WCC INSIDER! Graham Ike on Gonzaga winning 15 straight and remaining undefeated in WCC play!

Hello and welcome to another episode of the West Coast Conference Insider Podcast here on the Field of 68 Media Network. Uh, my name is Rob Dawson. I got Jeff Goodman Uh, live from a Residence Inn. It's been a while since we've done a podcast with Jeff Goodman sitting in the kitchen of a Residence Inn, but he's sitting in the kitchen of a Residence Inn.

That was COVID, COVID times for, for those—

the COVID tournament in Indianapolis. That's, that's where it was. Um, we have a really, really fun interview today with Graham Ike, so we'll be quick on the intro because, uh, you guys are going to want to listen to that. I love talking to Graham. He's, he's one of my In, in the 6 years that we have been doing this, yeah, I think that he's minimum top 10, maybe top 5 in terms of the— my favorite people just to talk to, right?

He's a special— he is a special kid. Like, we throw that term around loosely sometimes. This kid could run for office. He can do whatever he could. I don't know, Graham's obviously getting up there, but, um, he can do whatever he wants in life. I mean, he is, he's one of one. And obviously good to see him back on the court after missing 3 games, comes back against St. Mary's and doesn't miss a beat, does he?

You miss 3 games, you come back and get 30 against your biggest rival. Yeah, I'd say that's pretty good. That's, that's a, that's a pretty good return. Yeah, he's the, and the way that I'd phrase it too is it's not an interview with him. You're having a conversation with him. And those are my, those are my favorite episodes of these pods and favorite people to have on where you're not interviewing someone, you're just talking to them. And that's, that's when it's kind of at its best.

Well, because you know what it is, Rob? He, he, he's far more mature than you are, so he raises the level of the conversation.

Low bar to clear, Goodman. Low bar to clear. Uh, let's talk a little bit about the WCC here.

Um, how about Santa Clara? Santa Clara wins again. What's that, 6 straight?

6 straight. They're now all alone in second place. In the, uh, in the West Coast Conference standings. And I just want to make sure I'm correct on this. Yes, and they do host Gonzaga on Valentine's Day.

Yes.

So they, they gotta, they gotta, they got a chance at this thing, man. Not just at getting an at-large bid, but they kind of control their own destiny when it comes to being a WCC regular season champion. You win out and they are going to share the WCC regular season championship. And I do know if If I said that to Herb Sendek, he'd get really upset with me. It's always next game with Herb.

It's never looking before that. Well, and next game up, Rob, next game is at Pacific, and then they go at Washington State. So like, there are a couple big games here, big road games that Herb Sendek and the Bronx need to take care of before they get to Valentine's Day.

Yeah. Um, yeah, you gotta win those games. You can't win a championship without dropping the ones at the bottom. Uh, right now Latest net rankings, Gonzaga's 4th. They're going to be in competition for a 1 seed. That is going to be a stiff competition, but, uh, they are certainly in the mix and in the conversation. We just had our Fielding the 68 Show, uh, broadcast on Monday afternoon, and Gonzaga was a 2 seed, but right there, uh, on the, on the 1 seed cut line. Is that how you phrase it? I don't know how you phrase it. St. Mary's, comfortable NCAA tournament team. And Santa Clara, man, they keep climbing. Every episode that we do of these They're higher in the net and they're higher in the WAB and and they are trending in the direction that you want to trend this time of year to be able to put yourself in a spot to get an at large bid.

Forty-three in the net, forty-six in the WAB.

The WAB.

WAB Rob. What the?

Oh God!

The WAB Rob. Oh man! Um, I'm really looking forward to that uh that Santa Clara Gonzaga game now that you mentioned it. But um. They, uh, if they can string a couple here, let me, let me ask it like this. What can they afford a loss to someone other than Gonzaga and get in at large at this point?

