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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Staying power

George Pfeifer, the highly successful and well-respected men’s basketball coach at Lewis-Clark State College, had just watched his NAIA Warriors get roasted by Gonzaga University in a preseason exhibition at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

He was asked if he was surprised by how quickly the Zags have reloaded after losing five seniors, including two-time West Coast Conference player of the year Blake Stepp and three-time all-WCC center Cory Violette, to graduation.

“Not at all,” Pfeifer said, noting the same question seems to be asked at the start of each new season. “I remember when they lost Dan Dickau and everyone was saying they wouldn’t be able to replace him. Then all of sudden, boom – Blake Stepp steps in.

“People are constantly saying, ‘Gee, they lost this guy, now what are they going to do?’ Well, how many years in a row does somebody have to do it before those same people take a closer look at the next guy standing in line and realize he’s a pretty good player, too?”

Six years, perhaps?

That’s how many consecutive years Gonzaga has advanced to the NCAA Tournament. And despite the massive toll graduation took on this year’s team, the Bulldogs have not dropped off the national radar.

They have once again been tabbed by league coaches as the favorites to win their fifth straight regular-season WCC championship. And nearly every preseason college basketball publication still has the Zags ranked in their top 25.

Granted, coach Mark Few has been forced to replace five seniors before. He did it back in 2000-01 after losing Matt Santangelo, Richie Frahm, Axel Dench, Mike Nilson and Ryan Floyd to graduation. And that team won 14 straight games, went 13-1 in the WCC and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row.

But that same team had been generally ignored by those who dabble in preseason predictions, and never made it into the Associated Press Top 25 rankings.

This team is different – which speaks to the Zags’ staying power.

Slam Magazine has GU ranked No. 14. Lindy’s has the Bulldogs at No. 17 and ranks the Zags’ Adam Morrison as the fourth-best sophomore in the country. GU is ranked No. 20 by Sporting News and No. 21 by Basketball News.

In addition, the Zags are rated No. 22 by Sports Illustrated and No. 25 by Blue Ribbon.

“Our goal has always been to sustain the national level of this program,” said Few, in his sixth season as the Zags head coach. “You look across America, though, and not many teams – outside of Duke and Kansas – have really done that. Even Carolina had a few years when they didn’t do anything. And UCLA has been nowhere to be heard from.

“Quite frankly, that’s our challenge this year – to be able not to dip, and I think these guys will be up to that challenge.”

It helped immensely that Ronny Turiaf, last year’s leading scorer and a two-time all-WCC first-teamer, opted to return for his senior season rather than declare for the NBA Draft. As a result, the Bulldogs boast the league’s top player in the 6-foot-10, 249-pound power forward, who averaged 15.5 points and 6.4 rebounds as a junior.

In addition, the Zags return a couple of young, but proven, frontline players in Morrison and Sean Mallon, who were both named to the WCC’s all-freshmen team last winter. And they’ve added a wide-body post player in J.P. Batista, a 6-9, 269-pound junior center, who averaged 20.2 points and 9.2 rebounds for Barton County (Kan.) Community College last year.

Batista, who missed the Bulldogs’ two exhibition games waiting for the NCAA to certify his eligibility, signed with GU during the late recruiting period, and once back up to speed will be counted on to fill the void left by Violette.

“He’s just been rock solid in practice,” Few said of Batista, “and he’s just an unbelievable person with great values and a no-nonsense work ethic – not to mention his body and his physical presence.

“He can rebound, he can score, he can post up and he can shoot free throws. He’s going to be a really solid player and one our most consistent performers night in and night out.”

Morrison, a 6-8 small forward, averaged 11.4 points last season and will once again be one of the Bulldogs’ primary scoring options.

Mallon, a 6-9 power forward, averaged just 5.7 points and 2.9 rebounds, but was extremely solid late in the season.

“He’s a gamer,” Few said of Mallon, an inside-outside threat, who redshirted during the 2002-03 season. “He really came on at the end of the last year, and he’s just kept rolling since then. He had as good an off-season as anybody, and he was as consistent at anyone on the floor during our two exhibitions.”

If Batista develops as expected, Few hopes to redshirt freshmen Josh Heytvelt, a 6-10 forward, and David Pendergraft, a 6-6 wing, knowing 7-1 New Zealander Calum MacLeod, a redshirt freshman, will be available for spot duty on the low blocks.

He will not have that luxury with rookie Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes, however, due to the Bulldogs’ lack of depth and experience in the backcourt.

Derek Ravio, a 6-3 sophomore who has grown 2 inches since last season, will take over for Stepp at the point, and junior Erroll Knight, a second-year transfer from the University of Washington will start at the off-guard spot.

But with junior Nathan Doudney, who redshirted last winter after transferring from Texas Tech, and seldom-used senior Brian Michaelson, a former walk-on, as the only other guards on scholarship, the 6-1 Altidor-Cespedes will have to play, probably at the off-guard spot.

Raivio, who according to Few “looked comfortable” in GU’s two exhibition games and is “doing all the things we’re asking him to do,” averaged just 11 minutes a game as Stepp’s backup last year. He seems to have a much better grasp on the offense this time around, however, and remains the Bulldogs’ best perimeter shooter.

Doudney, another pure shooter and combo guard, scored 25 points for Tech in an upset win over then No. 3-ranked Texas in the quarterfinals of the 2003 Big 12 Conference Tournament.

“He can really shoot the basketball,” Few said of the 6-4 Doudney. “And he can add some leadership, too, because he’s been through his share of Big 12 battles.”

And it is because of his experiences in the Big 12 that Doudney feels qualified to comment on this year’s Gonzaga team and how it has responded to the challenge of simply reloading, rather the rebuilding.

“When I was at Texas Tech, when we talked about Gonzaga we all thought, ‘Oh, they don’t play anybody all year. They get their 25 wins by beating up on weaker opponents.’ ” Doudney admitted. “But after coming here and playing with the guys on this team, we would beat Texas Tech. And we would compete for the Big 12 championship every year.

“The athletes we have on this team and the basketball minds of the players we have on this team are comparable to any team I’ve ever played against. And I’ve played against some great teams at Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma.”

Each of which – like Gonzaga – knows a thing or two about reloading.