A sad ending ... especially for GU seniors

Might as well start with the dreary facts.

“Disappointing, very disappointing,” said the coach, Mark Few.

“Necessary, completely necessary under the circumstances,” said the athletic director, Mike Roth.

They were (and are) both correct, of course.

Given the scale of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world and now making scary inroads into the United States, it was mandatory that the NCAA cancel its Division I basketball tournaments — known to most of us as March Madness.

For the record, Roth pointed out that the combined record of the Gonzaga men’s and women’s teams was 59-5, both were highly ranked (Nos. 2 and 11, respectively, in most polls), and each hoped for a decent tournament run.

Fair or not, our focus has been on the men, who felt they had a legitimate chance to bag Gonzaga’s first national championship.

With the 2017 team having fought its way to the final game, it’s become clear that winning it all is no longer a small-school pipedream at Gonzaga.

It’s an honest goal, and every one of the Zags is sick at heart — the seniors most of all — that they won’t get a shot at it this year.

FOR WHAT it’s worth, I don’t think this was the best Zags team of recent vintage — it lacked some key ingredients of the 2017 and 2019 teams — but for me, it was the most, well …

Lovable.

For one thing, these guys were kind of underdogs by the standards of Gonzaga hoops.

A new but decent team confronted Few last summer, and then all sorts of things began to happen …

A gifted 17-year-old giant from Mali, Omar Ballo, was declared ineligible because of some issue with transferring his courses; star forward Killian Tillie had “preemptive knee surgery” to clean up some problems; freshman guard Brock Ravet, then the leading prep scorer in the history of Washington, abruptly left the program; and finally, exciting frosh Anton Watson, a 6-foot-8, do-it-all talent from Gonzaga Prep, had season-ending surgery on a shoulder problem that just wouldn’t go away.

Few was left with what amounted to a seven-man rotation, and even then, Tillie was in and out early in the year — and BOTH grad transfer guards, Ryan Woolridge and Admon Gilder, were nursing knee injuries.

And yet …

This makeshift team beat Oregon in the Bahamas, then handled super-talented Washington and national dark horse Arizona on the road.

The Zags also smashed North Carolina at home in a game that fans had drooled over for a year, but unfortunately the Tar Heels were not their usual brand and just became more fodder for the improving Zags.

WE KNOW now that this team finished 31-2, won both the WCC regular season and tournament titles for the umpteenth year, and would have been the No. 1 seed in the West Region — playing the first weekend at Spokane Arena.

Few has said that none of his teams surprised him like this one.

But shorthanded as they might have been, these Zags found a pattern and a rhythm that suited them.

Woolridge absolutely took command of the point guard spot, and played superhuman minutes because, as Few noted several times, there wasn’t another point guard on the roster.

He also became a fan favorite with his refusal to show expression on the court (a John Stockton trait for those with long memories).

“My dad taught me that,” Woolridge said. “Just play the game and let the other team react.”

Of all this year’s Zags, Woolridge might be the one that we wish the NCAA would let come back for another season.

There is a ton of undergrad talent on campus, and three all-everything preps headed to Spokane — but just like this year, Few won’t have a natural point guard.

Woolridge posted one very unhappy tweet when the NCAA canceled its tournament, but that was shortly followed by a second from the man whose handle on social media is “CallMeSmoove.”

It said: “Crazy ending to a long journey! Forever grateful for all the opportunities and friends I made on the way. No. 4 signing out.”

That tweet was met with endless responses, all reminding the jet-propelled No. 4 that he would forever be part of the Zag Nation.

I know for a fact that Woolridge cares deeply about that.

SO WITH Woolridge relentlessly pushing the pace at point, these Zags somehow fell into place.

Corey Kispert was the tough-defending and 3-point shooting wing. Quickly developing Joel Ayayi and Gilder were essentially the shooting guards.

Filup Petrusev scored bundles inside (and became the WCC Player of the Year), with talented freshman post Drew Timme a super sub and Tillie — naturally Tillie, always Tillie — doing everything else.

Yes, the team had its flaws.

Inside defense was not the greatest, as Petrusev could be bullied by big men like BYU’s Yoeli Childs.

Some truly dynamic guards, like Jordan Ford from Saint Mary’s, required double-teaming — which forced the rest of the Zags to scramble madly to pick up open shooters.

But the Zags had a trump card in almost every case.

They could all run.

With Woolridge figuratively carrying the starter’s pistol, Gonzaga beat almost everyone downcourt again and again, and routinely scored against half-organized defenses.

And brother, they were fun to watch.

Following the excitement of the previous year, with the Rui and Brandon show, Zag fans perhaps thought this season would be a bit of a downer.

Few certainly suspected it.

But they were all wrong, and this 2019-20 bunch earned a rightful place in Zags history.

Let’s just …

“Call them Smoove.”

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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.