I don't know. I mean, again, I, I wouldn't want to find out if I'm Herb Sendek. You know, to me it's run the table, beat who you have to beat. And, and again, if you lose to, to the Zags, no big deal.

I think they're close. I think that they're really, really close.

I do too.

McNeese is now a quad 2-win at home.

Yeah.

Xavier is still a quad to win. That's on the road. Nevada looks better. Those are 3 top 100 teams on Ken Palm.

And that's probably what it's going to come down to, Rob.

Yeah.

You know, is some of those wins, how do they look in, in, you know, in 6 weeks when the committee gets together? Right. Like, it's hard to say. I mean, again, we always want to be like, well, can they afford to lose another one? We don't know what these other teams in the bubble are going to do. I mean, we look at the bubble a lot of times and we're like, how do you try to, you know, discern the difference between some of these teams? And, and you've got, again, you know, human beings in there, um, trying to figure it out. And they all look at different metrics. And some of them, frankly, look at the eye test. Some of them just, hey, if they see a game— I know for me, it's sometimes if I see That team in person or even on TV.

Not true anymore. That was the old Goodman, not, not metrics Goodman.

All right, fine.

Not wins above bubble Goodman. Now you're all about the WOB. Now you're about the WOB. You got it figured out. Now you're about the WOB. Uh, listen, let's, let's get to this.

I have no idea what the WOB is, by the way. I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be truthful here. I have no idea. The net I got, Ken Palm I got, offensive efficiency, defensive, I'm good with everything. Somebody's gonna have to explain to me the WOB one of these days.

It'll, it'll take a while. Let's get in that interview. Graham Ike, one of our favorite guys here on the Field of 68, joined us here for about 20 minutes on the West Coast Conference Insider podcast. Hey, WCC Hoops fans, the West Coast Conference is proud to support the NABC Men's Basketball Coaches and Collars& Co. for this year's Coaches vs. Cancer initiative. Through the Final Four weekend, Collars& Co. will be donating 10% of all sales to support this important cause. Use promo code CVC10 at checkout at Collars and Co to help in the fight against cancer. And now let me welcome on to the West Coast Conference Insider Podcast the man that, uh, that was the star of the night coming back.

You can call him— hey Rob, you can call him the man, the myth, the legend. You can do it.

You can do it. The myth, the legend. None other than Graham Ike coming off a 30-point performance as Gonzaga knocked off St. Mary's, uh, a big win in the WCC regular season title race. First and foremost, Graham, um, you made 3 threes, man. Like, are you a sharpshooter now? Is this, is this your game?

I like to consider myself a 3-level scorer when needed.

What you always see, Graham, when guys get older is they tend to, you know, You know, the quickness might leave a little bit, that they stop going in the paint as much and they become jump shooters and set shooters. Is that, is that where we're at right now in the Graham Ike career arc?

Oh, negative. We got a lot more time before then. But just that night we had some, you know, bigger than normal guys on me, uh, 7'1+ guys. So I had to figure a way to still be effective without maybe all the body bumps and backdowns that I do per usual.

Yeah, McKeever's a big boy, isn't he?

Man, huge dude right there. I bumped him one time and I— and he didn't move, and that usually doesn't happen. I was a little surprised, like, what's going on here?

Yeah, you aren't used to that. You definitely aren't. You're the one usually moving people.

Exactly.

What, um, what's the season been like for you? You know, last time I saw you in person, it was in Nashville. Um, you guys have been rolling since for the most part. You know, obviously you're coming back from that injury. You're out 3 games. With the injury, kind of what's what's the overall kind of thought on this season so far for you and the Zags?

Yeah, man, it's been a joyful run so far. We've been having a lot of fun. No matter the adversity that's come our way, we're a battle-tested team. Even from the summer with all the seven a.m.s that coach had put us through, I definitely think that helped build a palace for the adversity that we've been facing. We didn't know how hard it would hit or when it would hit, like with the injuries that we're going through right now, or even. the one loss against Michigan, but we're built for anything that comes our way. We continue to roll with the punches and we don't— we're not a victim in these situations. We always look for the victory mindset.

