ease, their 20th win in the past 24 matchups with SMC. Some rivalry. But that doesn’t stop us at Free Ira Brown from enjoying yet another Bennett bashing. It also won’t stop Adam from having a go at some of the Gonzaga haters across this great land. Those stories, plus we now know who Gonzaga plays the last week of the season, so we’ll look ahead to the matchups with Santa Clara and LMU (why even is LMU? What’s the point?). There’s also a check-in on the Gonzaga women’s team, some overall news and Chris has a belated Valentine’s Day gift for everyone. And finally, apropos of nothing at all, we finish by sharing some random sounds we enjoy and some we definitely do not. This one goes all over the place. All that and more on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown, THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. Do come join us in dismissing SMC out of hand, won’t you?

The Gonzaga Men's Basketball Team is MUCH better than San Francisco's. This much was made obvious by the dominating performance of one Drew Timme, who scored 28 points in 22 minutes of play. We look ahead to the *gasp* final two games of the season, and what may become of the WCC tournament. Finally, we'll close by discussing the top three individual single game performances in Gonzaga Basketball History. @freeirabrown patreon.com/freeirabrown freeirabrown@gmail.com

We here at Free Ira Brown have long held belief in a theory: Not all conference games will be pretty. Some will be the no-doubt-about-it waltzes to victory, others will be slogs as teams give Gonzaga their best shot each and every week. See, for example, Gonzaga’s victory over Pacific last week. Slow, mucky, at times downright ugly. What was Pacific doing which caused so much angst? In our latest episode the FIB crew looks at that very question. What were the Tigers doing which took the Bulldogs out of their game for so long? Things got much better Monday…well, for the five minutes anyway. Gonzaga jumped out early over BYU in Provo, but the Cougars hung around until Jalen Suggs was actually allowed to play for a bit and turned in an outstanding second-half performance. That part, at least, was fun to re-live. Those stories, plus the Santa Clara game has been cancelled for the third time, leaving Gonzaga with only a weekend clash in San Francisco (as of the time of recording). We examine how the Bulldogs will

Now that we’re fully immersed in winter, it would stand to reason the car might occasionally take a few clicks to get going, right? And when it does finally start, it needs some time to warm up. Maybe other cars get out of the driveway a little earlier, maybe they get down the road a bit quicker to start before the car gets warm and blows by them. Maybe we’re torturing this analogy just a bit. Regardless, on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown, the crew takes a look at whether we should, in fact, be worried about the slow starts (four out of the last five games!) or if it’s just a matter of needing to find a way to get engaged in the games before returning to full speed. When Gonzaga did finally get warmed up, San Diego and Pepperdine stood no chance as Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Cook and the usual performances from Corey and Timme helped the Bulldogs cruise to two more wins. Those stories, plus the Gonzaga women got a big win on Tuesday and we brought in the great Steven Karr to help us break it down. And since

The WCC doldrums are here folks! And we're hear to enjoy them as much as possible. We recap the thrashing of Pacific and preview the anticipated thrashing of USD and Pepperdine. What do we want to see? What DON'T we want to see? Do we see an undefeated future? We'll tell you on this episode of Free Ira Brown! THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. @freeirabrown freeirabrown@gmail.com patreon.com/freeirabrown

This week we welcome Slipper Still Fits personnel Peter Woodburn and Kieth Ybanez to talk slow halves, Corey's . . . ahem . . . "efficiencies", and stuff about sports that annoys us. We also look back on the week that was in Gonzaga Hoops and look ahead to the game of the week (there's only one) Pacific v. Gonzaga. @freeirabrown on twitter Patreon.com/freeirabrown to support the show!

Gonzaga dispatches two more WCC challengers, including BYU, who has been a thorn in the past, in two run away victories last week. We discuss the Joel Ayayi triple-double, what he means to this squad and we just can't stop gushing about this offense. After taking a look ahead to the next WCC lambs to the slaughter Marty serenades us once again. Stick around for shenanigans, in which we share our top three singing voices of all time. All that and more on this episode of Free Ira Brown! THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. @freeirabrown freeirabrown@gmail.com Support the Show! www.Patreon.com/freeirabrown

Corey Kispert is the lead object of our affection on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown. We break down the win over San Francisco, from our first-half struggles (curse you, Todd Bolden!) to the second-half surge. And since there’s no second game to review, we digress and have a little fun with a current recent Twitter trend, looking at our favorite players, the most underrated and more. Those stories, plus COVID is having another go at Gonzaga’s schedule, as Thursday’s opponent switches from Santa Clara to BYU. A better opponent, a higher-rated game, and yet another lesson to teach us not to record on Mondays. We look at what issues BYU presents Gonzaga and how we can keep out of Haarms’ way. Oh yeah, we play Portland, too. And finally, ever wanted to have a beer with a college coach? So did we. So we brought back the Top 3 to list who we would love and hate to have a beer with. All this and more on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown, THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. To come gawk at Corey with us, won’t you?

