John Blanchette: ‘A’ game abandons Bulldogs
SEATTLE – A quick poll: Who among you sized up Gonzaga’s 2008 schedule and picked out the upcoming Utah and Georgia games as the pivotal, must-have resume-polishers?
How many laid in poster board and magic markers for “WCC Tournament or Bust” signs?
How many saw another New Year’s crisis coming down like the Waterford crystal basketball at One Times Square?
Uh-huh. Sure you did.
About the best that can be said about Gonzaga’s latest venture at the Battle in Seattle is that more people than ever showed up (15,141) and that the Bulldogs scrapped back from the brink of humiliation to make it a two-possession game with 75 seconds left. Otherwise, the 82-72 beatdown issued by 11th-ranked Tennessee was just another illustration of how far these Zags are from both their regal past and the future they envision for themselves.
Which is not to say they can’t get there. But the train is starting to pull away from the station.
“That’s the tough part of playing a schedule like this,” said Gonzaga coach Mark Few. “If you don’t have your ‘A’ game, you’re probably going to get beat.”
The Zags haven’t had it for nearly a month now, ever since their return from an affirming road sweep of St. Joseph’s and UConn. Some of it is that they’ve played a few tough graders – Washington State and Tennessee notably. Some of it is the games, practices, repetitions and rhythm lost to injury.
And some of it is that the Zags have yet to find a beat that they can all dance to at the same time.
Never was this more apparent than against the vivacious Vols. The Bulldogs slumped and surged from 10 points down in the opening minutes to a two-point lead to nine down to being a stop away from a tie at halftime.
It was competitive whiplash.
If Tennessee’s stature mitigated some of GU’s postgame blues – and it didn’t much – the fact that this was a twin of Gonzaga’s pre-Christmas stumble against Oklahoma mitigated the mitigation. Midway through the second half, the Vols were shooting 73 percent from the field – dunks, layups and mostly-wide-open 3-pointers.
In the act of catching up, it’s good strategy not to fall further behind.
“That’s something we’ve got to address,” said forward David Pendergraft. “We have to be able to count on our defense to go where we want to go.”
But the flaws have become almost as significant on the offensive end, where the Zags have misplaced the fast break, the easy basket and the post-up – unless it was guard Matt Bouldin working for some of his 21 points. Even Josh Heytvelt’s encouraging 12-point performance with but a handful of practices behind him was predicated on alley-oops and tip-jams.
Yet most troubling about the Zags’ fitful progress is that while the return of Heytvelt and Steven Gray adds to the mix, it’s still, well, a mix.
For instance, against Oklahoma there was Jeremy Pargo and almost nothing in the way of a supporting cast. On this day, Pargo was invisible until the closing minutes. Likewise, while Bouldin was a “courageous” presence in Few’s view against the Vols, he was absent against Wazzu. Micah Downs had been relatively steady – and GU’s leading rebounder, something of a red flag in itself – but that steadiness was a flat line Saturday.
“It was a tough, hard-nosed game and they climbed up into him and he didn’t respond very well,” Few acknowledged. “That’s the one thing you’ve got when you have numbers – you go with guys who seem to be playing well in that game.”
Yes, and everyone is entitled to an off game.
But there’s depth and then there’s depth. The Vols had six players score in double figures and only once this season – against Xavier – did they really have to climb on one man’s shoulders. The Bulldogs have yet to find a truly reliable core.
“You’re looking to find out who you can really count on night in and night out,” said Few. “When you play a top 10 team, your main guys have to play pretty good. It’s tough to absorb negative games.”
The Bulldogs schedule the way they do to build a case for an at-large selection and seeding in the NCAA tournament should the unthinkable happen at the conference tournament. Now they have lost their last three significant showdowns – much as they swooned in December 2006. At this point, there is no victory over North Carolina or Texas as there was a year ago – and even with those, the Zags may not have received an at-large bid.
Not that the Zags don’t have their defenders. Vols coach Bruce Pearl pointed out that chemistry and rhythm all take time to develop.
“This Gonzaga basketball team is going to be really good at the end of the year,” Pearl insisted. “Heytvelt is still not healthy. Like Steven Gray plays 26 minutes – he’s going to be a great player, but that changes chemistry. Heytvelt plays 24 minutes and it changes chemistry. Just like J.P. (Prince) comes in for us, it’s going to take them a few more weeks.
“I would still look for this to be a Gonzaga team to make a good run.”
But will it have to be in the conference tournament?