It feels like at this point, and it's crazy to say about a team that's been to 2 national championship games and has had as much success— what was it, last year was the first year since 2016 that you didn't make the Sweet 16, right? Like, the amount of success that Gonzaga's had, I feel like Is, is the statement in and of itself. But again, it kind of feels like you guys are flying a little bit under the radar. Maybe that's because there's a lot of really good teams in college basketball this year. But I feel like— do you guys— you don't mind that, right? Don't pay attention to us. Just wait until we see you.

Not at all. Yeah, we love being under the radar. I mean, we always know that we're everybody's Super Bowl, especially when they come in here. But people can place us wherever they want. At the end of the day, that ball must get tipped up and basketball must be played. So we look forward to that.

Is it is it crazy that the end is near for you? That you're coming down to the stretch drive? I know you've been around a while here.

About six years now, almost you know two thousand plus days, man.

We're gonna miss you. That's all I gotta say is like if there's one guy that I want to to have and and I'm kind of against some of these old dudes coming back G League and whatnot, but if there's one guy I could deal with playing another year. In college, it's you.

That's love, Goodman. I appreciate that. But it's bittersweet, man. I've kind of accepted it. But still, you never know the feeling until it's actually happened. So definitely want to leave this at the top as possible and just leave on a joyous feeling with great zeal, great joy, and just no regrets, which I have none at this moment.

So, Graham, have you always been this positive, Graham? Like back in Wyoming days? Seriously, I mean this. Like, did something happen? in your life, in your career at some point, or has this always been you?

Yeah, man, I got hurt during COVID and that really gave me a new perspective on life and like what I wanted to do with the game of basketball. Sitting in a dark room for 2 weeks without moving can really, can really do something on your mind, just how much you allow it to. But I just did a lot of studying of self, of other great individuals, and just how they attacked adversity and things like that. And then another thing that helped me was when I read The Obstacle Is the Way my second year in Wyoming. Coach Linder had offered that to me, and it was a great read, um, and just always just trying to see the glass half full and not empty. Always.

Graham, your first season in college basketball was 2020-21. Do you know what else happened in 2021, that, that, that year?

Let me know. I'm not sure.

You don't know? It was the first year of something else, something big, something pretty important in the college basketball space. You don't remember what it was?

Flopping, maybe?

That was the first year that The Field of 68 came into existence. Every year that we have existed as a company Has Graham Ike has been playing college basketball? I feel like we've grown together, Graham. I feel like we made this thing happen together.

Absolutely. That's what's up. Didn't even know that.

You know what the perfect way to put a capper on that is?

What's that?

Got to see you in Indianapolis April sixth.

Yeah. Yeah.

You you circled that date, haven't you?

Oh, you know it's not just myself but the whole team. We have it set in our calendar. Really? That's what we're looking forward to. No doubt. But just day by day, game by game.

How has Few changed since you arrived in Spokane, or has he not? Does he just play a little bit more pickleball now?

You and this pickleball thing with him, man. He definitely still gets after it, looking great as ever, moving good, feeling good. Um, I don't know if I'd say he's changed much. Uh, he's always been active, always been very vocal since I've been here. I am glad that we got the whole summer with him this year. I think that that helped a lot with how you see our season's going now. And, uh, just for us to hear his voice a lot earlier and get a feel on how he wants this team this year to move, I think that was huge having him over this summer.

You know, Graham, you never want to see people get injured, right? But I do think that if there's a silver lining with the time that you missed and the time that Braden's going to miss, it feels like Jalen Worley has been able to step in here and kind of like Find a, find a place, right? Like, sometimes it's hard when you redshirt and you come into a program and everybody kind of has their role set and everyone knows what they're supposed to do and you're trying to find your way. And it feels like he has found his way here maybe in the last month. Like, it helped. He had the one game against San Diego when he went for 20-something, but 4 of the last 5 games he's had double figures, 5 of the last 7. He had 19 against San Francisco in a game where you needed all 19 of those points from him. What does he give you guys and how important is it? Like, he found his confidence, man. He found his rhythm.

