Zags glad for pair of grad transfers as they rest up for final push

SPOKANE — Mark Few insists he has a tired basketball team.

Coaches all tend toward exaggeration, but in this case, Few is probably describing his Zags pretty accurately.

The good news is that, yes, they are now getting some rest.

“We’re giving them a few ‘mental days’ before we get back to it,” Few said.

Gonzaga gets a break here because with the double-bye system, it will be eight days before the Bulldogs play in the West Coast Conference semifinals against Pacific or an upset winner from lower in the bracket.

That game will be next Monday night in Las Vegas, with the tournament final the following evening.

The Zags have played 31 games (29-2), and since Anton Watson was shut down to have shoulder surgery after just five games, Few basically has gone with just a seven-man rotation.

Even that number is a bit misleading, since Killian Tillie missed nine games.

First, he had to finish rehabbing from a pre-season knee surgery, and then it was hit and miss for a while after spraining his left ankle.

Asked just how he felt physically after the Zags beat Saint Mary’s 86-76 in the regular-season finale on Saturday night, Tillie said: “Not too bad, really. But if you want the truth, I’ve definitely been better.”

IN ADDITION to using just seven players, with a few mandatory cameo appearances from Lithuanian swing man Martynas Arlauskas, Few has had to deal with an unbalanced squad.

There basically are three guards, three forwards and a swing man in Corey Kispert.

The guards aren’t quite distributed evenly, however.

Few has had to ask one of his two spectacular grad transfers to walk in and become an iron man.

“Ryan (Woolridge) is basically our only point guard,” he said. “We were expecting Brock Ravet (left team for undisclosed reasons) to contribute at point, but the way it’s gone, we’ve had to ask Ryan to play 39, 40 minutes.

“Eventually, even the type of high-speed athlete we’ve got with Ryan is going to wear down a little.”

When that’s happened, Few has used either grad transfer Admon Gilder or soph Joel Ayayi to give him some minutes playing point guard.

Neither, however, has spent any serious time running an offense — so it’s been learning on the fly.

The forwards also need a rest.

Serbian post man Filip Petrusev has averaged 26 minutes while leading the team in scoring (17.8), while backup freshman Drew Timme has occasionally had to pick up the work that the Zags were counting on Tillie to do.

“Obviously, the big guys have been banging with people like (BYU’s Yoeli) Childs,” Few said. “So yes, we’re worn out.”

A YEAR ago, the Zags entered the WCC tournament as overwhelming favorites, expected to cruise through Las Vegas and perhaps keep gunning all the way to the Final Four.

Instead, they were upset by Saint Mary’s in the tournament final — but they did come within a hair of sniffing a national title game, losing a thriller to Texas Tech in the Elite Eight.

That team was loaded, and everyone knew it right from the beginning. Even without a healthy Tillie, there were stars at every position.

This time around, Few was facing a mystery when practice started humming in October.

Four of his starters had gone off to play pro ball — and after a summer of planning, the Zags promptly lost three key players.

Oumar Ballo, a 265-pound shot-blocking beast from Mali who dominated the paint at the FIBA U-19 World Cup last summer despite being only 16, was ruled ineligible while some of his courses were transferred from Africa.

Ravet left after winning the 3-point shooting contest at Kraziness in the Kennel, and then Watson suffered three shoulder subluxations before it was decided he’d have to be shut down for season-ending surgery.

Losing Watson, a versatile 6-8 kid from Gonzaga Prep with long arms and a natural feel for the game, really hurt.

He was already working his way into the frontcourt rotation, while possessing the speed and ball-handling skill to handle the wing or even play guard, if necessary.

WATSON HAD another critical role, as well.

He played the point as Few began implementing a scary looking three-quarter-court press.

Watson’s length and uncanny sense for the game made him a natural for that position, and if the press had become another bullet for Few to fire when necessary, he’d always have the option to change the pace of a game.

If Few faced a puzzle when all these guys were available, it only got more difficult when players started disappearing.

“We really had no idea what we had when the season started,” Few said. “I would never have guessed this group would come together and win 29 games.

“They are proof that sometimes the whole is greater than its individual parts. They came together on and off the court, and they bought into everything we asked of them.

“I’m really proud of these guys. They’re the most resilient group I’ve ever had, I think.

“Everyone out there got on board with the idea of winning, rather than individual accomplishments, which is how we managed to have seven guys averaging in double figures (it’s six now, with Timme at 9.6).

“That’s the ultimate in team basketball.”

If the Zags hang on to the No. 1 seed in the West Region of the NCAA tournament — where they are currently projected — they will open the event as a mystery, just as they were in October.

They seem to have weaknesses (handling power players like Childs and penetrating guards like the Gaels’ Jordan Ford), but they share the ball like crazy and they can all score.

So who knows?

“We’ve got unfinished business,” Tillie said, and no one even asked him if he was talking about the WCC tournament or a national championship.

Again…

Who knows?

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.