Be tru to your Zags in the NCAAs
TruTV.
Channel 246 on DirecTV.
Channel 242 on DISH Network.
Channel 68 on Time-Warner Cable.
OK, you should be able to find the Zags’ game on TV today. Gonzaga is scheduled to face Fairleigh Dickinson in an NCAA tournament first-round game at 4:27 p.m. — unless the first session of games in Salt Lake City runs woefully long.
Unless the top-seeded Zags are bogged down by an overdose of Clover Club potato chips, they should have little trouble with the 16th-seeded Knights, coming off a play-in victory over Prairie View AM/FM or something like that on Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio.
Then again, Virginia can tell you what can happen when a 1 plays a 16.
That shouldn’t happen today.
An unexpected stumbling block could come up early, if the Zags face the No. 8 Syracuse Orange and their troubling zone.
Syracuse beat Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 in 2016.
And before we knew that Washington was going to be good this season, the Huskies gave Gonzaga all it wanted in December at the Kennel before the Zags won on a last-second shot.
The Huskies coach happens to be a former Syracuse assistant.
The Orange, like the Zags, have beaten Duke this season — they just don’t feel the need to bring it up every time someone questions their manhood.
Anyway, many national pundits are picking the Zags to go all the way, so Zag fans can’t even lean on that perceived slight.
Their team is obviously talented enough, experienced enough and deep enough to win it all.
After last week’s faceplant against Saint Mary’s, it’s time to start showing it again, starting today.
MELODY KEMPTON has been a nice addition to the Gonzaga women’s basketball team this season.
The true freshman, the career leader in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots at Post Falls High, has seen action in all 32 of the Bulldogs’ games this season, all off the bench.
She’s averaging 4.2 points and 3.3 rebounds in nearly 14 minutes per game, with 20 blocked shots and 18 steals on the season.
And with a starter and key reserve out for the season with leg injuries suffered in last week’s West Coast Conference tournament, Kempton’s role off the bench figures to get even bigger.
But Kempton, a four-time 5A Inland Empire League Player of the Year, and the Gatorade Idaho Player of the Year as a senior after leading the Trojans to a state title, has shown she’s been up to the challenge in the past.
Kempton, a 6-foot-1 forward, scored a season-high 14 points in November vs. defending national champion Notre Dame, currently ranked third in the country and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Fifth-seeded Gonzaga (28-4) opens NCAA play on Saturday vs. No. 12 Arkansas-Little Rock in Corvallis, Ore. If the Zags win, they could face host Oregon State on Monday night, if the No. 4 Beavers get by No. 13 Boise State on Saturday.
Former Lake City High star Katie (Baker) Faulkner is an assistant coach at Oregon State, and OSU guard Destiny Slocum formerly played at Mountain View High in Meridian.
Kempton was a freshman, Slocum a junior when Post Falls played Mountain View at a holiday tournament at Coeur d’Alene High. Slocum scored 20 points, Kempton 16 in Mountain View’s 78-52 victory.
NORTH IDAHO nearly had two other local players in the NCAA tournament, until Big Sky Conference regular-season champion Idaho was upended in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
Still the seasons of sophomores Allison Kirby (Timberlake High) and Nina Carlson (Lake City) will continue tonight when the Vandals play at Loyola Marymount in the WNIT.
Kirby, a 5-7 point guard, started all 33 games for the Vandals as a freshman. This year, a combination of a knee injury and the emergence of freshman point guard Gina Marxen meant less playing time for Kirby. This year, she’s played in 17 games, with three starts, averaging 12.4 minutes per game.
Carlson, a 6-3 post, has played in 19 games, starting three, and is averaging 8.6 minutes per game.
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@CdAPressSports.