Jalen Worley is a huge leader for us, man. Energy, spiritually, energetically, like everything, he does it. Um, he's willing to do all the dirty work. He's willing to get scrappy. He's willing to do everything, man. And I just give so much credit and kudos to him because he always finds his way. Um, and wherever he's at, whether it's in the dunker, on the 3-point line, attacking, he can do it all, man. He's a Swiss Army knife, and he's just a great human being to be around. Great brother, great leader. Uh, he teaches me so much on the daily, man, just how to be a man in life and Certain things that he has going on, how to approach things a certain right way. But just Jalen Worley is a true Zag, man. That's how much I can say. The true Zag.

What, what will you miss most about Spokane and Gonzaga when you leave? I mean, you've been there a while now. You know all the spots.

Yes, I do. Outside of this arena, what I'll miss most, and besides my teammates in this, this great environment, is probably Wellness Tree, man. We got this little juice spot. That I go to every day. I can't, I can't miss a day without it, man. They got the greatest acai bowls in the world, the greatest fresh, fresh juice. So I'm gonna definitely miss Wall on the Street, but I'm gonna miss this community, man, and just all the love that they show us. And then just my teammates.

They've embraced you big time. And you like, that's the beauty for you. Like, and I think this is how college basketball has changed, Graham. And it's hard for me as a veteran covering the sport To embrace this part of it, you transfer once, but you've been in Spokane now for for you know three years. They know you; you know them. Like there's a connection there in the community. We got guys now jumping every single year, you know five places in five years, and I get it. The money's there. I don't begrudge them for the money, but again, it's just different with the fans and. You know, that connection that they have to somebody like you as opposed to, you know, frankly, you know, some, you know, maybe a couple of your teammates or a lot of players around college basketball.

Mm-hmm. It's just like, yeah, that definitely plays a part into it. And you could feel it, or I could definitely feel it each year that each— as each year went by, I feel like the love grew even more for myself and just the teams that I've been a part of. This is truly one of one place, like, and it's like special magic that happens here. I really can't explain it. Like, you just got to feel it and be here to be around it. Um, but it's just a true special place, and I'm glad that I could be a part of something so grand and special.

Do you know, Graham, and you probably don't know this, that, that it is a running joke within all of the Field of 68 group chats that after you guys had that, that huge win over Kentucky in Nashville, the first thing that Goodman asked you about was the Michigan game? We kill him for that.

It's all good, man. We still keep it coming, man. Like, I'm still hearing, you know, all kind of sayings or talk about the game, this and that, and it's great. We can't live it down. The only thing we can do is choose our response, man. That's the only thing we're judged upon. And so we just keep responding.

Well, that, that's what I wanted to ask you, is like, now that you're, you're looking back and removed from it, like about, what is it, 2 months now, what, what do you think you learned in a game like that? Like, what, what could you take away and kind of spin as a positive from a result like that?

How to roll with the punches, man. These things happen. Maybe not a loss that grand or great, but losing is a part of this game that we play, and nobody wants to be a part of that side, but it does happen at times. And I'm glad that adversity happened so early because we got to figure out who we— what kind of team we wanted to be. Um, were we gonna fold or were we gonna bounce back? And we saw in the next game how we bounced back, and then We just understood what level we must play at in order for us to win a national championship. And now we're attacking each day with the Final Four national championship mindset. Each game, no matter who we're playing, we'd be playing the best guys in the world, the worst guys in the world. We're coming with that same approach every single night.

Hey, Graham, you want to guess? Right now I'm at a Residence Inn. I just got here. Would you like to guess what town I am in right now?

I don't know the big games of the week yet. I haven't looked.

