‘Ugly’ Bulldogs Sitting Pretty

Is the secret to a compliment in the delivery or the reception?

Consider this anecdote from Gonzaga’s Dan Fitzgerald, who spoke at a basketball coaches’ clinic not long after the Bulldogs made their first NCAA Tournament appearance last March. Also on the bill - and obviously amused - was Purdue’s Gene Keady.

“The miracle,” Keady said, “is that Gonzaga plays basketball, not that they win. Some nights, I see the name on CNN and figure they’ve just phoned in an imaginary score.”

What might insult an alum elicits a laugh from Fitzgerald, who lives what Keady understands: in the Great Resource War that is Division I basketball, it’s still hand-to-hand combat for the Zags.

Then there’s the fan who told Fitzgerald the other day his team was winning ugly.

Hey, the guy could have meant it in a good way.

But here are the Bulldogs, in a tie atop the West Coast Conference standings with Santa Clara - which is occasionally regarded to be in a league of its own - and suddenly Fitzgerald must ponder:

Are style points now the statistic of note at GU?

The Zags won two flawed but lively WCC games with San Diego and San Francisco during the weekend, both decided in the last 30 seconds in front of mostly full and enthusiastic houses.

Two weeks into league play, the Zags are 3-1 - when at the same point last January, they were 0-4 and bound for 0-6. And yet it’s not hard to detect an undercurrent at Martin Centre suggesting the team is struggling much as it did a year ago.

Or even - gasp - underachieving.

Some of it even comes from within.

“We’re struggling,” admitted guard Kevin Williams, who has struggled as much as any Bulldog. “The difference is, we’re winning. We are playing better ball and the record shows it.”

Fitzgerald, too, is as critical as a coach comes. Recently, he’s been honing his stand-up monologue on Gonzaga’s erratic shooting. But he can circle the wagons, too.

“My god,” he said, “we’re 12 and 4. And the fact is, our guys have not let us down once this year.”

Let down? Defensively, the Bulldogs won’t let up. In the shot clock/3-point era, no Gonzaga team has ever been so stingy in the two major defensive categories - field-goal defense (39.3 percent heading into Wednesday’s game against Portland) and points allowed (59.6). Personifying the ferocity the other night was Scott Snider’s sliding bellyflop after a loose ball that saw him take out Spike the mascot like a tenpin.

“I hope we never get to the point where we take effort like that for granted.”

On the other hand …

Gonzaga’s losses have probably been more impressive than its victories - to WSU in overtime, to Big Sky leader Montana State by two, to Washington by four and Santa Clara.

And there is this business of shooting - a very respectable 49 percent as a team this season. But except for a 72-percent night at Saint Mary’s, the Zags have been dreadful marksmen the last six games.

“And it’s still the single most important fundamental in the game,” Fitzgerald said.

“We tend to lose sight of the fact that we lost three kids (to graduation) whose best skill was shooting. David Cole could make a jump shot. Jason Rubright was an outstanding 6-foot-8 shooter. And nobody spread a court like John Rillie.”

It has fallen to Williams and transfer Lorenzo Rollins to replace Rillie, but not many of their shots have - fallen, that is. Rollins had a 23-point night at Saint Mary’s, but is making just 39 percent of his tries. Williams sparked GU off the bench against San Diego, but is mired at 36.

“I don’t think they’re John Rillie or Jarrod Davis,” Fitzgerald said, “but they’re not Helen Keller’s sons, either. I checked it.”

So the seams point guard Kyle Dixon likes to penetrate are tighter now, and the hands are up a little closer to Jon Kinloch’s face. USF showed GU a lot of zone, and the Zags will see more.

“But Rillie had a hard time last year, too, because he didn’t have Jeff Brown on his side anymore,” Fitzgerald noted, “until the tournament, anyway.”

Of course, Rillie’s big shew in the WCC tournament is what carried the Zags into the NCAAs and carried fans’ perceptions into a new season.

“We finished so strong,” said Williams, “and everybody has that memory. The team they remember is the one that got into the tournament, not the one that was 0-6. You just have to expect that.”

It’s the high price, Fitzgerald sighs, of exposure.

“We’ve got to be careful - we could win 100 games in five years here and that’s phenomenal for this place,” he said. “But if we ever lose sight of what we are, it’ll be disaster. It’s just if you win a lot of games, people just assume you’re going to win more.”

Which may or may not be the highest compliment of all.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

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