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Gonzaga Basketball

No. 1 and unbeaten Gonzaga silencing some doubters; others unconvinced

Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss, right, drives the ball against Saint Mary’s Dane Pineau (22) and Joe Rahon, center, during the first half of Saturday’s game in Moraga, California. (Ben Margot / Associated Press)

Gonzaga doubters, though slowly dwindling in numbers, aren’t going anywhere.

They’re easy to find.

The biggest just happens to be the one that matters the most. The selection committee released its top 16 seeds as of Saturday morning, pegging unbeaten Gonzaga as the fourth overall seed.

ESPN seems to be having an internal tug-of-war over the Zags. The GameDay crew, on hand for Gonzaga’s 74-64 win over Saint Mary’s on Saturday in Moraga, thought Gonzaga would be the top overall seed.

Countered ESPN analyst Dan Dakich during a Big Ten game broadcast, “You’re going to think this is crazy, but to me Gonzaga is a top three, maybe, Big Ten team.”

Josh Perkins, as far back as three weeks ago when GU reached No. 1 in the polls, acknowledged he hears the skeptics and thanked them for stoking the motivational fire.

The criticism has touched a nerve with Nigel Williams-Goss.

“I want it bad, I want the national championship bad, to kind of put to rest all the naysayers,” the junior guard said after the Zags thumped Loyola Marymount 90-60 on Thursday. “Honestly, I feel like Gonzaga and me are kind of real similar from a team standpoint and me as an individual.

“I just feel a lot of times I’ve been overlooked my entire life and I’ve had to work for everything I’ve gotten. I feel like the worker’s mentality, coming from a small city, small school in Spokane, and like myself we both pride ourselves on just being nitty and gritty and putting the work in and letting the results speak for itself.

“I want it really bad, especially for coach (Mark) Few.”

A story posted on ESPN.com Sunday about questions to be answered in the final month before Selection Sunday carried a subhead: “Will Gonzaga prove it deserves the No. 1 overall seed?”

Audio accompanying the article: “Gonzaga is great, but Gonzaga never wins in March and plays in the West Coast Conference. Are the Zags actually good enough to make their first Final Four under Coach Mark Few?”

Dick Vitale tweeted that Gonzaga is “legit.” Pat Forde of Yahoo! last week fired this zinger: “Gonzaga is undefeated and No. 1 and nobody trusts the Zags to make the Final Four. So, not much new there.”

Gonzaga’s 26-0 record has converted some fence-sitters into believers, but there’s still a collective yawn from many observers.

The reaction from Zag players has been entertaining and wide-ranging. Some stuff it into a motivational file. Others barely shrug.

“It doesn’t matter,” center Przemek Karnowski said. “I have my teammates, I have my coaches and that’s all that matters. We work hard in little Spokane in Washington. We come to work every day, we try to get better every week. That’s all that matters.

“We have met every challenge that was put in front of us. That’s how we need to respond.”

Others ignore the blather and stick to their routine.

“I was catching some Zzzs,” said Perkins, reporting that he woke up at 9:01 and didn’t watch GameDay or the bracket preview show Saturday morning. “That’s a great sleep-in day for me.”

The undercurrent of skepticism isn’t going away, even if the Zags go 30-0 in the regular season, win the WCC tournament and enter the NCAAs as the top overall seed. Naysayers will want to see much more out of the Zags in March.

“That’s all you hear, even out here (LMU) fans were chanting, ‘Round of 32,’ ” Williams-Goss said. “You gotta get over the hump. I’d love to be part of the group to do it.”