Gut aches aside, Bulldogs make do
Every Gonzaga basketball season seems to begin with mood disturbances that border on the bipolar. Sometimes there’s another jolt in the middle, too.
But this is already one for the books – medical journal or psychology text, take your pick.
In the wake of the shock and resurrection that marked the 2007 season, an uncommon – even for this program – fuss had stirred. An unprecedented recruiting class had elevated an NCAA tournament also-ran to No. 14 in the polls. The depth of talent was staggering, the horizon limitless.
And then … ugh. Sunday morning coming down.
Unsubstantiated accounts had ricocheted about town all weekend, and the first corroboration came during warmups before the season opener against Montana. Freshman guard Steven Gray stood in street clothes along the west baseline at McCarthey Athletic Center, a cast on the right wrist he broke during Gonzaga’s exhibition game Wednesday night.
Zag spirits lifted a bit at the sight of Josh Heytvelt – the gifted forward who had spent a solemn summer rehabilitating his reputation after a midseason drug arrest and plea deal – bouncing through the layup line in his warmup sweats, despite a troublesome stress reaction in his right leg. But soon enough confirmation filtered down that, like Gray, Heytvelt too was ticketed for surgery this week and is expected to be out for up to six weeks.
Not even in the building was freshman forward Theo Davis, back at his Toronto home indefinitely to be with his father, who has suffered a stroke.
Optimism at Gonzaga had not just acquired a bridle, but a saddle and panniers.
“I thought about it this morning,” Gonzaga associate head coach Leon Rice said. “It’s another opening game and why can’t I not have this gut ache? Why can’t it be, hey, show up and play?”
Well, yeah. Why not?
The subsequent 77-54 shellacking the Bulldogs laid on Montana was an unexpected serum for a confounding bummer. The Zags climbed all over the visitors defensively, beat them to nearly every rebound and launched new legends. Freshman Austin Daye went off for 20 points and 10 rebounds, a Gonzaga debut without comparison. Larry Gurganious established a new Zag standard for on-ball defense. Jeremy Pargo dunked wickedly over a 7-foot freshman from North Dakota who must have been reminded of a thundercloud boring down from Saskatchewan. Matt Bouldin gutted through 25 minutes on an ankle that two days ago was as big as a Brunswick off the house-ball rack.
All of it took Rice’s gut ache away, and head coach Mark Few’s, too – at least for the moment.
“But we went from having great depth to not having much at all,” he worried.
Yet haven’t the Zags come down this path before?
Just last year, for instance: back and shoulder injuries took Gurganious and Davis away for the year, and foot surgery pushed Micah Downs’ debut back a month. In the fall of 2005, Heytvelt hobbled around with a stress fracture in his other ankle – then broke it diving for a loose ball in Maui. The year before that, David Pendergraft was going to redshirt until Erroll Knight broke a thumb before the season opener and Nathan Doudney ripped up a knee. And before that, Tony Skinner (broken hand) and Richard Fox (knee) both went down on New Year’s Eve.
The hole in Blake Stepp’s kneecap. Dan Dickau’s broken finger.
“It always seems that there’s some drama right at the start,” Few said. “It would be nice to start with a full deck, because you go into these seasons plotting and planning and wanting to do this and do that – and you look up and you don’t have the kind of lineup to do it.”
But in fact the Zags still do have the kind of lineup to do many things. Naturally, it will hurt not to have Heytvelt’s presence inside and Gray’s perimeter shooting when they play Washington State, Tennessee and the other pre-January heavyweights.
“But can we deal with it?” Heytvelt asked. “Definitely. I think we’re a phenomenal team. Austin and Pargo and Micah showed the diversity of this team today, and you’ll see it from somebody every night.”
Heytvelt had shut down for nearly six weeks this fall when the pain started in his leg. When he resumed playing, the pain lessened, but the stress spot remained. Options were discussed – casting it, playing games but not practicing or surgery to insert two screws, which became the consensus choice.
“I figured it’s already broken,” Heytvelt said. “If I played any longer, it’ll completely break and that would be worse. If we fix it early, maybe I can get back quicker and play more games.”
There is another casualty: 7-foot-4 sophomore Will Foster’s planned redshirt season.
“I knew that was probably best for the team and my future,” he said of sitting out, “but now this is best for the team, and I’m ready.”
And so, in fact, are the rest of the Zags.
“It’s always about staying together,” said Pargo. “We faced some adversity like this last year, so we know. And any time you have two sets of starting fives, you can always deal with it.”
Good thing. Because it always seems to happen.