Grays fingerprints all over this one
Junior guard leads Gonzaga’s victory
LAS VEGAS – His right
elbow was Saran wrapped
in ice, where before a sleeve
of white tape had buttressed the
joint bruised by a crash to the
floor both spectacular and
horrifying.
The tips of the nails on the
middle and ring fingers of his
right hand looked as if they’d been
dinner for a passing wolverwine,
and the blood from them spotted
both his jersey and his shorts.
Either that went undetected by
officials as the game went on – by
rule, it requires fresh laundry – or
they simply shrugged and decided
they could live with any gore
short of a Tarantino movie.
In other words, Steven Gray
was a mess.
And he may never have looked
so good.
A thousand theories get floated
each and every Gonzaga
basketball season, most of them
crackpot and virtually all of them
such generalizations that they
leak value before they’re finished
being uttered. One that may have
some legs suggests that while
Matt Bouldin is unquestionably
the Bulldogs’ marquee player and
that Zags have never really had
someone like Elias Harris, they go
as the understated Gray goes – at
least on those nights when the
line between winning and losing
is thinnest.
A night such as Sunday, when
the Zags worked Loyola
Marymount 77-62 to advance to
the championship game of the
West Coast Conference
Tournament for the 13th straight
year – 15th in the last 16.
A night Gonzaga coach Mark
Few will remember for “one of
the best performances I have ever
seen (from) one of our players.”
The numbers were almost the
least of it and they were
sensational: 18 points, seven
assists, six rebounds and two
steals in 31 minutes filled with
stretches you might have
expected him to ease off the
accelerator because he had the
baggage of a foul too many.
His fingerprints – both bare
and bloody – were all over this
game, which carried some drama
simply because the Lions are
young, gifted and hungry, had
been been the last time to beat
Gonzaga and presented matchup
problems for the Zags that no
other WCC team quite duplicated.
Then again, sometimes it’s
forgotten the kind of matchup
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problem a player like Gray
poses for Gonzaga’s
opponents.
“I was talking with a pro
scout about him last night,”
said Max Good, the crusty
LMU coach who looks like
a senior version of the
“Avatar” villain, Col.
Quartich. “I said of all their
guys, I’m not so sure he’s
about as good a prospect
(as they have). Probably got
to tighten his handle up,
but he’s an explosive
athlete.”
There were scads of
examples this night, all of
them overshadowed by the
frightening sequence
midway through the first
half when Gray bit on a
pump fake by Drew Viney,
catching his hip on the
LMU player’s shoulder and
flipping several feet in the
air. He landed flush on his
right side directly in front
of Few, who was “certain
he’d broken his elbow.”
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This was at the 9:45 mark,
and as trainer Jennifer
Nyland taped him up near
the bench, Gray stood
motionless with his arm
hanging at his side –
anything but the picture of
hope.
At 8:01, he checked back
into the game.
At 8:00, he took an
inbounds pass from
Bouldin and scored
uncontested, the Lions
apparently deked into
thinking he was through,
too.
There are different ways
to illuminate how much
Gray means to the Zags.
One is to point out that in
the five games they’ve lost,
Gray has shot an aggregate
14 of 55 and scored less
than 10 points a game.
Naturally, he hasn’t been
lights out in all the wins,
either, but he was certainly
a monster in Maui and
came up big in the
Oklahoma-Illinois parlay
around New Year’s, as well
as the first showdown with
———————- ———————-
Saint Mary’s.
Few, not surprisingly,
feels his junior guard has
not fulfilled his destiny.
“I think it’s time for him
to start stepping up and
realizing (his potential),”
Few said. “He’s always
been so laid back. God gave
him a gift. Steve’s had a
really good year for us in
how he’s defended and
taken big shots when
they’re there and made
them, and big free throws.
But there’s still some more
we can get and he can get.”
He will get it all this
weekend.
“There’s not many
opportunities where you
can say if we win these next
two games, we’re
champions,” Gray said.
“That’s motivation enough
to come out and play as
hard as you can for the time
you’re in, because there’s
not that many left. And it’s
really special.”
As goals go, it’s pretty
black and white. Colored
with shades of Gray.