At some point, what do you say? Not that we’ve ever really found it hard to keep on talking here at Free Ira Brown, but sometimes you do worry about Gonzaga being so good saying anything becomes superfluous. So to break up the monotony of the FIB crew praising Gonzaga, we asked KREM2 Sports Director Brenna Greene to help us…uh…praise Gonzaga. We do start, of course, with the vanquishing of Virginia. What was billed as a clash of styles quickly became another notch on Gonzaga’s hit list as the Bulldogs outraced and outpaced the Cavaliers. After the Virginia game came the story which seemed to come out of nowhere prior to the Northern Arizona and Dixie State games: the injury to Jalen Suggs. We don’t know much more at the time of recording, but we ran through how the team did without their prized recruit (unsurprisingly, it was just fine). The turn of the calendar year, of course, means we can turn our attention to West Coast Conference play. How have the other teams done? (Meh) Anyone impress or disappoint? (R

On this, a very special Christmas edition of Free Ira Brown! THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast, we discuss how Marty is directly responsible for GU's three point barrage on Iowa, the dangers of a feisty Deamon team and give out some Christmas presents. Also featuring, yet ANOTHER amazing holiday song from Mard and his worst guest ever. All that and much, much more on this episode of Free Ira Brown! Support the show at patreon.com/freeirabrown

What promised to be a busy, exciting week turned into about as quiet a week as could be: all four of Gonzaga’s games canceled and quite a hole left in the schedule. But if you feared we here at Free Ira Brown wouldn’t have anything to talk about, we both congratulate you on not having much to worry about in your life and also say: fret not! Gonzaga may not have played any of their four scheduled games last week, but that won’t stop us from reviewing them. Of course, we spend much of our time examining Gonzaga’s next major opponent, the third-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes and their star center Luka Garza. Among the nation’s statistical leaders in several categories, the senior will be a nightmare to defend (and, if you’re Chris, pronounce). We’ll run through Gonzaga’s options on both ends of the floor (will Strawther and Harris be back?) and how we might go about slowing down the most productive player we’ve seen since Zion. And finally, before we have a little fun by re-casting some of the most well-known holiday TV a

We know what you were thinking. We thought the same thing. Less than 13 minutes into the first game of a Big 12 double-header, Gonzaga’s star recruit injures his…well…we weren’t really sure what Jalen Suggs injured, but we here at Free Ira Brown feared the same thing as everyone else. Which made the energy drop immediately after understandable and his return to play in the second half equal parts remarkable and terrifying (come to think of it, equal parts remarkable and terrifying is a pretty good tagline for the podcast. Not surprisingly, Suggs and his health dominated much of the conversation in our latest episode, but we still found time to discuss Nembhard’s brilliant performance (Nemb-V-P! Nemb-V-P!), Ayayi’s penchant for making just the right play at just the right time (#a11aboard!) and Timme now being required to play with a headband. Then we turn our attention to the other big story from the weekend: the Baylor game getting postponed after more positive tests in the Gonzaga program. We discuss when t

What a wild few days in the world of Gonzaga basketball. A comfortable win over Kansas -- where the Bulldogs casually dropped a 100(!) points – and a demolition of SEC stalwart Auburn highlight the positive while reports of positive tests for COVID-19 in and around the Gonzaga program raise questions about the school’s actions and whether two monster games this week should be played. Sound like a lot to get through? Don’t worry, Free Ira Brown is here to help navigate you through the tidal wave of information. In our latest episode, we’ll go deep into the swamps of Florida, where we’ll find incredible performances from Jalen Suggs (welcome to college basketball!), Drew Timme, Corey Kispert and Joel Ayayi as the Bulldogs brush aside those pesky upstarts from Lawrence. We’ll also discuss the drubbing of Auburn and a weirdly bearded Bruce Pearl. Once we’ve finished exulting and not overreacting at all, we’ll turn our attentions to South Dakota, as the Gonzaga women fought valiantly against the nation’s top team