GU men were on rebound, but rivals still couldn’t catch them

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – When pressed, most West Coast Conference men’s basketball coaches admit to being a bit disillusioned by the way the 2004-05 conference race played out.

In their minds, this was the year the rest of the conference had a realistic opportunity to finally reel in the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who had earned at least a share of four consecutive regular-season titles and had finished atop the WCC standings six of the past seven seasons.

Granted, the Zags were coming off a splendid 28-3 season that had ended with a disappointing loss to Nevada in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but coach Mark Few was looking at having to replace five seniors – including two-time WCC player of the year Blake Stepp and Cory Violette, a three-time all-conference selection – from a veteran team that was considered by many to be the best assembled at Gonzaga.

In addition, nearly every other team in the conference was loaded with experienced upperclassmen, while the Zags were struggling to scrape together a supporting cast for senior standout Ronny Turiaf from a roster consisting of three freshmen, three sophomores and two first-year junior transfers.

The Bulldogs, indeed, looked vulnerable. Five games into their WCC schedule, they were sitting at 3-2 and trying to chase down a good Saint Mary’s team that had opened conference play by winning four of its first five games.

Yet five weeks later, on the eve of the start of another WCC Tournament, nothing has changed as far as the conference’s hierarchy is concerned.

Following its slow start in conference play, GU ripped off nine consecutive WCC wins and 10 overall, counting Monday’s 87-60 non-conference romp past Northern Colorado. As a result, the Bulldogs (23-4 overall, 12-2 in the WCC) won another regular-season championship outright, remained No. 12 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 rankings and earned the No. 1 seed – along with a bye into Sunday’s semifinals – in this year’s conference tournament, which opens on Friday at Santa Clara’s 4,500-seat Leavey Center.

Few has called this year’s title as gratifying as any, not only because of his team’s lack of experience heading into the season but because of unparalleled overall strength of the league, as well.

“It’s been a great season,” Few said. “The league championship probably means as much to us as any we’ve won, just because of how young we were and how tough it was.”

And his peers have been equally impressed.

“Yes, they did lose some seniors,” Loyola Marymount coach Steve Aggers said of the Bulldogs, who produced this year’s WCC player of the year in Turiaf and another pair of all-conference picks in sophomores Adam Morrison and Derek Raivio. “But they’ve gotten their program to a point where they redshirt guys and their older guys teach the younger guys.

“And they’re also recruiting high-quality players at the freshman level. They’re recruiting nationwide, where I think 10 years ago the West Coast Conference wasn’t able to get in on those types of players.”

Two freshmen, David Pendergraft and Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes, have played key roles as reserves on this year’s team, while first-year junior college transfer J.P. Batista has emerged – more rapidly than expected – as an inside force capable of taking some pressure off of Turiaf.

And the Bulldogs signed three outstanding recruits earlier this fall in JC center Mamery Diallo, Chicago prep standout Jeremy Pargo and Bay Area sensation Larry Greganious.

“They continue to impress and amaze us all,” San Diego coach Brad Holland said of the Zags. “You think, ‘Aw, well, they lose Stepp and Violette and (Kyle) Bankhead, etc., so they’re not going to be good,’ when they’re every bit as good.

“For them to win our league again says everything about their recruiting and the state of affairs of their program. This is a program that is not going away. You think, ‘Gosh, are they going to finally have a down cycle like some people go through?’ But I don’t see it. They just keep coming up with great talent and great teams.”

Adding to the concerns of opposing WCC coaches is the fact that the Bulldogs broke in their new $25 million arena, the McCarthey Athletic Center, with a 13-0 record that pushed their current home winning streak to 25 games – the second-longest in the nation, behind Oklahoma State’s 29.

First-year San Francisco coach Jessie Evans, whose Dons handed the Zags one of their two early WCC losses, said he is not surprised by GU’s continued success, even in the face of such seemingly devastating graduation losses.

“It speaks volumes for their coaching staff, and it speaks volumes for their fans,” he explained. “They take great pride in what they’ve accomplished, and, so, I’m not surprised to see them there again. They’re a tough out. They’ve got good players, they’ve done it the right way and they deserve to be right where they are.”

Which is right back where most WCC coaches had hoped they wouldn’t be – for a year or so, at least.