Not every game is going to be easy

CHILL

Good grief!

Calm down, Zag fans.

You’d think this was just another ho-hum basketball program getting deep into a fourth straight losing season.

Or the team’s style was so boring and defense-oriented that the arena is usually half-full.

Or the coach is an angry tyrant like Bobby Knight, a guy who won’t warm up to fans or the media.

Obviously, none of those things are even close to being true.

Gonzaga, the little Jesuit school in Spokane that no one outside this part of the world knows anything about, is back at No. 1 in the nation and sitting on a lovely 16-1 record.

You’d think the Zag Nation would be thrilled.

I mean, this is a team that lost its top four scorers from last year’s Elite Eight club, and is counting on a leader who is fighting so many injuries that the Zags should be taking a M*A*S*H unit along on road trips.

Oh, and a key freshman who was counted on to help anchor the Gonzaga defense has his shoulder popping in and out of place — so he’s playing with a huge brace that doesn’t exactly help the explosive side of his game.

Did I mention that both grad transfer guards have been fighting knee injuries?

NOW GIVEN all those difficulties, shouldn’t the fan base be pretty excited that this “rebuilding year” has turned into a No. 1 ranking as we head into mid-January?

On Monday’s CBS college basketball podcast, a discussion came up about early favorites for national coach of the year.

The guys immediately mentioned Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, whose team is undefeated (but without a single quality win), San Diego State’s Brian Dutcher — a clearly legitimate candidate — and then about a dozen guys who are doing decent jobs but haven’t set the world on fire.

I listened to that, and decided this is a perfect spot for me to suggest that Mark Few should be in that conversation, especially after putting a team together out of complete strangers.

Few is not there when the talking heads discuss coach of the year for the same reason that Coach K is never there.

It is now expected that Gonzaga will be a powerhouse every single year.

Think about that.

My point: It’s kind of neat if somebody in New York or Chicago is tossing it out on some podcast. But here in the Northwest, we’re seeing the Zags up close, and we should KNOW the challenges that Few faces to keep this train running.

Gonzaga can’t just phone a super prep kid or a mega-transfer, and be certain that he’ll even visit.

Winning all these games in the outpost of Spokane is hard, folks.

What’s more, I’m not sure another big-name coach could come here and do it.

GO BACK to the summer, when we were lamenting the loss of stars like Rui Hachimura, Brandon Clarke and Co. to the NBA.

Sure, there was a decent recruiting class available — Drew Timme and Anton Watson had plenty of power-school choices — but guys coming back?

The Zags had…

Killian Tillie, whose health made you wonder if he’d ever play basketball again, ever;

Corey Kispert, a nice complementary player who had never been asked to change a game by himself;

Joel Ayayi, who had the nice bonus of practicing with those studs last year before taking his seat on the bench;

And Filip Petrusev, a big man who had shown offensive potential but got lost positioning himself for rebounding and defense.

That is not the nucleus of a 16-1 team that has wins over Oregon, Washington, Arizona and North Carolina (yeah, I know).

Few and his staff went out and found two grad transfers — Admon Gilder from Texas A&M and Ryan Woolridge of North Texas State.

Neither played last season due to serious health issues that made them complete question marks.

Anyone who suggested that Few might turn this current cast into a national title contender would have gotten a lot of funny looks.

And don’t bother saying you saw it coming.

We don’t believe you.

REALITY

SO WHAT are we watching here?

First, how did the Zags wind up at No. 1, and second, what are all these problems fans and even some media folks are whining about — all because Gonzaga had to rally in the second half to win at Portland, and then sweat to close out a 75-70 thriller over Pepperdine?

And at the Kennel, for heaven’s sake.

The answer to the first question is simple: Few and his staff, along with great leadership from Tillie and Kispert, have turned the Zags into a team that is far greater than its individual parts.

No one on this roster will be in the discussion for national player of the year, although a fully healthy Tillie certainly might have been, except…

If Tillie didn’t have that litany of injuries over the past couple of years, he’d be in the NBA with Rui and Brandon.

As it is, he’s one of the best players in college hoops, but only a few people realize it because he’s been forgotten.

Ask anyone around Gonzaga, though.

Tillie personally dragged the Zags back against Portland, and then put away Pepperdine with a game-saving block — and we’re talking carrying this team in every possible way, both on the court (22 and 20 points, respectively) and off the floor, as well.

“His leadership was the difference in those games,” Few said. “And he’s still not all that healthy. He was dominating games on one leg.”

ON THE subject of criticism (which finally made Few a little testy on Saturday night), how in the world can an objective fan blast guys like Petrusev for missing a couple of layups, or the guards for allowing Pepperdine’s Colbey Ross to seem unstoppable, or…

Well, any of them?

Ross will be in the NBA next year, and by the way, he’s the first guard who has gotten the better of Woolridge this season — and there have been plenty of excellent candidates.

That shock might help Woolridge in the long run, not to mention the rest of the Zags, who now realize that some help in the lane is required occasionally.

When this team was going on the road to beat Texas A&M, Washington and Arizona, it had a collective business-like attitude.

Every scouting report was studied and every possibility covered.

What we’ve likely seen lately is the Zags beginning to think they’re awfully good, and losing some of that focus.

“We’ve stopped paying attention to all of those things,” Tillie said. “The scouting, the instructions.”

Woolridge: “We just started playing, without the attention we had. We’ve started having guys doing individual things — like not staying with their own assignments on defense.

“We have to get back to the scouting reports, to our roles, to do our jobs and treat every team like we’re the underdogs.”

Few, meanwhile, no doubt agrees with that.

Just a week ago, he reminded the world that he doesn’t exactly have an NBA all-star team here.

“We’re extremely vulnerable,” he warned his team and the world in general.

But then, after those underwhelming performances against Portland and Pepperdine, he heard the chorus of criticism and defended his players.

“We’re 16-1 and 2-0 in the conference,” he said. “That’s what I see. Isn’t the idea to score more points than the other team? Didn’t we do that?”

Indeed.

We may discover that this creatively assembled team has actually taken another step forward over a strange weekend.

They may be learning another lesson from the coach who is at the center of everything.

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 Tuesday.

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