Perkins an all-time great Zag, despite the tearful finish
Poor Josh Perkins.
After five wonderful years in the Gonzaga hoops program, playing in a national championship game, breaking the school’s career record for assists…
The TV replay we’re going to see over and over is Josh being called for a technical foul with 11 seconds left in Saturday’s 75-69 Elite Eight loss to Texas Tech.
Perkins had just splashed a 3-ball to cut Tech’s lead to 69-67, and he was harassing Matt Mooney, who was trying frantically to inbound the ball — without much success.
To be brutally honest, Tech was scrambling in all directions and could have spit the bit right at that moment.
And then Perkins accidentally touched the ball as Mooney was moving it from side to side.
No matter what you hear or read, Josh did not “reach out of bounds.”
He was jumping up and down, trying to obscure Mooney’s vision, and his left hand nicked the ball as he leaped in that direction.
To his credit, the savvy Mooney sold the call — letting the ball pop loose and turning instantly to the official on the baseline.
AND THAT was that.
The Zags are not going back to the Final Four.
Perkins was upset, though probably not so much with the technical foul call as the belief — expressed by Coach Mark Few often during the game — that Tech’s much-heralded defense was allowed a lot more freedom to hack, slash and bump than it should have been.
Yes, Tech’s defenders have terrific hands and endless energy.
But a more tightly called game would have made it infinitely tougher for them to disrupt the Zags’ offensive rhythm — which was in tatters for much of the second half.
Where were those officials who called the title game two years ago, and whistled Zach Collins every time he drew a deep breath?
That crew would have come in handy on Saturday.
Of all the numbers on the final stat sheet, perhaps the most amazing showed that Texas Tech, which was mobbing and mugging just about everyone during the second half, got called for just six fouls.
Hell, Tech commits six fouls during the player introductions.
Turned loose to go after anyone who had the ball — or looked like he might get it — Tech turned a Gonzaga team which couldn’t hit open 3-pointers in the first half into a group that couldn’t even find sight of a shot down the stretch.
DON’T GET me wrong, this painful loss — the final game for somewhere between three and seven Zags, depending — wasn’t just down to the officiating.
That’s even when you consider the horrible blown call after Tech’s Tariq Owens blocked a last-minute corner 3-pointer by Rui Hachimura and “saved” the ball in to a teammate.
Owens, unfortunately, was out of bounds when he did it.
Still, I don’t want to put this all on the officials.
Gonzaga didn’t adjust to how the game (or at least the second half) was being called, and allowed the alley-fight mentality to descend on things like a horrible mist.
One nightmare possession saw four Zags whip the ball around, passing up two wide-open 3-point tries, only to see the flustered Zach Norvell Jr. forced into heaving one up as the shot clock expired.
But let’s wrap this where we started, with Josh Perkins.
The Zags’ leader had an excellent game, hitting 4 of 9 shots from deep with six assists against only two turnovers against that Tech defense.
Perhaps if Gonzaga had a timeout remaining, Perkins might not have even been on the baseline with 11 seconds left.
Few could have opted for someone taller — Killian Tillie off the bench, maybe — to loom over Mooney while Perkins fronted somebody else.
I can’t speak for you, but that mini-moment and then the technical foul certainly won’t be how I remember Josh.
The guy’s a baller.
And one of the greatest-ever Zags.
Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday.
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