The Front Row with MARK NELKE March 14, 2010

Key questions of the day, in no particular order:

Did the Mariners do enough in the offseason to win the American League West?

Will we ever get out of this recession?

And, perhaps more importantly, where the heck are the Zags going to be sent today?

Maybe we'll tackle the first two questions some other time. But for now, the focus is on Gonzaga's men's basketball team, especially with one of the eight sites for the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament just down the street from the Zags campus, at the Spokane-North Idaho Arena (hey, if it works for the aquifer ... )

I can just picture the NCAA tournament selection committee, sequestered in a hotel in Indianapolis, watching games and poring over data, trying to do its best to choose the right at-large teams and properly seed the 65-team field.

Buried among the reams of information each committee member has is a printout from ESPN.com.

"Hmmm," one of the suits says. "Joe Lunardi has Gonzaga as a seven seed, going to Oklahoma City. Sound OK? Great! Now, who wants wings?"

FOR PART of the season, the thinking was Gonzaga would get to play in Spokane - even though the Arena was sold out about two minutes after tickets went on sale, so it wasn't as if they needed to keep the Zags here to fill the place.

But the Zags' loss to Saint Mary's in the West Coast Conference tournament finals last Monday night probably put the kibosh on those plans.

Even though the NCAA has tried to shy away in recent years from giving a team essentially two home games in the tournament, there is precedent for that - last year, a certain Philadelphia-area school in the Big East was allowed to play its first two games in Philly - albeit as a No. 3 seed - which is better than the Zags would have gotten, even if they had won the WCC tourney. That Philadelphia-based team wound up in the Final Four.

SHOULD THE Zags still be kept in Spokane, with most of the Arena fans cheering wildly for them, you could probably pencil in a trip to the Sweet 16. If not, who knows? For all the hype over the past 12 seasons, the Zags have only played in one regional final - and that was in 1999, the first year of Zag mania.

In their other 10 trips to the NCAAs during this run, they have been ousted in the Sweet 16 four times, the second round three times and the first round three times.

Now, most teams would kill for 11 (now 12) straight trips to the NCAAs, and reaching the Sweet 16 five of those times. Still, the bar has been raised to the point where, fair or not, you have to wonder if the Zags will ever be a Final Four team, or if they will have to "settle" for a Sweet 16 every other year.

The Zags played their usual tough nonconference schedule this season, but upon closer inspection, only four of the 10 "name" schools - Duke, Wisconsin, Wake Forest and Michigan State - are projected to make the NCAAs.

This year, Gonzaga is young - but, then again, with the best high school kids jumping to the NBA after just one year these days - just about everyone is young. But the Zags have four proven scorers in their starting lineup, which is more than most teams have - experienced or not.

And with that kind of ability, the Zags will always be in a position to break through - one of these years.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.