Johnathan Williams on Gonzaga's culture and the growth of the 2023-24 Zags: 'They're trying to form that camaraderie'

Williams, who played on the 2016-17 team that made it to the NCAA Championship game, joined the latest episode of Talking Zags with Dan Dickau and Adam Morrison

At some point, amid a slippery slope in the second half against Kentucky, on the road in a hostile environment, the Gonzaga Bulldogs came together as a team to weather the storm.

After leading by 10 points at halftime, Gonzaga found itself down six points midway through the second half to the Wildcats, who rattled off a 12-0 scoring run to lead 57-51 and swing the balance of momentum in the process.

The Bulldogs never faltered, though, as they had at different points this season — the second half of the Washington loss, the final minute at Santa Clara and most recently, the letdown in the last minute against Saint Mary's. That wasn't the case against Kentucky, as Gonzaga scored on 18 of its final 22 possessions after the Wildcats went up by six, and made nine of its final 13 shot attempts.

Former Gonzaga standout Johnathan Williams discussed how the Bulldogs are developing camaraderie and how player-to-player bonds were important during his time at Gonzaga, as well as much more, on a new episode of Talking Zags.

“They struggled early on ... but I feel like they're coming along," said Williams. "They have a lot of transfers. When I played our team kind of stuck together. ... Przemek [Karnowski] stayed, [Killian] Tillie stayed, Nigel [Williams-Goss] stayed ... so we had two and three-year guys. Now with NIL and transfers these guys are flipping over so much it’s kinda hard. ... I feel like they're trying to form that camaraderie right now."

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Produced by Thomas Gallagher. 

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