THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: We'll see soon if Zag fixes stick

Now we find out if the surgery was successful.

I mean, is the patient TRULY cured?

We learned a few days ago that the staff felt good about things, and there was a nice walkabout with some friends.

Around 4,000 of them down at the Chiles Center in Portland.

Tonight, we’ll know a lot more about sturdiness going forward, and that’s pretty damn important because there’s a real rock fight coming this weekend.

Yes, I’m referring to the once proud Gonzaga hoops team, which needed an operation after showing unusual weakness and lack of energy.

Vital signs were scary.

Coach Mark Few did some serious cutting and stitching, and his Zags looked quite different while strolling past the University of Portland.

Braden Huff and Emmanuel Innocenti replaced Graham Ike and Khalif Battle in the starting lineup, presumably to offer better on-ball and positional defense.

It’s not like Few to oversee such an invasive procedure with his group, so we can assume he and the other coaches saw more than enough — in game action, throughout practice and on tape — to warrant shifting some people around.

Few got some decent results as the Zags mauled Portland to the tune of 105-62.

NOW, WE don’t want to make wild assumptions based on a beatdown of the lowly Pilots.

Well, no more than were obvious.

Few gave the start to Huff because, while he and Ike are similar at the offensive end and should remain reliable scorers, Braden seems at times to have more basketball savvy.

He’s not as prone to turnovers (Ike has 38 for the season against 31 assists), and he appears better at defensive positioning.

Innocenti replaced Battle to settle down the starting unit, basically, offering steady and effective play.

The 6-foot-5 Innocenti didn’t disappoint in his 23 minutes against Portland, doing a solid job om the defensive end (often against Pilots sharpshooter Max Mackinnon), and hitting two of his four 3-point tries — in addition to handing out five assists.

Without a turnover.

Now, Portland isn’t the sternest possible test, but the newly energized Zags will get a decent look at where things stand tonight when they host the Oregon State bunch that beat them in Corvallis.

After that, it’s Saturday night at Saint Mary’s.

The Gaels are still unbeaten in the WCC, and they’re no doubt capable of confounding a Gonzaga team that hasn’t brought its A-game.

Feel free to assume that Few’s slicing and dicing of his lineup just a week before a visit to Moraga was not a coincidence.

It’s time to find out if this group of Zags will make the customary surge down the stretch and into the NCAA tournament.

Or discover that the recent surgery was no more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

IT MAY have been instructive how the Zags coped with their new spots on the trip to Portland.

The biggest disappointment was Khalif Battle, still the team’s second-leading scorer at 12.2, who played 16 minutes and didn’t take a shot.

The athletic, often spectacular Battle was almost invisible.

I’m pretty sure Few wasn’t looking for that.

Meanwhile, Michael Ajayi, who performed disappearing acts in several games, suddenly burst into life.

Ajayi scored 20 points (on 7-of-10 shooting), grabbed eight rebounds and blocked a couple of shots while banging bodies in the lane.

Where was THIS guy in the first 20 games?

Ben Gregg, one of the incumbent starters who kept his place, absolutely went off on his homeboys (Ben is from Clackamas, Ore.).

He tied his career high with 24 points in just 19 minutes, but the real stunner was a 10-of-10 performance from the field — including success on all four tries on 3-pointers.

Considering the whole crowd, there’s plenty of talent but these Zags are a strangely unbalanced bunch — which is what Few was no doubt trying to cure in that week before the Portland game.

For instance, you’ve no doubt heard that point guard Ryan Nembhard leads the entire nation with his 208 assists (to 47 turnovers), and Ryan really dazzled Portland with 13 assists.

Wait!

That’s not the most amazing stat in the Gonzaga backcourt.

Shooting guard Nolan Hickman has played 630 minutes over these first 21 games, and he’s shot 113 treys (making 46 percent).

But.

The wild stat is that in those 630 minutes, he’s shot just four free throws.

How is that possible?

Hickman’s crazy inability to get fouled should be a metaphor for this whole team.

Maybe Few’s surgery will create something new and shiny.

Maybe.

We’ll know by this weekend.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week, normally Tuesday, Wednesday and 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.”