Dec. 16—No. 7 Gonzaga reaches the end of the non-conference portion of its schedule with Campbell's visit Wednesday, followed by a short plane trip to face Oregon in Portland on Sunday.

GU's 82-72 victory over UCLA at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle again demonstrated the 1-2 punch of the Spokane Skyline — Graham Ike, who had missed the previous game to rest a sore ankle, and Braden Huff.

Their performance required former GU center Richard Fox, analyst on Gonzaga telecasts on KHQ and SWX, and yours truly to discuss why they were so dominant in the latest Zags Insiders Podcast. Fox backed up his thoughts on Huff with informative stats. We also took an in-depth look at the Gonzaga-Oregon matchup.

Here are some highlights (edited for space considerations). Find the entire podcast at spokesman.com/podcasts/zags-basketball-insiders or youtu.be/QRrDlr2jTDk.

Bigs-time

Meehan: In the second half, (Ike's ankle) seemed to slow him just a touch or he felt it little more but he played through it and continued to play his tail off. They were running offense through him. He was kind of the de facto point-center. He had five assists. Beyond all that, there was a lot of leadership shown on the court. He got them through some tough times. That game went back and forth a lot.

I loved that play where he had it on the wing, the shot clock was working down and Tyon Grant-Foster was in the neighborhood and he's just hollering, motioning at him, 'Get gone, I'm going to take care of this.' I don't remember how the play went but I just thought you need somebody to do that kind of thing. He is No. 1 on the (team's) leadership panel.

Braden's pretty patient, he doesn't force things, he doesn't take a million shots to get his points. He's efficient. But I'll say it again: If Graham is drawing the (opponent's) best defender and Braden is drawing the second best — which obviously most teams don't have the luxury of having what Gonzaga has — that's advantage Gonzaga. He can deliver, but when the matchup is really favorable he is going to deliver.

Fox: Graham is quite frankly the emotional type I can relate to and what I grew up with as far as demonstrably up and bringing guys along. And sprinkle in Mario (Saint-Supery), he has a lot of that energy, Huff is more excitable this year than last year ... that's just fun and I think that's an important part of the game.

UCLA went smaller with (Tyler) Bilodeau at times and their other bigs just aren't at the level (of Gonzaga's). And (Ike and Huff) also make some tough shots. They don't need things to be perfect to score. They can score over a body, especially if they can get over their right shoulder.

I wanted to look at how (Huff) has done this year vs. last year against Power 5 teams or ranked teams, including the NCAA Tournament. This year he's averaging 25 minutes, 16 points, 5 rebounds and shooting 60% from the field. Last year he played 22 minutes, averaged 12 points, 4 rebounds and shot under 55%.

Certainly playing next to Graham is part of it, but he's also gotten better. He's a tougher kid, physically he's using his body and competing. I've said this before: One of the differentiators between a talented big and a productive big is the productive big searches out contact so he's the one delivering the first blow more often than the defender. Last year Braden was reactive. He didn't want to mix it up and get physical if he could avoid it. This year he's way more physical.

Ducks "empty calories"

Fox: Three of their top 4 scorers have all played there before. (Jackson) Sheldstad is in his third year, (Nate) Bittle is in his fifth year with one year he played a handful of games because of injury. (Kwame) Evans, who I've really liked as a player, it's his third year.

They have some transfers (Takai Simpkins from Elon, Sean Stewart from Ohio State, Devon Pryor from Texas). You'd think there'd be some cohesion for this group.

I said Oregon felt like empty calories last week or the week before. When I was playing we had a different mentality because we weren't as good. We'd play these power 5s and joke, 'They may look all-world in the airport, let's see how they look on the floor.' Oregon kind of feels like that to me. Just a lot of resumes that look good, good high school players, Bittle's a 7-footer, he's skilled but it's never all come together. Evans is 6-10, skilled, but you're always wanting more. Very talented group, the talent is there.

Meehan: It's been a little disappointing how the non-conference has gone for Oregon. They lost five in a row for the first time since the 2013-14 season. Their losses, like Kentucky, were to all the good teams on their schedule — USC, UCLA, Auburn, San Diego State, Creighton. Three of those were at the Players Era Festival while the Zags were (in Las Vegas). They've beaten the teams they're supposed to beat on paper, or at least in oddsmakers' eyes. Their resume looks like the Wildcats.' And a couple of those (wins) were pretty tight when they were heavily favored. I just haven't seen the cohesion there.

I'm also curious how the crowd breakdown will look at the Moda Center. The Zags have a ton that come to the Portland (Pilots) game and when they play over there in the NCAA Tournament. Will it be split, pro-Oregon, pro-GU?