Pargo’s ‘moment’ special

LAHAINA, Maui – For all the aptitudes Jeremy Pargo can bring to a basketball court – vision, feel, fearlessness – and a wide range of motor skills, there is one gift that may best explain his presence at Gonzaga University.

“He likes the moment,” said his coach, Mark Few.

And already he’s helping create some.

Here’s an example: With the Bulldogs in a frightful slugfest with 23rd-ranked Maryland on Monday afternoon, GU’s freshman guard – emphasis on the fresh – found himself with the ball in the left corner with the shot clock nearing expiration. Already Sean Mallon and Derek Raivio had been walled off from getting away late attempts, and Pargo could have been excused for hoisting up a no-hoper just to beat the horn.

Instead, he saw an alley along the baseline and streaked toward the hoop. When a Maryland defender slid in to take away his shot, Pargo continued along his path, then reversed a perfect strike to fellow freshman Josh Heytvelt cutting to the basket.

Layup.

Now this was theatre. The Terrapins – all legs and wingspan and athletic beyond reason – had seven thunderous dunks, all SportsCenter worthy, and none were as demoralizing as that minidrama along the baseline.

“Maybe for some people (those dunks were) intimidating,” Pargo said. “But everyone’s going to get dunks. You can’t let a dunk rattle you. You just have to play through it.”

Introducing Jeremy Pargo, who nothing seems to rattle – not somebody else’s dunks, not his own mistakes – and who likes the moment.

And if that drive-and-pass was nothing but a moment in No. 8 Gonzaga’ 88-76 victory in the first round of the EA Sports Maui Invitational, it signaled yet another changing of the guard at GU – though still very much a work in progress and mostly subtext in one of the Zags’ most impressive preseason victories.

The real damage, we know, was done by Adam Morrison, Derek Raivio and J.P. Batista, who combined for 70 of the Zags’ 88 points – Morrison by keeping GU afloat for a half, Raivio for a couple of telling 3-pointers that allowed the Bulldogs to open a 10-point lead and Batista for being such a rock underneath, the one thing the Terps lack.

But the coming-out party was for Pargo, even if he was a little late for it.

Would you believe five turnovers and no assists the first half, but seven assists and no turnovers the second?

That’s an impressive turn-around in any company, but especially so against the Terps, who start a couple of 6-foot-5 guards in D.J. Strawberry – Darryl’s kid – and Chris McCray, possibly the ACC’s most underrated talent. Few said he “could see them being a Final Four team,” though that’s not going to happen without better inside production.

But it won’t stop the Terps from raising some hell on the perimeter.

This was worrisome for Few on two levels.

One, the Zags are still without their most athletic force, swingman Erroll Knight, just two weeks removed from arthroscopic knee surgery. Two, no one Few had trotted out to play guard alongside Raivio had delivered much of anything in the opener against Idaho or the first half against Maryland. Among starter Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes, Pargo, Nathan Doudney and freshman Larry Gurganious, that spot had produced 1-for-9 shooting and 15 turnovers in 60 minutes.

Pargo changed that in a hurry in the second half.

With the Zags at the tipping point, trailing 41-35, Pargo assisted on five of the next six Gonzaga baskets – finding Raivio outside the arc, Batista on the baseline and Morrison running wild on the wings. Gonzaga, after shooting just 37 percent in the first half, made 10 of its next 13 shots after halftime and 76 percent after intermission.

“I think we were just playing with too much adrenaline,” said Raivio. “All of us take it a little personally when we play tough teams like this, but when we settle down and play as a team we get better shots.”

The major maintenance had to be done on the freshman.

“We just had to remind him that he’s playing with great players,” Few said. “He had to slow down a little and pick and choose his spots. Those guys have proven they can really score.

“When you get a good player like Jeremy, you don’t want to take his attack mode away – which I don’t think you ever can with him, really. But he’s got to pick his spots because that’s what he’s so good at. And he understands that. He’s a quick learner.”

And without much fear. When the Terps made their last push to get within five points with just under three minutes to play, it was Pargo – again with the shot clock under 10 – boldly burying a 3-pointer on a kick-out pass from Batista.

“He’ll take the big shots,” Few said. “He’s a guy at this point whose percentage might not be good, but at the end of the game it’s probably going to go in.”

Pargo’s arrival in Spokane remains something of a marvel. Unable to convince players from metro Seattle from coming just 280 miles east, Few and his staff were able to extract Pargo from inner city Chicago – though not without some hard work.

“Early my senior year, there were a lot of – well, not rumors, but truth that my grades were low,” Pargo admitted. “A lot of people thought I wasn’t going to qualify and at times it looked like I wasn’t, and a lot of schools that were recruiting me dropped off. But Gonzaga stayed with me.”

But Chicago to Spokane?

“One guy told me it wasn’t the end of the world,” Pargo laughed, “but you can see it (from there).”

Sheesh. Has George Raveling been writing that guy’s material?

Few’s challenge now is to find the proper rhythm between Raivio and Pargo, both natural point guards who have honed their games with the ball in their hands – not that anyone thinks it will be much of an issue.

Said Raivio, “It just makes things easier on me. I’ve got to be more offensive-minded this year and it’s another part of my game I’ve got to expand.”

And Few: “Derek knows Jeremy’s best quality is how well he can pass the ball, and Jeremy knows what kind of a shooter Derek is. It takes heat off Derek and we can kind of ying and yang them.”

You know. Whatever works at the moment.