Up The Down Staircase Gonzaga’s Resilience Sparked Postseason Run

The 1995 Gonzaga Bulldogs might not be remembered most for how high they reached.

But for how well they bounced.

Certainly, it was the most accomplished team in the school’s history, considering its precedentsetting NCAA Tournament appearance.

But in the mind of coach Dan Fitzgerald, the Bulldogs may be remembered less for their excellence than for their resilience.

“I told the team, you’re going to be a benchmark for teams getting back up after getting knocked down; this team was on the canvas,” Fitzgerald said of a group that finished 21-9 and won the West Coast Conference Tournament. “In the future, for a long time, people are going to say, ‘remember that team that was 0-6 and came back and made it to the NCAAs?’

“In that way, this team really made their own history.”

The Bulldogs, having lost four starters from an NIT team that was the WCC regular-season champion, were picked to finish in the league cellar.

“You’d have committed me if I had said we could have won 21 games; I mean nobody, nobody, would have believed that,” Fitzgerald said. “So, in so many respects, they exceeded expectations - including my own.”

Surprisingly, despite the absence of proven talent, GU won 11 of 12 in the preseason while meshing the talents of important newcomers, particularly junior-college transfers Kyle Dixon and Paul Rogers.

But a six-game losing streak at the start of conference play - which included the first loss in the Martin Centre after 34 straight victories - was confounding.

In five of those losses, the Bulldogs had owned leads in the second half only to watch them wither. But a streak of seven wins in eight games tuned GU for its threegame sweep in the WCC Tournament.

Of the eight losses before the 87-63 defeat at the hands of Maryland in the NCAA opener, three were in overtime and none was by greater than 10 points.

“What was really rewarding was to see them dealing with the enormous ups and downs we had this year and not getting down on themselves,” Fitzgerald said. “All the way through, even this week, this team didn’t change much. The key thing was keeping some perspective on the peaks and valleys.”

The peaks were fairly obvious:

The team’s first NCAA berth in 37 years of Division I participation.

The third 20-win season in four years (the other was a 19-win effort in 1992-93).

Leading the WCC in scoring, field-goal percentage and 3-point field-goal percentage.

Dixon making the All-WCC first team and guard John Rillie being named the conference tournament MVP after shattering the three-game scoring record with 96 points.

Is it possible, though, to maintain this level of production?

“In some ways, you know, you become a victim of your previous success,” said Fitzgerald, who is cautious about stacking up lofty expectations for next season.

Rillie, the leading scorer, will be lost, as will starting forward Jason Rubright and important reserve David Cole.

“Next year will be an altogether different team, and hopefully we’ll finish higher than fourth,” Fitzgerald said. “But if I had to pick us now, I wouldn’t say higher than third with Santa Clara and St. Mary’s a helluva lot higher than us - maybe San Diego, too.”

As much as Fitzgerald might not want to admit it, GU looks loaded for next season, with Dixon and Rogers having had a year in the program, and the likes of Jon Kinloch, Scott Snider, Scott Morgan and Jason Bond returning for their senior seasons.

Beyond that, freshmen Mike Leasure, Keith Kincaid and Phillip Ball will come off redshirt status - with Leasure showing particular promise at the wing.

The most prominent addition should be that of shooting guard Lorenzo Rollins from Tacoma Community College. Probably the most sought-after recruit the Bulldogs have landed, Rollins has netted nearly 50 percent of his 3-point attempts.

”(Rollins) has a lot of raw talent,” Fitzgerald said. “But all that does is get you some practice gear - we’ll see what happens after that. He’s got some ability, but his ability isn’t good enough to change the way we play.”

After all, the approach has been working, as GU has the best record of any WCC team over the last four years at 82-36 - a winning percentage of 69.5.

“You look at the program, and I’d have to say that the most gratifying thing is that we seem to be on relatively stable ground,” Fitzgerald said.