Not for a game. So it's not for a game. Okay. Where's, where's the one place you want some retribution, uh, at right now?

Are you in Ann Arbor?

How about that? How crazy is that? Like, I know I'm not doing this on purpose.

I mean, it feels like it.

Oh, I love you, man.

You know that.

It just happens. I'm sitting down with Dusty May tomorrow for a, for a story that we're, we're doing for a show on CBS. So it is not intended. It's not personal. I promise. I promise.

Anything personal?

How badly, though, would you like— I know you were saying April 6th.

Yeah.

You circled that date. Like, how badly would you like another shot at Michigan though?

It would be great to have another shot at them. If that's how the cards may fall, then we'd, we'd be no happier than to be able to play them. But whoever we see is whoever we see, Michigan or not. Um, we look forward to whoever it is.

How's Braden doing?

He's doing well, in high spirits, great spirits, very positive. Uh, no sign of being down on him at all.

You, you won't let him be down, will you?

Uh, I won't, but neither will he on himself.

But, but you, you said it, like when you went through that, you've been through injuries, multiple injuries. Um, I assume you can help him because this is tough for him. This is at a tough time in the season. We don't know when he's going to be back, how much time he's going to have hopefully before, you know, the WCC and the NCAA tournament. So I assume you can help him here with a little bit of positivity maybe. Uh, we know that's going to be the case. Even more of just experience of how to deal with it.

Exactly. Um, I was just telling him to, you know, keep good thoughts in his mind, um, to always just speak life into himself and, uh, just try to keep laughter up, man. That's a big thing when it comes to healing is just trying to laugh all the time and stay out of those dark side thoughts and just be around good people. So he's at home right now. He's feeling the love, I'm sure, and just getting in his good PT and getting back ready for whenever.

What would it mean to you guys to be the team that was able to give Mark Few his championship, to be able to give him the, the ring, to give him the title, give him that banner that he could hang up in the kennel forever?

Man, that'd be a special feeling for us to be the team that got it done with Coach Few. It's definitely something we think about, something we talk about, man. And we want no other feeling than that, honestly.

I think if he wins one, I think if you did it, I mean, he'd just ride off into the sunset. That would be it. That'd be it. Like, how could you top that, right?

Like, be a great ending, man, right?

No doubt. That'd be the way to go out, wouldn't it?

Oh, no doubt about it. But hey, Coach Fu still loves it. He has a great passion for it. I, I wouldn't be surprised if he did it for a longer time.

Well, I mean, just think about this, Graham. He's— think about all the talent that, that's come through the door at Gonzaga. The, the Drew Timmies and the Adam Morrisons and the, the Chet Holmgrens and the Jalen Suggs and all these these guys. And he's like, if I can't do it with— if I can't coach Graham Ike anymore, I'm done, I'm gone. That's what it is.

In love, uh, just being grouped in with those guys. But yeah, it's awesome.

Hey, what, what's the biggest, uh, key here down the stretch that, that either Few is preaching to you guys that you got to do, or even you in your own mind, you're like, as a leader, as a guy who's been around a long time, you know, like, we got to be better at this?

Yeah, Coach Q's been telling us a lot just to seize the moment. Don't miss the moment. Take full advantage of it and soak it all in. And I definitely think that's been something that stuck with us throughout the season. But like I said earlier, just having that Final Four national championship mentality every single day, no matter who we play against, we're not playing down our competition or even trying to get up. We're playing our standard every single day. What—

As the, the elder statesman on this roster, I'm always interested in this.

Are you the elder statesman?

I like how you put that too, man. That sounds really good.

Yeah, the elder statesman. No, but in, in all seriousness, you've been there for 3 years, right? In, in this era of college basketball, being at a program for 3 years is not— especially as a transfer— is not— that's not normal. That's, that's not common. And with a coach like Few How much is he relying on you to be the guy that's connecting with these, these players? Like, how much is he relying on you and probably Braden as well to be like, listen, Tyon, this is where you got to be, this is the set that we got to run, this is how you run this action. Listen, Mario, this— when we, when we're calling this play, you got to have this angle and use this angle to come off the screen. Like, I feel like he can rely on you guys as much as anybody to be able to get that across to some of these new faces.

