Blanchette: This isn’t a flippant occasion for Zags

SEATTLE – You could see it when their eyes locked – Gary Bell Jr., Kyle Dranginis and Kevin Pangos – in the final 90 seconds, and broad smiles instantly creased each of their faces. You could see it in the hugs coach Mark Few laid on Pangos and Kyle Wiltjer, which surely left bruises if not vertebrae damage. You could see it, well, you could see it posted online in a video of a raucous postgame celebration behind closed doors. You could see it in Eric McClellan’s backflip – and the encore, something approximating a handstand by the giddy, silly coach. Mark Few. Doing handstands. Really. The only bigger break in character would be if he headed to the fishing hole with a Folgers can full of nightcrawlers. Gonzaga’s 87-68 romp over Iowa at KeyArena on Sunday in the NCAA tournament wasn’t the biggest basketball victory in Gonzaga history. But it quite obviously removed the biggest weight. For now the Zags are on their way to Houston and a date against UCLA on Friday – their sixth such trip to the NCAA’s Sweet 16, but the first breakthrough to the tournament’s second weekend in six years. Like any of them needed reminding. “If anybody said they weren’t tired (of hearing about it), they’d be lying to you,” said Bell. “I know I had a chip on my shoulder because I’d never been to the Sweet 16.” To outsiders, the joy might have seemed a shade over the top – there is yet another weekend to play before the tournament’s ultimate destination, after all. But when you’ve been Hoop America’s punching bag even while winning 27, 29, even 32 games in a season, surely a few whoops are in order. “This is the best feeling I’ve had in my life,” said Dranginis, “so far.” Timely caveat, Kyle. For Few, the exhilaration was in the Bell-Dranginis-Pangos recruiting class, with Przemek Karnowski who arrived a year later, experiencing what other Zags have tasted. “They’re so worthy and so deserving,” Few said, “and I wanted them to have this. Everybody was kind of banging on them that it was the one thing in their careers they hadn’t done.” And they even did a little more. For in none of the school’s previous round-of-32 wins did the Bulldogs come out and dominate a legit opponent – and if not step on their  throats, then keep them at arm’s length. These were the Zags of November against SMU and St. John’s doing everything right. And it wasn’t just the shooting – though at 62 percent, no GU team has ripped the nets like that in the NCAAs. It was Byron Wesley D-ing up Iowa’s Aaron White, giving away 5 inches, so Wiltjer could better work his magic on the offensive end. It was Karnowski sending dimes around the horn to his teammates – would you believe a no-look to Bell for a 3? It was Domantas Sabonis inside working over the Hawkeyes, whose size was supposed to be a new challenge for the Zags. “They were just playing,” Few said. “They were balling. “We weren’t calling a lot of sets – they didn’t need help with any sets. Which is what I always want them to do. I don’t want them to need any help.” When they stumbled – three turnovers in the first four minutes of the second half, as Iowa cut a 46-29 halftime lead to 11 – Pangos threw in a deep, early, screw-this- nonsense 3 that told the Hawkeyes there wouldn’t be any real comeback. And 14,091 in the Key were digging it – except for a few hundred Iowans. The Hawkeye band voiced its displeasure late with a grumpy chant of, “Neutral site! Neutral site!” “It was great to give them something to cheer for,” Pangos said – because, you know, the previous 33 wins weren’t enough. Asked if there was a sense or signal such a catharsis game was coming, most of the Zags demurred. Dranginis said the bus and locker room seemed a little quieter, as if to say, “We’re not going to let this happen to us again.” And Few? Well, after fretting about the roll the Hawkeyes were on – especially the Friday blitz of Davidson – and the offbeat smalls-on-bigs defensive plan assistant coach Tommy Lloyd put together (“a great scout”), he was all-in with the challenge. “I woke up this morning,” he said, “with a great peace about it.” So the first-weekend flameout – is this no longer a thing? “It’s not like we were stressing over what people were talking about,” Pangos said. “We just wanted to do it selfishly for ourselves and our fan base. Because we believed that we were good enough and we just wanted to experience this. So it feels awesome.” Backflip awesome. Handstand awesome.