THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, July 17, 2015

It seems like every season, the Gonzaga's men's basketball team scratches the surface, or comes ever so closer to getting to the surface in the first place.

That 'surface' is the NCAA men's basketball championship game, the pinnacle of their sport that the Zags have never reached.

Last season, in the Elite Eight in Houston, Gonzaga was nearly five minutes away from possibly defeating Duke, one of the premier men's basketball programs in the country, and potentially advancing to the peak of the mountain. But forward and leading scorer Kyle Wiltjer missed a bunny of a layup, albeit a quick shot as he drifted past the backboard, with no one guarding him, that would have tied the game.

Gonzaga lost 66-52 and after the 6-foot-10 Wiltjer's miss, the air appeared to escape out of the balloon. The Blue Devils ended the game on a 13-1 run, staked a 60-51 lead a little less than two minutes after the miss and took control.

One week later, Duke topped off Wisconsin in a wonderful game, 68-63, winning its fifth national championship in team history. And don't forget Gonzaga's NCAA tournament wins over North Dakota State, Iowa and UCLA.

Some returning Zags sounded confident they can go mountain climbing, so to speak, and reload for another run at the program's first NCAA championship.

Last week, at the YMCA's Camp Reed in Deer Park, Wash., returning 7-foot-1 sophomore backup center Ryan Edwards, returning guard Josh Perkins and Wiltjer, a senior, stepped aside from having fun and playing games with kids battling cancer to briefly talk about their upcoming season.

They spent quite a bit of time at Camp Goodtimes, which helps to meet the physical, psychological and emotional needs of hundreds of young cancer survivors and their families - including those from Kootenai County - each year.

WITH WILTJER among 10 players returning, Gonzaga's window of winning a title with its current group, including Przemek Karnowski, Domantis Sabonis - I call him "Son of Arvydas", after former Portland Trail Blazers star center Arvydas Sabonis - is closing pretty fast. Wiltjer, Karnowski and Sabonis all could have declared early for this past month's NBA Draft, but chose to return.

Plus, gone are guards Kevin Pangos (who's now balling out with the Dallas Mavericks' summer league team), Gary Bell Jr. and Byron Wesley. Competing for those open minutes will be Bryan Alberts and Perkins, among others.

Of course, the Zags always seem to reload with a mix of top-flight recruits, international products and transfers, such as former Washington guard Nigel Williams-Goss, who must sit out this upcoming season but will have two years of eligibility after this one. In other words, he could end up picking up where Wiltjer & Co. leave off after this upcoming season.

So Gonzaga has a nice shot at joining the elite programs - Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Connecticut, Louisville, Michigan State and North Carolina, among others.

Wiltjer is especially qualified to answer this question, because back in 2013, he won a national championship as a backup playing with Kentucky, earning SEC sixth-man honors. After two seasons at Kentucky, he transferred to Gonzaga, and after sitting out a season, the native of Portland scored a team-leading 16.8 points and also led the Zags by shooting 46.6 percent from the 3-point line last season.

"I think we're on the right track right now," Wiltjer said. "Last year, we played really well. We showed we can compete with top teams and having that experience is going to help. We've just got to do it."

EDWARDS, WHO graduated from Glacier High from Kalispell, Mont., played at Coeur d'Alene High as a senior in a 70-68 loss to the Vikings back on Dec. 22, 2012. Edwards scored 10 points and four blocked shots against Vikings. For those keeping score at home, Glacier reached the semifinals of the the state Montana class AA boys basketball tournament.

"I'm really not scared for our returning guys," said Edwards, who redshirted last season. "I feel real confident in what we've got and I feel confident they'll step into that role and produce when we need them. We may not exceed Kevin and Gary, but I give it a few years and we'll be right up there with them (Pangos and Bell). I'm not too worried about it."

Edwards is confident the Zags can get past that Elite Eight or Sweet Sixteen level in the NCAA tournament.

"It's just going to be a team thing," Edwards said. "We've just got to stick together. We know we don't have quite the talent they (the NCAA elite programs) have, but we have a better team and a better understanding of how to win, so if we just put the pieces together, we'll easily be able to play with those guys."

PERKINS FINISHED off the confidence-building. Perkins is among the guards who are competing for a starting spot, either Pangos' or Bell's. Perkins, a redshirt freshman, can play both guard spots but said he considers himself more of a point guard. Perkins appeared to me to be an adept ball-handler and a strong defender last year, though his season ended after five games after he suffered a broken jaw against Georgia. He was able to earn a medical redshirt. If he ends up being the starter, I don't think Gonzaga fans are necessarily going to be pining for Pangos too often, after they enjoy watching Perkins play. But yes, Pangos and Bell will both be missed.

Perkins is 6-3 and played at Huntington Prep in Park Hill, Colo.

"Kevin and Gary left their mark on the program and around the world," Perkins said. "Guys like me are very special, but those guys are like our older brothers, we learned from them and hopefully we can come in and step in and do what we can for the team."

And of course, shooting for that ultimate goal of a national title, both literally and figuratively, is the deal.

"The No. 1 goal is to just win it all," Perkins said. "So we're going to do everything we can, in our nature, work hard, get the team bonding together and do what we can to get that win."

If Duke, Kentucky and others are among the kings of the jungle in the NCAA, Gonzaga is not far behind. The Zags have just got to slay everyone in order to get there, in order to be truly elite. Either way, It'll be fun to watch this current crop of Zags give it a shot, one mid-range jumper at a time.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, by e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25