THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE, April 5, 2015

Now that the Zags have been patted on the back so much for their Elite Eight finish that any stray pieces of food they may have tried to swallow should have been completely dislodged by now ...

Will Gonzaga's best finish since 1999 - and its best since Mark Few became head coach - get the fans off the Zags' back who think they've underachieved in the NCAAs in recent years? Or will this year's showing raise a ridiculously high bar even higher?

Few was almost on a crusade this year, trying to convince people that Gonzaga's run - which has now reached 17 straight trips to the NCAA tournament - shouldn't be taken lightly, no matter what happens once the dance finally starts.

And it seems to have worked.

This year, the Zags avoided tripping on the dance floor in the early rounds, pretty much handling their first three opponents - including a 19-point clubbing of Iowa in their second game.

IF YOU wanted to nitpick about the Zags' 66-52 loss to Duke in the South Region final in Houston last Sunday, you might say the Zags didn't take as much advantage of their advantage against Duke as they could have.

Gonzaga had three bigs, Duke one - and Duke couldn't afford to lose its one. Przemek Karnowski, who had bullied other teams' big men up to that point, got off just three shots and scored four points.

Domantas Sabonis, the Zags' backup big man who would be a starter - if not a star pretty much everywhere else - added nine points off the bench, but also got frustrated and got into foul trouble in the second half.

Kyle Wiltjer, who sliced up opponents both inside and outside, led the Zags with 16 points. Three of his baskets came inside, three outside (including a 3), along with three free throws.

Not terrible numbers from the three bigs, but you could argue they could have been better.

Especially since Duke did this without helping off of deadeye shooter Kevin Pangos. Quinn Cook pretty much glued himself to Pangos, who was held to four points on 2-for-8 shooting, 0 for 3 from 3-point range. How many times over the past four years did you see opposing teams double down on the Zags' big guys, who simply tossed the ball out to a wide-open Pangos, who more often than not delivered a dagger 3 that either started a run or capped it? Duke was not going to let that happen; taking its chances that letting the Zags' bigs score against one-on-one coverage was less painful than Pangos killing them from behind the arc.

Still, if Wiltjer had made a 1-footer - a 1-footer! - with the Zags down two with less than 5 minutes left, and/or Pangos' 3 moments later had rattled in instead of rattled out, Gonzaga, rather than Duke, might have went on to close the game with a 13-1 run, and the Zags would have been headed to their first Final Four this weekend.

That's how close the Zags were.

NEXT SEASON, Gonzaga should be positioned for another deep NCAA run - especially if all three big men return. Quality big men in college are nearly extinct, since most leave early for the NBA.

The Zags could have a sophomore and a redshirt freshman as starting guards next year - quite an dropoff, experience wise, from having two seniors in Pangos and Gary Bell Jr.

Still, the Zags seem to reload rather than rebuild these days, and who knows what free agents - er, transfers - might find their way to Spokane in the offseason.

My recent pinings for a Chick-fil-A and/or an In-N-Out Burger to come to our area were met with a few other suggestions - Church's Chicken, Waffle House and Popeyes chicken. I tried Popeye's Chicken in the Las Vegas airport on the way home from Louisville recently, and I would give that one a thumbs-up.

Not to trump all over colleague Nils Rosdahl's beat, but a potential operator in the Spokane market told me Chick-fil-A could come to Spokane as soon as 2016 or '17. The closest ones right now are in the Boise area.

Two of them are scheduled to open soon in the Seattle area - in Bellevue on Thursday and in Lynnwood on May 7, according to the company website.

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