DAVE BOLING

The Zags will say goodbye to the WCC at the end of this season, joining the newly reconfigured Pacific-12 Conference. It should be a fond farewell, as the WCC has served them well. So well, in fact, that a consensus exists among three former Zags – from periods before and after and during the move out of the Big Sky: All agree, Gonzaga could never have reached its current elite status without first making that conference shift in 1979.

Cluck-U Chicken. That was the name of the only food joint open deep into a night in the early 1990s, somewhere near Santa Clara. Details now fuzzy from the intervening decades, I found myself driving Dan Monson, Mark Few and Bill Grier on a midnight food run. Had somebody told me, on that night so long ago, that Gonzaga basketball would become one of the most-unlikely success stories in the history of college sports, man, I’d have choked on my chicken.

WICHITA, Kan. – Mark Few talked to his Gonzaga players often during the season about the qualities that made Houston such a great team.

WICHITA, Kan. – Of all the highly coveted basketball prospects recruited over the past several years, Gonzaga’s Braden Huff might lead the nation in one critical attribute.

WICHITA, Kan. – This game felt like an appetizer.

Creator and curator of a hoop phenomenon unique to college athletics, mastermind of offensive efficiency, motivator of elite athletes. Mark Few is all of that. Globally appreciated. Unknown until recently, though, has been his capacity to coach desperation.

Warning, I’m going to continue my argument against the relevance of analytics in the assessment and prediction of athletic competitions.

Consistent excellence lands teams in the NCAA Tournament.

LAS VEGAS – Gonzaga coach Mark Few has a name for these kind of games, especially when Gonzaga plays against rival Saint Mary’s.

LAS VEGAS – In a town that lives on people taking chances, trying to beat the odds, a Gonzaga win over San Francisco had to be one of the surest things in town.

Even with so much talent returning, Gonzaga’s men finished second in conference play, and faced a critical challenge heading into the West Coast Conference basketball tournament. The Zags had been inconsistent during the regular season, at times performing below the massive expectations they shouldered. So it is today. So it was 25 years ago.