At Least Zags Silenced Smith

This could not have been the real Joe Smith.

This was the guy using a fake name on a hotel register.

It couldn’t, after all, be the same Maryland player who put in 40 against Duke, or who had 29 points and 21 rebounds against Virginia.

If it was the same man, the Gonzaga Bulldogs had a good plan to slow him down, as he scored just nine points and had a season-low four rebounds in Maryland’s 87-63 NCAA Tournament win over GU Thursday.

“They did a good job collapsing on me,” said Smith, who has been held below double figures only two other times in his two-year career at Maryland. “Every time I got the ball there were two or three men on me.”

When the Bulldogs were in manto-man, Jason Rubright had the responsibility of throttling Smith, but mostly, the Bulldogs played in a zone that closed tightly on Smith.

“I think we’re pretty happy with how we guarded Joe,” GU center Paul Rogers said. “He’s a great player and you’re never going to stop him. We tried a variety of different defenses to stop him. We pretty much tried to keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible because when he got it, he did good things with it.”

What’s a Gonzaga?

The Maryland Terrapins could hardly hide their anxiety about renewing the long and storied rivalry with Gonzaga.

Yeah, right.

Most of the Maryland players admitted before Thursday’s NCAA Tournament first-round meeting between the teams - the first in history - that they had no idea Gonzaga University existed.

“Never heard of them,” Maryland center Smith said.

“The first I heard of them was when they said we had to play them,” Maryland guard Johnny Rhodes said.

But through the universal language of basketball, the name John Stockton rang quite a bell.

“As much as I know about them is that John Stockton played for them,” Maryland guard Duane Simpkins said.

When asked by an Eastern reporter about the lack of national recognition for Gonzaga, GU coach Dan Fitzgerald presented an update on the school’s progress.

“We now have indoor plumbing in our locker rooms,” he said.

All references to Stockton, GU’s alum with the Utah Jazz, drew respect from the Terps and media, alike.

Were the Bulldogs disappointed that Stockton was on the road with the Jazz and not able to attend the games? Fitzgerald was asked.

“Maybe, I know I’m really disappointed he’s not here to be on the bench and play in the game for us,” he said.

Oxygen depravation

Reporters wondered if the 4,390-foot elevation of Salt Lake City had any effect on Maryland guard Johnny Rhodes.

“That doesn’t really affect us,” Rhodes said after Wednesday’s practice. “We weren’t breathing that much.”

Coach Gary Williams had a shrewd way of keeping his team from thinking about the thinner air.

“I told the guys we were playing inside, so it doesn’t really matter,” Williams said.

And this …

Steve Scheer, CBS producer for the West sub-regional in Salt Lake, announced he would fine his network people a dollar for every time they mispronounced “Gonzaga.”

Not that anyone would believe the NCAA could make a mistake, but the flipcard roster provided to the media for Gonzaga’s team somehow listed all of last year’s players.

Oops. Still, a lot of people thought the 1994 Bulldogs should have made it to the NCAA’s. Now they have, sort of.

The Bulldogs will arrive in Spokane this afternoon on Delta Flight 996 at 12:47.