GU is No. 1 now ... and in March
TRUMPETS ...
Yes, the Zags will enjoy Christmas as the No. 1 college basketball team in all the land.
They can ride in chariots, with children tossing palm fronds ahead of them, adoring women throwing flowers in delight — and they can enjoy the roar of peasants who are elbowing each other just for a glimpse of Admon Gilder.
That’s terrific, and well-earned, but …
There are no trophies handed out for Santa season.
Other than the fact that various pollsters think highly of Gonzaga, the most you might snag for playing so well is a head start toward a nice seed in the NCAA tournament.
And let’s not forget that there will be a first-weekend circus in Spokane, so impressing people in suits with your play through 14 games (13-1) actually does help a bit toward that goal of being seeded well and getting to play two games in your hometown.
The Zags will take it happily, thank you very much.
However …
Does being ranked No. 1 rather than No. 15 at Yuletide really make a massive difference as we turn toward the West Coast Conference portion of the season?
Mark Few might be accused of excessive diplomacy here, but he doesn’t think that ascending to No. 1 — and being the sixth team to do it already — actually means a hoot.
Few, in fact, suggests that rankings are meaningless until March.
At that point, obviously, they are called seedings and directly impact your hopeful run in the Big Dance.
ON RECORD
For all of Few’s protests, which are either overly humble or coldly pragmatic, thousands of voters have ranked Gonzaga No. 1 in various polls — and millions more who have seen the Zags in person or on TV agree with them.
(Obviously, there are plenty of naysayers — in Lawrence, Kan. and Columbus, Ohio, for instance — who disagree with the current polls. For the moment, though, they can be blithely ignored … so let’s do that.)
It’s fair to say we all agree, however, that the Zags certainly deserve to be ranked somewhere up around the penthouse.
Both their results and their schedule make a hell of a case.
Perhaps it’s time that I add an opinion to this wildly subjective discussion.
With the caveat that I have not seen every good team in America, and that I’ve watched several just once, I’m not afraid to say this …
I don’t think there is a better team than Gonzaga.
You’ll see all the reasoning for that statement shortly, but please remember that being the best team does not guarantee you a national championship.
Just ask Zach Collins. Or Nigel Williams-Goss.
They played on a Gonzaga team that had only North Carolina between them and cutting down the nets.
The Zags were a better team, too.
But truly absurd officiating that went on and on, 7-footer Przemek Karnowski suddenly couldn’t make a 4-foot layup and a late ankle twist suffered by Williams-Goss combined to deny the better team a title.
So please, when I say that I think Gonzaga has all (or most) of the ingredients to win an NCAA championship this season, recall the weird traps that can appear without warning.
It doesn’t seem fair, but that’s the nature of a one-loss-and-you’re-out tournament.
It wouldn’t be practical, obviously, but if March Madness included a losers’ bracket (much the same as the NCAA baseball tournament), then one bizarre night of bad breaks or 40 minutes of awful officiating would not necessarily eliminate the best team.
Perhaps this seems like an overly long introduction, but I want to make it absolutely clear that when I say Gonzaga looks like the best team I’ve seen in quite some time, I’m not promising that they’ll win the NCAA tournament.
Yet they sure could.
North Carolina Coach Roy Williams tried to be diplomatic when asked about the Zags in the wake of the Heels’ 94-81 defeat at The Kennel — a game that could have had a far wider margin.
“I haven’t seen everybody, but we’ve played a good schedule, and so I’ve seen a lot of the better teams,” Williams said.
“We haven’t played anyone better than Gonzaga.”
I agree with Roy.
Assuming good health in March (which they have not had so far this season), Gonzaga should enter the NCAA shootout as the favorite.
THE BLEND
You don’t have to believe me on a couple of key points.
Just look at the teams that have cut the nets to the tune of “One Shining Moment.”
Almost all of them in recent years have had two things in common — while teams missing one of these ingredients tend to go home earlier than you expected.
To win it all or even come close, you need maturity and you need great guards.
