Zags aren’t going away

On a greaseboard hanging from a wall in his office, Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice tracks the recruiting progress of the Bulldogs’ men’s basketball program. His list of current players, recent letter-of-intent signees and prospective future recruits shows who the Zags expect to have on their rosters for the next several seasons.

Yet, when junior Adam Morrison dropped by Rice’s office last summer, he noticed his name wasn’t on the projected roster for 2006-07.

According to Rice, Morrison reacted by grunting, “What the … , ” and then quickly scribbling his name next to those of fellow seniors-to-be Derek Raivio and Sean Mallon.

“It kind of upset me,” Morrison recalled.

But Rice quickly informed the Bulldogs’ volatile star he need not worry.

“I explained we would be more than willing to renew his scholarship if he wanted to come back,” Rice chuckled. “But I told him we had to plan ahead.”

So as early as last summer, coach Mark Few and his staff had pretty much resigned themselves to losing Morrison early to the NBA.

That was before the 6-foot-8 small forward put together a season for the ages, averaging 28.1 points per game to lead all Division I scorers, and establishing himself as a top player-of-the-year candidate and lottery pick lock in this year’s NBA draft, should he decide to forego his senior season at GU.

In all likelihood, then, Morrison played his final game as a Zag on Thursday night when the third-seeded Bulldogs squandered a 17-point first-half lead and fell to second-seeded UCLA 73-71 in the third round of the NCAA tournament’s Oakland Region.

Morrison, a Type I diabetic, scored 24 points against the Bruins, but was visibly distraught following the Zags’ nearly unfathomable late-game collapse that saw them score only two points – both of them on free throws – in the final 5 minutes, 12 seconds of the game.

After composing himself, Morrison said he planned to return to Spokane and discuss his future with his family, adding he had “no idea” what he might do.

But in a recent Sports Illustrated article written about Morrison and his diabetes, both Morrison and his father, John, hinted that delaying a jump to NBA might be a mistake.

“You never know when the diabetes is going to turn the other way,” John Morrison told SI’s Rick Reilly. “Could be his eyes. Could be his feet. Could be anything. He’s way above the curve about taking care of himself, but it could happen. So he has to think about that. He can always get his degree (later).

Morrison, himself, added, “Time is of the essence. I’m going to deteriorate a little faster than anyone else.”

So what will Morrison’s expected early departure, coupled with the graduation losses of seniors J.P. Batista, Erroll Knight and Nathan Doudney, mean to GU’s program?

Nothing good, it would seem.

Morrison and Batista, a 6-9, 269-pound center who averaged 19.3 points per game, accounted for 59 percent of their team’s scoring this winter as the Zags put together an impressive 29-4 record that included a 14-0 West Coast Conference mark and a 20-game winning streak that was snapped by the loss to UCLA.

In addition, they lose an immensely athletic game-changer in Knight, who fouled out of Thursday’s game with 3:13 left and GU leading 71-62. The 6-7 wing and lock-down defender watched from the bench as his teammates were outscored 11-0 the rest of the way.

Still, it would be ridiculous to suggest the losses of Morrison, Batista and Knight might signal the end of the Bulldogs’ WCC dominance – or rise to national prominence, for that matter.

The 2003-04 team, which finished 28-3 and earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, lost five seniors – four of them starters – to graduation. There was considerable wailing among the Zags faithful back then, too. But the Bulldogs, led by senior forward Ronny Turiaf and a talented trio of vastly improved sophomores that included Morrison, Derek Raivio and Sean Mallon, came back to win 26 games the next year.

“Every team eventually establishes its own identity,” Few said.

There’s little reason to believe the one eventually established by next year’s group of returnees will be anything but solid.

The 2006-07 Bulldogs will have a pair of battle-tested senior leaders in Raivio, a 6-3 point guard, and Mallon, a 6-9 forward. Mamery Diallo, a little-used junior college center, will also be a senior if he stays at GU, but there has been talk of trying to place him at a lower-division school where he might get more playing time.

With Morrison, Batista and Knight gone, Few stands to have 30 additional shots available per game to spread out among a cast of young, but talented, players such as juniors Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes and David Pendergraft, and sophomores Jeremy Pargo, Josh Heytvelt and Larry Gurganious.

Altidor-Cespedes, a 6-0 shooting guard, started 31 games this winter and – despite his apparent reluctance to shoot – exhibited a splendid shooting stroke. Pendergraft, a 6-6 forward, is a blue-collar type with great rebounding instincts and a decent shooting touch, as well. The injury plagued Heytvelt, a 6-11 forward, is as skilled and athletic as any big man the Zags have recruited.

Pargo, a 6-2 combo guard, given another year to mature and a big boost in minutes, has a chance to become something special, and Gurganious, a 6-5 wing, could develop into a Knight-like defender, with a much better midrange game.

Few’s latest recruiting class includes Matt Bouldin, a 6-5 guard who was named Colorado’s Class 5A Player of the Year, after averaging 25.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists as a senior at ThunderRidge High School.

The Zags also signed junior college standout Abdullahi Kuso, a 6-9 forward, who averaged 13.4 points and 8.3 rebounds as a sophomore at Tallahassee CC, and Will Foster, a raw, but quickly improving 7-3 center at White River (Wash.) High School.

They also picked up a pair of intriguing midseason Division I transfers in Micah Downs, a 6-8 freshman wing from Kansas, and David Burgess, a 6-11 freshman center from BYU, who will both become eligible in December after sitting out the fall semester under NCAA transfer rules.

In might take the Bulldogs some time to get comfortable with spreading the points and minutes out a bit more evenly next season.

But don’t look for them drop off the national radar.

Morrison is Naismith finalist

Morrison is one of four players named as finalists for the Naismith Trophy that will be awarded on April 2. University of Connecticut’s Rudy Gay, Villanova University’s Allan Ray and Duke University’s J.J. Redick join Morrison for the final ballot.

Fan votes account for 25 percent of the section process for the winner. See the following Internet site for details: http://www.naismithawards.com/