The Gonzaga Bulldogs have a tough assignment ahead of them in the 2023 NCAA tournament, as they will be up against the UCLA Bruins in the Sweet 16 round in a game this coming Thursday. Gonzaga basketball head coach Mark Few is currently deep into his preparation for that contest, but he spent a bit of his time blasting the quality of basketballs being used in the Big Dance.

“The last thing we should be doing is playing with brand-new, slick basketballs,” Mark Few said, per Jeff Goodman of Stadium. “We need to have ball inflated less and we’d see better shooting and less fumbling with the ball.”

Few shared that sentiment about the basketballs in the NCAA tournament after Gonzaga basketball pulled off a hard-earned 84-81 win in the second round against the TCU Horned Frogs. In that game, the Bulldogs didn't shoot as efficiently as they usually do from the field, as they made only 44.8 percent of their shots from the floor and hit just eight of 25 attempts from the 3-point area.

Moreover, Gonzaga posted just a 50.7 eFG%, which is the worst they've posted in a game since getting stunned by the Loyola Marymount Lions back way back in January. Mark Few's issues with the basketballs have less to do with Gonzaga's subpar shooting in the TCU game than the Horned Frogs' defense — after all, Jamie Dixon's team is a top-25 team defensively — but he felt it was still worth talking about it ahead of a clash with another stout defense.

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The upcoming Gonzaga-UCLA showdown is a classic offense versus defense matchup. On one hand, the Bulldogs are the No. 1 scoring team in the nation with 86.3 points per game. The Bruins, on the other hand, are fifth in Division I basketball with just 60.2 points allowed per contest.

Adding more flavor to Gonzaga basketball's matchup against UCLA is the March Madness history between these two proud programs. Thursday will be the 17th-year anniversary of the Bruins beating Adam Morrison and company in the Sweet 16 round of the 2006 NCAA tournament. Two years ago, Gonzaga eliminated UCLA in the Final Four after Jalen Suggs buried a game-winning triple at the buzzer.