THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: What if the Zags had an aircraft carrier next year?

The late coach and broadcaster Al McGuire liked to call them aircraft carriers.

He was talking about giants in the post, and how it was simpler to win basketball games if you had one.

“If you’re gonna let me start with a player,” Al used to say, “then get me a BIG one.”

McGuire was even more fortunate than that at Marquette in 1977.

He had an entire fleet.

Future NBA big men Jerome Whitehead (6-10) and Bo Ellis (6-9) combined for nearly 20 rebounds per game, and sophomore Bernard Toone (6-10) was around to spell them.

All three of McGuire’s big fellas went on to play in the NBA, as did All-American guard (and leading scorer) Butch Lee.

McGuire was known for getting the most out of middling talent, so how did he do with the bounty of Lee and that terrific trio of backboard cleaners?

Marquette won the NCAA national championship, defeating Charlotte and North Carolina in the Final Four at Atlanta.

McGuire told the media afterward: “Size is a luxury — but especially if it’s size with talent.”

Marquette had it, and won with it.

SIZE WON again in the title game Monday night, as 7-foot-2 Donovan Clingan and his smooth, relentless mates from UConn captured their second straight national banner with a 75-60 victory over Purdue.

Perhaps the moral of this tale, though, is that size also lost, as 7-foot-4 Zach Edey — the national player of the year — didn’t get enough help from the Boilermakers’ surrounding cast to keep up with the Huskies.

It’s entirely fair to say that the big boys did a lot of the heavy lifting while hauling these two teams to a championship showdown.

Edey and Clingan most definitely would qualify as part of Al McGuire’s dream navy.

They were a couple of giant vessels, and not just passing in the night.

There was banging, shoving, pushing — not to mention choke holds and arm bars.

Edey is pretty much unstoppable (37 points), and it’s probably fair to say you need a beast like Clingan to pound away inside just to make Zach’s night a little tougher.

Of course, UConn displayed gifted players everywhere, including grad student Tristen Newton (a star from last year’s winners who scored 20 more) and freshman Stephon Castle.

Gonzaga fans know all about Edey, since the Zags lost to Purdue three times over the past two seasons — including in this year’s NCAA tournament.

Other than a 7-4 bully in the post, Gonzaga had just as much talent across the rest of the floor.

There’s an obvious question that I’m sure came to every Zag junkie while watching those losses.

“What if WE had Edey?”

Actually, since there’s only one of him and he was bunking down in Indiana (yuck, why?), there’s a more reasonable question for Gonzaga.

“What if we had somebody big enough to slug it out with Edey?”

After all, UConn sent waves of gifted players at Edey and delivered a thunderous knockout punch on Monday night.

Still, they DID have Clingan and 6-10 freshman Samson Johnson available to tag-team Edey — using up nine fouls in the process.

Could this Zags team have been in Connecticut’s spot on Monday night if Clingan had come to Spokane?

Or if another aircraft carrier had squeezed up the river?

MORE TO the point, what about next year’s Zags?

Everyone has fingers and toes crossed that there won’t be any serious portal exodus — although Michael Ajayi, the high-scoring transfer from Pepperdine, is going to consider the pro route while keeping his college option open.

Bet on him coming to Gonzaga.

Even without Ajayi, however, and assuming this year’s team comes back (all but the graduating Anton Watson), there will be a legit shooter joining the gang, rehabbing transfer Steele Venters.

Sophs-to-be Dusty Stromer and Braden Huff should be part of the family now, and join the rest of the cast in running Gonzaga’s long-time patterns and defenses as though they’re second nature.

So, what could Mark Few be missing?

Yep, that aircraft carrier.

The closest Gonzaga has ever come to winning a national championship was in 2017, when they got jobbed by the officials in a title game loss to North Carolina.

That team had an entire fleet of mighty ships — Przemek Karnowski, Zach Collins, and Johnathan Williams III sunk everyone they saw.

It was a massive group.

So, maybe Few and his staff will have to go back to recruiting in Europe.

Or hope that Clingan stumbles into the portal.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”