Free Ira Brown! - The Gonzaga Hoops Podcast

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,...

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...

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 pleasu...

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 thi...

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. A...

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 offer...

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 lotter...

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...

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 assassi...

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 showe...

You ever wonder why something is called jam-packed? Is jam have an unusually dense packing? Why is it not peanut butter packed? Or ice cream packed? Mmm, ice cream. It might be time to head to your local grocery store, pick up a pint and throw on the latest offering from Free Ira Brown! Our latest episode is ice cream packed as our heroes take a look back at the more-competitive win over Santa Cla...

You ever imagine what a soundtrack to a Gonzaga game would sound like? It would start with Zombie Nation (obviously), but then what? Something more tense, more dramatic (like Filip going down with an ankle injury)? How about something more joyous (like Filip starting the next game)? Or just a straight energy boost (like Tillie throwing one down on the break)? Well, dear FIBber, we here at Free Ira...

Do you have any eligibility left? A spare season or two from your collegiate days? Maybe you're still in school and feel like lending a hand (or ankle)? It feels like that's what is needed after yet another injury, this time to Gonzaga's leading scorer and rebounder. Unfortunately, dear FIBber, we have exhausted all our athletic eligibility. All we can give is the newest episode of Free Ira Brown,...

It's sort of like finding your favorite pair of slippers, right? Maybe they had been lost under the bed, or the dog used one as a chew toy and it was lost for a few weeks. But once you find it, you slip it on and it's as comfortable as you remember. So it was, watching Gonzaga regain its form in a pair of blow-out conference road wins. A savaging of San Diego? Slipping the right foot in. A mauling...

After about six-and-a-half years of putting out the podcast, one thing has become unassailably clear: We have no idea what we're talking about. So in order to help, we brought in the best possible option, the one person who has the combination of basketball smarts, access to the program and killer, killer hair. That's right, dear FIBbers, Free Ira Brown is back, and on our latest episode, our hero...

The holiday season means a much-needed break for the Gonzaga players, giving a chance to rest, heal up some injuries and enjoy some high-quality Christmas music (see our last episode). But fret not, dear FIBbers, we are still here to help you through this most festive of periods. That's right, Free Ira Brown is back, and in our latest episode, our heroes fight through colds, Disney and whiskey to...

Gonzaga basketball caps off a tough stretch with glorious victories over North Carolina and Eastern Washington. In honor of their sweet, sweet domination, Marty blesses us with a song . . . about Greg Heister? You're in for the yuletide of your life on this episode of Free Ira Brown! @freeirabrown Patreon.com/freeirabrown freeirabrown@gmail.com

Do ever wonder how well Gonzaga would do in a real conference? You know, what that doesn't include the lumbering lummoxes that are the LMU Lions? Or the ponderous peasants that are the Portland Pilots? What if, and go with us here, what if Gonzaga were in a real, proper conference? Like, for example, the Pac-12? How would Gonzaga do in the Pac-12, where the west coast behemoths that are Washington...

Did you ever do Sunday dinner with the family? Mom and dad, or maybe grandma and grandpa, host as many members of the family as possible, maybe cook up a nice turkey dinner, or –ooh!—maybe a lasagna.   Just out of curiosity, what did you put on your food? Were you a gravy fan for your turkey? Maybe parmesan or Reggiano for your lasagna?   We hear at Free Ira Brown, we prefer Husky tears.   And in...

What was it Meatloaf once said? Two out of three aint bad? It seems unlikely he was singing precisely about Gonzaga's trip to the Bahamas 40+ years in advance, but we're gonna go with it anyway (seriously, if you haven't heard the man sing, go find him and treat yourself). And in the latest episode of Free Ira Brown, our heroes dissect the loss to Michigan in the Battle 4 Atlantis final. What went...

As the season of thanks and commercialism descends upon us and turkeys everywhere run and hide, we here at Free Ira Brown turn our attention to the warm waters of the Caribbean. Specifically The Bahamas, of course, as Gonzaga has made its way from the lovely climes of Spokane to the totally average, nothing-to-write-home-about beaches of Nassau (seriously, what a downgrade). It is on those pristin...

The French don't have a Thanksgiving Holiday. That's not really surprising, considering it's a holiday celebrated by New World entities. But we here at Free Ira Brown won't let that small, petty fact deter us from raising a toast to the return of Gonzaga's Cagnes-sur-Mer Magnifique, Killian Tillie. For as our forefathers taught us, "Give us Tillie, or give us bad non-conference losses!" Pretty sur...

In 2017, led by one Geno Crandall, North Dakota came into the McCarthey Athletic Center and pushed a loaded Gonzaga team (aren't they all loaded, really?) to overtime. That 2017 team, however, did not have Filip Petrusev. Filip Petrusev does not suffer such dramatics. Nor would be there any of the accompanying hand-wringing this year from Free Ira Brown. That's right, dear FIBbers, we're back, and...

Basketball. Games. Actual, counts-for-real, honest-to-goodness basketball. Gonzaga is back! And to help celebrate the season-opening romp past Alabama State, we here at Free Ira Brown brought in someone who kinda actually knows what he's talking about: friend of the pod Steven Karr (he's on twitter at @skarrGo, which we're told is pronounced like the snails, not a nickname for Scarlett Johansson)....

It can be scary out there, in the offseason. No ghoulish games to look forward to, no ghastly matchups to set your mind aflutter. Nothing but the vast, dark emptiness that is the wasteland of sports without college basketball. Thankfully, our nightmare is over. Yes, the Gonzaga Bulldogs will finally come back to the court. And with them, so Free Ira Brown returns! That's right, dear FIBbers, our h...