Yeah, I definitely feel like he can as well rely on us to do that. And I feel like we've been doing a great job of it so far, as has the staff indeed. But really everybody that's returned has little bits and pieces of where to add to. This is how we do things. But I really think it was the prep leading up to, to the fall, man. That's really where we lock in and almost define the Zach standard and expand it if we need to for this certain team. It's definitely team-to-team based, but I definitely think we've been doing a good job at it, and that's something that we definitely, uh, like to correct through film and, um, like breakdowns and things like that, and 5-on-0. And so we've been doing a really good job of that.

Describe the environment, uh, against St. Mary's, what it's like, because I've been to that game before, and I'll put that game again up against any game in America. Like, it is that good, especially at the Kennel, man. I mean, both of them. Maragall's great too because it's small, different feel, you know, it's like a high school gym. But describe to people what it's like to play in that.

It's ineffable. It's like indescribable. It's so hard to describe, man. I remember watching St. Mary's come out the locker room, uh, and you could just hear all the boos and it got so loud. And that was one of the loudest it had been, like, even throughout the game. And I was like, wow. But it's electric, man. Shout out to all the fans that were there on Saturday for us cheering hard, or even if you were cheering against us and you were there, we appreciate you as well. But it's just so electric. You know, it's going to be a physical matchup. You know, it's going to be limited possessions in a game. So you've got to take care of the ball, man. But it's definitely something that we look forward to playing the Gales every time.

What gets you mad? I want to know, Rob. I want to know what gets this dude pissed off on the court. Like, if somebody throws an elbow at you, Or scores on you, I know you get pissed off. But like, off the court, you are so chill, you are so upbeat. Give me, give me one thing that gets you a little bit mad.

I'm not gonna lie, man, if you're playing your TikToks around me, you don't have your headphones in, it's like I'm gonna get a little upset. It's like, it's just inconsiderate. Like, where's your awareness? You know, put your headphones in, man. That's really like the only thing that really set me off pet peeve-wise. But yeah.

All right, Rob, no, no TikToks around him without—

I will never listen to a TikTok without a headphone around, I promise you that. I promise you that. Last one I got for you, Graham. Um, if we could get Goodman to grow out the goatee like you got, do you think he could pull it off?

Yeah, say something, say something real quick so I could just see you.

So yeah, I don't think I can do it. I mean, honestly, it would take me a while too, Graham. It might take me, uh, 6 months to grow out what—

Okay, Rome wasn't built in a day, man, but it's still up now and it's looking better than ever. So I think you can pull it off, you know.

But the problem is If I grow it out, it's like a lot of gray.

Hold on right here. All right, here's here's the challenge, Graham. I'm gonna give you extra if you didn't have enough motivation to win a championship. Here's the extra motivation: If you guys win it, then Goodman is not allowed to trim the goatee at all from the night that you guys cut down the nets in Indianapolis until the first game of the college basketball season next year. He's got to grow it out. All right, that's a deal, right?

That's a deal. You're on.

All right, I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna try it. But what is Graham?

I'm gonna try too.

What is Graham? Graham got to do same thing with you, Graham.

Who is what?

Same thing with you. All right, you can't you can't trim it either.

All right, deal.

Yeah, deal.

Hey, you're gonna do whatever. If I tell you you're gonna win a national title, you're gonna tell me it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

Let's see, Sam.

Love you, man.

We always appreciate you jumping on. It's great to connect with you. It's great to catch up. Um, and, uh, best of luck this season, man. It's a lot of fun to watch you guys win. It's a lot of fun to watch you guys play. Uh, and it's great to see you back out on the court.

Thank you guys.