Free Ira Brown! - The Gonzaga Hoops Podcast

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

It’s the time of year when we all give thanks: for family, friends, health, a comfy couch and a tryptophan-induced nap. This year, in the year to end all years, we get to give thanks not just for Gonzaga basketball, but while watching Gonzaga basketball. And what better way to prepare yourself for some mid-morning holiday hoops than the latest episode of Free Ira Brown? Yes, the FIB crew is back, and we thought given the excitement around the game with Kansas (Kansas!) we’d bring in someone smarter than us to lend a hand. Enter: Steven Karr from The Slipper Still Fits. Karr helps us break down how Gonzaga matched up with the Jayhawks and what we can expect from a team which lost two second-team All Americans and is still ranked in the top 5 (a note: we recorded this before the news broke about Tennessee and Andrew Nembhard). We’ll also turn our attention to a re-tooling Auburn team, Gonzaga’s second matchup in Fort Myers, and look ahead to the Gonzaga women taking on the nation’s top-ranked team, the South Ca

It’s out with the old(er) players and with the new on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown. The guys are back to complete the season preview of Gonzaga’s players, focusing on player transfers and the incoming freshmen. Is Cook the latest in the long line of impact grad transfers? How much will Strawther play (please don’t be really hurt)? Will Dominick dominate? Who is Colby Brooks? We also got a chance to see real, honest-to-goodness basketball! Well, sort of: we had Kraziness in the Kennel, which gave us our first glimpse at the players, new and old alike. We’ll glean what we can from the first 16 minutes of the season and definitely not overreact in any way. And finally, we’ll have a little fun, setting up a 3-on-3, Hoopfest style draft with this year’s team and leave it to you to decide which team of four is best-suited to win a 3 v 3 tournament. Oh yeah, there’s the small matter of our schedule, too. All that and more on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown, THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. Do come quarantine

You ready for the best news you’ve heard in months? Something about which no one could possibly have any reservations? Marty’s back with a brand-new song. No, it’s true. And oh yeah, Free Ira Brown is back! That’s right, dear friends, after months of turmoil and frustration, indecision and uncertainty, claustrophobia and exasperation, the FIB crew is here to provide our normal dose of aural pleasure. And we’ll talk about basketball. A lot. No, really: actual, honest-to-goodness basketball. And Marty has a new song. And it’s great. We’ll touch on some other news here and there (uniforms, preseason award lists, and the like), but the heart of kick-off pod is a deep-dive into our returning players. Kispert, Timme, Ayayi, Watson, we spare no one (except in this abbreviated list here). Who is going to get major minutes? Who is going to have to make the most of their limited time? Can Ballo channel his inner Tsang Tsung? Oh yeah, did we mention Marty has his best song to date? And one more treat: in an attempt to r

In this, the longest of Summers, we here at Free Ira Brown masterly debated long and hard about when we should release our annual bundle of summertime love. Then Petrusev dropped his bomb and we realized Ayayi (who since announced his return) and Kispert's decisions were just around the corner. There is no time then, like the present (or the present as it was nearly a week ago when we recorded this, big whoop wanna fight about it?) for Adam, Chris and Marty to come together and regale you with our COVID summer tales. Who gained weight? Who lost it? Who looks like an extra on the "Boogie Nights" set? (it's Chris). The answers to all these questions and more await you on this episode of Free Ira Brown: THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast!

College basketball always has the most abrupt ends to its season, but this…this is something else entirely. One of the weirdest, gut-punching-est 24 hours in sports history culminated with the cancellation of the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments. The most fun weekend of the year, the weekend Free Ira Brown actually gets to see each other in person, the most fun annual sporting event just…gone. And thus, dear FIBber, the tone in our final episode of the season starts out expectantly somber. But with the help of each other, a little perspective and quite a large amount of alcohol, our heroes find the energy to discuss the first time (some of us) haven’t been in a bar watching games together in over a decade, give tribute to our seniors and whether this season finishes as a success. Those stories, plus we have a mailbag! You had questions! We had answers! Some of them even applied to the questions! Well…ish. It was late in the pod and we, uh, may have had a few. We also decided, since we simply couldn’t go wit

