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Tourney time for GU

Gonzaga will be relying heavily on several younger players, including sophomore Jeremy Pargo, in its WCC tournament bid. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
By Steve Bergum steveb@spokesman.com
Gonzaga will be relying heavily on several younger players, including sophomore Jeremy Pargo, in its WCC tournament bid. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

PORTLAND – Coach Mark Few and his Gonzaga Bulldogs pride themselves in having to take every opponent’s best shot every time they step on the basketball court.

Everyone, Few likes to point out, wants a piece of his West Coast Conference bullies.

Still, there are WCC teams that seem to find another gear once the conference tournament begins. And Few is understandably concerned about his young and short-handed team’s ability to realize that fact – and react accordingly – as it prepares for tonight’s 6:30 semifinal game against San Diego.

“We see that type of (all-out) effort from these teams during the season,” explained Few, whose No. 1-seeded Bulldogs (21-10) earned a bye into tonight’s tournament semifinals by winning the WCC regular-season championship with an 11-3 record. “But even that gets notched up in the tournament, because there is a sense of urgency and opportunity that most of those teams don’t have during the regular season.

“We have to play that way every game, because we know we’re being judged (by the NCAA tournament selection committee). But I think most of the teams in our league feel like this is the time they play for the NCAAs. And we’ve got a lot of inexperienced guys, in regards to this tournament, who need to understand that.”

The Zags, who probably need to win the WCC tournament to secure a ninth-consecutive berth in the NCAA’s Big Dance, will once again be without suspended sophomore center Josh Heytvelt. And they will be relying heavily on several young players – sophomores Jeremy Pargo and Micah Downs and freshman Matt Bouldin – who have little in the way of NCAA Division-I postseason experience.

In fifth-seeded San Diego (18-13), GU will be facing a team it has beaten twice this season. The Toreros are paced offensively by sophomore forward Gyno Pomare, who averaged 14.9 points during the regular season. They also boast one of the league’s top 3-point shooters in senior guard Ross DeRogatis, who lit the Zags up for 22 points in the regular-season finale for both team in San Diego just five days ago.

GU won that game 74-64, but never looked dominant.

And junior forward David Pendergraft agrees with Few that the Toreros will show up tonight with not only a greater sense of urgency, but a sense of desperation, as well.

“This is kind of like everyone’s last chance,” Pendergraft said. “And I think we’re looking at it that way, too, this year. We probably have to win this thing to get in (to the NCAAs), so we’re going to come in with guns blazing, reading to go.”

Downs, a 6-foot-8 transfer from Kansas, who was named the WCC’s player of the week after hanging a career-high 20 points on USD last Monday, will get his first taste of tournament intensity tonight and admits he isn’t sure what to expect.

“But I’m sure every team is going to elevate their game another step,” he said, “so we’ve got to do the same thing. Like it’s been shown the last couple of weeks, any team can beat any other team in this league.

“We just need to get ourselves ready, mentally and physically, and I think we’ll be OK.”