ESPN Tip Off Marathon 2012

Last year's Tip Off Marathon saw Kevin Pangos (right) start his freshman campaign off with a bang, can Przemek Karnowski (left) do so this year?

ESPN has announced the schedule for the 2012 edition of its Tip Off Marathon.  At 9pm local time on November 12th the 24 hours of college hoops will once again begin in Spokane. Last season the Zags, though playing their second game of the season, tipped off the Tip Off Marathon with an 89-81 win over Washington State. That was the game that started Kevin Pangos' fantastic freshman year as he tied a school record (set by Dan Dickau) with nine made three-pointers on his way to 33 total points.

This year the Zags will face a familiar foe in the West Virginia Mountaineers, although it will be only the second meeting between the schools. If this is to be Gonzaga's first game of the season it will be only one game removed from the last Gonzaga vs. West Virginia contest, which took place in the second round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament on March 15th and saw the Zags demolish the Mountaineers 77-54 in Pittsburgh, PA. This is only the second meeting between the two schools, like I said a few lines up, with both of them coming in 2012. Somewhat amazingly, these two squads that had never met before this year could well meet for a THIRD time in 2012 as both are participating in the Old Spice Classic which takes place around Thanksgiving, only 10 days after the Tip Off Marathon.

The Mountaineers will head to Spokane without last year's star center Kevin Jones who battled against Robert Sacre in the last meeting. Sacre was out to prove that he and the Zags were not the "soft" team that the Big East fans saw them as. Before the game, then junior center Deniz Kilicli had this to say of Gonzaga's style of play, "I think they're physical in their conference, but we play in the Big East". Kilicli, and his gruff beard, will be back next season. Without the outstanding defense of Robert Sacre down low Kilicli's view of last year's Zags may fit better for this year's.

If Kevin Pangos goes off for 33 it won't be the out of left field shocker that it was in last years tip off. This time around I'm hoping to see another freshman kick off a phenomenal season, that freshman being Przemek Karnowski, the 7'1'' 250lbs center from Poland. I'd really like to see him dominate Kilicli in the paint just to prove the Mountaineer's big man wrong once again. Regardless of how the battle in the paint turns out it will be interesting as both are international products with Kilicli hailing from Istanbul, Turkey.


Starting the season with a game against a NCAA tournament team is always a good way to get things rolling.

Following the Gonzaga game is Davidson at New Mexico at 11pm Pacific, then it's Houston Baptist at Hawaii at 1am. After that no teams from the Pacific or Mountain time zones will be represented. The remaining schedule is as follows:

3am: Stony Brook at Rider
5am: Northern Illinois at Valparaiso
7am: Harvard at Massachusetts
9am: Temple at Kent State
11am: Detroit at St. John's
1pm: Butler at Xavier (Butler will be playing in the A-10 so this is a strange match-up of two teams from the same conference before the conference season starts.)
3pm: College Game Day
4pm: Michigan State vs. Kansas (Georgia Dome, Atlanta)
Then, 30 minutes after the Spartans vs. Jayhawks game will be Duke vs. Kentucky, also at the Georgia Dome.

This is only 4 months away people, and Midnight Madness is only 3 months away! It's never too early to submit a request for time off, specifically for November 12th/13th.