The numbers are staggering: 17 titles 22 years, 23 straight WCC Tournament final appearances and now 22 straight NCAA Tournament appearances. And yet, beating Saint Mary’s in the final never ceases to be fun. Good, ol’ fashioned, virus-free fun. You could see what it meant to the players in their celebrations after, and you can hear what it means to (at least some) Gonzaga fans on the latest offering from Free Ira Brown! In our latest episode, our heroes welcome Jack Ferris from the Sac and Jack podcast to help us break down the WCC Tournament, from the closer than was comfortable victory over USF to the weirdness that was BYU vs. Saint Mary’s, finishing with a little bit of revenge for last year’s WCC final. Those stories, plus we discuss what might be the best number in Gonzaga history, we go into the background of Sac and Jack got off the ground, we look ahead to Selection Sunday and go over some of the teams we would like to play and would like to avoid. And finally, a couple weeks ago we ran through some

It was a Senior Night properly celebrated, as Gonzaga honored five seniors before beating Saint Mary’s en route to its eighth straight WCC regular season title. Wait, I can hear you asking, five seniors? Aren’t there only three? There are three ON the court, but the Bulldogs pulled a pair of spectacular surprises, brining student manager Mac Graff out for celebration before bringing out NBA lottery pick and former Bulldog Rui Hachimura (WE HAVE A RUI!!) to enjoy what would have been his senior night. Yes, dear FIBber, by that point, the game was a formality but we here at Free Ira Brown won’t let that stop us. And in our latest episode, our heroes react to the Senior Night festivities before breaking down the win over the Gaels (and all was right with the world). Those stories, plus with the end of the regular season we turn our attention to Vegas and the WCC Tournament. To help us, we brought in someone who has some experience (and expertise) in postseason tournaments: Kerry Keating! The former Santa Clara c

The world is clearly ending. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria. Gonzaga has lost a conference road game! Well, OK, so it’s obviously not that bad, and we here at Free Ira Brown try to take Saturday’s loss to BYU in stride and focus on the positives: the loss doesn’t affect our seeding much if at all, it wasn’t in March and we still have a chance to get a bit of revenge in the WCC Tournament. We also run through Thursday’s win over USF, which featured one of the worst first halves in quite a long time but it’s pretty safe to say a solid second half. Those stories, plus: it’s Senior Night! Or, it will be on Saturday against those mugs from Moraga. To help us prepare for that and Thursday’s game against USD we welcome FIB Patreon Ryan Lambert. Ryan also helps answer some questions from Chris, there are derps galore and we’ll have an extensive investigation into just who Brook Steppe is. And finally, we run through some things at which we’re randomly good, much of which resorts to old

The Pepperdine student section was loud and proud last week, but ultimately waved goodbye to their upset chances when Filip Petrusev showed his mettle, dominating the home team inside. This being the only game last week you might think this will be a quick show, but nay sir, do not underestimate your humble heroes’ ability to wax on about Filip’s continued improvement, Corey’s samurai like assassination skills and the Houston Asstrholes. We also mention the NBA All-Star game (Behold the Thickening) and dig deep into the upcoming match-ups against USF and BYU. Speaking of BYU, they’re ranked in the top 25 this week and Ding-Dong! Hello! This is a massive match-up between two top 25 heavyweights. Marty introduces us to our formidable opponent the only way he knows best, through song. All this and a discussion of those sports figures who, well, who may be compensating for something. This week on Free Ira Brown! THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. @freeirabrown freeirabrown@gmail.com patreon.com/freeirabrown

Laughing. Guffawing. Chortling. ROFL…uh…ing. Schadenfreude is rarely so much freude as when it’s Saint Mary’s on the schaden end. And it just so happens, dear FIBbers, we here at Free Ira Brown are all about the schadenfreude. So in our latest episode, our heroes bring in a reinforcement to help us soak in all the joy of that mauling in Moraga. Free Ira Brown fan Connor Coombs joins us as we shower Drew Timme with love, bathe in that glorious first half and  give Randy Bennett some good, clean advice. Those stories, plus, apparently we also played against LMU? We’ll investigate that, take a look ahead to  Peck…uh…Pepperdine and review the NCAA’s mid-season bracket release which has us (perhaps surprisingly) as a 1 seed in the West region, ahead of undefeated San Diego State. And finally, we finish by sharing some of our own unpopular opinions. All this and more on the latest episode of Free Ira Brown, THE Gonzaga Hoops Podcast. Do come share the schadenfreude with us, won’t you?