Gonzaga can’t be any more ready

It’s hard to imagine Gonzaga University could have done anything more to prepare for the start of the West Coast Conference men’s basketball season.

The Bulldogs, despite losing five seniors from last year’s WCC regular-season and tournament championship team, dodged no one during another torturous non-conference schedule that included four top-20 teams – three of which were ranked in the top five when they played the Zags.

Remarkably, GU beat three of those top-20 teams, losing only to top-ranked and still unbeaten Illinois. The Bulldogs will take an impressive 10-2 record and No. 11 national ranking into Thursday night’s WCC opener at Santa Clara (7-8).

“That’s probably as good a run as we’ve had in the non-conference, relative to the competition and where the competition was,” GU coach Mark Few said Tuesday morning after putting his Zags through a workout at the McCarthey Athletic Center, where they haven’t played since Dec. 11.

“I thought our guys did a great job – just a great job.”

Now the Bulldogs must gear up for 14 nasty games against some of the strongest WCC opposition in recent memory.

Few who spent nine seasons as a GU assistant before taking over as head coach in July 1999, said the conference is as talented, deep and balanced as he can remember.

“A lot of times there have been some weak links in there that haven’t really pulled their weight in the non-league (season),” Few said. “But there doesn’t seem to be anybody like that this year.”

The numbers would seem to support Few’s assessment.

Heading into the start of conference play, the WCC is 72-36 against non-conference foes. Four teams – Gonzaga, Portland (11-4), Saint Mary’s (11-4) and Pepperdine (10-5) – have already won at least 10 games, and three others – Loyola Marymount (8-5), San Francisco (8-4) and San Diego (8-5) – have won at least eight.

For the third consecutive week, the WCC maintained an all-time high No. 8 ranking – ahead of the Atlantic 10, Mountain West, WAC and Conference USA – in the Collegiate Basketball News RPI ratings. Of the combined eight losses suffered by top-10 teams in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, three have been inflicted by WCC teams, with Santa Clara stunning No. 3 North Carolina and Gonzaga knocking off No. 7 Oklahoma State and No. 9 Georgia Tech.

GU, which finished 14-0 in WCC play last season, is favored to repeat as regular-season champions after having navigated its dangerous non-conference schedule so well.

“We had a really challenging preseason,” said Bulldogs sophomore forward Sean Mallon, “and I think that’s important – especially this year, because the league is so much stronger than it’s been in the past.”

Seven of the 10 players named to last year’s All-WCC first team have returned, including Zags senior forward Ronny Turiaf, who said he talked with his younger teammates prior to practice about preparing for the intensity of conference play.

“I tell them, ‘You guys better get ready, because those guys really want a piece of us,’ ” said Turiaf, who seems to have recovered from the ankle sprains that have limited his recent production and contributed to his 2-for-15 shooting effort in last Thursday’s 63-61 loss to Missouri. “If they could eat us with fried chicken and ranch, they would do it, because they want us pretty bad.”

Earlier this year, GU’s trio of sophomore starters – Derek Raivio, Adam Morrison and Mallon – seemed surprised by the fierceness of Illinois, which spanked the Zags 89-72 in the Wooden Tradition in Indianapolis. But Few doesn’t expect the same reaction against WCC opponents.

“Not since we’ve been to Missouri and we’ve been to Oke State,” he said. “We’re not going to get any tougher places to play than those two. Those were very hostile environments, so I think they understand now.”

Mallon said the key to winning in the WCC, where everyone knows what everyone else is trying to do, is to do the little things better than your opponent.

“I don’t think we’re going to fool anybody, and I don’t think anybody’s going to fool us,” he said. “It just makes you play harder, I guess, because little things – like getting the tough rebound and making the hustle plays – can mean so much more.”