THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: The story behind the numbers for Zags in close games

It’s time to visit the Last Chance Saloon. 

That’s where we find talented but wildly inconsistent Gonzaga, a gang in desperate need of a quality win. 

The 14th-ranked Zags (9-3) get one more shot at a victory that could impress the NCAA seeding committee when they face No. 22 UCLA on Saturday at the spiffy new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. 

After that, there’s nothing left but West Coast Conference play, and the hard truth is that Gonzaga’s seed in the Big Dance come March can likely only go down — assuming it moves at all. 

The good news is that the Zags are No. 5 in the NET, which allegedly is the committee’s bible for placing teams. 

Still, it wasn’t supposed to be this way — this worrying and all — especially since the Zags have enough individual talent to sail into a 1-seed and earn an advantageous landing spot for Mark Few’s 26th straight NCAA appearance. 

Let’s look down from the Goodyear blimp, pull out our handy recorder, and see what the big-picture landscape looked like on Nov. 20. 

The Zags pounded Long Beach State 84-41 that night to go 5-0. 

It seems like ages ago by this point, but Gonzaga opened the season by whipping No. 25 Baylor 101-63, then notching solid wins over Arizona State and No. 20 San Diego State — the latter at the Aztecs’ notoriously wicked Viejas Arena. 

IT FELT like Few had a squad that could handle anything, with Graham Ike almost unstoppable in the post, Ryan Nembhard leading the country in dishing out dimes, Nolan Hickman reliable at the off-guard spot, Khalif Battle ready to go off on a scoring spree anytime, and Michael Ajayi cleaning up loose change on the boards. 

Braden Huff was available to spell Ike, Dusty Stromer could handle the shooting guard spot (occasionally allowing Hickman to give Nembhard a breather at the point), and Ben Gregg offered strength and experience all across the front line.  

Through the first five games, the Zags just purred. 

They left for the Bahamas and the Battle 4 Atlantis looking like one of the very best teams in the country. 

But then, West Virginia played them tough, made a bucket load of 3-pointers, and stole a win in overtime. 

Few screwed up by botching a substitution rule in the final seconds of regulation, then Hickman got caught at midcourt and panicked about a 10-second call. 

While all that was going on, the Mountaineers’ Tucker DeVries stole the ball, got fouled and hit the two freebies to force OT. 

It feels like the West Virginia catastrophe has left the Zags jittery in close games. 

They blew an 18-point lead and lost 90-89 to Kentucky, once more in overtime. 

Next on the horror chart, they missed a thousand 3-pointers, made all the wrong plays down the stretch and handed UConn a 77-71 victory at Madison Square Garden. 

That defeat continued a theme that’s not just dangerous, but truly odd. 

IF YOU look at the Zags’ season statistics, they seem just fine. 

What’s hiding in those numbers, though, is that each key player has had at least one nightmare game. 

Three of the starters — Battle, Ajayi and Hickman — have had evenings where they were completely shut out. 

As in, zip. 

Zero. 

Ike, who routinely rips off scoring nights in double digits and averages 15.5, didn’t make a basket from the field until 6:29 remained in the loss to UConn -- and it was his only one, although he managed four fouls and four turnovers in his 12 forgettable minutes on the floor. 

Oh, and that defeat also happened to be Hickman’s night to post a “nothingburger,” going naught-for-two. 

Nembhard hasn’t actually been shut out in any game, but he did manage to miss four straight shots in the final three minutes against UConn. 

The Zags’ nervousness in close games doesn’t bode well for Saturday afternoon. 

UCLA (10-2) has prepped for its first conference run in the Big Ten by giving fans their money’s worth. 

In December alone, the Bruins have beaten No. 9 Oregon 73-71 and Arizona 57-54, before squandering an 18-point lead and losing 76-74 to North Carolina in New York City. 

You think Saturday’s scrap will go to the wire, or what? 

It’s so strange, seeing a Gonzaga team that’s this hard to figure out. 

So, SO strange. 

I guess you just have to hang in there, Zag folk. 

What else can you do? 

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.”