This Year’S Show More Fun Than Last Year’S

The party was in their honor, though everyone - each of the Gonzaga Bulldogs included - was significantly more interested in their dance partner.

So when that was revealed to be Minnesota and the prom site Seattle, the TV screens were quickly ignored and the party began to break up.

And yet there was assistant coach Mark Few, his eyes glued and ears cued to a set showing the grim visage of C.M. Newton, chairman of the NCAA Basketball Tournament committee, trying to explain why Oklahoma got a gift and Toledo got the shaft.

“This is my favorite part,” Few laughed, “when C.M. starts squirming.”

It was a whole lot more favorite this year, you can bet.

Last year, the Bulldogs were among the ticked and not the tickled, overlooked by the committee because of bad computer karma and probably because they were, well, Gonzaga.

This year, they didn’t give the committee that option - winning the West Coast Conference Tournament and the league’s automatic berth. So Sunday was given over to more reveling and critiquing the seeds.

“I was a little shocked Washington got a seventh seed after we stomped them,” Zags forward Casey Calvary said, “but good for them. They’re good guys.”

And they’re a good 2,600 miles away, in New Orleans and the Midwest Region.

The seventh seed at hand is Minnesota - which, apparently, is the absolutely, positively perfect draw for No. 10 Gonzaga.

Because the first line out of Las Vegas makes the Zags three-point favorites.

Really.

Maybe the oddsmaker saw Matt Santangelo and Richie Frahm flinging in shot after shot from beyond the arc in last Monday’s WCC title game. Maybe he has a heavy humbug going against the Big Ten and the 54-42 scores that became typical in February. Maybe Minnesota losing six of its last 10 games has something to do with it.

Or maybe he’s part of the Minnesota media, which even on Sunday was grilling coach Clem Haskins on whether the Gophers - 17-10 and sixth in the Big Ten - deserved their seeding, or even their selection.

“I was quite confident all along that we’d make the field of 64,” Haskins said. “Our power rating speaks for itself. Our conference speaks for itself.

“I thought all along it wasn’t a matter of if we were going to get there, but who we were going to play.”

Still, the Gophers had to wait until the end of the CBS telecast to know for sure - and the roar they let out was the roar of an at-large survivor, not an automatic like Gonzaga.

“I’m surprised there’s still a roof on this building,” admitted Gophers guard Kevin Nathaniel.

In any case, the scouting report on Minnesota is hardly good field-no hit.

The Gophers have one of the nation’s best players in 6-foot-7 forward Quincy Lewis, who averages 23.7 points per game, shoots it as well as most of the Zags from 3-point range and takes about a third of UM’s shots. They have an urgent warrior at guard who could be called underrated, except that his name in tandem with Lewis makes for headline-writing fun - Kevin Clark.

They have a 7-1 freshman galumph at center, Joel Przybilla, who will make things interesting for GU’s interior scorers - and nine guys on the roster who weigh 210 or better.

“They’re typical Big Ten,” said Few. “Grind it out. Play physical. They’re not going to want to play too fast.

“Big Ten teams are just tough to play because they just beat you to death and they’re all great rebounding teams. And they’re going to be real hard to score on.”

Which would be a switch. Gonzaga is averaging 79 points a game, but Minnesota has given up that many only three times all season.

But critics contend the Gophers lack a legitimate point guard and have a severe talent dropoff after seniors Lewis, Clark and Miles Tarver. Just two seasons removed from a surprising Final Four appearance, the Gophs have, apparently, not yet realized a recruiting bounty from it.

In fact, there’s been a talent drain. After the Final Four season, sixth man Charles Thomas transferred to Eastern Kentucky because he was unhappy with his role - injury has since ended his career - and forward Courtney James left school.

Of the significant contributors on that Final Four team, only Lewis remains.

Minnesota’s nonconference schedule may not have been as demanding as GU’s - only two NCAA Tournament teams, Winthrop and Cincinnati, and the likes of Appalachian State, Eastern Michigan, Montana State and Cal State-Sacramento. Only twice did the Gophers venture outside of Williams Arena - to go to Fresno State and Nebraska.

That said, would the Zags have done better than 8-8 in the Big Ten?

“We have our hands full,” said Bulldogs coach Dan Monson, “but we knew that before our name went up on the board.

“We’re 0-2 against Big Ten teams the last two years, but neither team (Michigan State and Purdue) blew us away to where we don’t think we can compete with them - or with that style. Our kids have confidence that they can compete and win and that’s half the battle in the tournament.”

That it is.

Even though his Gophers were upset by Illinois in their Big Ten Tournament opener, Haskins said his team was “peaking at the right time” and that “I go into the tournament expecting to win six games, one at a time.” Either that’s forced confidence - or the ultimate confidence.

Monson’s swash doesn’t have quite so much buckle, but he’s just as determined.

“We’ve played a schedule that should make our kids confident that they can beat a team like this,” he said. “What we have to get across to them is that this isn’t just the opportunity of a lifetime, but that they have to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime.”

And make somebody squirm.