‘Mystery’ surrounds Bulldogs
Mark Few looked out on the floor in the McCarthey Athletic Center Friday evening and quickly surveyed the group of young men warming up in preparation for Gonzaga University’s first practice of the 2006-07 college basketball season.
“There’s a lot of mysteries out there,” the Bulldogs’ eighth-year head coach said.
More, perhaps, than any year since 1998-99 when GU started its run of eight consecutive NCAA appearances with an unlikely run to the Elite Eight. The process of solving those mysteries kicked off with an evening workout that featured plenty of enthusiasm and a host of new faces.
Noticeably absent was Adam Morrison, who left school early after averaging 28.1 points per game as a junior last season and ended up with the Charlotte Bobcats after being the third player selected in this year’s NBA draft.
“It was great going in last year, when you had one of the consensus preseason players of the year,” Few said of Morrison. “We knew that Adam, every night out, was going to be the best player – at least the best offensive player – on the floor.”
The Zags won’t have that luxury this year, but the players seem confident there are plenty of people capable of shouldering bigger roles in an effort to offset the losses of Morrison and center J.P. Batista.
“It’s something new, it’s something good,” senior guard Derek Raivio, the top returning scorer from last season, said of the season’s first practice. “Mo’s been here, done his thing and now it’s our turn. He passed the torch and now we can play our game – play a little looser, maybe.
“It’s our turn to have fun.”
The Bulldogs return three starters – Ravio, senior forward Sean Mallon and junior guard Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes – and four other letterwinners from last year’s 29-4 team that breezed through West Coast Conference play unbeaten and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament before losing to UCLA.
But Few said he failed to see another dominant performer or personality like Morrison emerge during the summer.
“Those things will be shaking out in practices,” he said. “We’ll probably figure it out over the course of the season. I don’t think there’s going to be like a concrete, ‘Here’s our go-to guy, and here’s our other guy.’
“My vision is probably that of a really, really balanced team that has, hopefully, six or seven guys who score in double figures.”
Who those six or seven will be, Few said, will take some time to determine.
“But like the staff always reminds me, it’s always kind a mystery this time of the year.”