Zags starting to get caught up in draft

Until recent years, the NBA Draft hasn’t been something for Gonzaga fans to get too excited about.

The Zags have had some great players over the past two decades, but many were either undrafted free agents, and/or went on to play professionally overseas.

Or, just as importantly, used that degree to make a difference in the working world.

A TOTAL of 19 Zags have been selected in the NBA Draft — certainly you remember Terry Guigg going to the San Diego Rockets in the 15th round in 1971, with the 219th overall pick.

(15 rounds back then? The current draft is only two rounds. Why on earth did each team need to draft that many players back then?)

Three other Zags, in the 1960s and early ’70s, went in the ninth, 10th and 11th rounds.

Frank Burgess, perhaps the most accomplished Zag before the current era (from John Stockton on), went in the third round with the 27th overall pick to the Los Angeles Lakers.

These days, the 27th overall pick would be late in the first round.

Including that Stockton fellow in 1984, the Zags have had six first-round picks — the last five coming since 2002.

THIS YEAR, as many as four Zags could hear their names called tonight.

Freshman center/forward Zach Collins is mentioned as a late lottery pick. Junior guard Nigel Williams-Goss could go late in the first round, or sometime in the second.

Center Przemek Karnowski, who dominated the college game this past season, could get a chance in the NBA — though the NBA game has changed so much in recent years that the back-to-the-basket player is nearly extinct. Recently, when I asked someone if “Shem” had a future at the next level, he presumed I was talking about overseas.

And college shooting guards generally don’t translate to the game, but you’d think a team would take a chance on a guy who can make shots, and Jordan Mathews fits that description.

IT WON’T happen, but it would be funny if it did — what if one team was so enamored with the Zag Way that they drafted Collins, Shem, NWG and Mathews?

Those guys did pretty well as Zags — nearly won the national title, probably should have won the national title.

Maybe that talent, that chemistry, that warm and fuzzy Zag feeling could carry over to NBA greatness.

Super team this!, Warriors, Cavs and other wannabes.

In fact, let’s take this a step further, and said team adds some other NBA Zags to its roster — namely, forwards Kelly Olynyk, Kyle Wiltjer, Domantas Sabonis and Austin Daye.

(Oh, yeah, you say. Daye was a Zag. That’s because he only stayed two years before leaving in 2009, where he was the 15th overall pick by the Detroit Pistons. No one had ever left that early before, until Sabonis left in 2016 after two seasons. And Collins is the Zags’ first one-and-done player).

That would be a pretty forward-heavy Zag-NBA team — the only guards would be Williams-Goss and Mathews.

But enough dreaming. Back to reality tonight.

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.