No. 1 Zags: Bring on the WCC

WAIT

Forgive the Zags for feeling a little bit like a gang waiting at the airport.

They have to be wondering if and when some flights are going to arrive.

OK, that might not be the most brilliant analogy we’ve ever devised, but there definitely is a sense around the Gonzaga program — America’s No. 1 team at 14-1, thank you very much — of important things to come.

Or not.

We can take these in any order, and some obviously are more urgent than others, but maybe we should start with the health of Killian Tillie.

The senior from France has battled injuries throughout his career at Gonzaga, and at the moment he’s trying to recover from a balky knee.

Tillie’s availability is likely the difference between the Zags being an awfully good team and a serious Final Four contender.

Coach Mark Few has called Tillie his “problem solver,” referring to the fact that at 6-10, Tillie has a variety of great post moves — but he’s also excellent on the perimeter, both as a shooter and ballhandler if the Zags encounter any kind of pressing defense.

Filip Petrusev, the 6-11 Serbian who, along with freshman Drew Timme, offers the Zags a true, back-to-the-basket post presence, made an interesting observation about Tillie.

“Sometimes if you have two bigs playing around the paint, they can actually get in each other’s way,” Petrusev said.

“But that doesn’t happen with Tillie. He can come inside when that’s the right play, but he also can stretch the floor, hit shots from outside — and leave the right spacing for guys in the post.”

THE STATUS of Tillie’s knee, which was surgically “cleaned out” (Few’s description) just prior to the start of the season, remains a question mark.

Tillie has played in nine of the Zags’ 15 games so far, and he’s been, well ...

Tillie Light.

Killian is averaging a respectable 11.4 points. He’s been mostly available for all those various uses that have helped make Gonzaga so good, but you get the sense that he’s playing without a real sense of explosiveness.

Maybe that’s the knee, or worrying a little about the knee while trying to rehab it on the fly.

Tillie has a lot at stake, since if he could get completely healthy, he’d not only give the Zags a legitimate shot at the Final Four, he’d be looking forward to an exciting career in the NBA.

Playing at the top of his game, Killian Tillie is a lottery pick.

Thus everyone, most of all Tillie himself, must wait to see how the knee responds.

Meanwhile, the Zags are also waiting to see what’s coming now that they enter WCC play.

The schedule is backloaded, with the road game at BYU and both battles with Saint Mary’s still months away.

THERE’S A bit of a mystery about the conference’s other teams.

The theory during preseason was that we’d see better balance and more tough assignments for the conference’s top dogs (pun intended), but so far everyone has looked more or less...

Meh.

Unlike a year ago, when the WCC bagged quite a few big-time wins ahead of conference play, this season hasn’t produced much fireworks – although you had to notice Saint Mary’s flogging Arizona State by 40.

Few believes there will, indeed, be enough balance to keep you awake from game to game.

“There were a lot of good young players (in the conference) last year,” he said, “and they’ve all stayed around.”

He laughed.

“Unlike here.”

The quality of competition, beyond the known quantities of Saint Mary’s and BYU, remains a puzzle.

The Zags open WCC play on the road at Portland Thursday night, then come home on Saturday to face one of those question-mark teams, Pepperdine.

THE WAVES were considered a cinch upper-tier program this year, but so far, they’re a strange 7-7 — having played great in a 93-91 loss to Arizona in Anaheim, but most recently getting blown out 83-68 by San Jose State.

They were competitive against USC (seven-point loss), but have no quality wins and lost to the likes of Sacramento State.

Like so much on Gonzaga’s plate these days, it’s just wait and see.

The Zags’ staff also is holding its breath on something else.

Jalen Suggs, either the No. 1 or No. 2 prep point guard in the country depending on what recruiting service you check, has said he will announce his college choice this Saturday.

Suggs, 6-4 and 195 pounds, was all-everything in both football (he’s a Kyler Murray style QB) and basketball at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis.

He’s been to Spokane three times, become a darling of the wild student section at the games he’s attended, and has said openly, “You don’t like Gonzaga. You love Gonzaga.”

Suggs is very tight with the Zags’ two previous 2020 signees, Dominick Harris and Julian Strawther, and all three claim they’re in touch almost daily.

Recruiting site 247 now has Gonzaga listed as a 100 percent lock to land Suggs – which is just the kind of thing that makes you nervous.

Presumably, we’ll know on Saturday.

Come to think of it, we’ll know more about Pepperdine on Saturday, too.

WEIGHT

Right after the Zags dismissed Detroit Mercy 93-72 on Monday night, Few was looking at the challenges ahead in the conference season.

He joked about the extra weight of “lugging this thing around.”

Few was talking about being ranked No. 1 in the nation in both major polls, a distinction the Zags earned honestly with a rugged schedule.

Voters no doubt have noticed that Gonzaga has a Division-I best streak of 11 straight true road victories — which include wins this year at Texas A&M, Washington and Arizona.

The Zags also have a win over No. 4 Oregon, so there is no question this is another bunch of sluggers in Spokane.

Ah, but that No. 1 spot has been passed around so often that you wonder if it’s coated in uranium.

“It does make a difference,” Few said, referring to the No. 1 ranking (as opposed to any other really high number).

“You get every team’s best game, and their loudest crowds, all of that.”

Few conceded, though, that he doesn’t mind having his team considered the best in the country.

A COUPLE things you can say about this particular Gonzaga group are that, first, anyone on the floor can beat you; and second, that they’re going to push the pace and score.

The Zags have six players scoring in double figures (and simply need Timme to bag a couple more buckets to make it seven, since he’s averaging 9.9).

To put that in perspective, no other team has more than five players in double figures.

Heading into conference play, the evidence is in that the Zags can all shoot, and most of them can shoot from distance.

One theory on defending Gonzaga that a few opponents tried involved not bothering to guard Ryan Woolridge, the grad transfer point guard who truly speeds up the Zags.

Woolridge had a reputation as being a poor shooter, so some teams left him alone on the perimeter and tried to clog the lane while making sure to jump out on the deadly Corey Kispert (43.5 percent on 3-pointers).

Hah.

Woolridge seems amused by the strategy.

He’s also canned 18 of 33 tries from 3-point range, which would suggest ignoring him wasn’t all that successful.

THE ZAGS as a team are shooting just a tick under 40 percent on 3-pointers, which makes them awfully hard to cover when you have to account for Petrusev, Timme and Tillie around the bucket.

The only questions about this team as it heads into the WCC are foul shooting (it’s improved lately, but still sits at 66.7 percent) and defense.

Guarding the perimeter should not be a problem, since Woolridge is one of the best on-ball defenders in the country, and Gilder is quick and sticky, as well.

The Zags also have the athletes to switch all positions when they use certain lineups, but...

No, they don’t have a rim protector like Brandon Clarke (oh, he was fun...), so positioning and cutting off passing lanes will be critical.

Considering that this is almost an entirely new team from last year, progress has been close to spectacular.

“The way they’ve handled everything has been absolutely unbelievable, with all that’s been thrown at them,” Few said.

“We just need to get really healthy.”

He wasn’t just talking about Tillie, either, since freshman Anton Watson (perhaps a key to interior defense at 6-8 with long arms and great timing) is playing with a brace on his shoulder, and Gilder is just now recovering from a knee injury of his own.

All things considered, though, Few admits he’s thrilled — and ready to see what’s in the WCC.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

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 week.

Steve’s various tales from several decades in sports – “Moments, Memories and Madness” – run on Sundays.