All those giants around the hoop tend to cancel each other out, unless one group continually enjoys great entry passes, allowing them to get the other big fellas on their hip.
Result: It’s generally a bucket and maybe even a foul, which is why the lads in the paint usually sit long stretches on the bench in foul trouble.
Great teams have guards who understand how to set the pace of the game, who understand how everyone is being defended, and yes, can hit a big 3-pointer if you insist on double-teaming inside.
The Zags’ Ryan Woolridge, Admon Gilder and Joel Ayayi are almost a perfect trio in the backcourt.
Woolridge (one of the best on-ball defenders in college hoops) and Gilder played more than a hundred games each before transferring to Gonzaga.
Ayayi has grown and developed in the Zags’ program, then made a huge leap when he played — and became the go-to guy — in the World Cup for France.
All three of these guys can defend, and they’re physical without being crazy about it.
Better yet, they create balance throughout the group, passing quickly to get star big man Filip Petrusev in good position down low — which almost always results in a bucket or a quick pass out to 3-point marksman Corey Kispert.
Freshmen Drew Timme near the hoop and Anton Watson — a fabulous defender with long arms and even better instincts — know their roles and perform them with excellence.
And that, finally, bring us to Killian Tillie, the 6-10 Frenchman who could be in the NBA now but (through a series of injuries) returned to become the do-it-all guy for Gonzaga.
TITLE TIME?
You want maturity?
Gilder, Woolridge and Tillie are seniors, Kispert is a junior and, just counting the critical players, only Ayayi and the big Serbian Petrusev are sophomores.
Ayayi and Petrusev have played all over the world in international competitions, however, so there is an incredible core of battle-tested guys.
Two coaches who’ve lost to Gonzaga already this year, Washington’s Mike Hopkins and Sean Miller of Arizona, used the word “maturity” when describing the Zags’ ability to execute in key moments.
It’s common on teams like this for the freshmen — Timme and Watson — to grow faster than players on other teams, simply because they are playing the system and growing up every day.
They’re learning from guys who’ve been there.
Finally, there is just no selfishness at Gonzaga — if you’re that kind of guy, you wouldn’t be there in the first place.
The Zags have racked up 243 assists on a total of 446 field goals (with only 158 turnovers).
Remember that with so many early-season blowouts, some of those stats would be even better without “garbage time.”
When it matters, the Zags spread the wealth, with six players averaging in double figures (and Timme at 9.6).
As a team, they’re shooting a tick over 50 percent from the floor and almost 40 percent from 3-point land.
Are there weaknesses?
It would seem so, since there’s only one player in the eight-man rotation who is shooting better than 71 percent from the foul line — Kispert is at 80 percent, which you’d expect from a guy making 45 percent on 3-pointers.
Funny thing, though, the Zags’ “poor” foul shooters all seem to hit big ones when it matters.
Woolridge (53.8) is routinely fouled near the end of games, but as an example, he calmly swished a pair to finish off Arizona with 1.7 seconds remaining.
The only other question is health.
Watson has a dodgy shoulder than might need surgery down the road, and Killie looks like a promo for “E.R.” when he starts to unwrap everything from his knees and ankles.
If no one gets bitten by a rabid raccoon, though …
I want to be the first to make this predication — even knowing how many things can go sideways.
Put it this way …
If I were building a team to make it to the Final Four, these Zags are awfully close to the gang I’d put together.
So I’m going out on that limb …
WAY out …
I really think Gonzaga is going to get its first national championship.
The Zags have done everything else.
Now it’s time for the shining moment.
Kispert put it this way: “We want so much to do it for all the Zags who came before us.
“Gonzaga is a family, and we’re going to fight to have that family celebration.”
I believe they’ll reach the top of the mountain.
No. 1 at Christmas will be No. 1 in March.
Email: scameron@cdapress.com
- • •
Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Steve also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday.
Steve’s various tales from several decades in sports — “Moments, Memories and Madness” — run on Sundays.