Zags back on court, this time safely at home

Gonzaga has gone from playing in one of the first college basketball games of the season to being one of the last to officially start.

The Zags’ season opener against Pittsburgh last Friday was called off at halftime due to unsafe court conditions in the Armed Forces Classic in steamy Okinawa, Japan. That pushed GU’s opener back to Wednesday when Northern Arizona (0-2) visits the McCarthey Athletic Center, where Spokane’s projected 59 percent humidity shouldn’t bother the court one bit.

Pitt opened up Tuesday. Houston and Oakland tip off their seasons Wednesday while Abilene Christian’s debut comes Thursday.

No. 10 Gonzaga trailed Pitt 37-35 at halftime but slippery conditions made it tough to assess either team’s performance. Perhaps the best news from Gonzaga’s perspective was that standout sophomore forward Domantas Sabonis, who took a nasty fall in an exhibition game, recorded eight points and five rebounds in 16 minutes.

NAU dropped its opener to Washington State 82-70 in Pullman and lost 101-81 to Boise State on Monday. The Lumberjacks won a school-record 23 games last season and advanced to the finals of the CollegeInsider.com tournament, but their current roster includes 11 freshmen. Guard Torry Johnson, the lone redshirt of those 11, is averaging 13.5 points and 5 rebounds.

Senior guard Jaleni Neely, senior forward Jordyn Martin and junior guard Kris Yanku are the top returners. Neely has hit six 3-pointers en route to a 16.5-point average. Martin averaged 7.7 points and 7.7 rebounds last year and was named Big Sky Conference defensive player of the year. Yanku, averaging 12.5 points and 5.5 assists, broke Portland Trail Blazers’ star Damian Lilliard’s Big Sky record with 230 made free throws last season.

Wiltjer, Sabonis on Wooden Award list

Gonzaga’s Kyle Wiltjer and Domantas Sabonis made the Wooden Award preseason Top 50 list. Wiltjer, Virginia’s Malcolm Brogdon and Wichita State’s Ron Baker are returning Wooden Award All-Americans.

Kentucky and Indiana each had three candidates; 11 schools had two players. The WCC is also represented by BYU’s Kyle Collinsworth.

Wiltjer, who scored 33 points in an exhibition win over Eastern Oregon and had 15 in the first half against Pitt, was a Wooden Award finalist last season.

Special uniforms

Gonzaga has partnered with Nike N7 in celebration of Native American Heritage Month and will wear turquoise uniforms, a color symbolic of friendship and harmony in Native American cultures, for the NAU game.