The Front Row with MARK NELKE March 7, 2013

They are America's sweethearts these days, ranked No. 1 in the country for the first time in history, the darlings of the Inland Northwest and even spots nationwide, and even beloved by much of the national media.

Most people are even pronouncing Gonzaga adequately - not quite GONE-zaga, like it should be, but more like Gun-ZAGA, but seldom butchered anymore like it used to be ... Gun-ZAW-ga.

It wasn't always this cool for the men's basketball program at the small Jesuit school in Spokane - like back in the late 1980s.

"We certainly weren't flying our own corporate jet," recalled Mike Winger, the former Coeur d'Alene High standout, who played guard at Gonzaga from 1987-90. "We flew commercially, and sometimes we took a bus, to Portland."

Winger came along a couple of years after John Stockton had finished playing for the Zags, and left five years before Gonzaga's first dance in the NCAAs, and nine years before the Bulldogs began their current tourney run, which will reach 15 years later this month.

"I didn't envision it," Winger said of the Zags' current success, "and it's just been a joy to watch, because each year, it just seems like they've built on their prior success. And as they've played their tougher preseason schedule they just nationally became more recognized. And that did nothing but enhance their recruiting and the quality of athlete they're getting now."

COMING OUT of high school, Winger also attracted recruiting interest from Montana, Rice, Air Force and Idaho, before deciding to stay close to home and play for Dan Fitzgerald.

"Fitz was a real dynamic guy, had some success with Stockton and that group, and their success locally was very good - it wasn't to the point where they got to the tournament, but it was still a very respected basketball program - and I liked the fact it was a good school academically," Winger said.

Winger played on teams that went 18-10, 16-12, 14-14 and 8-20. He started 65 times in his 112-game Gonzaga career, mostly in his junior and senior seasons. He averaged 10.2 points per game as a junior, 9.2 as a senior, and 5.3 for his career. He shot 42.1 percent (83 of 197) from 3-point range as a Zag, and 77.9 percent (88 of 113) from the line.

When Gonzaga went on the road in the West Coast Conference in those days, they weren't the draw they are now, where they pack the opposing team's arena and are the other team's biggest game of the season. They were recognized around campus because it was so small, but other than that, "it was just a different world," he recalled.

They still played in the old 4,000-seat Martin Centre, and “we weren’t selling out the Martin Centre by any means,” he said — the rare exception being when Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble and high-scoring Loyola Marymount came to town. “Fitz was trying to get people interested in the program, and now it’s come full circle — you can’t even get a ticket.”

THE OTHER day, when Few referred to his first season at Gonzaga by saying they only won four Division I games, he was referring to 1989-90, Winger’s senior season, when the Bulldogs’ other four wins came over NAIA schools.

“My senior year, both Few and Dan Monson were grad assistants to Fitz,” Winger said. “At the time, they probably weren’t much older than the seniors. He had them out recruiting, scouting games, working some long, long hours.

“That was the rewarding part too, to see, once Dan decided to step aside, that he gave Dan Monson that opportunity, and that’s when he took Casey Calvary and that group to the Elite Eight (in 1999). And then, when ‘Mons’ left, to see Few have that success ... and even better yet for the community, Mark stayed.

“To think as a senior that Monson and Few would have taken over and had that kind of success, that would have been hard to imagine,” Winger said.

AFTER GRADUATION, Winger got his MBA, and for the last 20-some years has worked in the Spokane valley as vice president of store development for URM, a wholesale grocery supplier. The younger brother of Lake City boys coach Jim Winger, Mike is married with two children — the oldest, Sue, a sophomore at Mead, helped the Panthers win a state 4A girls basketball championship in Washington last weekend.

He said he sees a handful of Gonzaga home games each year at the McCarthey Athletic Center, and “we never miss them on TV.”

He refers to players like David Pendergraft, a Zag from a few years ago, and current Bulldog Mike Hart as “a throwback to what I think the program was many, many years ago,” Winger said. “Guys that were maybe not as gifted athletically but have a blue-collar theme that fits them still. I don’t think that part of the program has been abandoned by any means.”

So, is this Gonzaga’s best team?

“I would say yes, in that I think they’re deep and diverse, and can play a lot of different styles, and with emergence of Kelly Olynyk ... you put him, (Elias) Harris and (7-foot-1 Przemek Karnowski), they have as good a lineup as I’ve seen play. And obviously their guard play is fantastic. I don’t see any weaknesses,” he said.

So, can the Zags win it all?

“If they get seeded No. 1 out west, in either Salt Lake or (San Jose), they’re going to have a huge home-court advantage, so to speak,” Winger said. “You look across the nation, there’s not a dominant team. If this is their year to do something, they picked a good year, because I don’t see anybody that’s unbeatable.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.